South Africa relaxes Covid lockdown rules even further

South Africa has cut the isolation period for those infected with symptomatic Covid-19 to seven days from 10 and dropped the need for asymptomatic cases and contacts of those infected to isolate.

The government also said in a statement late on Monday that school children can all now return to their educational facilities full time. Some government schools had been operating learning by rotation to ensure social distancing.

The government said the changes were due to the falling number of cases and the high natural immunity in the South African population, with between 60% and 80% of people likely to have been infected with the virus.  — Paul Vecchiatto and Antony Sguazzin, (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP