Restrictions eased in South Africa as covid cases decline

Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president announced that restrictions established in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic will be lowered from level three to level one.

He said that restrictions put in place over the holiday period had succeeded in reducing infections levels from 90,000 a week at the end of December, to 10,000 new infections last week.

Good news for South Africa’s strained health system following the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The South African President said all energy and effort must now go into growing the economy, whilst exercising extreme caution to prevent further spread of the virus. He also urged the citizens to respect preventive measures such as social distancing, avoiding crowds and to always wear masks.

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The South African Head of State added that the country had secured a further 11 million vaccines from Johnson & Johnson which is expected to provide 57-85% efficacy against mild to severe disease caused by the more contagious coronavirus strain present in the country.

South Africa is the most affected country on the continent and has so far recorded a total case of 1.51M, including 1.43M recovered and 49,993 deaths.