President Cyril Ramaphosa will brief the nation next week on South Africa’s lockdown strategy around the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
Minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu said on Thursday (5 November) that the briefing will be based on a cabinet meeting and suggestions provided by the National Coronavirus Command Council which are to be held later this week.<\/p>\n
Mthembu added that the cabinet was concerned that South Africans have grown increasingly indifferent in their response to the pandemic and are no longer following lockdown regulations.<\/p>\n
“Cabinet is concerned that some people are behaving recklessly and irresponsibly as if Covid-19 no longer exists,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Cabinet calls on all people in South Africa to continue adhering to the health protocols of practising social distancing, wearing masks in public and washing our hands with water and soap or an alcohol-based sanitiser, and avoid large gatherings.”<\/p>\n
Mthembu said that responsible behaviour will ensure that the country minimises the rates of infections whilst it continues to rebuild the economy.<\/p>\n
Senior government officials have warned of an increase of coronavirus infections in parts of South Africa, with health systems facing further strain.<\/p>\n
South Africa reported 1,712 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday (4 November), taking the total reported cases to 730,548.<\/p>\n
Deaths have reached 19,585 (a daily increase of 46), while recoveries have climbed to 660,185, leaving the country with a balance of 50,778 active cases.<\/p>\n
Warnings\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This week Thsonono Buyeye, acting executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, said that the reintroduction of a hard lockdown in the metro, while not ideal,\u00a0may need to be considered to help save lives<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cA harder lockdown is not ideal, but to save lives the option might need to be explored again as the numbers are increasing rapidly. In just one day this week, we had close to 400 new infections. Unfortunately, the infections go with deaths and we have seen the deaths in the country have surpassed the 19,000 mark,\u201d Buyeye said.<\/p>\n The acting mayor added that the only reason that the city was seeing a second wave in coronavirus cases is due to non-compliance with current health and safety regulations.<\/p>\n The NMB government\u2019s comments follow similar sentiments from KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala, who also\u00a0warned<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that a return to a hard lockdown is on the cards, unless the country sees a decline in the number of daily coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at the statistics, we can now safely say that we are definitely going back into a hard lockdown if there is no urgent and drastic change in behaviour,\u201d the premier said.<\/p>\n However, president Ramaphosa dismissed \u2018rumours\u2019 that South Africa is returning to a hard lockdown, however he said there are worrying trends related to Covid-19 infections, such as super spreader events.<\/p>\n