President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa’s adjusted level 3 lockdown regulations will be relaxed following a decline in Covid-19 transmissions.
In a national address on Monday (1 February), the president said that the country has recorded its lowest daily increase in infections since December, and that the country has now passed the peaked of the second wave.
The average number of daily infections has almost halved, while the number of hospital admissions has also dropped, the president said.
While the indicators are pointing in the right direction, Ramaphosa said that that the number of transmissions in the country is still relatively high.
However, the president acknowledged that restrictions cannot continue for longer than necessary due to their harmful impact on the economy.
To this effect, he said that the government will ease restrictions as follows:
The eased restrictions comes after South Africa received its first consignment of one million Covid-19 vaccines on Monday afternoon.
These vaccines will now be tested for their integrity after their trip from India, after which they will be distributed to healthcare as part of the country’s phase 1 rollout.
The country will then move to phase 2 of its roll out which will include essential workers, the elderly and those living with co-morbidities. This will be further extended all adult South Africans in phase 3.
An online registration system will allow South Africans to book a place at a local vaccination centre as soon as they qualify, Ramaphosa said. The president confirmed that an additional 500,000 vaccines will arrive later February, also from India.
Ramaphosa confirmed that an additional nine million vaccines have been purchased through Johnson & Johnson, and a further 20 million will be purchased through Pfizer. These vaccines will first be made available in Q2 2021, the president said.
The president said that the country will achieve herd immunity once 67% of the population has been vaccinated. This amounts to around 40 million South Africans.
