By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Presidency confirmed that President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation on Sunday night.
Ramaphosa, had two weeks ago, promised to review the regulations including the ban on the sale of alcohol and attendance of religious services pending the conduct of the people towards the Covid-19 pandemic.
He placed the country under level 4 lockdown on June 27 following the massive surge in infections and admissions including deaths due to the pandemic. Now, the president is expected to meet the National Coronavirus Committee and Cabinet on whether to review his decision or maintain the status quo.
Speculations are, however, rife that Ramaphosa would relax the restrictions after the acting Minister Health Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane admitted that there was a significant drop in infections but warned against people “lowering the guard” against the fight against the pandemic.
“The Covid-19 infection cases continue to fluctuate in waves and each wave leaves behind bereaved families and lost loved ones. Each day that this pandemic continues to spread and infect more people, it robs our country of its greatest resource and that is its productive people.
“We have also seen a significant drop in numbers in Gauteng which has been the epicentre of the third wave. Although 4 988 new cases are still quite high, it is a significant drop from the provincial peak which went as high as over 16 000 new cases per day,” Kubayi-Ngubane said.
She, however, said that the drop in numbers did mean that the nation should lower its guard in the fight against this pandemic.
“Just because the numbers are coming down, does not mean the virus has stopped spreading. The Delta variant is spreading and it is still just as lethal. This means that our fight should rather intensify.
“In the midst of fighting this pandemic, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces got engulfed in social unrest that were very disruptive to our social lives, economic lives and to the healthcare service delivery system, especially in the province of KwaZulu-Natal,” she said.
Kubayi-Ngubane said these riots have added to the complexity of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic saying especially the violent nature of the protests unsettled healthcare as a whole in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reported 13,719 new Covid-19 cases that have been identified in the country in the last 24 hours.
This now brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,356,049.
NICD said that this increase represented a 26.1% positivity rate. A further 450 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 69,075 to date.