By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@AP.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 7 216 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 424 534.
This increase represents a 23.6% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases today are from KwaZulu-Natal (28%), followed by Western Cape (25%). Gauteng accounted for 22%; Eastern Cape accounted for 11%; Free State accounted for 4%; North West and Mpumalanga each accounted for 3%; Limpopo and Northern Cape each accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 23.6% which is higher than yesterday (22.0%). The 7-day average is 26.8% today, which is lower than yesterday (27.4%). The 7-day moving average daily number of cases has decreased.
NICD said a further 25 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 854 to date.
On 30 December, citizens of Israel will be able to travel to nearly all of southern Africa again, and return to only three days of isolation at home. Meanwhile, the residents of those southern African countries may be allowed to enter Israel again by early January, should the country drop its total ban on entry by foreigners, as expected.
That will apply to Lesotho and eSwatini, as well as Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. As things stand, it will not apply to South Africa.
Israel was among the countries that imposed a blanket travel ban on southern Africa, for fear of Omicron. Those restrictions are being steadily dismantled, though there are still notable exceptions.
A panel from Israel’s Health Ministry on Monday announced its intentionto massively prune back the red list, dropping nearly 80% of entries.That will see South Africa’s neighbours move from red to orange, as will the likes of Germany, Italy, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana.
Remaining on the red list will be around a little over a dozen countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, the United States, the United Kingdom (though not Scotland), Portugal, and Spain.
For countries moving from red to orange, the effect is limited to Israeli residents – though that may change soon.
Israel currently bans all entry by foreigners except in extraordinary circumstances, no matter how it categorises the country.
Until that happens, Israelis are banned from travelling to red-listed countries, such as South Africa. Those returning from countries on the red list are required to self-isolate for a full 14 days. Travel to countries on the orange list is strongly discouraged, but legal. For the fully vaccinated returning from an orange-list country, isolation may be reduced to three days, subject to a negative PCR test on the third day.