21-day lockdown on the cards as Covid-19 cases rise

The South African government may place the country under lockdown for 21 days in an effort to control the spread of Covid-19 only allowing for essential personnel and those needing medical care will be allowed to leave their homes for a limited period. 

Essential personnel refers to doctors, nurses and police while other citizens will only be allowed to leave their houses under strictly controlled circumstances. While essential services like clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and food stores will remain open. 

An overview of the plan seen by Moneyweb also makes provision for that homeless people will also be given alternative accommodation where they are or in identified sites. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has kept the country on tenterhooks all day as South African’s wait to hear his address later this evening where he is expected to make announcements on how regulations will be tightened to curb the spread of the virus. 

The number of confirmed cases rose sharply today with no sign of slowing since the first case was reported on March 5. 

Since Ramaphosa announced a national state of disaster on March 15 which was followed by a number of regulations restricting gathering and movement cases have risen from 61 to 402. 

Members of the South African Defence Force (SANDF) have already been deployed to assist police in their law enforcement efforts with some being spotted around Johannesburg today. 

The plan also proposes house-to-house screening and testing, bringing in volunteers to assist.

It also includes the relaxation of testing requirements in order to identify many cases as possible of people with Covid-19, this will be done with a corresponding increase in laboratory services. 

The ultimate objective is to ensure that hospitals are not overwhelmed with unnecessary cases so treatment will be done by order of severity with those with serious cases receiving centralised treatment while mild to cases receiving decentralised care.

The proposed plan is modelled on China’s lockdown strategy which has been lauded for seemingly stopping the rate of new infections while these numbers rise in other areas across the world.