Gauteng will not keep hotspots stuck at Level 4 when country moves to Level 3
The province's health MEC says the province's economy and transport system are too integrated for a region-by-region approach to easing lockdown regulations.
Former Gauteng health MEC Dr Bandile Masuku. Picture: Twitter / @GautengProvince
Despite being the province with the second-highest number of cases in the country after the Western Cape, the entire Gauteng province will still be moving to a Level 3 lockdown come 1 June.
This is according to Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku who expressed that his biggest concern is about the banning of liquor sales under Level 3 and what implications this move could have for the province’s public healthcare facilities.
Masuku was speaking at an event to commemorate to launch of the first screening and testing site located at a shopping centre in the country.
He indicated that he hopes that the sale of alcohol would continue to be highly regulated in order to manage this threat.
At last count on Tuesday 26 May, the province was just shy of 3,000 positive cases of Covid-19 with a total number of 2,993 recorded cases.
#COVIDー19 Gauteng statistic District Breakdown as at 25 May 2020.#GautengCOVID19 pic.twitter.com/WT85RRQm3v
— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) May 26, 2020
Additionally, three Gauteng metros have been identified as hotspots, exacerbated by the Covid-19 outbreak at the mines in the West Rand.
“In Gauteng, we have a agree as a province that we are all going to move at once, we are not going to have a different metro moving to a different level and others going to another. We are all going to move from one level to another as a province because we are an integrated province, the economy is integrated, our transport system is integrated. It will be difficult if we’re going to use that type of model,” said Masuku.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
