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On the 277th day of the closure of South Africa, the government has tightened the screws again. An excited president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced on Monday that the country will be placed on a Level 3 lockdown starting at midnight as a result of the nationwide spiral of Covid-19 cases.
Drastic times need drastic measures.
This was the message of President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, when he announced the tightening of blocking measures aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19 in South Africa.
“On the recommendation of the National Coronavirus Command Council, and after consulting with the provinces and metropolitan mayors, the Cabinet has decided to put the country on an adjusted Level 3 from Level 1 with immediate effect,” Ramaphosa said.
The most significant of the new regulations are the following:
- The nationwide curfew has now been extended from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
- Non-essential establishments, including bars and restaurants, must close at 8 pm;
- All people are now legally responsible for wearing a mask in public, and failure to do so can result in arrest, a fine and up to 6 months in prison;
- Alcohol cannot be sold in shops, consumed in bars and restaurants, or transported;
- An additional 22 hotspots have been declared nationally, including downtown Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town;
- All the beaches, parks and swimming pools in the active areas will be closed from Tuesday;
- A maximum of 50 people can attend funerals.
Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Police Minister Bheki Cele, and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize are due to elaborate on the new regulations at a briefing scheduled for 10 am Tuesday.
Ramaphosa said that these regulations have been selected in the hope that the economy can remain largely open while Covid-19 prevention measures are strengthened. He acknowledged that alcohol prohibition is likely to be controversial, noting the industry’s contribution to the economy.
But the president said that alcohol consumption not only contributed to risky behavior, but also increased trauma cases in hospitals.
“Gunshot wounds, stabbings and motor vehicle accidents are putting unnecessary pressure on our health facilities, which are already overloaded,” Ramaphosa said.
“Our priority at this time must be saving lives … Every piece of medical equipment, every hospital bed, every healthcare worker and every oxygen tank is necessary to save lives.”
The president also acknowledged that the possibility of imprisonment of those guilty for not wearing a mask was “drastic”, but said that “now it is necessary to guarantee compliance with the most basic preventive measures.”
As the government struggles to persuade citizens to change their behavior, it appears that there is still months to go before a vaccine is widely available off the South African coast.
“We can confirm that we have signed the agreement with COVAX and the Solidarity Fund has made the initial payment of R283 million to the facility,” Ramaphosa said.
Although he said that South Africa is part of the “first group of countries” to receive COVAX vaccines, their arrival is only expected in the second quarter of 2021.
“We are also having parallel bilateral discussions with various vaccine manufacturers and will make further announcements once firm agreements are made,” Ramaphosa said.
At times, the president seemed almost on the verge of tears when he pleaded with South Africans to take responsibility for their behavior during the holiday season.
“We are at an extremely dangerous point in our fight against the pandemic,” Ramaphosa said.
One of the worrisome factors today is the number of front-line healthcare workers falling ill from Covid-19: 4,630 since the beginning of December, with more than 41,000 infected since the start of the pandemic.
Ramaphosa was heading to the nation a day after South Africa passed the mark of more than a million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with more than 50,000 new cases reported since Christmas Eve.
However, the new restrictions announced by the president are much stricter than those recommended by the Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) less than a week ago.
A MAC report dated December 23, 2020, seen by Daily maverick, affirmed that three factors were responsible for the increase in Covid-19 cases throughout the country: the increase in the transmissibility of the new variant of the coronavirus; complacency leading to less adherence to prevention measures; and superpropagation events.
The MAC recommended that the country move to Tier 2 restrictions “as soon as possible.” However, it stipulated that two Level 1 restrictions must remain in place: the national curfew must be maintained at 23:00 and accommodation capacity must be maintained at 100% due to the logistical nightmare of trying to reduce it now.
“At this stage, blocking measures stricter than Level 2 are not recommended,” the MAC stated.
He suggested that an additional evaluation be done fifteen days after moving the country to Level 2.
The opposition parties and the unions, for their part, have criticized the government for not acting more quickly and decisively to secure a vaccine, which the DA described as “the only solution and the only alternative to confinement.”
In a statement in response to Ramaphosa’s Monday announcement, District Attorney Leader John Steenhuisen also criticized authorities for trying to “simply shut down certain industries without simultaneously announcing a single penny of aid programs to save economic devastation. that this will cause in the hotel and restaurant industries. ” DM
