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Ramaphosa moves SA to level 4 lockdown as Covid-19 infections surge

Details

ramaphosa2BusinessLive reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday night announced tightening of Covid-19 restrictions for 14 days from Monday as current containment measures were not sufficient to prevent a rise in infections.

Under the adjusted level 4 measures he announced, all gatherings will be prohibited, there will be a curfew from 9pm to 4am and the sale of alcohol will be banned. Public school holidays will be brought forward to Wednesday this week and travel to and from Gauteng, the epicentre of the third wave, will be limited to work and commercial purposes only. Restaurants and other eateries will only be permitted to sell food for takeaway or delivery. Visits to old age homes, care facilities and other “congregant settings” will be restricted. Ramaphosa said the Delta variant, first discovered in India, which was spreading across SA, was much more contagious and caused more severe symptoms than the previous variant of the coronavirus in SA. While the ANC welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement, opposition parties were scathing. DA leader John Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa was being fundamentally dishonest about vaccines. EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo said: “The lockdown regulations are not helping us, the answer is not lockdown. We should be vaccinating our people.” Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald commented: “If the government had responded timeously to ensure that we have vaccines, we wouldn’t be in this situation. We are now paying the price because they didn’t do their job.” IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa stated: “The president places heavy resilience on vaccination, but it’s moving at a snail’s pace.” Since beginning with health workers and the elderly, SA has vaccinated over 2.68-million people so far. The education sector is also on track to finalise its inoculations within 10 days.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessLive
  • Read too, Lockdown: Ramaphosa places the country under alert Level 4, at News24


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