Fine young people who are not wearing masks: SAMA

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says young people must be fined or they should do community service for not wearing their masks in public.

SAMA maintains that the majority of young people are among the culprits that do not comply with the regulations.

This comes as doctors and nurses are pleading with the public to adhere to the health protocols as hospitals can no longer cope with the second wave of the coronavirus.

SAMA President Angelique Coetzee says, “The majority of young people especially that do not listen … they need to [be] held accountable. So if they are not wearing their masks when they go into shopping centres, they then need to do community service [or] to pay a fine. That is something we need to look at.”

Earlier, the association called for church gatherings to be held outdoors.

The association says this should form part of the stringent Level 2 lockdown restrictions government should introduce.

“We are only asking for Level 2 with extreme restrictions. We want to make sure that the churches, that you rather have it outside of four walls than inside. That there should be restricted amount of people. Clamp down on social gatherings, clamp weddings, funeral then please adhere and make sure that the current restrictions are in force.”

“Also the public is part of this problem. They do not listen. And I say thank you to those ones who are really trying your best.”

SAMA is calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intervention and on the public to help curb the spread of the virus.

Discussion on the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in SA:

Call for a return to hard lockdown

Meanwhile, nurses are also saying they can no longer cope with the influx of patients at hospitals.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) wants the country to return to Level 5 of the lockdown.

Healthcare workers plead with the public to adhere to COVID-19 lockdown regulations: