LISTEN | No symptoms, no isolation and full-time return to school: Govt announces new Covid-19 rules

If you test positive for Covid-19 but are not showing symptoms, you do not need to go into isolation.

This is among a number of new measures put in place on Monday night after a special cabinet meeting earlier in the day.

Another new rule announced as part of the adjusted alert level 1 regulations was the return to full-time, non-rotational schooling.

In a statement on Monday night, the presidency announced that the new rules came after meetings of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and the President’s Co-ordinating Council (PCC).

The statement said that, according to the health department, the country had officially ended the fourth wave of coronavirus infection.

The new rules were “based on the trajectory of the pandemic and the levels of vaccination in the country”, the statement read.

Among the changed regulations are:

• Those who test positive with no symptoms do not have to isolate;
• If you test positive with symptoms, the isolation period has been reduced from 10 to seven days;
• Contacts do not have to isolate unless they develop symptoms;
• Primary, secondary and special schools will return to daily attendance; and
• The regulatory provision for social distancing of 1m for pupils in schools has also been removed.

“The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to Covid-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60% to 80% in several sero-surveys.

“Government commends all South Africans who continue to observe Covid-19 regulations and protocols. We also remind those who are yet to get vaccinated to go for their Covid-19 vaccination and continue observing basic health protocols to prevent the transmission of the virus,” the statement read.

TimesLIVE