South Africa to impose 21-day lockdown
The South African Government has announced that the nation
will be going into total lockdown from Thursday March 26, in a bid to curb the
spread of coronavirus in the country.
South African
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the measures after coronavirus cases in the
country increased from 274 to 402 on Monday March 23.
According to Ramaphosa, the stay-at-home order which will be
effective till April 16 does not apply to essential services personnel,
including police, health care workers and those involved in the supply of
goods, including food.
He said in his
address to the nation;
“We need to
urgently and dramatically escalate our response.
“The next few days
are crucial. Without decisive action the number of people infected will rapidly
increase.
“This is extremely
dangerous for a population like ours, which has a a large number of people with
suppressed immunity because of HIV and TB, and high levels of poverty and
malnutrition.”
The country which is
currently in recession will be the third country in Africa to close down all
but essential economic activity, after Rwanda and Tunisia.
From figures released
by South Africa's Health Ministry, more than half of South Africa's total cases
are in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, the country's largest
city with 5.7 million people, and the capital, Pretoria, with 2.4 million.
Though no coronavirus
death has been recorded in the country, majority of people infected are
travelers from Europe and other countries. The number of cases that are locally
transmitted is also rising.
With the 128 new cases, South Africa as of Monday had the
most virus cases in Africa, surpassing Egypt.
Post a Comment