Health department cautions against Covid complacency as level 1 looms

With the prospect of a relaxation of Covid restrictions down to level 1 shortly, South Africans have been warned not to relax or party as though the crisis is over – because that behaviour could lead to a lockdown festive season.

Letting down the country’s collective guard on social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitising, along with possible “super spreader” events and a reluctance to get vaccinated, could set back the struggle against the coronavirus by months.

As the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCC) on Tuesday met to receive updates on the management of the current third wave – assessing progress on the country’s vaccine roll-out programme – the national department of health cautioned against complacency and noncompliance with Covid protocols.

While a relaxed atmosphere and signs of a Covid fatigue appeared to have crept in since South Africa moved to alert level 2 earlier this month, national health department spokesperson Popo Maja urged people to continue observing social distancing, wearing masks and using sanitiser.

“We implement hard lockdowns when we see a surge in positive Covid cases, which ultimately leads to a higher demand for limited hospital beds,” said Maja.

“Hard lockdown has been an effective instrument to reduce transmission levels. It is the last resort.

“We hope during the Christmas period that people will observe social safely, because there are lessons learnt from people’s behaviour of last year, when we had a significant second wave.”

Addressing an environmental health indaba in Ekurhuleni to mark World Environmental Health Day, Deputy Health Minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the Covid pandemic has led to “a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presented an unprecedented challenge to public health”.

With the disruption caused by the pandemic devastating many countries, Dhlomo reflected on the global assessment report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the burden of disease from environmental risks, saying the environment accounted for 24% of global deaths – about 13.7 million per year.

“In essence, poor health outcomes often result from poor environmental conditions,” said Dhlomo.

“Sadly, those that are already health compromised, as well as children and the elderly, are the greatest at risk.

“Therefore, the societal and environmental factors that increase the likelihood of exposure and disease, must be a priority.

“The WHO in its manifesto released last May pronounced that the Covid pandemic has exposed existing inequalities concerning healthcare, basic services and other societal factors in many countries in the world.

“It also highlighted the need to fast-track recovery and investment worldwide to return to normality from Covid.

“That investment must also be made to improve the health of the environment in our recovery efforts. What this means is that much needs to be done to protect the environment – ensuring sustainability, protection of public health and national economies.”

He said environmental health has been associated with Covid, via various direct and indirect pathways.

“It is a further reminder of the delicate relationship between the environment and humans,” he said.

“Climate change, exposure to chemicals, lack of basic services, safe water, sanitation, outdoor and indoor air pollution, food security and exposure to psychological stress all impact human health negatively.”

– brians@citizen.co.za