State to assess lockdown success

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government is still assessing the effectiveness of the 21-day lockdown implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“We will do a proper scientific assessment in a few days’ time to see how well this lockdown is serving the people of the country,” he said in response to a question on whether the lockdown will be extended.

The lockdown is due to come to an end on April 16.

It is intended to curb local transmission of the coronavirus, which has spread to all nine provinces. As of Tuesday afternoon, the total number of reported Covid-19 cases stood at 1,749, with 13 reported deaths.

The lockdown imposes tight restrictions on the movement of people, who are expected to stay at home except for shopping for essentials such as food and medicines, seeking health care or collecting social grants.

The coronavirus has caused panic and fear across the globe and brought many economies, including SA’s, to a standstill.

Ramaphosa, who was speaking to the media after visiting the water and sanitation Covid-19 command centre at Rand Water in Johannesburg, said though the lockdown had negatively affected the economy, it was important to save lives.

“The economy is going to take a real knock and we will come up with strategies on how we can re-engineer our economy and get it to move forward, but lives matter … that is why I continue to say let us take these regulations seriously.”

Ramaphosa said if SA had not gone into lockdown, the infection rate would be much higher than it was.

He said many South Africans were abiding by the lockdown regulations, but some were going about with their lives as if there is no coronavirus. “We want to say to these people … this is a serious, serious disease affecting people throughout the world and we, as South Africans, must take it seriously. We must abide by the regulations.”