By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 4,100 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 594 499.
This increase represents a 10.5% positivity rate.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 10.5%, which is lower than yesterday (10.6%). The 7-day average is 9.3% today, and is lower than yesterday (9.4%).
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 160 deaths and of these, 34 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 94,651 to date.
The National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and the government are expected to discuss further adjustments to South Africa’s lockdown restrictions, as the country continues to see a drop in Covid-19 cases and a return to everyday life.
This includes rule changes around schools and gatherings – two of the last major sticking points under the adjusted level 1 lockdown.
The NCCC is also expected to discuss regulations around gatherings in South Africa – which are currently limited to 2,000 people outdoors and 1,000 people indoors.
In instances where a venue cannot accommodate this many people, no more than 50% of the venue capacity may be used with people spaced at least 1.5 metres apart from one another.
Sports, Arts and Culture minister Nathi Mthethwa said that while these restrictions remain in place for now, the next NCCC meeting will discuss increasing the numbers.
He added that the restrictions will likely be updated in a phased manner based on the capacity of venues and stadiums – with 50%, 75% and 100% capacity plans previously mooted.
“We will listen to what the experts say and as far as we are concerned, we want to see stadiums opened and we want to see events because it has to do with livelihoods. It is in the interest of the government to have stadiums and the economy opened and people back to work.”
Analysts at professional services firm PwC forecast that government can completely lift South Africa’s level 1 lockdown in the coming months, but that this will be heavily dependent on how quickly it can introduce separate regulations.
“The fact that December closed — and January has continued — with no tightening of lockdown rules, suggests that South Africa entered 2022 en route to a new post-lockdown era. In this paradigm, Covid-19 has moved from being a pandemic to being endemic,” PwC said in a research note on Tuesday (25 January).
“As such, it is highly unlikely that the economy will again see significant lockdown restrictions outside of broader social distancing and other medical steps to combat virus transmission.”
Nonetheless, a level 1 lockdown is likely to continue in the short term until legislation is in place to cope with the challenges of Covid-19 outside a state of emergency, it said.
“This 22-month old state of emergency provides the government with powers to quickly respond to any adverse developments around Covid-19; alternative mechanism would have to be legislated allowing for quick reaction.”
PwC said the post-lockdown economy’s key pandemic-related challenge will no longer be domestic policies, but rather those imposed from abroad.
At present, 100 countries still have total travel bans in place against South Africa, with another 123 applying specific restrictions like quarantines upon arrival.