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African National Congress (ANC) today welcomed the move by the South African Government to move the country to level one, this they revealed in a press release statement.
South Africa’s lockdown commenced on the 26th of March 2020 as their Coronavirus cases spiked uncontrollably and the country had one of the strictest lockdown restrictions in the world.
The six month lockdown hit the continent’s most industrialised nation hard, setting its economy back by 13 years and pushing millions more into unemployment where almost a third of the workforce was already jobless.But the number of new cases started receding from August with the current average daily rate of new cases below 2,000 and recovery rate at 89 percent.
The department of information and publicity statement read,”The African National Congress welcomes the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa to move the country to Lockdown level 1.The lifting of further restrictions on economic and social life it is reasonably safe to do so,must be commended.”
“The progressmade thus far in the war against COVID-19 was made possible largely by the effective measures that were implemented by the government ,the sacrifices of many frontline healthworkers as all citizens of our country who chose to comply with lockdown measures.”
“We reiterate our position that the objective of the lockdown was to delay the spread of the virus and to prevent a huge surge of infections.A permanent lockdown is neither desirable nor sustainable.As we move forward, we must be guided by the need to save lives and to preserve livelihoods.”
“We remain cautiously optimistic that the decline in infection rates will be sustained and hat no resurgence of infections will occur if we maintain the same vigilance and comply with all measures.The gradual and cautious easing of some restrictions will ensure that we do not experience a sudden upsurge.We are encouraged by the commitment of the government to keep increasing coronavirus testing.”
“We welcome efforts to help improve contact tracing,which is a key weapon in the fight against COVID-19.The ANC government has made this possible through the deployment of the COVID-19 alert South Africa mobile phone app and the COVID Connect Whatsapp platform.
“Once again ,we urge all stakeholders to ensure that as more sectors our economy open, we do so mindful of the danger that continues to lurk in our midst.As we open up economic activity ,we remember that saving lives is as important as earning a living.Let us ensure that we do not reverse the gains we have made already in our battle to defeat COVID-19.”
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