President Cyril Ramaphosa says SA is aiming to return to a kind of normality while learning to live with the virus.
At level 1, with low virus spread, and high health system readiness:Interprovincial movement allowed, with restrictions on international travel.
The coronavirus causes the disease known as COVID-19, a respiratory illness for which humans currently have no immunity and for which there is no known cure. Very few health systems across the world – if any – are prepared for a sudden and exponential increase in people requiring treatment for a severe respiratory illness.
We have sought to avoid a massive surge in infections and an uncontrollable increase in the number of people needing medical care. The World Health Organization has commended South Africa for acting swiftly and for following scientific advice to delay the spread of the virus. We will implement a risk adjusted strategy through which we take a deliberate and cautious approach to the easing of current lockdown restrictions.
Level 4 means that some activity can be allowed to resume subject to extreme precautions required to limit community transmission and outbreaks. To ensure that our response to the pandemic can be as precise and targeted as possible, there will be a national level and separate levels for each province, district and metro in the country.
We have undertaken a detailed exercise to classify the different parts of the economy according to the risk of transmission in that sector, the expected impact of the lockdown, the economic contribution of the sector and the effect on livelihoods. This means that some activity will be allowed to resume subject to extreme precautions to limit community transmission and outbreaksEvery business will have to adhere to detailed health and safety protocols to protect their employees, and workplace plans will be put in place to enable disease surveillance and prevent the spread of infection.
No travel will be allowed between provinces, except for the transportation of goods and exceptional circumstances such as funerals. Concerts, sporting events, and religious, cultural and social gatherings will not be allowed until it is deemed safe for them to continue.If people do not travel, the virus does not travel.
Ultimately, it is our own actions, as individuals, that will determine how quickly the virus spreads. When you cough or sneeze cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or a tissue, and dispose of the tissue right away. We pay tribute to them, the nurses, the doctors, the scientists and the community screening field workers who are leading our public health response.
This evening, I also want to pay tribute to those who are providing essential services and goods – the truck, taxi, bus and train drivers; the workers on farms, in stores, at power stations, at water plants, at petrol stations, in banks and in call centres; the law enforcement officials and security personnel.
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