President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Monday evening announcing that the National state of disaster, first introduced in March 2020, has been lifted and officially ends at midnight tonight.
There will be transitional measures for a period of 30 days.
What this means is that face masks are still compulsory, except for outdoors, restrictions on gatherings will continue with 1000 people indoors and 2000 outdoors. Provisions on international travellers continue and they need proof of vaccination or PCR test, the R350 grant will remain in place.
Other regulations drop at midnight, including cultural practices.
“Although the pandemic is not over, we can be confident that we are in a better position now. We are hopeful that the worst is behind us,” said Ramaphosa.
He said the government has seen a significant decline in the number of hospitalisations and ICU patients due to Covid-19 related illnesses, as well as the number of deaths relating to the virus,
But he insisted that vaccinations are still the best weapon against Covid-19.
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