{"id":546612,"date":"2021-12-14T08:12:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T06:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=546612"},"modified":"2021-12-14T08:12:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T06:12:05","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1186","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/546612\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1186\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Coronavirus<\/strong>: In South Africa, there have been 13,992 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 3,180,785. Deaths have reached 90,148 (+11), while recoveries have climbed to 2,913,297, leaving the country with a balance of 174,340 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 27,188,606 (+97,631).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Patience:<\/strong> Doctors and researchers have called for some calm when assessing or making any claims about the Omicron variant&#8217;s transmissibility or severity, saying it is far too early to tell. While preliminary data has shown that the virus is more transmissible and less severe than other variants &#8211; a fact that has made health authorities worldwide breathe a sigh of relief &#8211; but in reality, very little is known. Scientists need more time to do proper experiments, especially transmissibility, as this could have major implications for ventilation safety or air travel. In terms of severity, the long-term effect of Omicron infection is also yet to be determined. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-12-13-too-early-to-know-scientists-still-studying-characteristics-and-transmissibility-of-omicron-variant\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hospitals:<\/strong> Hospital admissions are much lower during the fourth wave of Covid-19 than in previous waves, health officials have said &#8211; however, it remains too early to tell for sure whether this trend will continue. There has been a spike in hospitalisations, but health experts and analysts say this is not surprising or unexpected, as this coincides with the rapid increase in infections. The key difference is the proportion of hospital visits, which is much lower. Authorities say that vaccines have proven to be the differentiator this time around, with the jab widely available and most hospital admissions being those who are unvaccinated. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/covid-19-watch-spike-hospitalisation-not-surprising-expert\">ENCA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/12\/14\/hospitals-say-covid-19-admissions-lower-than-previous-waves\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Zero tolerance:<\/strong> The festive season driver safety campaign has kicked off, with transport minister Fikile Mbalula saying traffic officials will be taking a zero-tolerance approach &#8211; especially with drunk driving. The minister said that even though road fatalities were down 22% in the first weeks of December, alcohol abuse still played a role in 27% of the incidents. Mbalula has been pushing for a zero-percent blood alcohol law in South Africa, which has not yet been put into effect. However, despite this delay, the minister said that officials would be going hard on those who exceed the current limits and also any other lawbreakers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/12\/13\/mbalula-vows-zero-tolerance-approach-as-festive-season-road-safety-campaign-launched\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fuel prices:<\/strong> South Africans will not see fuel prices decrease on the same scale as the increases experienced in recent months, even following a fuel price review, according to the Automobile Association of South Africa. The group has welcomed finance minister Enoch Godongwana&#8217;s call for changes to how the fuel price is calculated. Regulated fuel prices have increased by more than 40% during 2021. The AA said the review is a matter of urgency and that the government should look at the taxes and levies on fuel as a starting point &#8211; particularly the Road Accident Fund levy. [<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/427294-bad-news-about-the-petrol-price-in-south-africa-but-there-is-a-silver-lining.html\">MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand fell on Monday, as investors bet the US Federal Reserve will announce that it will wrap up its bond purchases sooner than expected at a meeting this week. The Fed&#8217;s two-day gathering wraps up on Wednesday, with clues about the timing of interest rate increases next year also in focus. A flurry of South African economic data releases, including the November consumer price index, producer inflation and a leading business cycle indicator, are also due on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the rand was trading at R16.05\/$, R18.10\/\u20ac and R21.18\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weaker-on-fed-meeting-expectations\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctors and researchers call for patience around the Omicron data; hospital admissions have spiked, but that&#8217;s no surprise, health officials say; police will take a zero-tolerance approach to lawbreakers on the road this festive season;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":359071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-546612","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\/546612","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=546612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546666,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546612\/revisions\/546666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}