Lifting of state of disaster 'carefully considered' – Phaahla
Health Minister Joe Phaahla says careful consideration went into the decision to lift the national state of disaster.
Phaahla was speaking during a briefing on Tuesday following President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement on Monday night.
He said the country's Covid-19 positivity rate has been fluctuating between five and eight percent.
READ: State of disaster has ended: What you need to know
"There has been stability in terms of the severity of the illness. Even when the numbers have been high and where we sit now on average, we have a number of people admitted in hospital due to Covid just below 2 000.
"It's been consistent over the last two to three weeks, we were just above 2 000 for quite some time, but now we have even gone below 2 000 of admissions in hospital."
While some of the restrictions have been lifted, others, including the wearing of masks indoors, will remain in place for the next 30 days.
READ: New health regulations gazzeted as state of disaster lifted
Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the existing rules will apply for large gatherings.
"If you want to go beyond 1 000 indoors, you can go up to 50% of the venue, but if it's more than 1 000 then you have to have a gathering of people who are either vaccinated and they can show you [their] vaccine certificate or can show a test of not more than 72-hours and that is for 30 days."
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