The South African president has ordered a ban on the sale of alcohol and closed all bars as part of the new ban to help the country fight the resurgence of the coronavirus, including the new variant.
In a nationwide address on Monday, Cyril Ramaphosa also announced the closure of all beaches and public swimming pools in the country’s infected hotspots, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and some coastal areas.
In addition, South Africa is increasing its night curfew by four hours, requiring all residents to be at home from 9pm to 6am.
“Reckless behavior due to alcoholism contributes to increased transmission. Alcohol-related accidents and violence are putting pressure on our hospital’s emergency units. Ramaphosa said.
“In the early days of the Cadence, we now have to pinch the curve to save our healthcare system’s ability to respond effectively to this new wave of infection.”
Ramaphosa said a ban on the sale of alcohol and other new bans would take effect from midnight on Monday. The president said wearing a mask in public is mandatory and not wearing a mask in a public place will be subject to a criminal accused punishable by a fine or possible jail sentence, the president said.
Ramaphosa said an additional ban was needed due to an increase in Covid-19 infection, which has pushed the total confirmed cases of the virus in South Africa to 1 million.
“Around 27,000 South Africans are believed to have died from Kovid-19. The number of new coronavirus infections is growing at an unprecedented rate, ”he said. “More than 50,000 new cases have been reported since Christmas Eve.”
Ramaphosa announced the new move after a cabinet meeting and an emergency meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council. He said the new restrictions would be reviewed in a few weeks and the waiver would be considered only when new cases and hospital admissions were reduced.
The country surpassed 1 million cases of the virus confirmed on Sunday night, while officials reported that the total number of cases during the epidemic in the country reached 1,004,413, including 26,735 deaths.
Like Britain, South Africa is battling a variety of Covid-19 that medical experts believe is more contagious than the original. According to experts, this type of dominance has become prevalent in many parts of the country.
The South African Medical Association, which represents nurses and other health workers as well as doctors, warned on Monday that the combination of Kovid-19 overcrowded patients could lead to panic attacks and people needing immediate care with alcohol. Related events. Many holiday gatherings involve high levels of alcohol consumption, which in turn often results in cases of trauma.
While South Africa previously had a complete ban on the sale of alcohol, there was a 60% reduction in hospital injuries, according to government figures. When the ban on the sale of alcohol was lifted, trauma cases went to previous levels.
In South Africa’s seven-day confirmed daily cases, there have been 11.18 new cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks over the past two weeks, up from 19.87 new cases per 100,000 people on December 27.
EU countries began introducing the Pfizer / Bioentech vaccine, which was approved by bloc regulators last week. Spain Said it is setting up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated and will share it with other member countries.
The vaccine will not be mandatory in Spain, but Salvador Ella, Spain’s health minister, told Spanish TV that the best way to defeat the virus was to “vaccinate all of us – better.”
Eight caring domestic workers Germany Accidentally injected with five doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, but have not yet suffered any serious side effects, local officials said Monday.
Seven women and one man, whose age. Between 38 and 54, he is an employee of a retirement home in the city of Strellsund in northeastern Germany.
South Korea It said on Tuesday it would sign a deal with Moderna to vaccinate 20 million people with the Covid-19 vaccine, the Yonhap news agency quoted the president’s office as saying. At least 40 people were killed in the nation on Tuesday, a daily record.
This comes a day after officials vowed to speed up efforts to launch a public coronavirus vaccination program, as the country has found its first case of the virus associated with the rapid growth of the infection in Britain.
Other developments include:
-
Thailand As many as 155 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Tuesday, most of them locally infected, the public health ministry said.
-
Indian Health officials said on Tuesday they had met six people who had returned from Britain in recent weeks and were positive for a new more contagious strain of coronavirus. All six patients were kept in isolation.
-
This United States The military has begun vaccinating personnel in Japan and South Korea.
