Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said that he intends to argue for an end to the national state of disaster in February at the President's Coordinating Council (PCC) meeting today.
Winde said that the Presidency has scheduled a PCC meeting for later this afternoon, where he will join as one of the nine premiers in South Africa.
The PCC meeting occurs when provinces’ premiers discuss the country’s response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to further lift lockdown restrictions as Covid-19 numbers continue to decrease, with the country having exited the fourth wave.
Winde said that he will specifically argue for, and provide evidence in support of, letting the national state of disaster expire in February.
The premier first made the call to end lockdown in September 2021.
“I will also specifically call for the scrapping of the one-metre rule at schools, so as to enable an end to rotational learning.
“The Western Cape has now officially exited the fourth wave, with evidence clearly pointing to our country entering an ’endemic’ stage.
“Our Covid-19-related hospitalisations and deaths remain low, despite the much higher number of cases recorded during the fourth wave.
“That is why we need to normalise our Covid-19 response, through existing health legislation, and focus our efforts on tackling unemployment in South Africa,” Winde said.
“If we do not scrap the one-metre rule for schools, specifically, we would be preventing a return to full-time schooling for our children. This undoubtedly would hurt our poorest communities the most, giving effect to a generational catastrophe.
“I look forward to a robust discussion on these and other points, and for a bold statement being made in support of jobless South Africans and our country’s children.”
The Western Cape government’s Covid-19 Dashboard reported 9 606 active infections, 644 714 confirmed cases with 613 627 recoveries as at 1pm on Friday. The province reported 21 481 Covid-19-related deaths.
“According to the technical definition, we will have exited our fourth wave when new infections are 15% of the peak or 600 cases. New case numbers have now dipped below 600 new cases based on a seven-day moving average,” Winde previously said.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) meanwhile reported a total of 3 603 856 laboratory-confirmed cases as of Sunday, with 95 022 Covid-19 fatalities.
#COVID19 UPDATE: 23,347 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 2,226 new cases, representing an 9.5% positivity rate. Today, @HealthZA reports 117 deaths, of which 15 occurred in the past 24-48 hours. Total fatalities are 95,022 to date. More here: https://t.co/oZeV18TGgN pic.twitter.com/jeaHJPtYfz
— NICD (@nicd_sa) January 30, 2022