By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports 2,320 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,671,991.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng Province (37%), followed by Western Cape (20%). KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 15%; North West accounted for 8%; Mpumalanga accounted for 7%; Free State accounted for 6%; Eastern Cape & Limpopo each accounted for 3% respectively; and Northern Cape accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
This increase represents a 7.0% positivity rate.
Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the National Department of Health (NDoH), there may be a backlog of COVID-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the NDoH reports 46 deaths, and of these, 6 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,191 to date.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 7.0%, which is lower than yesterday (8.4%). The 7-day average is 7.7% today, which is lower than yesterday (7.8%). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has increased.
Meanwhile the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) recently presided and ruled over two unfair dismissal cases surrounding the matter of enforceable vaccine mandates in the workplace, says Katherine Timoney, attorney at Gillan and Veldhuizen.
“The findings of the CCMA, which is the first step in all labour-related disputes, could still be challenged by disgruntled parties or even public interest groups via the Labour Court and eventually, possibly the Constitutional Court,” she said.
“However, many questions remain unanswered as the South African workforce both corporate and industrial return to their workplace as restriction levels ease and society returns to pre-Covid working conditions.”
Although the CCMA ruled in favour of mandatory vaccinations in these individual matters, citing that it was not unfair to dismiss or suspend an employee who refused to be vaccinated in terms of a mandatory vaccination policy, employers will have to make sure that their policies stand up to scrutiny.
“A blanket mandatory workplace vaccination policy will not suffice without a properly-considered assessment process,” said Timoney.
Employers will need to consider the possibility of remote working for those who do not wish to be vaccinated, or for those working with the public, where vaccination is required. The plan must also allow for applications for exemption on either medical or constitutional grounds.
“No doubt, the matter of mandatory vaccinations is still open for much debate and legal testing, while employers and employees from either poles of the debate wrestle over adopting a suitable policy. It seems, finding an acceptable balance will require risk planning, flexibility and a dose of aspirin.”