SA SCRAPS QUARANTINE FOR ASYMPTOMATIC COVID-POSITIVE PEOPLE

Tue 01 February 2022:

As the country exits its fourth wave of the coronavirus, the South African government has announced that persons who test positive for COVID-19 without symptoms will no longer be required to isolate, and that the isolation duration for those with symptoms would be lowered by three days.

According to a statement issued by Mondli Gungubele, a minister in the president, the country made the modifications based on the trajectory of the pandemic and levels of vaccination in the country, following a special Cabinet meeting on Monday to decide on the amendments.

South Africa is currently at the lowest of its five-stage COVID alert levels.

“The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to COVID-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60-80% in several sero-surveys” the statement said.

“The information gathered through the system used by the Department of Health has reported that South Africa has exited the fourth wave nationally.”

Those who test positive with symptoms will now isolate for seven days instead of 10 days, while contacts do not have to isolate unless they develop symptoms.

Cabinet also looked into resuming full-time schooling and decided that primary, secondary, and special schools will all resume daily attendance. The regulatory provision for one metre (three feet) social separation for students in schools has also been removed, according to the statement.

With little over 3.6 million infections and 95,093 fatalities, South Africa has been the worst-affected country in Africa throughout the pandemic on both counts, with the Omicron variant driving the last wave of infections.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 1,366 new COVID cases and 71 deaths in the last 24 hours, 14 of which happened in the last 24 to 48 hours, on Monday.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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