Ramaphosa Curbs Alcohol Sales as S. African Virus Cases Jump

(Bloomberg) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tightened restrictions on alcohol sales, extended a night-time curfew and reduced the permitted attendance at public gatherings as the country grapples with a third wave of coronavirus infections.

Alcohol sales for offsite consumption will only be allowed from Monday to Thursday, a curb aimed at reducing pressure on hospital trauma wards, Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation Tuesday night. He moved the country to virus alert level 3 from level 2, reduced the maximum size of gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors, and ordered people to remain home between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

“If we act too late or our response is too weak, we risk losing control of the virus,” Ramaphosa said. “The measures we are putting in place now are appropriate to the level of risk and necessary to save the lives of our people.”

South Africa has recorded 1.76 million cases of Covid-19, the most in Africa, and more than 58,000 of them have died from the disease, according to Health Ministry data.

The seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases in South Africa has climbed to about 7,500, from fewer than 800 in early April, while hospital admissions have surged -- especially in the central Gauteng province which accounts for two-thirds of new infections. A vaccination campaign was been slow to get under way, with less than 2 million either fully or partially inoculated out of a population of about 60 million people.

The roll-out of the shots was delayed by protracted negotiations with manufacturers, production problems at a plant in the U.S. and the predominance of the so-called beta variant in the country, which proved resistant to the version developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford.

About 80,000 people are now being vaccinated at 570 sites daily, and the government will target reaching 250,000 once more shots become available, Ramaphosa said.

The tighter restrictions come as the economy slowly recovers from the impact of a hard lockdown last year that resulted in the biggest contraction in output in a century. Data last week showed that gross domestic product grew an annualized 4.6% in the first quarter, while business confidence is at the highest in more than six years.

“We know that as difficult as the last 15 months have been, we have started to recover and rebuild,” Ramaphosa said. “Although we have reason to hope, we still have a mountain to climb.”

Other highlights:

• Hospital admissions over the past 14 days are 59% higher than in the previous two-week period.
• The daily average number of Covid-related deaths has surged to 791, which is 48% up from the prior period.
• Eight of the nine provinces are experiencing rising infections, and four of them are officially in a third wave.
• The new restrictions will require restaurants, bars and gyms to close at 9 p.m. to enable staff and patrons to travel home before the curfew starts.
• Alcohol consumption in all public spaces is forbidden.
• The country has received almost 2.4 million Pfizer Inc. vaccine doses so far and expects to get another 700,000 by the end of the month.

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