Security force abuses

Professor Salim Abdool Karim

The ministerial advisory committee chair said he was “deeply disappointed” at the behaviour of security forces tasked with protecting South Africans and enforcing the lockdown.

But he felt buoyed by the government’s response to the challenge.

“We had political authority that quickly understood the challenge, the importance and the magnitude of the threat, and were deeply committed to fixing it.

“They were not afraid to take difficult decisions … with minimum information we had at the time.”

Karim said the health-care service was able to cope, with the exception of the Eastern Cape, which struggled for a short while.

He said teams are now hard at work preparing for a second surge.

“Now the whole thing is about to identify, when we start seeing the first signs of a second surge, how to respond, what capacity is needed, what new strategies we are putting into place. We have no idea when it is likely to happen.”

After early challenges, “now we are doing really well, our mortality rate is quite low because doctors know how to treat these patients”, he said. —