Last night many South Africans expected President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the nation during one of his “family meetings”, but nothing materialised as he is currently touring other parts of the continent.
That may change with the upcoming weekend, with the president confirming that the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will be meeting soon.
Ramaphosa confirmed this during one of his “From the desk of the President” blog posts, noting that, “We will soon be convening a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council to review the state of the pandemic. This will enable us to take whatever further measures are needed to keep people safe and healthy.”
This as the new cases for COVID-19 in South Africa have surged sharply over the past two weeks, rising from 2 percent to 25 percent in a short matter of time.
The number of people being hospitalised as a result of the Omicron variant is of particular concern to the NCCC.
“While we do not yet know what impact the Omicron variant will have on hospital admissions, we have been preparing hospitals to admit more patients, and we are investigating how we can quickly secure medication for treating COVID-19,” wrote Ramaphosa.
“In the coming days and weeks we will know more about the Omicron variant. At the same time, we are keeping a close eye on the rates of infection and hospitalisation,” he added.
As such, we could hear from the president about a move to a higher level of lockdown where tighter restrictions are imposed, movement is limited and the sale of alcohol may be banned.
There is also the possibility of mandatory vaccinations needed for specific instances, such as indoor gatherings and access to buildings. We have seen for example, a number of tertiary institutions make it mandatory, along with some high-profile businesses for their employees or anyone visiting.
Given government’s desire to see more people vaccinated, as it is the best measure to limit the impact of the spread of the Omicron virus, such a mandate would be welcomed by many. That said, there will no doubt be opposition too, so any decision made by the NCCC is not taken lightly.
Either way, we will need to wait to see what outcomes result of the NCCC meeting this week. For now, no official date has been mentioned.
[Image – Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash]
