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When the president announced that the country would be moving to alert level 3 from June 1, South Africans breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Yesterday, however, Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize spoke about certain areas and the need for alert level 4 depending on the recorded rates of infection.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the National Coronavirus Command Council has done an about-turn on a statement made by Ramaphosa in an official speech, so everyone was rightly confused and a little worried. 

News24 reports that, thankfully, we can bid that confusion farewell, and get ready for alert level 3 in all districts from June 1, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Health.

From the statement released earlier today:

Clarity has been sought on the presentation made by the Minister of Health to the NCOP yesterday regarding the determination of alert levels for hotspots.

An old slide was presented stating hotspots would remain at Level 4. That slide is now outdated and was inadvertently included in a presentation that had been updated. The slide was part of a presentation previously done by health department prior to the NCCC resolving on the final approach to be adopted for the country, which was subsequently announced by His Excellency, President MC Ramaphosa.

This note seeks to clarify the enquiries received. Firstly, as announced by President MC Ramaphosa on the 24th May 2020, we confirm that the whole country will move to Alert Level 3 on the 1st June 2020.

So an old slide was to blame? Sheesh, that is shoddy.

Large parts of the country spent last night and this morning stressing, but no worries.

Government stated that it’s also working on a strategy to tackle high-risk districts in the country by implementing measures to curb the spread of the virus:

If the spread of the infection is not contained despite the abovementioned interventions, government will make a determination on whether to return that specific area, (i.e. metropolitan, district, sub-district, ward) to Alert Level 4 or 5.

This will be done rapidly and in an effort to contain and manage the spread, and also to ensure that our health facilities are not overwhelmed by the rapid rise of positive cases in that area.

This therefore means that as the whole country moves to Level 3, there will be a constant assessment of each and every area and its rate of infection.

In this sense, it’s more important than ever to maintain physical distancing and hygiene protocols, and to make sure that work environments are equipped with the necessary protective gear and risk-adjusted strategies to resume operations.

It appears that some are looking at June 1 as akin to the ending of lockdown measures, but that really couldn’t be further from the truth.

[source:news24]