Booze ban a boon for hospitals

THE level 3 lockdown with a 9pm curfew and a ban on alcohol sales eased the trauma load on South Africa's hospitals.

I read a tweet that for the first time in history, Gauteng's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital trauma rescue area that is normally inundated with patients had no patients on the 1st day of the new year 2021.

Likewise, I had seen pictures of another academic hospital with a near-empty trauma unit. The immediate public health benefits of the alcohol ban, make it quite clear that alcohol is a major contributor to a lot of social and health problems in the country.

For the greater good, South Africa should immediately tackle the scourge of alcohol drinking.

Banning it is the ideal, but it is not possible.

Perhaps making all types of alcohol more difficult to access, banning alcohol adverts, and reducing the size of alcohol bottles and cans could decrease consumption and alcohol induced problems or alcohol-related traumas.

Furthermore, we should not criticise public health measures or lockdowns without first studying the potential impact of not locking down.

A pandemic like Covid-19 is a difficult and confusing situation to handle and we need to commend and support the initiatives being taken to control the spread of the virus.

Please do not follow misinformation and conspiracy theories; these speculations can lead us to make erroneous assumptions about the virus.

MOHAMED SAEED |