State of disaster to be lifted soon, relaxed level 1 regulations kick in on Wednesday

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the national State of disaster will be lifted as soon as public comment on the department of health’s proposed health regulations to deal with COVID-19 and other notifiable medical conditions have been finalised.

The president is addressing South Africans about the country’s ongoing Covid-19 response in what will likely be our last family meeting.

Ramaphosa’s family meeting

Live updates from Ramaphosa’s address:

Watch the address live, courtesy of the SABC:

The presidency announced the so-called family meeting via it’s social media account on Tuesday afternoon.

The latest extension could see the State of Disaster ending on 15 April, as government continues to finalise the new National Health Act regulations.

The Presidency said in a statement: “President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation at 20:00 today, Tuesday, 22 March 2022, on developments in South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The President’s address will be broadcast and streamed on a range of government communication platforms and news channels.”

State of disaster

This comes just days after the the national State of Disaster was last week extended by another month as per the announcement by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

The extension was published in the government gazette last Monday, and was granted “taking into account the need to continue augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements undertaken by organs of state to address the impact of the disaster”.

The country is currently on adjusted level 1 lockdown, with the latest changes implemented on 31 January.