South Africa remains on alert level 1 lockdown despite concerns about increasing COVID-19 infections that point to a looming 4th wave and the detection of a new variant of the novel coronavirus.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in a national address on Sunday night that the country will instead work harder to get more people vaccinated. This might even translate into mandatory vaccination, he said.
“Government has set up a task team that will undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations. The task team will report to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Vaccination chaired by the Deputy President, which will make recommendations to Cabinet on a fair and sustainable approach to vaccine mandates,” said Ramaphosa.
The president said while he understood the possibility of unhappiness with mandatory vaccinations, this was one of the ways South Africa can fight against the deadly virus.
“We realise that the introduction of such measures is a difficult and complex issue, but if we do not address this seriously and as a matter or urgency, we will continue to be vulnerable to new variants and will continue to suffer new waves of infections,” he said.
On keeping the country on level 1 lockdown, Ramaphosa said the National Coronavirus Command Council took into consideration several factors.
“In taking the decision not to impose further restrictions at this stage, we considered the fact that when we encountered previous waves of infection, vaccines were not widely available and far fewer people were vaccinated.
“That is no longer the case. Vaccines are available to anyone aged 12 and above, free of charge, at thousands of sites across the country,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the government would closely monitor
the infection rate and hospitalisation over the next week and would then determine whether existing measures are adequate to respond to that or if changes need to be made to current regulate.