South Africa ready to live with Covid, no plan to impose lockdown, quarantine

South Africa said that it is ready to live with the Covid-19 pandemic and does not plan to impose a lockdown or quarantine rules.

A PTI report said the government has decided to take a more pragmatic approach while keeping an eye on severe Covid and whether or not health systems are imminently under threat.

Medical experts in South Africa said on January 9 that restrictions on the economy, livelihoods and other aspects of society have indirect but harmful effects.

They said the government should not blindly follow those Covid-19 restrictions being imposed across the world that are not possible locally and yield only nominal benefits.

Till now, South Africa has recorded over 3.5 million cases due to coronavirus disease including 93,278 deaths, 3,360,879 discharges and 102,476 active cases.

The country is currently reeling under the fourth wave of the pandemic fueled by the Omicron variant which was detected in November last year.

The new approach by the government is in stark contrast to reflexively imposing higher levels of restrictions as the rate of Covid-19 cases surged.

This suggested that the government took note of commentary which provided suggestions to focus on whether the health facilities are imminently under threat, rather than simply going to higher levels of lockdowns, the experts said.

A serosurvey carried out before the emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa showed that immunity against severe Covid largely evolved through natural infection over the course of the first three waves and prior to the advent of vaccination, they added.

Medical experts also said that the T cell immunity is “relatively unaffected” by Omicron and reduces the risk of severe disease.

However, the government has to opt for steps such as ensuring a higher vaccine uptake, including booster doses for high-risk groups, a more pragmatic approach to isolation is warranted keeping in mind the low Covid-19 testing figures in the country.

The experts also said that there is room for gradually relaxing non-pharmacological interventions. Token gesture “hand hygiene” and superficial thermal screening should be scrapped.

They said there is little reason not to be allowing events such as attendance to outdoor sports events.

The government should instead focus on interventions such as masking in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and ensuring adequate ventilation.