President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation tomorrow, June 27, at 20:00 to give updates on the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This follows a media briefing held by acting Health Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi today, June 26, where the prevalence of a new Delta variant was discussed.
According to health experts in the media briefing, Prof Tulio de Oliveira and Dr Richard Lessells, the Delta variant, that was first identified in India in October 2020, is now not only detected in South Africa, but seems to be dominating infections in the country.
This variant has also been detected in 85 other countries, including several in Africa and rapidly becoming dominant in many countries.
“What we know about the Delta variant is that is it really highly transmissible, more than all other variants, including the Beta variant,” De Oliveira said.
“The key factor about this variant is its transmissibility: it spreads very easy from person to person and it does this even better than the other variants that we’ve become familiar with, Lessells explained.
Also present in the meeting, health expert, Prof Koleka Mlisana, said that if we want to reduce the number of cases and the transmission rates, harder restrictions are needed. “We need tighter restrictions and that needs to be done very urgently,” she said.
When asked about the possibility of new restrictions to be put in place, Kubayi explained that the Department of Health met with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) convened by the president this morning (Saturday).
“We presented the information about the Delta variant and out of that a decision has been taken for the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) to consider whether the restrictions that we currently have, are sufficient. There is a belief that the current restrictions, especially when we deal with Gauteng, are not sufficient and therefore, recommendations will be made,” Kubayi said.
GCIS Director-General, Phumla Williams, confirmed that NATJOINTS were to convene this afternoon to propose recommendations on the country’s response to both the Delta variant and the continued surge in COVID-19 infections. The NCCC will convene again tomorrow, Sunday, June 27, to process the NATJOINTS report. This will be followed by the Presidential Coordinating Council (PCC) that includes premiers, executive mayors and representatives of traditional leaderships. A special Cabinet meeting will take place to process the recommendations from NATJOINTS,” Williams said.
President Ramaphosa will subsequently address the nation.
