Ramaphosa Reverts South Africa To Adjusted Level 2

The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has reverted his country to N adjusted level 2 of the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

Addressing the nation on Sunday, Ramaphosa cited the rapid increase of new coronavirus cases from about 4 percent to over 11 percent in the last month. He said:

_We are advised by our experts that a positivity rate of over 5% is a cause for concern. The provinces of Free State, Northern Cape, Northwest, and Gauteng have reached the threshold of the third wave of infections._

Ramahposa said under the adjusted level 2, people will need to be at home between 11 pm and 4 am asserting that all “non-essential centres”, such as restaurants bars and fitness facilities, had to be closed by 10 pm “to allow their workers to go home on time”.

Funeral numbers have not been quelled as the maximum number of people allowed to attend has been kept at 100 by the president. He added:

_Gatherings are the greatest source of infection. The less we travel and move around, the less the virus spreads. Funeral gatherings should not be more than 100 people. As before, night vigils and after tears gatherings are not allowed._

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He again stressed the mandatory wearing of masks in public spaces, calling it a “criminal offence” for people not to wear face masks.

Speaking when South Africa’s vaccination programme has had a slow takeoff, Ramaphosa assured the nation that the government would carry out the inoculations to all adults in the country, they are around 40 million.

In the previous repeated series of alert Level 2, borders and ports of entry had been closed except for conditions such as the transportation of fuel, cargo and goods or the entry of foreign sea crew for the purposes of the exchange of sea crew in the country; or humanitarian operations.

More: Pindula News; Mail and Guardian