CAPE TOWN - South Africa's national state of disaster will be extended until mid-December, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday evening as he announced normal alcohol trading hours would be allowed along with flights from all foreign nations to help an economic recovery.
Ramaphosa cautioned at the same time that the number of Covid-19 infections in the Eastern Cape had shown an alarming increase of 145 percent in the last fortnight.
Hence the government would implement its resurgence strategy, and redouble community health interventions in Nelson Mandela Bay metro and other hotspots in the Eastern Cape, the president said.
Ramaphosa said unless the rapid increase in transmission in the province was contained, it would be "a matter of time" before it spread to the Western Cape and the rest of the country.
He pointed to the reintroduction of tough lockdown restrictions in Europe and pleaded with South Africans to avoid a second wave locally by respecting health protocols and refraining from behaviour that could trigger a transmission rates surge.
"I'm asking you to do what we all know must be done," he said.
Ramaphosa said South Africa's only salvation after a year of sadness wrought by the pandemic was to rebuild an economy battered by the health crisis.
"The only way forward is a rapid and sustained economic."
To this end, the weekend and after hours restrictions on alcohol trade would be lifted and the country's borders would be reopened to travel from all countries, albeit it with Covid-19 precautions in place.
ANA