President Cyril Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced the easing of Covid-19 regulations in a step that will allow the return of spectators to sports events, provided they can provide proof of vaccination or a negative test result.
Indoor and outdoor venues where this can be verified will be allowed to take in half their capacity, Ramaphosa said in a televised address.
The relaxation of the Covid-19 regulations, decided at a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council earlier on Tuesday, will also bring relief for the culture industry. However, venues that do not demand proof of vaccination or a negative test no older than three days, will remain at the current gathering upper limit of 1 000 people indoors and double that outdoors.
“This change to the restrictions on gatherings will be of great benefit to the sporting, cultural, entertainment and events industries in particular,” Ramaphosa said.
“This means that if we are vaccinated or have recently tested negative, we will be able to
return to watching sports in stadiums and attending music concerts, theatre performances,
conferences and other events.”
The attendance limit at funerals will be raised from 100 to 200 people.
The new regulations will take effect on Wednesday and while wearing masks indoors in public places will still be required, it will no longer be necessary outdoors, the president said, adding: “This means that we still need to wear masks when in shops, malls, offices, factories, taxes, buses, trains or any other indoor public space.”
“But we do not need to wear masks when walking on the street or in an open space, when
exercising outdoors or when attending an outdoor gathering.”
Travel regulations were updated so that only those travellers entering South Africa who cannot show proof of vaccination will be required to produce a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours. Those who have not been vaccinated but would like to be, will be offered a shot.
“We are returning as far as possible to the lives that we lived before the pandemic,” Ramaphosa said.
“It means that we are opening our economy even further and that we are resuming many of the social and cultural activities that we have missed over the last two years.”
South Africa has been at adjusted level one Covid-19 restrictions since October. The country remains in a national state of disaster, which was imposed two years ago in response to the pandemic.
Referring to the decision earlier this month to renew it for another month, Ramaphosa said the government intended lifting it as soon as “public comment on the health regulations published by the minister of health have been completed”.
The regulations, once finalised, are meant to take the place of the state of disaster regulations as the official response to managing the pandemic.
The deadline for comment is April 16, Ramaphosa confirmed. This suggests that the state of disaster could again be extended while the government considers the public input and finalises the regulations.