Three years since SA was placed under lockdown

IT IS ALMOST hard to believe that it has been three years since South Africa joined the world and initiated a hard lockdown after Covid-19 was declared a global public health emergency.

The death toll from the virus currently stands at 102,595 in South Africa.

According to the Department of Health’s Covid-19 statistics update, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases for South Africa reached 4,072,294 on the third year anniversary of the hard lockdown.

While South Africa has more or less returned to normality, the restrictions will definitely never be forgotten.

In 2020, South Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa were lauded for acting swiftly and decisively to slow down the outbreak.

It was during a late evening address to the nation when Ramaphosa announced government’s decision to lock down the country on March 26, 2020.

At that time, the virus had firmly spread to most of the world with South Africa’s patient zero identified and isolated.

Ramaphosa announced an initial 21-day lockdown that led to a barrage of restrictions.

Restrictions included the sale of alcohol and cigarettes, certain items of clothing, and at some point even sandals and rotisserie chicken were banned.

The streets stood still and nature took over as the country was silenced. Images of empty stadiums and tourist attractions were almost sad to see, however it was quickly replaced by images of stern army men and women deployed to our communities.

Lockdown has since ended and restrictions lifted as the government initiated its vaccine programme.

According to the latest statistics, over 21.4 million tests have been conducted in the country.

As of March, nearly 38.6 million vaccines have been administered.