Cabinet has decided to extend the National State of Disaster until the 15th of October. This is in terms of the Disaster Management Act of 2002.
South Africa remains on alert level three of the lockdown.
However, there have been calls from the Western Cape and others to relax the lockdown measures as the country emerges from the third wave of the lockdown driven by the Delta variant.
C.1.2 variant
On Wednesday the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) Chair, Professor Helen Rees said the new COVID-19 variant, the C.1.2 variant, is being monitored to ensure that vaccines remain effective against it.
SAHPRA appeared before Parliament’s Health Committee to discuss the efficacy of vaccines, among other things.
The latest variant, which has been found in eight provinces, has also been detected elsewhere in the world.
“The mutation suggests it could be more transmissible or evading our immune system,” says Rees.
She says this is why they are “watching it closely”.
NICD’s Acting Executive Director Professor Adrian Puren on the C.1.2 COVID-19 variant discovered in SA:
