Cape Town – The City of Cape Town has expressed concern over residents ditching their masks in public, as well as the disregard for crowd management.
Mayco Member for Community Services and Health, Zahid Badroodien, said the City’s health department was reporting an increase in incidents of non-adherence to Covid-19 protocols.
“Our Environmental Health Practitioners are concerned about the number of people who are going about their business in public without masks, as well as crowd management in shops, malls and other public amenities.
“Cape Town worked very hard to overcome the peak of the pandemic so that we could start focusing on rebuilding lives, communities and the economy.
“All of this hard work will be undermined if we drop our collective guard,” Badroodien said.
He added while the Covid-19 caseload and related fatalities had decreased significantly in the past month, residents should not change their behaviour.
“I hear far too many anecdotes about the pandemic being a thing of the past – this is not true, particularly if one looks at the many countries where lockdowns have had to be reintroduced as a result of a second wave of infections.
“Cape Town and South Africa needs to take heed from these cautionary tales and do everything possible to mitigate the risk of a second wave here.”
Currently, the caseload, admissions and fatalities by the week remained stable within the metro. The test positivity rate in the metro also remained stable at below 10%.
“We are monitoring these indicators very closely for any signs of additional waves of infection.
“We therefore urge the public to continue abiding by the health and hygiene protocols and to wear a mask at all times in public, to help avoid a second wave of infections locally, or at the very least mitigate the impact thereof.
“Effective and regular handwashing, mask wearing and social distancing are the best tools available to help prevent the spread of the virus in the absence of a vaccine and have been proven to reduce the spread of Covid-19.”
Badroodien stressed increased vigilance was crucial and residents could not afford to lose focus.
Cape Argus