As South Africa’s cases continue to climb – now at 10 652, a rise of 637 in one day – President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned the country to be prepared ‘to live with the coronavirus among us for a year or even more’.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced 12 new deaths, bringing the toll to 206. Since yesterday’s report, 14 000 new tests brought the total to 356 067.
The North West recorded its first death, and the Western Cape reported 8 new deaths.
In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa warned: ‘We can and must expect infections to rise as more people return to work. We must accept the reality, prepare for it and adapt to it.’
The country had yet to experience the worst of the pandemic.
‘We must, therefore, be prepared to continue to live with the coronavirus among us for a year or even more. We must be prepared for a new reality in which the fight against Covid-19 becomes part of our daily existence.’
Likening the pandemic to the HIV scourge, he said that just as ‘we had to change our behaviour to prevent the spread of HIV, now we need to change our behaviour to stop the coronavirus’.
The next phase of the government’s response would be stepping up screening, testing and tracing.
Controversial police minister Bheki Cele warned yesterday that, as ‘it looks like there is more breaking of the law under Level 4 …it has been decided that there are places that can be 4 and 5’. This would be recommended.
Public frustration and unease was captured in a column yesterday by News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson, who wrote: ‘President Cyril Ramaphosa hasn’t spoken to us in 18 days. I can feel it, can you? There is a restlessness in the soul of the nation that needs to be addressed.’
He added: ‘The last time the president addressed the nation on the Covid-19 disaster was during his famous “the sale of cigarettes will be permitted” speech on 23 April. The disaster affects every aspect of our lives and we need to hear from the president regularly.’
Basson said honesty about the effectiveness of the lockdown was critical.
‘One of the smartest people to be following during this disaster is Professor Alex van den Heever, the public health and poverty guru at Wits. In a scathing criticism of government’s post-lockdown actions published on News24, Van den Heever argues that essentially the lockdown hasn’t worked.’
The government should take the country into its confidence, Basson argued.
‘This must be a major concern for Ramaphosa as he needs the buy-in from 58 million South Africans to keep the lockdown going, with only a few people who have not felt the devastating consequences of an economic shutdown,’ Basson wrote.
In other virus-related news
- AFP reported that South Korea announced its highest number of new coronavirus cases in more than a month on Monday, driven by a cluster in a Seoul nightlife district that emerged just as the country loosens restrictions. South Korean officials reported 35 new cases on Monday, taking its total to 10 909, after recording only single-digit increases for eight of the preceding 12 days – many of them overseas arrivals. But as of noon on Monday, a total of 86 cases had been linked to the new nightlife cluster;
- China reported a new cluster of coronavirus cases in Wuhan on Monday after a month without fresh infections at the pandemic’s global epicentre, as a northeastern city was placed under lockdown;
- India saw its biggest single day jump in coronavirus cases, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to meet with state leaders to discuss how to gradually exit the lockdown. The health ministry reported 4 213 new infections. Nationwide, there have been almost 70 000 cases, with more than 2 000 deaths confirmed; and
- Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that lower skilled workers in parts of the country appeared to be at greater risk of dying from coronavirus than white collar employees. The ONS reviewed nearly 2 500 deaths in England and Wales linked to Covid-19 up to 20 April and discovered ‘men working in the lowest skilled occupations had the highest rate of death’.