It is now abundantly clear that the most effective way to contain the spread of the Covid-19 global pandemic is a lockdown of several weeks, President Cyril Ramaphosa said this morning.
In his weekly letter, Ramaphosa reiterated that South Africans needed to continue to adhere strictly to the regulations of the lockdown.
The president thanked the government of China for their helping hand in the repatriation of 114 South Africans who were in Wuhan at the time of the outbreak of the virus, saying the country was learning from the Chinese on how to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
“The experience of the South Africans in Wuhan demonstrates the effectiveness – and the necessity – of a state of lockdown. It was due to the drastic actions that the Chinese government took to contain the disease in the city of Wuhan, that all of our people were able to return uninfected and healthy,” he said.
“Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in the province of Hubei, had more than 50,000 infections. Now, more than two months after stringent lockdown measures were put in place, the province has had fewer than 20 new cases in the past two weeks,” he added.
Ramaphosa’s comments came as the number of people who tested positive for the virus in the country climbed from 1187 to 1280 by late yesterday, as concerns grew that a number of health workers in the frontline of fighting the disease were also contracting the virus.
Gauteng remains the epicentre of the disease with 584 cases, followed by the Western Cape with 310, 167 in KwaZulu-Natal and 72 in the Free State.
South Africa also recorded its second Covid-19 death, after Health Minister Zweli Mkhize reported the death of a 74-year-old KwaZulu-Natal man on Sunday night.
“As the South Africans from Wuhan can testify, such restrictions on daily life, on movement and on ordinary human contact are extremely difficult to endure. In the South African context, a lockdown brings additional hardship and strain, and we are doing everything within our means to lessen the impact on our people,” Ramaphosa said.
“But the lesson from the South Africans in Wuhan is that a lockdown works. It shows that if we strictly observe the rules in place to stop the virus spreading, we will be able to bring infection rates down. It shows that if we cooperate with health authorities in doing what we have to do, we won’t be just saving our own lives but those around us too,” he added.
