Durban - More vigilance is required if South Africans are to emerge victorious against the deadly Coronavirus, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday.
In less than two weeks South Africa has recorded 190 000 new Covid 19 infections while 4 600 people have succumbed to the deadly pandemic since January 1, 2021.
Over the past seven days KwaZulu-Natal has been leading with the increase in new infections, followed by Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The rate of infections in the Eastern Cape is lower now than it was in the middle of December.
This has led to the government to maintain the measures contained in the adjusted level 3 of the lockdown.
Ramaphosa further raised a concern about the burden the increase in infections was putting on the health system.
“The pandemic is at its most devastating. A third of the patients are on oxygen, therefore there is an intensive focus in our health facilities on increasing oxygen supply and activating field hospital beds once again. Additional posts that were vacant are filled again. We have had an opportunity to review the regulations and held a number of consultations. Based on the recommendations of the National Coronavirus Command Council, Cabinet has decided to maintain the country on adjusted alert level 3. Most of the measures that were announced on December 28 will therefore remain in place,” said Ramaphosa.
He announced the amendment on the curfew from 9pm to 5am as opposed to the previous 6am.
He said the new Corona Variant was the driver of the infection growth and that according to information they have from scientists, it (variant) doesn’t cause intense illness that the original virus but it puts more strain on the health facilities.
Funerals have been identified as death traps for many people as they have been identified as super-spreader events.
Ramaphosa said as part of the measures to curb the spread of the virus, Cabinet has decided to close the 20 entry ports, including Lebombo, Beitbridge, Osheok, Maseru Bridge, Ficksburg and Kopfontein.
He said the sale of liquor remains prohibited.
He said hospitals had recorded fewer to no trauma admissions this festive season as a result of the alcohol ban.
Ramaphosa expressed the government’s concerns about funerals, calling them super-spreader events. He said many people who have died were said to have attended a funeral before getting ill.
He called on South Africans to continue to wear masks when in public areas, to wash and sanitise hands always, and to maintain social distancing when out in public.
John Steenhuisen, DA Federal Leader said it is simply a lie that government has been negotiating for vaccines for the past six months. “If Ramaphosa wants us to believe that, he needs to provide proof, since either he is lying, or the vaccine suppliers are.”
He added that for arrival in the first quarter, South Africa has only secured around 2% of the vaccines that it needs.
“By mid-2020 already we should have secured supply of all the 40 to 80 million doses of vaccine we need (some brands require a double dose) and we should have, by now, been well under way in our vaccination rollout programme. Instead, our government startled scrambling around just 10days ago and secured only 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, enough to vaccinate just 750 000 of our 1 250 000 healthcare workers this quarter. We are one million doses short, even just for the first phase. No matter how President Ramaphosa spins it, his government has massively and unforgivably dropped the ball on the acquisition of vaccines. The only way to make it up to the country now is to implement an ambitious, honest, transparent acquisition and distribution strategy in which the private sector plays a central role,” he said.
The Daily News