Health minister says Ramaphosa will get report, recommendations on vaccine mandate next week

When President Cyril Ramaphosa convenes the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) meeting next week, it is expected he will receive a report with recommendations about whether SA will make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory.

This was the assurance given to the nation on Friday by health minister Joe Phaahla when he provided an update on the fight against Covid-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme.

“We had expected our directors-general, under the National Joint (Natjoints) committee, would have finalised the proposal on the mandate but it looks like that work was not concluded in time,” he said.

“When the president convenes the next NCCC meeting, we will expect that team to report and make recommendations so decisions can be taken.”

The government was expected to have made its decision on the matter by the end of January.

Phaahla said during the last NCCC meeting proposals were tabled by Natjoints to increase the number of people attending sports matches and arts and culture events.

He said: “At the next NCCC, which the president will convene, these matters will also be finalised. There are proposal in terms of opening sports and arts and culture with the necessary safety measures. A final decision will be made in the next few weeks and announcements made accordingly.”

Explaining the rationale behind the government’s decision to move the country to adjusted lockdown alert level 1 on Monday, ministerial advisory committee (MAC) member Prof Jeremy Nel said the changes in isolation and quarantine regulations were due to “a lot of immunity in the population”.

This week the government announced that those who test positive for Covid-19 with no symptoms do not have to isolate. However, if they test positive and have symptoms, they have to isolate for seven days instead of 10.

The government also decided primary, secondary and special schools should return to daily attendance and there is no need for pupils to observe the 1m social distancing regulation.

Nel said: “As each variant has become more transmissible, it’s become more difficult to achieve containment due to the measures we have, so moving towards mitigation is probably more viable and sustainable.”

One of the key drivers for the rationale for changing the recommendations on quarantining and isolation is that there was such a small proportion of cases diagnosed, said Nel.

“Time will show this is a good move and I think every country will eventually end up at this point. I do not think quarantining has any discernible public health benefit given that so few people test positive. That is the predominant reason, although there are others for why quarantining has been dropped.”

Providing an update on the country’s trajectory, head of public health surveillance and response at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD) Michelle Groome said there are just over 3.6-million laboratory confirmed cases.

Groome said the fourth wave has been largely driven by the Omicron variant, which has sub-lineages.

“With Omicron, we are seeing three major lineages. The BA.1 was the original and that has a sub-lineage, BA1.1, and we also have the BA.2.”

In December the country was dominated by the BA.1 and BA1.1 and there was a small proportion of BA.2.

“In January we had a high proportion of BA.2. We are monitoring this and trying to increase our sequencing in provinces,  especially where we are seeing increases.”

At this stage Groome said there are no indications there would be any differences in these sub-lineages of Omicron. She said scientists will keep monitoring the emergence of new variants.

While hospital admissions and deaths have been lower during the fourth wave, public health specialist at the NICD Dr Waasila Jassat cautioned South Africans against letting down their guards.  

“There are still people who get severe disease and die. There are pockets of people who are either unvaccinated or have not had prior infections.”

She said an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people had died during the fourth wave.

Phaahla said all citizens are required to continue wearing masks.

“There are different approaches in different countries, but in a number of them the use of masks is considered essential in the control of Covid-19.”

Phaahla said SA was “not at the stage” where wearing masks can be scrapped.

On SA’s stance to make the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) a double-dose vaccine, Phaahla said: “We will be advised by the MAC on vaccination. At this stage we are covered by the fact that the MAC and SA Health Products Regulatory Authority have approved the second dose, even though we consider the second dose as a booster and not part of the primary vaccination.”

In terms of coverage, Phaahla said the J&J vaccine offered “sufficient coverage and we have not been advised differently”.

Deputy health department director-general Dr Nicholas Crisp said there was evidence that J&J as a primary schedule is advisable and “we may move to that in the future as the official regimen”.

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