South Africa
South Africa returns to stricter lockdown, virus 'surging'
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Sunday that his country will return to stricter lockdown measures in the face of a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases that indicate the virus is “surging again” in Africa’s worst-affected nation.
Positive cases in South Africa in the past seven days were 31% higher than the week before, and 66% higher than the week before that, Ramaphosa said in a live TV address. He said some parts of the country, including the commercial hub Johannesburg and the capital city Pretoria, were now in “a third wave.”
“We do not yet know how severe this wave will be or for how long it will last,” Ramaphosa said.
In response, Ramaphosa said that from Monday the nighttime curfew would be extended by an hour to start at 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. A maximum of 100 people would be allowed at indoor social gatherings and no more than 250 at an outdoors gathering. The number of people attending funerals will be limited to 100 people and after-funeral gatherings were banned completely, Ramaphosa said. Nonessential businesses must close by 10 p.m.
“We have tended to become complacent,” Ramaphosa said, warning virus infections were “surging again” at a time when the country moves into its winter months and people were more likely to gather together indoors, likely further increasing infections.
South Africa’s decision to go back to a stricter lockdown reinforces — as the crisis in India has already done so starkly — how the global pandemic is far from over.
READ: South African variant found in 81% Covid-19 samples since third week of March
“We have seen in other countries the tragic consequences of leaving the virus to spread unchecked,” Ramaphosa said. “We cannot let our guard down.”
South Africa has more than 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 56,000 deaths, more than 30% of the cases and 40% of the deaths recorded by all of Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. South Africa recorded 4,515 new cases over the past 24 hours and Ramaphosa said the “positivity rate” among tests conducted was now “a cause for concern.”
South Africa had been under lockdown level one, the lowest of its five levels, but was now reverting to an “adjusted level two,” Ramaphosa announced. Authorities did stop short of reimposing the strict measures like limits on people’s movements during the day and a ban on the sales of alcohol and tobacco products that were in place at times last year.
South Africa has seen two previous surges in infections, the first in the middle of last year and a second, much worse wave in December and January, when the emergence of a variant pushed infections and deaths to higher levels than the first surge. The virus was currently following “the same trajectory” as those waves, Ramaphosa said.
Experts have warned that this wave, arriving with the Southern Hemisphere winter, might be even worse.
The surge in cases also cast more attention on South Africa’s lagging vaccine rollout. Only around 1.5% of the country’s 60 million people have received a vaccine. Health workers were the No. 1 priority but less than 500,000 of the 1.2 million health workers have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson one-dose shot. South Africa only began vaccinating its elderly citizens two weeks ago. In total, 963,000 South Africans had received a vaccine by Sunday, the government said, although half of those have only received the first of two required doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
READ: South Africa scraps AstraZeneca vaccine, will give J&J jabs
South Africa has “secured” more than 50 million vaccines, Ramaphosa said, but currently has only 1.3 million in the country. More Pfizer-BioNTech doses are expected to arrive next week, and weekly after that, he said. South Africa hopes to vaccinate around 40 million people by the end of the year, a target that looks increasingly unlikely.
Bangladesh Emerging Women seal series against South Africa
Bangladesh Emerging Women cricket team have won three matches in a row to seal the five-match ODI series against South Africa Emerging Women.
Bangladesh won the third match on Thursday by six wickets at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first, but they failed to put up a good batting display and were bundled out for 92 runs.
Also read: Tigresses awarded Test status
Ritu Mon, Nahida Akter and Rabeya of Bangladesh Emerging Women were fantastic with the ball, bagging three wickets each.
For South Africa, Anneke Bosch scored 30 runs while Andrie Steyn, Michaela Andrews scored 19 and 18.
In reply, Murshida Khatun scored the highest 46 runs for Bangladesh while Farjana Haque Pinky and Nigar Sultana Joty scored 13 and 16 to lead the team to a third consecutive win.
Also read: Emerging Women’s Cricket: South Africa whitewash Bangladesh 3-0
Earlier, Bangladesh won the first match of the series by 54 runs and the second one by seven wickets.
The fourth and fifth match of the series will take place on April 11 and 13 at the same venue.
Elgar, Bavuma South Africa’s new cricket captains
Dean Elgar was named South Africa’s new test captain on Thursday and Temba Bavuma will lead the team in limited-overs games.
South Africa's du Plessis retires from test cricket
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis retired from test cricket on Wednesday after being denied the chance of a home farewell by Australia's decision to cancel next month's tour.
South Africa scraps AstraZeneca vaccine, will give J&J jabs
South Africa will give the unapproved Johnson & Johnson vaccine to its front-line health workers beginning next week as a study to see what protection it provides from COVID-19, particularly against the variant dominant there, the health minister said Wednesday.
South Africa sweeps Australia 3-0 despite Labuschagne's 108
Heinrich Klaasen produced another impressive batting performance as South Africa won the final one-day international against Australia by six wickets on Saturday, with 27 balls remaining, for a 3-0 series sweep.
S. Africa reports first case of COVID-19
South Africa on Thursday reported the first case of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
South Africa to repatriate citizens stranded in Wuhan, China
South Africa is set to evacuate 151 citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan as a new virus continues to spread across the globe, authorities said Sunday.
S. African finance minister announces formation of sovereign wealth fund
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni on Wednesday announced the formation of the South African Sovereign Wealth Fund, which will serve as a counter-cyclical fiscal tool.
Jhye Richardson added to Australia ODI team for South Africa
Jhye Richardson could make his first international appearance in 11 months this weekend but the paceman has missed selection in Australia's one-day squad for its home series against New Zealand in March.