Level 1: All you need to know about the Easter Holidays family meeting
With the 3rd wave of Covid looming on Tuesday 30 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation in regards to new regulations for the Easter holidays. During the family meeting, the President also gave an update on the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Well as many anticipated President Ramaphosa effected new lockdown restrictions ahead of the Easter weekend to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
President Ramaphosa indicated that the restrictions must be observed and adhered to. South Africa’s recovery rate is at a high of 95%. On the other hand, infections are steady at around 1200 per day over the last two weeks.
The government indicated that they will closely monitor the movement of people and social gatherings since they could spark South Africa’s third wave of infections. Here are some keypoints facts from the family meeting by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Level 1: All you need to know about the Easter Holidays family meeting
Level 1
South Africa remains on alert level one despite earlier predictions that the country was to move to level two. There is no change to the curfew hours and adjustments to restrictions on alcohol sales will only affect off-site consumption over the four-day long weekend.
People can enjoy nature as public recreational spaces such as beaches and parks will stay open. Funerals remain restricted to a maximum of 100 people with services limited to two hours.
But gathering numbers will be slightly relaxed out of consideration for religious communities and will be evaluated again after 15 days.
The vaccine roll-out is well underway says the President and should things go according to plan, the momentum will continue to grow.
He said the first phase of the vaccination programme, targetting healthcare workers, would be completed within three months and to date, at least 250 000 health care workers have been vaccinated.
“We have secured 11 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which we know to be effective against the dominant variants in our country. We have secured a further 20 million doses and are finalising the agreement with Johnson & Johnson.
According to Ramaphosa, the race for vaccines across the globe has become highly competitive but the government is doing all that they can to secure enough.
“We are also finalising an agreement for 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses. Together, this supply of vaccines will provide us with enough doses to vaccinate 41 million people,” he said.