There is no Cabinet decision yet on a potential mandatory vaccine policy in South Africa, nor has a decision been made on whether to implement harsher lockdown regulations due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases amid the fourth wave.

The National State of Disaster has been extended to January 15.

These were the three key things that were discussed at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, said Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, during a media briefing today (Thursday, December 9).

There has been pressure from business groups, including tourism-related groups, for government to make vaccinations mandatory due to a low uptake by South Africans which, they say, is now impacting the economy.

Business Leadership South Africa CEO, Busi Mavuso, said in her newsletter earlier this week that the impact of the discovery of the Omicron variant had been devastating.

“The effect on the tourism industry – which saw over R1bn (€55.8m) of bookings cancelled in the three days after it gained global attention – has been particularly shocking.” She said this had been compounded by Statistics South Africa data revealing that the official unemployment numbers were at their highest ever – officially, 34.9% of the country’s adults cannot find work.

“These served to underline just how desperate the situation is. We are still losing jobs despite most of the lockdown conditions having been lifted, with 660 000 fewer jobs in the third quarter than we had a year ago. The blow from Omicron will exacerbate this,” warned Mavuso.

Others, like FEDHASA, have been pleading with government not to implement harsher lockdowns but to rather focus on increasing the vaccination rate.

Balance between lives and livelihoods

During the briefing, Gungubele noted that government was also trying to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods. 

"It's no longer in dispute – the damage the restrictions caused last year when we were in level five restriction. A number of jobs were lost, thousands of businesses stopped and the uncertainty that was caused was not good. The attitude that government is taking is that we should find the best possible way of navigating this phase while making sure that the economy is safeguarded."  

He said the assessment given by the medical advice counsel to the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) would inform whether a ‘family meeting’ would take place.

“What we are monitoring right now with the new variant is the clinical manifestation. The nature of the clinical manifestation, whether the variant makes people sick to a point of needing hospitalisation or not, will indicate the possible threat to hospital loads, and that would inform the measure to be taken,” said Gungubele, adding that the reports so far had indicated that there were no red flags.

Highlighting, however, that Cabinet had noted the drastic increase in the COVID-19 infections, Gungubele said it was urging citizens to fight back against these increased infections through vaccinating and continuing to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as wearing masks, sanitising and social distancing.

He also called on citizens to avoid super-spreader events, such as festivals.