S. Africa to remain at lockdown level 4 due to rising COVID-19 cases: president

JOHANNESBURG, July 12 — As South Africa is still experiencing a third wave of COVID-19 that is more severe than the first and second, the country would remain at adjusted level 4 of lockdown for another 14 days, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday night.
Ramaphosa said the highly infectious Delta variant was pushing the third wave.
“As things stand now, infections remain extremely high,” he said. “For the last two weeks, the country has consistently recorded an average of nearly 20,000 daily new cases. At present, the country has over 200,000 active COVID-19 cases.”
In the last two weeks, over 4,200 people succumbed to the virus.
The president said the public healthcare system was under pressure with the increasing cases and hospital admissions.
“By next week, daily hospital admissions across the country are likely to reach the levels observed during the peak of the first two waves. COVID-19 related deaths in hospitals are also increasing, and have surpassed those observed at the peak of the first wave,” he added.
He announced that the cabinet, after consultation with the provinces, has decided to maintain the country at adjusted lockdown level 4 for another 14 days.
This means that from now until July 25, all social, political, religious and other gatherings will remain prohibited. A curfew remains in place from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. The sale of alcohol remains prohibited. Schools will remain closed until July 26.
While the alcohol industry has taken the government to court over the alcohol ban sale, Ramaphosa said the ban would reduce alcohol-related injuries.
“We know that restrictions on alcohol sales reduce the number of admissions at hospitals and emergency rooms with alcohol-related trauma, such as motor vehicle accidents and interpersonal violence. Reducing alcohol harm frees up much-needed capacity in our health facilities to deal with COVID-19 cases,” he said.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Sunday that in the past 24 hours, 16,302 new COVID-19 cases had been identified in South Africa, which brought the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,195,599. This increase represented a 30.4 percent positivity rate. A further 151 COVID-19 related deaths had been reported, bringing the death toll to 64,289. (Xinhua)