South Africa will begin lifting Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday in an address that marked the start of what he called a “new era” in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Masks will no longer be required outdoors in South Africa but will continue to be required in public indoor spaces, including shops, offices and public transportation.
Indoor and outdoor venues that require proof of vaccination or a negative test no more than 72 hours old will be allowed to fill up to 50 percent of their capacity. Venues without such requirements must continue to adhere to the existing limits of 1,000 people indoors and 2,000 people outdoors.
The maximum capacity at funerals will double, to 200 attendees from 100. Post-funeral gatherings remain prohibited.
Omicron was first identified in Botswana and South Africa in late November. It quickly became dominant in South Africa, sending case counts skyrocketing to a pandemic peak averaging more than 23,000 cases a day by mid-December. The country declared it was past that peak by early January, and other nations have since followed a similar pattern of rapidly rising and falling waves.
South Africa’s national state of disaster will not be lifted until April 16, when the period for the public to comment on new health regulations will close, Mr. Ramaphosa said.
Though the pandemic is not yet over, Mr. Ramaphosa said, South Africans could return “as far as possible” to the lives they lived before the pandemic and enjoy themselves at stadiums, concerts and theaters. Just 30 percent of the country’s population is fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, and any further easing of pandemic regulations would require more South Africans to be vaccinated, Mr. Ramaphosa said.
Mr. Ramaphosa noted in his address that the South African government had taken into consideration the experiences of countries where “complete” lifting of restrictions led to a rise in cases and deaths. Still, his announcement came on the same day that a senior World Health Organization official said cases were rising in Europe because countries had eased restrictions too soon.
FEATURED IMAGE: The weekly Parkrun event in Delta Park in central Johannesburg was resumed this month as South Africa eases Covid restrictions. Kim Ludbrook/EPA, via Shutterstock
By Anushka Patil/The New York Times
