South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a slight easing of the nationwide lockdown that has been in place since March 27.
Starting May 1, the lockdown will move from the current level 5 that has caused extreme economic crises, including huge job losses, business closures and hunger, to level 4, in which some business will be allowed to resume operations under strict conditions, the president said on Thursday.
Ramaphosa shared the details of a new five-level approach to ease the lockdown which will include distinguishing between the threat at national, provincial, district and metropolitan level.
The National Coronavirus Command Council will determine the alert level based on an assessment of the infection rate and the capacity of our health system to provide care to those who need it," Ramaphosa said.
Beyond Thursday, April 30 we will implement a risk adjusted strategy to take a deliberate and cautious approach to ease lockdown restrictions," he added.
Noting that the strategy that the country adopts must be "measured and incremental", Ramaphosa said, "We cannot take action today that we deeply regret tomorrow. We have to balance the need to resume economic activity with the need to save lives."