As Covid-19 infections climb steeply, health minister Zweli Mkhize has appealed to South Africans to ‘make sacrifices’ over the festive season to reduce the risk of sickness and death.
Speaking at a World Universal Health Coverage Day event on Saturday, Mkhize said: ‘The time has come for South Africans to make a choice –life, or sickness and death. If we choose life, then we must realise that we have to make sacrifices during this festive season.’
The country could not afford to ‘celebrate the holidays in the way we are accustomed to’.
‘We must now understand that the frivolities that are usually associated with the festive season must make way for the things that really matter — family and friends, caring for one another, physical and spiritual rejuvenation and preserving the spirit of ubuntu.’
This meant everyone needed to ‘take action to save lives and protect everyone’.
‘We must commit to small gatherings, responsible drinking, frequent sanitising or washing of hands and surfaces, social distancing, and we must never compromise on the correct and consistent wearing of masks.’
According to TimesLive, the second wave warning comes as the coastal provinces prepare for December 16, a public holiday that usually attracts an influx of tourists to the country’s beaches.
Durban general practitioner Dr Mags Moodley was quoted in the report as saying: ‘We need to shut down large events and gatherings. We need more police and army on the streets. People need to adhere to masking and distancing, and people need to isolate or quarantine as per guidelines.’
The report also quoted Western Cape premier Alan Winde’s spokesperson, Bianca Capazorio, as saying that during a discussion with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Winde had ‘indicated there needed to be stronger enforcement of existing regulations and to investigate introducing consequences for not wearing a mask, given its major importance in the fight against the pandemic and support by scientists’.
In the report, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, head of the Covid-19 ministerial advisory committee, said that, though he had predicted a second wave in the second week of January because of people travelling during December, it had started much earlier.
He said the big risk in the second surge was that South Africans had become complacent.