eThekwini Municipality concerned about number of people not wearing masks at beaches

The eThekwini Municipality’s Festive Season Management Committee says it is concerned over the number of people not wearing masks, especially at the City’s beaches.

The committee says as visitors flock to the City for the festive season, it will be difficult for authorities to ensure that people comply with the COVID-19 regulations.

In the last reporting cycle, more than 23 000 new infections were reported. KwaZulu-Natal has over 29 000 active cases.

“Given the numbers that will come to our shores or to our space in the Ethekwini Metro, the ability to police every single individual about wearing a mask regularly is impractical. It means we will have so many people on the ground. We try to post signs on the beach that people must wear masks when they are in public. We are very highly concerned. When we look at the stats release last night, KZN cases are increasing,” says Operational Director for the Committee, Malcolm Canham.

South Africa on Tuesday recorded 23 884 new COVID-19 cases, taking total infections to 3 204 642.

The positivity testing rate is at 34.9%.

The latest coronavirus stats:

Meanwhile, health experts say that with the increase in the number of people even in open spaces during the festive season, wearing a mask remains critical.

“Yet they are partially true that open areas are slightly lower risk than closed environment because surely based on circulation and touchpoints but it is untrue that they are likely any 100% certainly to contract any of the variants in this period. The virus is also on various surfaces and being festive with numbers people are coughing and sneezing. It’s in the air and if you are not wearing a mask it means you can easily inhale that,” says North West University Professor Terrence Kommal.