By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africans who test positive for the coronavirus but show no symptoms of Covid-19 will no longer be required to self-isolate, the government announced on Monday night.
For those who do show Covid-19 symptoms (often described as similar to a cold or flu since the Omicron variant became dominant), the isolation period will be reduced from the current 10 days to seven days.
The close contacts of those who test positive will not be required to isolate unless they themselves also develop symptoms.
Cabinet had approved the changes based on data including seroprevalence surveys (which check for antibodies to identify those who have had the coronavirus) which showed that the “proportion of people with immunity to Covid-19” is at levels of 60% to 80%, the Presidency said in a statement.
The changes were, it said, “[b]ased on the trajectory of the pandemic and the levels of vaccination in the country”.
According to the latest government statistics, 46.55% of the adult population has been vaccinated to date. Roughly two-thirds of those between 18 and 34 have not yet been vaccinated.
Primary, secondary and special schools will also return to daily attendance, with the regulatory provision for social distancing of 1 metre for pupils in schools no longer in place.
Presidency said the Ministers of Health and Basic Education will, in the coming days, issue directives reflecting on this new approach.
“The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to Covid-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60-80% in several sero-surveys.”
Meanwhile the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD),reports 1,366 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,605,222.
The majority of new cases today are from Gauteng (41%), followed by Western Cape (14%). Kwa-Zulu Natal accounted for 13%; Mpumalanga accounted for 10%; Free State, Limpopo & North West each accounted for 6% respectively; Eastern Cape accounted for 3%; and Northern Cape accounted for 2% of today’s new cases.
This increase represents a 8.1% positivity rate.
The proportion of positive new cases/total new tested today is 8.1%, which is lower than yesterday (9.5%). The 7-day average is 9.7% today, and is the same as yesterday (9.7%).
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 71 deaths and of these, 14 occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 95,093 to date.