Level One Lockdown To Be Retained In South Africa As COVID-19 Cases Surge

With the latest COVID-19 cases at 26,976, the National Coronavirus Command Council has retained lockdown restrictions at “adjusted level one”, health authorities said on Thursday.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) said it makes sense to keep lockdown at this level as hospitals are not overwhelmed at this stage.

"We need to tighten lockdown measures when hospitalisation admissions and ICU are higher.”

Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the command council instructed the health department to monitor new cases, hospitalisations and deaths mainly driven by the Omicron during this festive season.

The department said parties and weddings posed the greatest risks for transmission as they were considered super spreaders.

“We call upon all travellers, especially those who are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated coming from areas declared hotspots to get vaccinated before hitting the roads.

“That is to protect the families and friends they will be visiting during this period associated with large social gatherings like parties and weddings, which can be ‘super spreader’ events that carry a huge risk of transmission of the virus.’’

South Africa has been the worst affected country by the pandemic in Africa with higher levels of cases and deaths.

According to the report from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases on Wednesday, 26,976 new COVID-19 cases have been identified in the country.

This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,231,031. 54 deaths associated with the virus were recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 90,226.