Disaster management act


We will closely monitor infection rates and hospitalisation over the coming days and will review the situation in another week.

We will then need to determine whether the existing measures are adequate or whether changes need to be made to the current regulations.

We have started the process of amending our health regulations so that we can review the use of the Disaster Management Act to manage our response to the pandemic, with a view to ultimately lifting the National State of Disaster.

We will also implement our national resurgence plan to ensure that hospitals and other medical facilities are ready for the fourth wave.

We are focusing on effective clinical governance, contact tracing and screening, effective clinical care, availability of health personnel.

To ensure our facilities are ready, all hospital beds that were available or required during the third wave of COVID-19 are planned and prepared for the fourth wave.

We are also working to ensure that oxygen supply is available to all beds earmarked for COVID-19 care.

We will continue to be guided by the World Health Organization on international travel, which advises against the closure of borders.

Like most other countries, we already have the means to control the importation of variants to other countries.

This includes the requirement that travellers produce a vaccination certificate and a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of travel, and that masks are worn for the duration of travel.

We are deeply disappointed by the decision of several countries to prohibit travel from a number of Southern African countries following the identification of the Omicron variant.

This is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these countries made at the meeting of G20 countries in Rome last month.

They pledged at that meeting to restart international travel in a safe and orderly manner, consistent with the work of relevant international organisations such as the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and the OECD.

The G20 Rome Declaration noted the plight of the tourism sector in developing countries, and made a commitment to support a “rapid, resilient, inclusive and sustainable recovery of the tourism sector”.

Countries that have imposed travel restrictions on our country and some of our Southern African sister countries include the United Kingdom, United States, European Union members, Canada, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Seychelles, Brazil and Guatemala, among others.

These restrictions are unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our Southern African sister countries.

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