The South African government on Monday announced people who test positive for COVID-19 without symptoms will no longer have to isolate themselves, reported Al Jazeera. The isolation period for those with symptoms has also been reduced by three days as the country exits its fourth wave of the coronavirus.
The government made the changes based on the course of the pandemic and vaccination levels in the country following a special Cabinet meeting on Monday, according to a statement issued by Mondli Gungubele, a minister in the presidency.
“The information gathered through the system used by the Department of Health has reported that South Africa has exited the fourth wave nationally,” the statement said.
The South African government also reviewed the resumption of schooling to full-time learning, deciding that primary, secondary and special schools will return to daily attendance.
The school children in Primary, secondary, and special schools will return to daily attendance. Some government schools had so far been operating learning by rotation to ensure social distancing.
As per the new guidelines, the regulatory provision for the social distancing of 1 meter for learners in schools has also been removed.
The government said the changes were due to the falling number of cases and the high natural immunity in the South African population with between 60% and 80% of people likely to have been infected with the virus.
South Africa has been the worst-hit country in Africa during the coronavirus pandemic, with the latest wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant. The country has so far reported more than 3.6 million infections and 95,093 deaths.
On Monday data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), showed 1,366 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours and 71 deaths, 14 of which occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours.
