{"id":459074,"date":"2021-01-05T13:55:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T11:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=459074"},"modified":"2021-01-05T15:29:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T13:29:52","slug":"ramaphosa-calls-urgent-nccc-meeting-as-covid-cases-continue-to-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/459074\/ramaphosa-calls-urgent-nccc-meeting-as-covid-cases-continue-to-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa calls urgent NCCC meeting as Covid cases continue to surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will meet on Wednesday morning (6 January) &#8211; ahead of schedule &#8211; as the country continues to grapple with a second coronavirus wave.<\/p>\n<p>The NCCC was initially only expected to meet next week Monday to review regulations around the adjusted level 3 lockdown, which are set to continue until at least 15 January.<\/p>\n<p>Government spokesperson Phumla Williams confirmed that the meeting will now be convened at 09h00 on Wednesday, but indicated that the president may not necessarily address the nation following its conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Williams previously <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/458788\/government-shoots-down-level-5-lockdown-rumours\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said <\/a><\/strong>that a meeting would not be called earlier than scheduled unless there was a change in South Africa\u2019s Covid-19 situation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tomorrow the 06 January 2021 the National Coronvirus Command Council will be meeting at 9am.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 phumla williams (@mirriamp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mirriamp\/status\/1346399118902616064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The surprise announcement comes as South Africa recorded 12,601 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 1,113,349.<\/p>\n<p>Deaths have reached 30,011, with another large daily increase of 434 new fatalities, while recoveries have climbed to 911,573, leaving the country with a balance of 171,765 active cases.<\/p>\n<p>Messages spread on popular social media platforms WhatsApp and Facebook this week stating that that the NCCC was looking to introduce a seven-day level 5 lockdown to help the country cope with a second wave.<\/p>\n<p>However, Williams dismissed the claims, saying that the messages circulating on social media about a return to a harder lockdown were untrue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adjusted level 3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On 28 December 2020, the president announced that South Africa would move to an adjusted level 3 with immediate effect.<\/p>\n<p>The adjusted level 3 regulations were gazetted on 29 December 2020 and contain further restrictions and stricter penalties for non-compliance with a view to curbing the spread of the virus while retaining a functioning economy insofar as possible.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to new curfew hours and further limitations on gatherings, the president announced a complete ban on the sale of alcohol. He had previously said that these regulations would be reviewed on 15 January.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/459002\/the-new-rules-for-gyms-and-exercising-under-lockdown-level-3-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The new rules for gyms and exercising under lockdown level 3 in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will meet on Wednesday morning (6 January) &#8211; ahead of schedule &#8211; as the country continues to grapple with a second coronavirus wave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":445490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-459074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459074"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459112,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459074\/revisions\/459112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}