Can be a matter of time – VG

– It may be a matter of time before the whole country has entered a third wave, said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a televised speech to the country’s people on Sunday.

“We do not yet know how serious this wave will be or how long it will last,” he continued.

According to him, four of the country’s nine provinces are already in their third wave of infection. One of them is Gauteng, where the city of Johannesburg is located.

On Saturday, South Africa registered 4515 new cases of infection and 70 new corona-related deaths.

According to Al Jazeera South Africa is the country in Africa that is worst affected by the coronavirus, if you look at the number of registered infections and deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, they have had over 1.65 million cases and 56,363 deaths.

– The number of cases of infection has begun to increase rapidly in several places in the country, the president says on Sunday, and adds that the number of hospital admissions is also increasing.

He warns that the situation may turn out to be worse than during the country’s second wave of infections in December and January, because South Africa is now entering its winter months of June, July and August.

New austerity measures

South African authorities have therefore introduced several tightenings in the corona rules as of Monday:

• The curfew is extended by one hour, and will last from 23 in the evening to 04 in the morning.
• Restaurants, bars and gyms must close by 10pm local time in the evening.
• Collections, including political and religious events, are limited to 100 people indoors and 250 people outdoors.

The much-discussed ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco, which applied during the shutdown in the country in April last year, has not yet been reintroduced.

Will speed up the vaccination

South Africa has struggled to get enough vaccines, and only about 1.5 percent of the population of over 60 million people have received a vaccine dose, writes Al Jazeera.

“It is especially important to delay the spread of the virus now, so that as many people as possible can be vaccinated before we reach the top of the third wave,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday.

The President has previously strongly opposed what he calls “vaccine apartheid”, where rich countries have bought up most of the world’s vaccine doses.

– We can not continue to wait at the back of the queue. The longer we wait, the more lives are endangered, he told Reuters on Saturday.

In Africa, less than two percent of the population is currently vaccinated.

The country is also among those who have advocated for international drug giants shall waive the patent rights of the corona vaccines.

Did you bring it with you? VG wrote on Saturday about how the critical shortage of corona vaccines in poor countries has created a market for the sale of vaccines at a premium.

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