South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that a “lockdown” forcing most citizens to stay at home for three weeks will be imposed on the country from midnight on Thursday, March 26.
He told the country in a nationwide broadcast that the country needed to “urgently and dramatically” escalate its response to prevent novel coronavirus infections from escalating from a few hundred at present to tens of thousands in the next few days, and hundreds of thousands in the coming weeks.
“This is extremely dangerous for a population like ours, with a large number of people with suppressed immunity because of HIV and TB, and high levels of poverty and malnutrition,” he said.
People would be allowed to leave their homes only to buy medical supplies and food. Health workers, emergency service workers and police and security forces would be exempted from the lockdown.
“All shops and businesses will be closed, except for pharmacies, laboratories, banks, essential financial and payment services, including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, supermarkets, petrol stations and health care providers.”
A solidarity fund, chaired by Gloria Serobe, to care for those vulnerable patients affected by COVID-19 is being established at www.solidarityfund.co.za. The govenmment seeded the fund with R150-million, while two of South Africa’s wealthiest families, the Oppenheimer and Rupert families, paid R1-billion each into the new fund. It will be administered by “a reputable team”, Ramaphosa said. Read more…
