By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa’s lockdown regulations will be tightened as the country grapples with a third Covid-19 wave.
Ramaphosa made his address after he held consultations with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), the President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) and Cabinet earlier on Tuesday.
In a national address tonight, the president said that the country will move to a level 3 lockdown from midnight to stop health facilities from being overwhelmed.
He said that the priority now is to ensure that there are enough beds and healthcare workers to give the best possible care to those who need it.
The new restrictions include:
- The hours of curfew are from 22h00 – 04h00
- Non-essential establishments such as bars and fitness centres must close at 21h00
- All gatherings will be limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. Where the venue is too small to accommodate appropriate social distancing, 50% of the floor space may be used.
- Attendance at funerals and cremation may not exceed 50 people.
- Night vigils and after-funeral gatherings remain prohibited.
- The sale of alcohol for off-site consumption is permitted between 10h00 – 18h00 from Monday to Thursday.
- On-site alcohol consumption may continue until 21h00, subject to liquor licenses.
- Alcohol in public is strictly prohibited.
Meanwhile the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said in a statement that 8,436 new COVID-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, representing in an 17,8% positivity rate.
This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 1,761,066, and a further 208 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 58,087, said NICD.
The majority of new cases today are from the Gauteng province (64%), followed by the Western Cape (7%), North West (6%), Free State (6%) and KwaZulu-Natal (5%) and an increase of 1,415 hospital admissions and 157 in-hospital deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
The Institute added that 12,270,842 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
Ramaphosa said that as the country rolls out its national Covid-19 vaccination programme, government and social partners are continuously monitoring infection, treatment and patient recovery rates, as well as compliance with health regulations and other prevention measures.