[imagesource:here]

Thankfully, I don’t think we can classify this one as an open letter.

There have been far too many of those of late.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s latest message to the nation, published on The Presidency’s website as part of the ‘From the desk of the President’ series, warns of a “new reality”, where the fight against the spread of COVID-19 becomes a part of everyday life.

There’s also a little update of sorts about alert level 4, and what may come next, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Just to lighten the mood a little, here’s a video of Ramaphosa in Cape Town over the weekend:

…listen, I love Cape Town man 😂 pic.twitter.com/qd5mPT3aza

— Khris Njokwana (@KhristoJuggler) May 9, 2020

Embrace it, Cyril.

OK, back to that column, and more sobering news:

The national coronavirus alert Level is now at 4, which means that extreme precautions remain in place to limit community transmission. Our goal is to steadily reduce the alert level by keeping the rate of infection down and getting our health system ready for the inevitable increase in cases…

While there is still much about the pandemic that is unknown, experts now agree that the virus will remain a threat to global public health for some time.

We must therefore be prepared to continue to live with the coronavirus among us for a year or even more.

We must be prepared for a new reality in which the fight against Covid-19 becomes part of our daily existence.

Our success in overcoming the coronavirus will ultimately be determined by the changes we make in our behaviour.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those 8PM addresses, usually on a Thursday night, but we can get a glimpse of what the government’s intentions are in the days to follow.

Ramaphosa makes it clear that we fear a ‘second wave’, similar to that seen in the likes of Germany, Iran and China:

The next phase of our national response is as much about continuity as it is about change or innovation. We will step up our intensive screening, testing and case management programme. We will introduce new measures to make contact tracing more effective. We will need to implement mass sanitisation of workplaces, public transport and other spaces…

Imposing a nation-wide lockdown gave our country a strategic advantage. It bought us valuable time to prepare our health system and put in place containment measures. This has slowed transmission and saved lives.

The transition to the next phase of the coronavirus response, that of recovery, will be more difficult than the present one. The risk of infection outbreaks will increase. The demands on our clinics and hospitals and medical personnel will grow.

That is why easing the lockdown restrictions must not result in careless behaviour by individuals or reckless practices by businesses keen to resume activity at the cost of human health.

The coronavirus crisis will pass. But for as long as it remains a threat to the lives of our people, we must remain vigilant, diligent and responsible.

Now, more than ever, it is upon the conduct of each that depends the fate of all.

He finished off by saying “with best wishes”, which makes a nice change from “stay safe”, and variants thereof, which have become so popular, especially in email sign-offs.

No mention of when we might expect a reevaluation of alert level 4, or a drop to alert level 3, but one gets the feeling that remains quite some way off.

[source:presidency]