National state of disaster over Covid-19 to end soon

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said restrictive COVID-19 regulations that have weighed on the nation’s struggling economy for two years would be removed on Wednesday, with the national state of disaster also to end soon.

The state of disaster currently regulates the country’s COVID-19 rules and has been in place since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Its extension last week until April 15 drew criticism from businesses hard hit by its measures.

Ramaphosa said in a live television broadcast that the state of disaster would only end once a public consultation on new regulations to replace it was complete, but a number of the restrictions would be eased from Wednesday.

“This change… will be of great benefit to the sporting, cultural, entertainment and events industries in particular,” he said, referring to a relaxation of restrictions on the number of people allowed at gatherings or attending venues.

Watch/read: LIVE ARCHIVE: President Ramaphosa eases several Covid-19 restrictions

Based on recommendations by the National Coronavirus Command Council, Cabinet has eased several restrictions effective Wednesday, March 23, once the new regulations are gazetted:

• Indoor and outdoor venues can now take up to 50% of their capacity if guests show proof of vaccination or a
  Covid test not older than 72 hours. Without such provisions, the current upper limits of 1 000 people indoors and 2 000 outdoors remain.
• The maximum number of people permitted at a funeral increases from 100 to 200, with a two-hour limit in place
  Night vigils, after-funeral gatherings and ‘after-tears’ gatherings are still not allowed.
• While it’s still mandatory to wear a mask in public indoor spaces, it’s no longer required outdoors (i.e. when “walking on the street or in an open space, when exercising outdoors or when attending an outdoor gathering”)
• Regarding social distancing, a space of one metre is to be maintained between persons everywhere except schools
• Travellers entering South Africa must show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours. Unvaccinated travellers entering the country who want to be vaccinated will be offered a vaccination.

The president said that while over 68% of people older than 60 years have been vaccinated against Covid-19, only 35% of people between 18 and 35 years have been vaccinated. Its #KeReady campaign launched last month aims to increase vaccinations in this age cohort.

Africa’s most industrialised nation is the continent’s worst-affected in terms of confirmed infections and deaths, which stood at over 3.7 million and 99 893 respectively as of Tuesday, authorities said.

The country has been in an ‘adjusted level 1’ lockdown, or the lowest of a five-tier system of restrictions, since October last year, but infections and deaths have dropped.

Business people, scientists and campaign groups were among those to criticise the extension of the national state of disaster. Some argued it was not necessary given infection rates were currently relatively low and past restrictions had not prevented Covid-19’s spread.