{"id":520430,"date":"2021-09-12T07:20:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T05:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=520430"},"modified":"2021-09-12T08:12:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T06:12:49","slug":"ramaphosa-to-announce-new-restrictions-as-part-of-move-to-level-2-lockdown-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/520430\/ramaphosa-to-announce-new-restrictions-as-part-of-move-to-level-2-lockdown-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa to announce new restrictions as part of move to level 2 lockdown: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce relief for the hospitality industry and other businesses by easing lockdown restrictions for South Africa, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2021-09-12-if-ramaphosa-doesnt-ease-lockdown-restrictions--we-arent-going-to-take-that-kindly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunday Times<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>While no official date and time has been set for the president&#8217;s address to the nation, stakeholders who met with Ramaphosa this week said a move to level 2 could come as early as Sunday evening (12 September).<\/p>\n<p>The updated restrictions are expected to include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase the number of people allowed at outdoor venues from 100 to 250, and from 50 to 100 for indoor venues;<\/li>\n<li>The curfew is expected to be pushed back to between 23h00 and 04h00;<\/li>\n<li>Fewer restrictions on the sale of alcohol.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The president is also expected to outline the government&#8217;s plans to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine passport as part of a push to achieve herd immunity in the country.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday (11 September), South Africa reported <span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">5,309 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 2,854,234, while <\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">49,845 tests were conducted in the previous\u00a0 24 hours, representing a 10.7% positivity rate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> A further 143 Covid-19<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> related deaths have been reported, taking total fatalities to 84,751 to date.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vaccine certificates<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate will confirm that a person has been vaccinated in South Africa, said health minister Dr Joe Phaahla.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/520118\/government-to-introduce-new-digital-covid-19-certificate-for-south-africa-what-you-should-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a><\/strong> on Friday (10 September), Phaahla said that the certificate would be available through a person\u2019s smartphone, which can then also be printed out.<\/p>\n<p>Phaahla said that the certificate has been developed with fraud and other security protections and will align with international standards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis initiative is in line with the World Health Organisation initiated vaccination certificate. Through this, the WHO attempting to standardise vaccination proof all over the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said this certificate should be available to the vaccinated in \u2018just over a week\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Phaahla clarified that the documentation would be made available for those recently vaccinated and those vaccinated several months ago \u2013 as long as a person\u2019s personal information is reflected in the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) system.<\/p>\n<p>The health minister said that the certificate would likely be used for certain services in the future. but the government has no intention to make the certificate a requirement for accessing public services.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Phaahla said that the document would be used to gain entry to entertainment and sporting events and possibly some businesses.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/520100\/vaccine-evading-covid-mutations-warning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vaccine-evading Covid mutations warning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce relief for the hospitality industry and other businesses by easing lockdown restrictions for South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":488661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-520430","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\/520430","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=520430"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520450,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520430\/revisions\/520450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}