Mask up or let guard down?

Face masks: Yes or no? This has been a primary topic of discussion over the last two years following the President’s announcement in March 2020 that face masks would become compulsory as a precautionary measure in the fight against Covid-19. Since then and with much pressure from different sectors and parties to completely disregard the wearing of face masks in public, the wearing of face masks in open spaces has been disbanded, but is still compulsory for indoors such as shopping centres, grocery stores, church buildings etc. Many however hope that the end is in sight after President Ramaphosa recently ended the state of disaster (for Covid-19) and announced a so-called transitioning phase of 30 days, starting on 4 April, after which all remaining measures currently still in place will be revised and possibly lifted. Many have debated whether the transitioning phase is possibly just the government’s way of delaying the process until the expected fifth wave hits in May. The Western Cape has however started seeing a slight increase in Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks. According to the Western Cape Covid-19 Dashboard a total of 2 861 were reported in the province between 7 and 18 April while only 811 were recorded in the two weeks prior. With the change of season, a lot more people have been plagued with a common cold or the flu and although the wearing of masks has become an agitation to many, some more than others (read article on page 4), many have said they weren’t experiencing their normal winter illnesses.