S.Africa to move to lockdown Level 4: Prez

Johannesburg, June 28 (IANS) Starting from Monday, South Africa will move to lockdown Level 4 for 14 days with stringent measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised speech.Until July 11, “all gatherings whether indoors or outdoors are prohibited. These include religious, political, cultural and social gatherings”, Xinhua news agency quoted the President as saying. “A curfew will be in place from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., and all non-essential establishments will need to close by 8 p.m.,” he added.Ramaphosa said restaurants will only be allowed serve takeaways and not permit people to eat in their premises. To ease the pressure that is placed on hospital services by alcohol-related emergency incidents, the sale of alcohol is prohibited for both on-site and off-site consumption.Schools will start closing from June 30.Due to the high number of Covid-19 infections in Gauteng, travel in and out of the province for leisure purposes is prohibited.”Our priority is to break the chain of transmission by reducing person-to-person contact and thereby help flatten the curve,” said the President, “The measures that we are putting in place now are designed to allow as much economic activity to continue as possible, while containing the spread of the virus.”He said that the government is continuing with vaccination program. Till date, nearly 2.7 million people have received Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine which is effective against the Delta variant that is circulating in the country. As of Monday morning, South Africa has reported 1,928,897 Covid cases and 59,900 deaths.–IANSksk/