Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said one proposal under consideration by the department was cancelling school holidays to regain time lost in the 2020 academic year.
But South African Demoratic Teachers’ Union general-secretary Mugwena Maluleke said yesterday discussions were continuing on how best to recover time lost to the closure of schools, which preceded the start of the lockdown in the last week of March.
Positive cases in South Africa rose yesterday to 2 028 (75 053 have been tested so far), with one more death, bringing the total to 25. The latest victim was a 61-year-old Western Cape man whose underlying conditions included diabetes, hypertension and obesity. In all, 410 patients have recovered.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize recommended that South Africans start wearing cloth masks to help limit the spread of Covid-19. Proper medical masks are being reserved for healthcare workers.
News24 reported that while homemade masks offered much less protection than surgical masks and N95 respirators, most medical professionals said they were better than nothing.
Concern is mounting over an increase in the illegal trade of cigarettes by criminal syndicates, with the country’s smokers being driven to desperation by the lockdown ban on buying cigarettes.
Said Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, chairperson of the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (Fita): ‘Citizens are already moving around in search of cigarettes, which are being sold unlawfully all over the country.’
He said Sars collected just under R13 billion in excise from the sale of cigarettes in the 2018/19 financial year. Though Fita had not yet had a response to its request to engage on this with the Department of Trade and Industry, it understood that ‘the issue is receiving attention from government’.
In other virus-related news
- The United States has overtaken Italy as the country with the highest coronavirus fatalities. About 19 700 people have died in the US compared to 19 468 in Italy;
- More than 700 people have died in New York every day for five days;
- In France, the death toll rose to 13 832, with 353 more deaths in hospitals and 290 in care homes – but, for the third day in a row, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care dropped;
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly making ‘very good progress’. Downing Street said he had been able to do short walks between periods of rest, and was in ‘very good spirits; and
- Google and Apple announced that they had joined forces to develop a coronavirus smartphone ‘contact tracing’ tool that could potentially alert people if they have encountered an infected person.