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We may finally be waving goodbye to advanced alert level 3 in the coming days, and ushering in the era of level 2.

Just the 139 days of living under a national lockdown, in case you’re keeping count.

New reports state that a forum, made up of directors-general of national departments (FOSAD), met on Sunday to plot the way forward, and resolved to advise the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) that further sectors of the economy need to be reopened as soon as possible.

This would still exclude crowded places, and be allowed only under the strict enforcement of various preventative measures like the wearing of masks

Business Day below:

If their recommendation is accepted by the NCCC and endorsed by cabinet‚ President Cyril Ramaphosa could address the nation before the end of the week to communicate the move to level 2.

…the dominant view among the directors-general was that the economy had taken a battering and that more sectors should be opened to fire it up again.

“The conversation was that if we don’t open more sectors of the economy‚ there’s going to be more damage‚” said a director-general, who asked not to be named.

The NCCC did meet yesterday, where recommendations from the directors-general would have been raised, so it could now be down to a matter of having the decision ratified by cabinet.

According to sources familiar with the NCCC meeting, Cabinet has been advised to lift the tobacco and alcohol sales ban as well as part of that drop to alert level 2.

[source:businessday]