Department of Health Acting Director-General Dr Nicolas Crisp has appealed to political parties to ensure that gatherings are properly controlled to avoid a high number of COVID-19 infections.
On Thursday last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to Alert Level 1, allowing outdoor gatherings to 2 000 people.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported 809 new coronavirus infections in the country on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 2 906 422.
A s of today the cumulative number of #COVID19 cases identified in SA is 2 906 422 with 809 new cases reported. Today 27 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 87 780 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 2 906 422 with a recovery rate of 95,6% pic.twitter.com/0S6dP4vSDH
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) October 3, 2021
Dr Crisp says the country is preparing for a fourth wave which might happen in December.
“Any crowds are difficult to maintain this kind of spread. But at what point do you shut down your economy and life forever? So there are risks involved. There are those who are pushing for the complete lifting of everything and say let’s go back to life. Let’s open all the stadiums, let’s open all the places of worship and so forth. That’s probably early for that,” says Crisp.
LGE 2021 I Concerns that election campaigns may pose as COVID-19 risk:
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