Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said on Friday that with the country’s Covid-19 situation still precarious, the Department of Health will not recommend that the National Coronavirus Council and Cabinet ease Covid-19 restrictions at this stage.

Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to Adjusted Alert Level 3 of the country’s lockdown.

On Thursday the country recorded 14 271 new Covid-19 infections and 473 new deaths, bringing the confirmed death toll to 76 247.

Phaahla said while the number of Covid-19 deaths had been dropping it was still unacceptably high.

He went on to say that although there was a reduction in hospital admissions in the country, there was still pressure owing to new Covid-19 cases in the Western Cape, which had become the epicentre of the pandemic in the country.

Phaahla said the national positivity rate had been going down from a high of 35% in the middle of July to an average of between 19% and 20% over the last seven days.

This, he said, indicates that the positivity rate is not yet stable, as on Thursday the national average of the positivity rate was at 23%.

“But I must emphasise that even though 19% is a decline from the high of about 35%, it’s still very high in terms of the WHO recommendation, which is 5% of the national positivity rate. So we are still far from where we can say we can have comfort that the third wave is really on its way out,” he said.

He reiterated that the country’s situation remained precarious warning citizens that it was not the time to lower their guards or end restrictions, saying the country should continue with its tried and tested protocols.

Meanwhile, he explained that the country’s hospitals, especially in the public sector, still had enough capacity to handle those who need care in ordinary wards, high care and in the ICU wards.

“We are happy that currently the tried and tested non-pharmaceutical interventions [are working]. We also have in our arsenal the vaccination programme which prevents infection but also especially severe illness, hospitalisation including ICU admission, and death,” he said.

About 9 185 756 vaccine doses have been administered. Of those, 166 902 were administered in the last 24-hour cycle.

To date, 1 936 711 people are fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, while 2 021 520 are vaccinated with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

Phaahla stressed that there is evidence that even one dose of the Pfizer double dose vaccine gives protection of up to 80% against severe illness.