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President Cyril Ramaphosa announced new, tighter coronavirus restrictions, a day after South Africa recorded more than one million cases of Covid-19.
Indoor and outdoor gatherings will be banned, a curfew introduced from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and alcohol sales prohibited.
Mr Ramaphosa said the country was at an extremely dangerous stage in the pandemic and action needed to be taken.
Recently, authorities confirmed that a new, faster-spreading variant of the virus has been detected in South Africa.
Some hospitals and medical centers have reported huge increases in admissions, straining resources.
In a televised speech, Mr Ramaphosa said the new 501.V2 variant was now well established in South Africa and the recent increase in cases was a “cause for great concern”.
“We have just let our guard down,” the president said.
He added that the new measures would go into effect Monday at midnight (22:00 GMT) and last until at least January 15.
He said gatherings except for funerals and a few other limited exceptions would be banned, that no one would be able to leave their home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. without a permit, and all shops, bars and other places would be closed. before 8:00 p.m.
All alcohol sales would also be banned and anyone who did not wear a mask in public places would face a fine or jail time, he added.
South Africa became the first country in Africa to transmit a million cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, with 1,004,413 infections and 26,735 deaths since the outbreak began in March.
Last week, it recorded a daily average of 11,700 new infections – a 39% increase from the previous week – and from Wednesday to Friday, the daily number of new cases was over 14,000.
The 501.V2 variant is thought to be behind the spike in infections. It was identified by a network of South African scientists in the Eastern Cape Province, and then quickly spread to other parts of the country.
Earlier this week, the UK banned travel from South Africa due to the new variant. Another new variant of Covid has already been detected in the UK, although it has evolved separately.
Both have a mutation – called N501Y – which is in a crucial part of the virus that it uses to infect cells in the body, but appear unrelated to each other.
After South Africa, the most affected country on the African continent is Morocco, which has recorded 432,079 cases and 7,240 deaths. Next come Egypt with 132,541 cases and 7,405 deaths and Tunisia with 131,592 infections and 4,466 deaths.
Credit: The BBC
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