What we know about SA’s school re-opening – and how other countries are allowing kids back

South African Grades 7 and 12 will be returning to the classroom on 1 June, as the class of 2020 gets back to the drawing board after two months at home due to South Africa’s unprecedented lockdown to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

Lockdown: Tshwane pastor says cops scaled church wall to 'arrest people' - report

The pastor and his family were allegedly accosted on the church premises following a walkabout by congregants between 08:00 and 09:00.

Schools reopening: KZN MEC warns they will be tough on schools that flout Covid-19 measures

Those who fail to adhere to measures put in place to protect pupils who attend school during the Covid-19 pandemic will be harshly dealt with by the province, KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu said on Wednesday.

IN DEPTH: Parmesan and the Pandemic - how Italy is saving their number one cheese

How the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the production of Italy's most iconic cheese: Parmesan

Kenya gets $1 billion financing from World Bank

The World Bank will lend Kenya’s government $1 billion in budget support, its biggest financing package yet for the East African economy, according to Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani.

Lockdown: Gauteng ready for Level 3, but it'll be up to NCCC – Makhura

While Gauteng Premier David Makhura says he believes his province is ready for Level 3 of the Covid-19 lockdown, that decision will still be made by President Cyril Ramaphosa's National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC).

ICYMI:

Professor Alex van den Heever saying on News24 Frontline the lockdown was a crude strategy to suppress Covid-19, we should now move to a smart strategy.  

The fiscal strategy to manage the fallout of Covid-19 for the first 35 days of the lockdown was a disaster, says Van den Heever. There are so many knock-on effects that makes the burden of the virus so much heavier.

Treat modelling and projections with extreme caution, says Alex van den Heever. Medical forecasting is 25 years behind weather forecasting. Models can inform, but cannot predict.

Cowan: Is there a strategy?

VDH: What we have that is public is a level structure, and what goes into those levels. Someone makes a decision, and they implement that decision. Other countries have strategy documents. There’s a lot of resources in government to make it possible, and nothing wrong with making the strategy public.

The reason we haven’t seen an explicit strategy is because there isn’t one. Government has not made use of advice in the decision-making process. It worries me what version of the public interest are you chasing?

VDH: We cannot be addicted to the lockdown as a measure to curb the pandemic, we have to use alternatives. We have to open up the economy. We have to move to a completely different intervention framework and it has to be a lot smarter than the approach we’ve used thus far.

The devastating collateral impact is too big in the South African context. A lockdown is not something you return to if you can avoid it.

VDH: The initial lockdown had merit, it was an appropriate measure.

Lockdown dependent strategy will always fail in a South African context. What was good about the period in which lockdown was introduced was that it was early in the pandemic stages. That was an important thing to try. 

The general strategy may no longer be the most successful approach, it’s closing the bridges between high and low risk communities. You can also manage those risks without a lockdown. Once it’s within a particular localised community it depends on the community dynamic and how successful social operations function within that community. What works for one community doesn’t necessarily work for another. 

VDH: We are reducing the amplitude of the pandemic so that everyone will have a hospital bed. They are not attempting to stop the disease; they’re actually saying that all we’re trying to do is to suppress it sufficiently so that we don’t run out of beds. That is not the most coherent strategy.

It’s a bad strategy. We can suppress the pandemic and reduce the need for any hospital beds. What is really the strategy?

If we let the pandemic reach levels we can’t control, that to me is the real concern. Having more ventilators isn’t going to save people, stopping them from needing ventilators is going to save people.

VDH: People are hypercautious, with or without a lockdown. All of those (going to movies, shopping malls) would have been normal in January, they are not normal anymore.

The question is really at what point does it turn down? If we are targeted in our measures, you lockdown an area for a small period of time and you focus on that area. Targeted strategy is what we need. We have no choice but to use all the other tools in our toolkit to manage the pandemic, meaning localized interventions, targeting strategies with minimal resources.

Lockdowns are just not sustainable within that context.

Discussing testing and tracing

VDH: In South African context, the model suggests a peak in September, that has not been seen anywhere else around the world. It doesn’t appear to be the way it has been used elsewhere. We failed to implement testing and tracing at scale. Our only strategy is to get more beds. We are uncertain at this point as to the extent to which the strategic use of testing and tracing is a feasible method of suppressing the pandemic on a wide scale.

Professor Alex Van Den Heever, Chair of Social Security Administration and Management Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, joins News24's investigative journalist Kyle Cowan.

Cowan: What are projections and what they can be used for?  

VDH: Models are not crystal balls; they are not attempting to see the future. We have to be extremely cautious when it comes to thinking that this is a true reflection of what is going to happen. You should use them to improve your decision making. It creates appearances of certainty, but it is far from precise and can be dangerous.

Back to school: Teacher unions and associations say Covid-19 plan lacks detail

The Department of Basic Education's announcement on Tuesday night that schools would reopen on 1 June as the country moves to Level 3 of the Covid-19 lockdown, left more questions than answers for teachers' unions and associations.

COMMENT | If we invested in this one thing today, SA could save more than R400-billion in the next 10 years - and fight Covid-19 at the same time

Community healthcare workers have become what some have called our "heroes on the ground" during Covid-19. By keeping more people healthier for longer, which in turn would also increase productivity, these workers could save South Africa more than R400 billion over 10 years, recent research shows. The question is, when will South Africa recognise them as integral and pivotal players in the health system? ask Donela Besada and Emmanuelle Daviaud.

Bonang Mohale | Do we really need B-BBEE during a pandemic?

Spoiler: yes, says the former head of Business Leadership SA.

Melanie Verwoerd | From Wisteria Lane to hysteria lane: Covid in our suburban bubbles

We all have a right to our opinions, but Covid-19 does not give anyone the right to hide behind "scientific" or economic theory to disguise racial stereotyping or callousness, writes Melanie Verwoerd.

REVEALED | Trump allies recruit doctors to push reopening US economy

In a leaked phone recording obtained by the AP, Republican political operatives are heard talking about recruiting “pro-Trump” doctors to push reviving the US economy, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by public health experts.

Govt faces another legal challenge over legality of lockdown regulations

The government will face yet another legal challenge over the legality of the lockdown when the Liberty Fighters Network (LFN) and its president Reyno de Beer bring an urgent challenge in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.