PSL plans to push for match venues to return to full capacity

The Premier Soccer League (PSL)  Chairperson Irvin Khoza says they will soon push for match venues to return to full capacity.

The PSL Executive Committee held a meeting in Johannesburg on Tuesday with the MECs of Health as well as Sport from all nine provinces.

The PSL says it is leaving nothing to chance regarding the anticipation of the return of fans to the stadia this weekend.

Khoza says the purpose of the meeting was to ensure the seamless return of crowds to soccer matches, after an absence of more than two years due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“We are creating a platform and convenience to make it easier for people, those that forgot you know to vaccinate that the facilities are made available for them. We thought it’s maybe convenient that as we are moving forward, challenging the government to open all the stadia 100%, let us not have an excuse from the government that we are not sure about your status. We are encouraging people, we are not forcing people to make sure that our message is strengthened, we are seen to be doing the right thing.”

Coronavirus pandemic in SA

Although South Africa has recently experienced a decline in the rate of infections, there has been a warning of a new wave. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported 1 538 new COVID-19 cases in the latest reporting period, taking the total to 3 725 177.

Fifteen people have succumbed to COVID-19 related complications during the same period. This takes the death toll to 100 067.

Below are the latest coronavirus cases: 

Experts are warning of a fifth wave.

“We can expect that we will see a new wave, probably sometime in around early part of May, but that depends if there’s a new variant, and as we know this virus continues to spread, continues to mutate, and so we should expect that there’s a reasonable likelihood that there’ll be a new variant, and a 5th wave. So, we can’t completely let down our guard,” says Epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim.