The Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Xiaoxiang), the South African government issued the latest statement on Thursday (December 30) announcing that the country will lift the curfew from midnight to 4 am, with immediate effect. The statement also pointed out that the country has now passed the fourth wave of the peak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic caused by the Omi Keron variant.
Mondli Gungubele, Minister of the Presidential Office of South Africa, pointed out in a press release that South Africa made the above decision based on the development trajectory of the pandemic, the level of vaccination and the available capacity of the health sector.
South Africa is currently at the lowest level among the five levels of alert for the new crown epidemic. According to data from the South African Ministry of Health, the number of new cases detected in the week ending December 25 decreased by 29.7% to 127,753 compared with the cases detected in the previous week.
A special cabinet meeting held in South Africa earlier on Thursday stated that “all indicators indicate that South Africa may have passed the fourth wave of the epidemic at the national level.”
Since the outbreak, South Africa has been the most severely affected country in Africa, with a total of nearly 3.5 million infections and nearly 91,000 deaths. South Africa was also the first country to report the Omi Keron mutant strain, and there was a sharp increase in new cases in the country at the end of November.
On December 22, the South African National Institute of Infectious Diseases issued a study that confirmed the early findings that Omi Keron caused fewer hospitalizations and severe symptoms compared with past mutant strains. According to the study, the Omi Kiron Bidelta variant is 80% less likely to be hospitalized, and the risk of serious illness in hospitalized cases is also 30% lower.
The South African government stated that despite the removal of restrictions on public events, the number of people in gatherings will still be limited to no more than 1,000 people indoors and no more than 2,000 people outdoors.
The South African government also stipulates that liquor stores with business licenses and business hours exceeding 11 pm can be restored to full operating conditions. This is undoubtedly a boon for businessmen and enterprises that have been severely hit by the epidemic and hope to recover during the holiday season.
The South African cabinet stated that “although the Omi Keron virus variant is highly contagious, the current hospitalization rate is lower than previous waves of epidemics.” In addition, wearing masks in public places is still mandatory. In South Africa, not wearing a mask as required is still a criminal offence.
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