The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has called on government to focus on assisting hospitals as healthcare facilities continue to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 patients.
This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Sunday night that the country will be operating under adjusted Alert Level 4 restrictions for 14 days.
It comes amid a steady rise in new daily coronavirus infections, with the Delta variant beginning to spread in some provinces.
SAMA’s Chairperson Angelique Coetzee says, “We don’t think the inter-provincial travel is going to be really enforced and it will be extremely difficult. We are happy that the schools are going to close. We still don’t think that 50 people per funeral are the right amount of people because we see it as a super spreading event.”
“People are just not obedient to anything and we are a law on our own. But, what is important is to look at how the hospitals can be assisted and then how do you assist home-based care.”
The video below is President Ramaphosa’s address:
School holidays
Ramaphosa says the winter school holidays will start earlier, in a bid to flatten the curve as the country wards off the third wave of the coronavirus.
Ramaphosa says by the end of the week, no contact teaching and learning will be allowed
Currently, South Africa is battling with the Delta variant that is spreading rapidly and is highly transmissible.
To contain the massive surge in infections, South Africa will be moving to Alert Level 4 for a period of 14 days. Additional restrictions will be in place from tomorrow, 28th June 2021.#StaySafe #CoronaVirusSA #Ramaphosa #Level4 #14Days pic.twitter.com/2XPY21cBgq
— Presidency | South Africa ?? (@PresidencyZA) June 27, 2021
