Are we ready to ease up?
Opening up restaurants and personal care services has been welcomed but the move could be devastating to areas hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘worsening the already bad situation’, experts warn.
Experts warn it could worsen already bad situation in hardest-hit areas.
The plan to open up restaurants and personal care services has been welcomed but experts warn that the move could be devastating to areas hardest-hit by Covid-19, where healthcare system are already under strain.
This as the National Health Laboratory Service’s Covid-19 backlog stands at over 63 000, which has been blamed on shortage of test kits and reagents.
Dr Emily Wong, an infectious disease physician-scientist from the Africa Health Research Institute, said it would be surprising if the restrictions on restaurants and personal care services were relaxed everywhere.
“I would be concerned that, especially in areas of the country where there has been increasing number of infections … that could worsen the already bad situation. What we have seen around the world is that the only way for decreasing infections is to implement social distancing,” she said.
“It is concerning that in a situation where cases are going up, we are relaxing social distancing, in my opinion … I personally do not understand the rationale behind it and it is not going to work.”
She said countries like Brazil and Sweden did not really put in place social distancing measures and that they were among countries with highest Covid-19 infections in the world.
Wong said the easing of restrictions on social contact could be implemented according to the rate of infections per area.
She said it would be puzzling to treat the Western Cape, which has the highest infections in the country, and Northern Cape, which almost had no Covid-19, the same.
Restaurants and personal care services such as hair salons are among the businesses which might be able to reopen under “advanced Level 3” regulations, with Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the minister of small business and development, saying the decision was waiting comment from the Health Advisory Council.
Stellenbosch University epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes said what was classified as essential was never publicly debated or discussed with the general population.
She said to her knowledge, there were no scientific studies to say that the close contact between a hairdresser and client was more risky that the close contact between workers in a fruit packing house.
“By now, during Level 3, it seems irrational not to allow personal care or food service industries to operate. Many everyday interactions are now permitted. Why come down on only some of them? If the government can explain its scientific reasoning that would be good. So far, that explanation has been singularly lacking,” she said.
Dr Glenda Davison, laboratory expert and head of the Biomedical Sciences Department at the
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said SA had reached a point where the benefit of continuing the lockdown and the destruction of people’s livelihood were at a fine balance.
“Therefore, we need to allow the economy to open, but take the necessary precautions. This means thinking out of the box and embracing new ways of doing things,” she said.
Davison said each establishments would need to think differently and adhere to the three main rules of physical distancing, masks and washing hands and surfaces.
Among possible adjustments are the reopening of hairdressers, massage therapists, nail and manicure services and some sectors of the hospitality industry.
Lee Zama, chief executive of the
Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa, said they have made a compelling representation for the sit-down restaurants to open and that the hospitality safety protocols they have developed would go a long way to ensure that operations were Covid-19-safe. She said this move was suited to save businesses and jobs.
“Training on the safety protocols is already under way. We have further implemented an industry self-regulation mechanism to ensure compliance. We are a sector that sets and operates under very high hygiene and safety standards. The new Covid-19 awareness and safety measures are implementable. The industry is ready,” Zama said.
The mooted move is good news for the restaurant industry, which the Restaurant Association of SA said was “decimated” by the Covid-19 lockdown.
Spokesperson Wendy Alberts said the industry needed support from government so that people could return to work.
“We have said for a very long time that we are ready, the industry has suffered for a very long time.
“We have been ready for 12 weeks,” she said.
The divisional director at Ezintsha, Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University, Professor François Venter, said the current wave of hospitalisations and deaths in the Western Cape and Gauteng were from infections largely contracted under lockdown Level 4, saying this showed SA was losing the battle.
He said lockdowns were a crude instrument and preparation for the coronavirus pandemic could have been more creatively.
“We should get rid of the language of lockdown and start doing the social engineering that we should’ve been doing over phases 5, 4 and 3 – finding creative ways to implement physical distancing and keeping the vulnerable safe,” Venter said.
He said making contact with anybody in an epidemic was risky but said this could be managed effectively and that there have been case reports of people going to hairdressers, where a Covid case was present, and there were no transmissions.
“We know a lot more than three months ago – we just need clear, creative guidelines to businesses that emphasise the principles that they need to look at, and let them tailor that to their circumstances,” Venter said.
The industry has suffered for a very long time