Now SA must adjust to the ‘new normal’, says health minister, who insists he isn’t being cagey about details
Health minister Zweli Mkhize says the hard lockdown is no longer sustainable given the threats posed by poverty challenges and the need to start up the economy.Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says his department has got the most out of the lockdown and that the current risk-adjusted strategy is about buying time for South Africans to adjust to the new normal.
He said the country needed to prevent the kind of cluster outbreaks which have occurred in the Western Cape, leading to a spike in infections. The province currently accounts for more than 50% of the country’s infections, having overtaken Gauteng as the infection centre. He explained that at the onset of the hard lockdown the government had to perform a balancing act of buying time to prepare while keeping a close eye on the ticking time bombs of food security and job losses. The hard lockdown was no longer sustainable given the threats posed by poverty challenges and the need to start up the economy.
In addition to the 10 million screenings, 376 sites have been identified for quarantine, which have 30,823 beds in total. A total of 439,559 tests have been conducted. Mkhize says the government’s approach to easing the lockdown is guided by the World Health Organisation’s recommendations for the easing of the lockdown.
“The teams we are deploying have epidemiologists, family practitioners, community health workers, environmental officers, social workers, psychologists, and that group are specialists who will deal with the disease as it manifests itself. In that area backing them up will be community leaders.
The reason why there is excitement over this is that people are really looking for a reason to find fault with the government and take them to court. That’s what the problem is.The non-pharmaceutical interventions which government has been drilling into society, such as social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks will now have to be adopted outside the homes of South Africans where they have been practised for the past 50 days.
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