Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize says that moving the country to Alert level 1 is a decision that is taken by Cyril Ramaphosa after a consultative process.
Ramaphosa addressed the nation in August and extended the National State of Disaster by a further month to 15 September.
On Tuesday, Chairperson of the COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, says after the reported decline of coronavirus infections, South Africa is ready to move to Alert Level 1 of the lockdown.
“It has to be a general decision taken by the President, the cabinet, the premiers and various departments everyone has to make an input and look into what are the areas that are of concern, the ministerial advisory committee, and expert groups so its a whole consultative process that no one person can really determine what should happen. Largely we think that we need to be moving closer to the normality the pre-COVID normality which means therefore that some of the restrictions that relate to issues of traveling, borders, use of alcohol, and all those restrictions will obviously need to be relooked at,” says Dr Mkhize.
South Africa has recorded 772 new coronavirus cases. This brings the total number of cases to 651 521.
The country has also recorded 142 new COVID-19 related fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths to 15 641.
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Mkhize says that South Africa needs to move closer to normality.
“The fact that the numbers have decreased it means for South Africa we need to move closer to normality. However, our normality must be a new normal there are things that we will not be able to get rid of for example huge meetings sports, and so on there still remains risks”
The Health Minister cautions that there are huge risks in super spreading events, such as concerts, sports events, and large church gatherings where one person can infect too many people and cause a wave of infection.
In the video below Dr Zweli Mkhize speaks to SABC News
