One of the leading voices in South Africa’s COVID-19 fight, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, said that public health measures should be adapted to the changing environment.
The government has announced the further extension of the national State of disaster until 15 April, which will give it more time to adapt existing laws in order to control the spread of the coronavirus.
There have been calls from various sectors of society for the disaster declaration to be dropped.
Infectious disease specialist, Professor Karim, said that of importance was that we still had measures to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karim said that even though coronavirus case numbers were very low at present, we did need some form of restriction on indoor mass gatherings.
“We saw in November 2020 how an indoor mass gathering like the Ballito Rage can morph from just a few cases to over 1,000 cases in a matter of one week,” Karim said.
He said that while outdoor mask requirements could be dropped, measures must be in place for the use of face masks indoors.
“So when you’re indoors, in a taxi or in your office with other people or in a shopping mall, you have to wear your mask and the reason for that is the same – an infectious variant like Omicron which spreads very quickly in a situation where people are not wearing masks,” Professor Karim explained.
Karim said that as many indoor environments required people removing their face masks, these settings should be restricted to people who were vaccinated.
As part of efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster on 15 March 2020.
-EWN
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