South Africa to remove all COVID laws that are still in existence

On Monday, a letter was leaked that appeared to be written by Health Minister Joe Phaahla. It states that the threat of coronavirus has diminished significantly, and that the NICD has been informed of the Cabinet’s determination to repeal all COVID rules now in effect.

“We have been monitoring the epidemic, working with the NICD and current epidemiological analysis. The figures point towards lower infection rates, and that the country has exited a recent spike of infections.”

“Based on this, we now propose that regulations on mask wearing indoors, gathering limitations, and venue entry limitations no longer need to be in place at this present moment. The recommendations will be discussed with Cabinet in the next 48-72 hours.”

Joe Phaahla

South Africa

The typo notwithstanding – it looks like all remaining Covid restrictions are about to go.

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— Cheryl Fontini (@CherylFontini) June 21, 2022

Since March 2020, Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at Wits University, has acted as one of the main specialists on the virus. He’s enthusiastic about the suggestions, but he’s frustrated by how long it took the Cabinet to ‘get to grips with reality.’

“At long last, the government is coming to grips with the reality. This is the effective end of COVID restrictions. Now to work on the collateral economic and other damage of what was self inflicted due to stubbornness of not following the science.”

Shabir Madhi