Johannesburg – The South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, addressed the nation on Sunday night on the government’s latest response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The address follows meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council, the President’s Coordinating Council and Cabinet which took place during the course of the day.
Ramaphosa announced that the adjusted alert level 4 restrictions will remain in place for the next 14 days.
“With the fast-spreading Delta variant, we are experiencing a third wave that is more severe than the first and second waves. For the last two weeks, the country has consistently recorded an average of nearly 20,000 daily new cases,” Ramaphosa said.
“At present, the country has over 200,000 active COVID-19 cases. In the last two weeks over 4,200 South Africans have lost their lives to COVID-19.”
While Gauteng accounts for more than half of new infections, infections are rapidly increasing in the Western Cape, Limpopo, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.https://t.co/5djUXJq8ai
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 11, 2021
From now until the 25th of July, the following measures will remain in place:
All social, political, religious and other gatherings remain prohibited.
A curfew remains in place from 9pm until 4am, and only those with permission to do so may leave their homes during this time.
The sale of alcohol remains prohibited.
Schools will remain closed until the 26th of July.
It remains mandatory to wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth whenever you are in public.
We are however making the following adjustments to the Alert Level 4 regulations:https://t.co/5djUXJq8ai
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 11, 2021
Adjustments to regulations:
Certain other venues, such as gyms and fitness centres, may also open and activities such as agricultural livestock and game auctions will be allowed, subject to the conditions outlined in regulations.
Restaurants and eateries will be able to operate while observing strict health protocols. Such establishments may not accommodate more than 50 people at a time or, for smaller venues, more than 50 per cent of their normal capacity.
Watch the full address by the president below:
Vaccinations
“The pace of vaccination has more than doubled in the last month, and will continue to increase. Presently, nearly 190,000 people are on average being vaccinated each weekday,” Ramaphosa said.
“To date, over 4.2 million people in South Africa have received a vaccine dose, with one million of these having been done over the past seven weekdays. Government and the private sector are working together in an unprecedent way to build additional capacity to vaccinate many more people a day. We are currently vaccinating both the 60+ and 50+ age groups,” Ramaphosa added.
“From this coming Thursday, the 15th of July, those over 35 years of age will be able to register on the Electronic Vaccination Data System. On the 1st of August we hope to commence with vaccinations for the 35+ group,” Ramaphosa said.
Historic agreement
“In the last few days, the African Union, through our office as the AU COVID-19 Champion, and the EU have reached a historic agreement that will significantly improve the supply of vaccines to our country and our sister countries on the African continent.”
“Through this agreement, Aspen will be delivering over 17 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to South Africa and other African countries over the next three months, commencing in late July,” the president further said.
“We are negotiating that in time the drug substance itself would be produced here in South Africa, so that we have a fully-owned African vaccine manufactured on African soil in a number of countries on our continent,” Ramaphosa added.
“We welcome the announcement by President Joe Biden that the United States is donating 15 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to African countries through the COVAX facility.”
TERS Scheme
Following the move to Alert Level 4, the Unemployment Insurance Fund embarked on negotiations with social partners to address the difficulties that employees who lost income under these restrictions.https://t.co/5y91OHeAtK
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 11, 2021
“On the basis of these discussions, the UIF has decided that the COVID-19 TERS scheme should be extended to sectors that are affected by Adjusted Level 4 restrictions,” Ramaphosa announced.
Since its inception last year, the #COVID19 TERS scheme has already provided more than R60 billion to protect the jobs of 5.5 million workers.
https://t.co/5djUXJq8ai— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 11, 2021
In addition, Cabinet has decided that all business licenses and permits that expired between March 2020 and June 2021 will remain valid until 31 December 2022.
New business licenses or permits that are issued from the 1st of July will also be valid until 31 December 2022, and no license fee will be payable.
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