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- South Africa’s economy could not afford another lockdown, says Western Cape Prime Minister Alan Winde.
- According to its most recent daily update, the province had 3,103 active Covid-19 infections.
- The Western Cape has had a total of 116,871 confirmed cases and 109,385 recoveries.
South Africa cannot afford to enter another lockdown, Western Cape Prime Minister Alan Winde said Thursday.
“Our economy cannot afford it. We are getting poorer, we are losing jobs; we need to recover now,” he said during his weekly digital press conference.
“We will only recover, we will only make sure to recover those jobs and the economy that we have lost, if we create a safer environment for this to happen.
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“We have to make sure we manage Covid-19. We must not lower our guard.”
He said it was “very interesting” to see what was happening in the northern hemisphere in terms of the lockdown, maintaining that at home, “we must learn the lessons.”
“Germany is seen as the country that has really managed Covid-19 best in Europe, and they still have to enter into an additional lockdown themselves … We have to avoid this. We have to make sure that we don’t.
Germany this week closed its restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues, while schools, shops and workplaces would remain open.
According to the BBC, this “shutdown light” was not as restrictive as the one in March and food outlets could still offer takeout.
Public gatherings were restricted to 10 people from two households, while private parties were prohibited.
Agreement
Winde said there had to be an “agreement” between citizens and the government to work together to prevent another increase in infections.
“If we do this right, then we can avoid that second wave. We can focus our energy on recovery, rather than spending too much time focusing, managing and preparing for a second wave.”
According to Winde’s daily update, the Western Cape, on Wednesday, had 3,103 active Covid-19 infections, with a total of 116,871 confirmed cases and 109,385 recoveries.
A total of 581 people were hospitalized, of which 110 were in intensive or high-level care units.
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Professor Mary-Ann Davies, a public health specialist with the Department of Health, said that while the number of cases had not increased further in the past week, it had not yet dropped to the levels seen at the end of September.
The hospitalization and mortality figures were also stable, he said.
“We are very carefully tracking any spikes in specific geographic areas and responding to them, but the message for the coming months really revolves around surveillance and containment responses,” he said.
He urged the public to live the new normal in terms of behavior change to allow a return to “some level of normality and recover.”
“Avoid events that result in a mass broadcast, specifically the super spreader events we’ve seen before. I think this is especially important as we move into the holiday season, where we would normally have gathered in bigger crows and let our guard down.
“Keep in mind that this has to be a slightly different holiday season than what we’ve practiced before.
According to statistics released by the national Health Department on Wednesday, 1,712 new cases had been reported.
The cumulative number of cases in South Africa was 730,548: Gauteng represents 31.4% of all cases, KwaZulu-Natal 16.9% and the Western Cape 16.2%.
