Vaccinology Professor Shabir Madhi says he fully supports the move by government to further relax the COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
The meeting was preceded by the meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council and the Presidential Coordinating Council.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele says a number of changes to the Adjusted Alert Level One Lockdown include reducing the isolation period from ten to seven days.
Madhi says there must be a change in mindset on what the country is trying to achieve.
He says, “We are in a very different phase of the pandemic and with more than 70% facing the Omicron wave, 80 % of South Africans have immunity which protects them against severe disease. We’re no longer trying to prevent infection, that has passed us by a long time ago. And in South Africa, coupled with the vaccine roll-out we have protection against severe disease.”
INFOGRAPHIC: COVID-19 statistics in SA:
Loading…
National state of disaster
Last week, some medical experts added their voices to calls to end the national state of disaster, which was declared in March 2020, by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
They say most of the measures in place are simply unfit to deal with where South Africa is right now in the fight against the coronavirus.
Madhi says, “We are in a very different phase of the pandemic and the dynamics of the pandemic have changed. The dynamics of our ability to protect ourselves against severe disease and death has changed completely.”
“Despite the modest rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, more than three-quarters of the population before the omicron wave already developed natural infection [and] induced immunity which is protecting extremely well against severe disease and death. It will likely continue protecting us even when there is another resurgence, which will probably take place in a few months,” says Madhi.
Professor Shabir Madhi was interviewed last week:
