South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday announced new containment measures starting Monday to stem the rise of covid-19 cases in the country.
The South African head of state said the government will implement “adjusted level 2 containment,” warning of the “imminence of a third wave” of the covid-19 pandemic in at least four of the country’s nine provinces.
Ramaphosa noted in a televised announcement to the nation that South Africa has recorded an average of 3,745 new infections per day, meaning a 31 percent increase in new cases of infection over the past seven days and 66 percent over the previous week.
“The proportion of covid-19 positive tests has more than doubled in the last month, from about 4 percent to more than 11 percent, even as testing has increased across the country,” he pointed out.
The South African President considered that “a positivity rate of more than 5% is a cause for concern,” stressing that “we do not yet know if the new wave will be severe or for how long it will last.”
According to Cyril Ramaphosa, the increase in daily cases “follows the same trajectory as the beginning of the previous two waves,” stressing that the Free State, Eastern Cape, North West and Gauteng provinces have reached “a third wave of infections.
We should be aware that the virus does not move from one place to another by itself, it depends on the movement of people. The less we travel, the less the virus spreads
As part of the new adjusted containment measures against covid-19, the South African head of state announced a new curfew between 11:00 pm local time and 4:00 am the next day and the closing of bars and restaurants at 10:00 pm, calling on South Africans to avoid “unnecessary travel.”
“We should be aware that the virus does not move from one place to another by itself, it depends on the movement of people. The less we travel, the less the virus spreads,” he noted.
In the past two weeks, Ramaphosa noted, more than 960,000 people have now received a dose of the covid-19 vaccine in South Africa, of which 480,000 have been vaccinated with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“More than 67% of health workers have been vaccinated,” Ramaphosa said, explaining that these “health workers have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only a single dose.”
Ramaphosa revealed that the government has secured 31 million doses from Johnson & Johnson and 20 million doses from Pfizer, but has only 1.3 million doses currently in the country.
South Africa, which aims to vaccinate about 40 million people by the end of the year, counts more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of covid-19
In this regard, the head of state explained that the delivery of the vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, has been delayed due to “regulatory issues” related to lack of adherence to proper standards at one of the plants in the United States of America, according to the South African president.
South Africa, which aims to vaccinate about 40 million people by the end of the year, has counted more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of covid-19 and more than 56,000 deaths associated with the new coronavirus disease, according to South African health officials.
President Ramaphosa said that the African continent is making efforts to expand its vaccine production capacity with a view to “being self-sufficient in vaccine production.”
