Government is expected to review some of South Africa’s lockdown regulations when the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) meets on Tuesday (11 August), with early signs pointing to a relaxation in rules.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Times<\/a> <\/strong>reports that president Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation no later than Saturday, when the state of disaster is also due to expire.<\/p>\n The paper spoke to a number of experts which indicated that the pandemic has passed its peak in major provinces such as Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n However, \u00a0the head of government’s health advisory committee, professor Salim Abdool Karim has said he is concerned about KwaZulu-Natal, which still has a dangerous infection rate.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the epidemic really takes off in KZN like what we saw in Gauteng, the number of cases is going to start going up,\u201d he told the Sunday Times. “Everything is dependent on what happens in KZN this week.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday (6 August), health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said president Ramaphosa had asked him and his team to table recommendations<\/a><\/strong> before the NCCC on the next best steps going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we will be tabling recommendations to the NCCC. At some point during the course of next week, we should be able to get further guidance from the NCCC and the president,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mkhize said that he is cautiously optimistic about coronavirus cases in South Africa having passed its peak, following a decline in reported numbers in recent days.<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst we are cautiously optimistic, it is still too early for us to make definite conclusions regarding the observed decline,\u201d Mkhize said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to continue to track all these indicators and ensure that our testing capacity reflects a realist picture of our epidemiological status. We will therefore only know for sure when there is a consistent decline over a period.”<\/p>\n Dr Mkhize announced on Saturday that there are now a total of 553,188 cases of coronavirus in South Africa. This is an increase of 7,712 cases from the 545,476 infections reported previously, and following 36,607 tests conducted over the reported period.<\/p>\n