{"id":61293,"date":"2022-06-21T16:14:41","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T14:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures"},"modified":"2022-06-21T18:38:53","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T16:38:53","slug":"south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Health Minister Phaahla Recommends Removal Of COVID-19 Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>South Africa\u2019s Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla has recommended the removal of Regulations on the Critical Control Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. In a letter seen by Pindula News, Phaahla cites declining COVID-19 cases and deaths as the motivation behind the recommendation. He said:<\/p>\n<p>Dear Colleagues<\/p>\n<p>As you will recall, we met on the 3rd of May 2022 to discuss the promulgation of the amended limited health regulations to manage the potential 5th wave outside the National State of Disaster. These regulations were then promulgated on 4 May 2022. They were intended purely as a temporary stop-gap measure to enable the country to deal with the impending \u201cfifth wave\u201d of Covid-19 infections.<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 wearing of face masks at indoors public gatherings (Regulation 16A);<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 gatherings (Regulation 16B); and<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 travel requirements for entry to South Africa (Regulation 16C)<\/p>\n<p>At the time of their promulgation, the status of the epidemic was very concerning and unpredictable, and the Department needed to have some mitigating measures in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 Reported cases in mid-April were less than 250 cases a day;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 By 24 April the figure had risen to 3097;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 By 1 May the figure had risen to 4693 (1777.2% increase in reported infections in the space of two weeks preceding the decision to activate the regulations on promulgation);<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 By 15 May 2022 the figure had increased to 7685 reported cases \u2014 a 2974\u00b0A, increase;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 Variant had not changed (five sub-variants of Omicron circulating)<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 The question was whether this was a result of behaviour change with the end of the State of Disaster or if a sub-variant was for the first time responsible for a wave\/spike. (Turns out it was the latter)<\/p>\n<p>We have been monitoring the epidemic working with NICD and the current epidemiological analysis, points towards lower infection rates and that the country has exited the recent spike (\u201c5th wave\u201d), which the current limited regulations were promulgated to mitigate, and as at mid-June 2022 the critical indicators are as follows:<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 There is a decline in the number of reported cases;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 There is a decline in the hospitalizations;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 There is a decline in the effective reproductive rate of the virus (Less than 0.7%);<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 There is a decline in the positivity rate though the number of tests done is also low; and<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 There is also a decline in the reported deaths.<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 Regulation 16A (mask-wearing) no longer needs to be in place at the present moment;<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 Regulation 16B (gatherings) no longer needs to be in place at the present moment; and<\/p>\n<p>\u2751 Regulation 16C (entry limitations) no longer needs to be in place at the present moment.<\/p>\n<p>The recommendations will be discussed with the Cabinet in the next 48-72 hours.<\/p>\n<p>I, therefore, request that you as MECs of Health advise if you are in support or have any concerns regarding the repeal of these regulations as gazetted on the 4\u00b0 May 2022 and feel free to offer any comments on this proposed repeal. Please send you responses to Ms Sonto Vilane (sonto.vilane@health.gov.za) copying dg@health.gov.za by midday 21 June 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Kind Regards<\/p>\n<p>Dr J Phaahla, MP Minister of Health<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\">Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. South Africa\u2019s Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla has recommended the removal of Regulations on the Critical Control Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. In a letter seen by Pindula News, Phaahla cites declining COVID-19 cases and deaths as the motivation behind the recommendation. He said: Dear Colleagues As you will recall, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1361,35,15],"tags":[1493,2189,10274,7357,10275,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-61293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe","9":"category-homepage-english","10":"category-twitter","11":"tag-africa-press","12":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","13":"tag-covid-19-measures","14":"tag-dr-joe-phaahla","15":"tag-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures","16":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>South Africa: Health Minister Phaahla Recommends Removal Of COVID-19 Measures - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Africa\u2019s Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla has recommended the removal of Regulations on the Critical Control Measur ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa: Health Minister Phaahla Recommends Removal Of COVID-19 Measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Africa\u2019s Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla has recommended the removal of Regulations on the Critical Control Measur ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-21T14:14:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-21T16:38:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_6-62b1f3dc22e0e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1143\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"570\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/south-africa-health-minister-phaahla-recommends-removal-of-covid-19-measures\",\"name\":\"South Africa: Health Minister Phaahla Recommends Removal Of COVID-19 Measures - 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