Ramaphosa announces end to the national state of disaster. BREAKING | Ramaphosa announces end to the national state of disaster

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the end to the national state of disaster, effective midnight.

The state of disaster began on 15 March 2020. The president stressed, however, that the pandemic is not over.

Ramaphosa said the state of disaster allowed the country to respond to the pandemic and provide relief to citizens.

He said: “In the context of a democracy, the additional powers that a state of disaster provides are temporary and limited. As I state at SONA, we have now entered a new phase in the pandemic. The nature of the pandemic was most evident in the fourth wave… where there were relatively fewer numbers of severe cases and deaths.”

He said the number of serious Covid-19 patients in hospitals has seen to be lowering.

He says government has seen a significant decline in the number of hospitalisation and ICU patients due to Covid-19 related illnesses.

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He says the National State of Disaster also enable the provision of relief to small businesses and the management of the pandemic in educational institutions among another things. He says all these measures were necessary to enable an effective disaster response and save lives.

https://twitter.com/PresidencyZA/status/1511045612422189068?s=20&t=mYJIg2quONfwVJZ71zrWVA

Ramaphosa begins his address by saying that the declaration of the national state of disaster enabled the government to take measures to save countless lives and ease pressure on hospitals and provide the time needed to develop infrastructure.

#COVID19 UPDATE: 26,270 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 1,420 new cases, representing a 5.4% positivity rate. Today @HealthZA reports 4 deaths; of these, 2 occurred in the past 24–48 hours. Total fatalities are 100,046 to date. See more here: https://t.co/jDDwEaLJuC pic.twitter.com/1ZPixKkwzh

— NICD (@nicd_sa) April 2, 2022

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