- Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma gave health advice to South Africans when she explained adjusted Level 3 lockdown regulations.
- Hospitals and mortuaries are overstretched.
- People should wear masks, even at home, when in contact with someone from a different household.
Look after yourself, take your vitamins and boost your immune system because there is no cure for Covid-19.
That was the advice Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma gave South Africans when she held a briefing on adjusted Level 3 Covid-19 lockdown regulations that came into effect on Tuesday.
Dlamini-Zuma, a former health minister from 1994 to 1999, said South Africa's hospitals and mortuaries were stretched to capacity.
"People are dying," she said, adding:
Soon after Dlamini-Zuma mentioned this, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said: "We call on people to swiftly bury their loved ones...the numbers are increasing."
Dlamini-Zuma added that the regulations which President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday night were nothing new: "As the president says, it's an adjusted Level 3, so we have been here before."
She also clarified that mask-wearing in public spaces was compulsory and that a refusal to wear one could lead to a fine – to be determined by the magistrate hearing the case – or by up to six months in jail.
Even at home, she said, it's good to wear a mask "when we are around people who are not from the same households".
Mask-wearing is important because somebody could be asymptomatic but still transmit the virus if they have it.
Liquor sales, initiation ceremonies, social gatherings, even at home, and religious gatherings are not allowed, but this could change on 15 January when the regulations are expected to be reviewed.
In response to a question about the cigarettes ban which was in effect during previous lockdown levels, Dlamini-Zuma said it wasn't mentioned in the regulations and that cigarette sales were therefore not affected.
The enforcement of regulations will be done in the spirit of stopping the pandemic, rather than punishing people.
Dlamini Zuma added: "Government doesn't want to arrest anyone. It doesn't want to take anyone to prison."
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