TO lockdown or not to lockdown. This is the hardest and most critical dilemma facing President Cyril Ramaphosa as he prepares to address the nation on Sunday after a meeting with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) this weekend.
Ramaphosa’s address follows special meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council, the President’s Coordinating Council and Cabinet.
Some scientists and medical experts are calling a full a national lockdown while government is resisting the move due to the economic impact.
Calls for stricter measures and a possible second national lockdown have also come from business leaders, health experts and other senior politicians following the emergence of the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19, first discovered in India and reported to be behind the surge in infections in South Africa, particularly in the Gauteng Province.
The Delta variant has been found to be highly transmissible due to several mutations in the virus scientists said on Saturday as a third wave sweeps across South Africa, the hardest hit country in the continent.
South Africa is the continent’s worst-affected nation in terms of coronavirus cases and deaths, accounting for roughly a third of confirmed infections and more than 40 percent of deaths.
As of 25 June, 18,726 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the country, the bulk of which – 11,777 cases – were in Gauteng.
The country recorded 215 new deaths, with active cases sitting at 145,904.
The number of COVID-19 cases so far reported is 1 913 861.
There are 152 013 active cases. There are 157 reported deaths which brings the total to 59 778 deaths.
- Inside Politics
