South Africa has eased some Covid-19 pandemic restrictions following a sustained decrease in infections, hospitalisations and deaths in the past two weeks, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said on Friday.
But the wearing of masks in public places was still mandatory and failure to do so remained a criminal offence, Dlamini Zuma said.
The changes to the restrictions followed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s statement to lift an 11pm-4am (2100 GMT-0200GMT) curfew after a cabinet meeting he chaired on Thursday, the minister said.
In addition, cabinet made the decision to further ease the regulations due to increased vaccination in the country in spite of the Omicron variant-driven fourth wave, Dlamini Zuma said.
The cabinet decided to lift the curfew for now, with government closely monitoring the effects going forward, she said.
Another change was an increase in the maximum number of people permitted to gather indoors to 1,000, and the maximum number allowed to gather outdoors is 2000, the minister said.
“Where the venue is too small to accommodate these numbers with appropriate social distancing, then no more than 50 percent of the capacity of the venue may be used,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
This included religious services, political events and social gatherings as well as restaurants, bars, taverns and similar places, she added.
The sale of alcohol was now permitted for both off-site and on-site consumption as per normal licence provisions, Dlamini Zuma said.
“We thank all South Africans who have continued to support government efforts to contain the pandemic. We urge them to continue to do so until the pandemic is completely under control,” the minister said in a statement.
NM/jn/APA