By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Health Minister Joe Phaahla met with provincial premiers and MECs on Thursday afternoon.
The government is proposing that SA move from adjusted alert Level 2 to Level 1.
There is a proposal to change regulations for indoor gatherings from 250 to 700, and from 500 outdoors to 2 500.
These changes on gatherings would also affect faith-based organisations and all establishments. Mask-wearing, along with the social distance and health sanitisation protocols, would remain.
Smaller venues will be allowed 50% of the venue if the 1.5m distance cannot be upheld.
Sport and other gatherings will have to be in line with limitations on inside and outside gatherings, while funerals will remain unchanged.
Changes
The current curfew is expected to be moved from 23:00 to midnight, and will be in place until 04:00.
Alcohol sales will be permitted, but for onsite and offsite it will be according to licence conditions, while all establishments will have to close at 23:00 to allow staff to be home by 24:00.
Churches and religious institutions will be opened in line with the proposed limitations on gatherings.
Latest Confirmed Cases of Covid-19
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced on Sunday the country had officially exited the third wave of coronavirus infections, with the daily number of new infections on the decline.
NICD reports 1,678 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,902,672. This increase represents a 4.1% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases today are from Western Cape (22%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (20%), Gauteng Province accounted for 14%; Eastern Cape & Free State accounted for 12% each; Northern Cape accounted for 10%; North West & Mpumalanga accounted for 5% each; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
NICD said a further 101 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 87,626 to date.
Livestream Video Below:
Video Courtesy of ENCA.