{"id":545002,"date":"2021-12-08T09:16:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=545002"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:16:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:16:31","slug":"new-lockdown-restrictions-to-be-considered-for-south-africa-at-wednesday-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/545002\/new-lockdown-restrictions-to-be-considered-for-south-africa-at-wednesday-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"New lockdown restrictions to be considered for South Africa at Wednesday meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa will host a number of meetings on Wednesday (8 December) to discuss the rapid spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant in South Africa and possible government interventions.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa plans to head directly into meetings once he concludes his African tour, he told BusinessDay<\/a> <\/strong>at the sidelines of a media briefing in Senegal. He was expected to arrive back in the country at 04h00.<\/p>\n

The president acknowledged that while infections are rising in the country, the government needs to be cautious about how it handles any additional measures it puts in place.<\/p>\n

He said that he would first receive a report from the health department and other bodies before a decision is made, adding that any announcement relating to regulations would be preceded by a meeting of the presidential coordinating council, which includes provincial premiers and metro mayors.<\/p>\n

“So whatever measure we take will be properly considered by everyone affected.”<\/p>\n

Hospitalisations key\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a media briefing on 3 December, health minister Joe Phaahla said that the government was still following its risk-adjusted approach in dealing with restrictions and that it would follow the same key metrics as in previous waves when looking at interventions.<\/p>\n

Phaahla said that the government needed an additional week to monitor the statistics of South Africa\u2019s fourth Covid-19 wave and the impact of the Omicron variant. While he was hesitant to pre-empt the meeting, the minister said that the rapid increase in cases and the level of hospitalisations would decide what measures may be introduced.<\/p>\n

He added that this was not solely a government decision and that South Africans have a part to play in following non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce spread and infections.<\/p>\n

Phaahla said that the government could even reduce regulatory restrictions if people continue to wear masks and avoid indoor gatherings. He called for a reduction of end-of-year parties and said that any gatherings should be held outdoors.<\/p>\n

Mediclinic International, one of South Africa\u2019s three biggest hospital groups, said while it is seeing an increased influx of Covid-19 patients only a few require admission for further care.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, the group said it is\u00a0seeing a greater proportion of children under 12 than in previous waves in South Africa and many asymptomatic patients admitted for other ailments. Of Covid-19 patients admitted 25% are vaccinated as are 16% of those in intensive care, the unit said.<\/p>\n

The variant appears to be highly transmissible, said Gerrit de Villiers, the chief clinical officer of the Mediclinic unit. Still, so far, a lower percentage of admitted Covid-19 patients require intensive care and ventilation, he said.<\/p>\n

The findings are similar to those put out earlier by the South African Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases on Covid-19 hospitalisations.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday (7 December), South Africa reported been 13,143 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 3,051,222.<\/p>\n

Deaths have reached 90,002, while recoveries have climbed to 2,864,648, leaving the country with a balance of 96,572 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 26,639,293 (+148,877).<\/p>\n

With reporting by Bloomberg.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Read: The businesses and areas which could introduce a vaccine mandate in South Africa: expert<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa will host a number of meetings on Wednesday (8 December) to discuss the rapid spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant in South Africa and possible government interventions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":511442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-545002","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\/545002","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=545002"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545050,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545002\/revisions\/545050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}