The government gazetted regulations yesterday to enable libraries, museums, cinemas and theatres to reopen, but under strict conditions.
This came as positive cases in South Africa breached the 200 000 mark with 8 971 new cases taking the cumulative total to 205 721. There have been 97 848 recoveries. Deaths rose by 111 to 3 310. Of the latest deaths, 50 were in Gauteng, 35 in the Western Cape, 17 in Limpopo and 9 in the Eastern Cape.
New regulations published yesterday stipulate that only 50 patrons at a time are allowed into cinemas and theatres. They must be screened before entering, and thereafter keep 1.5 metres apart. Entry will be forbidden to anyone with a high temperature.
People older than 60, or those with comorbidities, are discouraged from going to movies or plays.
Libraries may lend books, and open study areas as long as these amount to no more 30% of the total area of the library. Children’s sections and toy services remain closed.
But the government has insisted that gyms and fitness facilities cannot be opened yet.
In an answering affidavit to a court challenge by the United Gym and Fitness Facilities, the Presidency’s director-general Cassius Lubisi said it was ‘impossible to craft regulations that reduce the risk of transmission at any given point in time to acceptable levels without permitting some public activities and refusing other activities that may appear similarly important’.
‘As such, lines that may appear arbitrary between one activity and another activity must be drawn to achieve an acceptably low level of transmission.’
Lubisi also said activities in which potentially large groups of people were permitted to converge in confined spaces and exercise such as fitness centres and gyms, increased the risk of transmission of Covid-19.
He said scientific information, based on research in South Korea soon after its own outbreak, indicated that the moist warm air in gyms combined with turbulent airflow from exercising ‘may create an environment in which droplets can spread easily’.
‘People breathe harder when they are exercising, which is the prime way the virus spreads from person to person. This is because when people breathe more rapidly and more deeply, they expel greater numbers of droplets,’ he said.
As most Grade R, 6 and 11 children returned to school this week, parents are some schools in Limpopo blockaded entrances to stop the resumption of classes, while the Eastern Cape education department decided to postpone reopening schools for the three grades until 20 July.