TOTAL LOCKDOWN
● 21-day curfew set to begin on midnight Thursday until April 16 ● Troops to be deployed on the streets ● President calls for halt to panic buying
As South Africa braces for a massive nationwide lockdown on Thursday, the government is warning against panic buying and stockpiling as thousands of South Africans are expected to flock to stores over the next two days in a mad rush to get essential items.
Last night, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown effective at midnight from Thursday until April 16.
This comes as the government announced that the nationwide number of reported infections stands at 402 with the number expected to rise drastically.
“Regulations have been put in place to prohibit unjustified price hikes, to ensure shops maintain adequate stocks of basic goods and to prevent people from ‘panic buying’. It is important for all South Africans to understand that the supply of goods remains continuous and supply chains remain intact. Government has had discussions with manufacturers and distributors of basic necessities, who have indicated that there will be a continuous supply of these goods. There is, therefore, no need for stockpiling of any items,” Ramaphosa said.
As he announced this, the SA National Defence Force was preparing its troops which will be deployed into the streets to ensure there is full compliance.
Highlighting the rationale behind the lockdown, Ramaphosa said: “The next few days are crucial. Without decisive action, the number of people infected will rapidly increase from a few hundred to tens of thousands and within a few weeks to hundreds of thousands. This is extremely dangerous for a population like ours with a large number of people with suppressed immunity because of HIV and TB and high levels of poverty and malnutrition.
“We must, therefore, do everything in our means to reduce the overall number of infections and to delay the spread of infection over a longer period.”
It is not clear how the lockdown will be policed but the government wash expected to shed more light on this in the next few days.
Some of the measures announced included a restriction on the categories of people who would be exempted from the lockdown. They included workers in the public and private sectors, emergency personnel, those in security services, such as the police, traffic officers, military medical personnel, soldiers, and other people necessary for the response to the pandemic and those who those were involved in the production, distribution and supply of food and basic goods, essential banking services, the maintenance of power, water and telecommunications services and laboratory services to name a few.
The following strict measures for the
lockdown were announced:
- Individuals will not be allowed to leave their homes except under strictly controlled circumstances, such as:
* to seek medical care,
* buy food,
*medicine and other supplies * or collect a social grant.
- Temporary shelters that meet the necessary hygiene standards will be identified for homeless people.
- All shops and businesses will be closed, except for: * pharmacies,
*laboratories,
*banks,
*essential financial and payment services, including *the JSE, *supermarkets,
*petrol stations
*and health care providers.
Sites are also being identified for quarantine and self-isolation for people who cannot self-isolate at home.
The latest figure saw an addition of 128 Covid-19 cases to the 274 announced by the Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Sunday evening.
Northern Cape registered its first two confirmed cases since the first case was confirmed on March 5.
The latest figures have seen Gauteng’s confirmed cases shooting up to 207, followed by the Western Cape at 100.
KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State were at 60 and 13 respectively while Mpumalanga was at 9, North West and Limpopo both at 4, while Eastern Cape and Northern Cape at both had 2 cases.
Yesterday, Mkhize said the department and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) was in the process of collating the complete details of some of the 138 new patients in order to search for their possible contacts with the assistance of provinces.
The EFF has called for additional economic measures to be implemented, including tax rebates for companies and individuals, including grants with small and medium enterprises with workers to cover salaries, and for network service providers to give its customers some basic access to data and airtime for free.
Meanwhile, the Malawian government has been left fuming after four Chinese nationals were permitted to gain entry into the country through a court order without being tested, despite the decision by its government to ban travels from very risky countries.