The South African authorities have decided to ease, as of Monday, March 1, the restrictions taken in the context of the fight against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this after a significant drop in cases observed over the past three months. .
“Thanks to the drop in the number of infections, the country can now ease certain restrictions on movement and economic activity,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on national television on Sunday.
According to statistics communicated by the Head of State, the country has registered just under 10,000 new infections during the past week, while this figure rose to more than 40,000 in the last week of January and around 90,000 in the last week of December.
The reduction in measures affects the health alert level, which drops from 3 to 1; the curfew, which will now run from midnight to 4 a.m. gatherings which are again allowed, with a number of 100 people for indoor meetings and a maximum of 250 outdoors.
The authorities’ decision comes two weeks after the start of the first phase of the vaccination campaign. South Africa has already received orders for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. She is also expected to receive an order for Pfizer vaccine doses, and a stockpile of doses from the African Union.
As part of the Covax device piloted by WHO, the country is expected to acquire another stock. Last week, Ghana and then Côte d’Ivoire received the first doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine provided through the Covax initiative.
“The threat of a third wave is always present, as is the risk of new variants of the virus appearing,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, who urged his compatriots to remain vigilant by continuing to observe the barrier gestures.
By OMA Newsletter N ° 168 of 01/03/2021
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