By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 972 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,694,504.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (37%), followed by Western Cape (25%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 17%; Free State, Mpumalanga and North West each accounted for 5% respectively; Northern Cape accounted for 3%; Eastern Cape accounted for 2%; and Limpopo accounted for 1% of today’s new cases.
This increase represents a 5.5% positivity rate.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 5.5%, which is lower than yesterday (5.8%). The 7-day average is 6.1% today, which is lower than yesterday (6.2%).
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 13 deaths and of these, 0 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99,725 to date.
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National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will meet on Monday (14 March) to discuss updated lockdown restrictions for South Africa. However, it is unlikely to scrap the national state of disaster as there is disagreement in the government over how to manage Covid-19 without it.
Government ministers have been given until this week to draft new regulations that will replace the state of disaster. Once these have been agreed upon, the regulations will be gazetted and president Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation.
“There is disagreement over what needs to be done. There is a feeling that the current proposals leave too many powers in the hands of the minister of health,” said a source privy to discussions. Another insider said the NCCC would continue discussions on how to fully reopen the economy.
Addressing media on Saturday evening, Ramaphosa said the government was still considering whether to extend the state of disaster this week and what regulations it will introduce to replace it.
“It will not be heavy duty, it will be light duty so that we are able to manage this pandemic going forward.
“People should not stress too much about this, we are finding the best way possible of bringing a logical conclusion to the (end) of the state of disaster,” he said.
The state of disaster is set to expire on 15 March 2022. This would make it 24 months since it was first declared at the end of March 2020.
While the national state of disaster was initially set to lapse on 15 June 2020, the act provides that it can be extended by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister by notice in the gazette for one month at a time before it lapses.
The government has relied on the regulations to introduce and give effect to lockdown restrictions, which it has used to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.