South Africa records decline in Covid-19 cases, lifts lockdown restrictions

Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African President, has announced that lockdown restrictions have been lifted across the country as the coronavirus infections fell and number of Covi-19 patients’ recovery increased.

While announcing this on Saturday August 15, 2020, Ramaphosa said that people can return to business as normal.

He added that restaurants can reopen and ban on alcohol and tobacco has been lifted on a condition that people would observe social hygiene to avoid resurgence of infection.

Ramaphosa specifically stated that, easing lockdown was to boost the country’s struggling economy.

“The further easing of restrictions presents us with the greatest opportunity since the start of the pandemic to breathe life into our struggling economy,” he said.

The President stated that work load on the country’s health facilities is significantly reducing due to decline in the rates of infections. Speaking about this he said, decline in infection cases, is “significantly reducing the pressure on our health facilities.”

South Africa has in recent weeks seen decrease in the rate of infections in the country, unlike before when its recorded cases nationwide totaled over 5000 cases.

The government has also lifted ban on travel from one province to the other. However, international travel ban is yet to be lifted.

Ramaphosa warned that people should be careful as they go by their businesses and do everything possible to prevent against infections.

He also stated that lifting the restrictions is a step into level two restrictions which indicated that all restrictions could be lifted.

“The move to level two means that we can remove nearly all of the restrictions on the resumption of economic activity across most industries,” he added.

As of Saturday, South Africa has recorded 583,653 cases, 11,677 deaths and 466,941 recovery cases.