Ramaphosa announces level 1 lockdown for South Africa — big increase in size of gatherings
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa will move to adjusted Covid-19 lockdown Alert Level 1 from Friday.
The president explained that the third wave of Covid-19 infections lasted more than 130 days and was about two weeks longer than the earlier waves.
“This wave, which was driven by the Delta variant, was far more severe than the previous two waves,” Ramaphosa said.
“At the peak of the third wave, we were recording around 20,000 new cases each day,” Ramaphosa said.
This number declined to around 1,800 a day, accompanied by sustained decreases in Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths in all provinces.
“A few days ago, the South African Covid-19 Modelling Consortium confirmed that South Africa has emerged from a third wave of Covid-19 infections,” Ramaphosa said.
“Following meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council and the President’s Coordinating Council, Cabinet has decided to move South Africa from Adjusted Alert Level 2 to Adjusted Alert Level 1 from midnight tonight,” Ramaphosa said.
The amendments to current lockdown measures include the following:
- Indoor gatherings increased from a maximum of 200 to 750 people.
- Outdoor gatherings increased from a maximum of 500 to 2,000 people.
- Maximum number of people at a funeral increased from 50 to 100.
- Alcohol sales for on-site and off-site consumption will be allowed as per licence conditions.
- The curfew will be reduced by one hour and will be from midnight until 04:00 AM.
- Restaurants and bars must close by 23:00 to allow employees to travel home.
As before, where the venue is too small to accommodate these numbers without social distancing, no more than 50% capacity will be allowed.
Wearing a mask in public spaces remains mandatory.
Night vigils and after-funeral events are still not permitted.
Ramaphosa said further announcements about sporting events would be made soon.
President Cyril Ramaphosa
Ramaphosa emphasised that lifting South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown measures completely and returning to normal activities would require that the majority of South Africans be vaccinated.
“We have set ourselves the target of vaccinating 70% of the adult population in South Africa by the end of the year,” Ramaphosa stated.
“To date, we have administered over 17 million vaccine doses. Over 8.6 million people are fully vaccinated, which is more than one-fifth of the adult population.”
“Significantly, 60% of South Africans over the age of 60, and 50% of people between the ages of 50 and 59 have now received at least one vaccine dose,” he added.
However, Ramaphosa said the rate of vaccination was too slow.
“To reach our goal, we need to administer an additional 16 million vaccine doses this year, which amounts to around 250,000 first-dose vaccinations every single workday of every week until mid-December.”
Rampahosa said the government had, therefore, decided to launch a new campaign called “Vooma Vaccination Weekends” to increase vaccinations over weekends to accommodate those who find it challenging to get to a vaccination site during the week.
“Tomorrow, the 1st of October and on Saturday the 2nd of October, we will be opening vaccination sites around the country to reach a lot of South Africans,” Ramaphosa said
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