Tag Archive for: COVID-19

Andrew Stegmann
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South Africa Moves Into Level 2 Lock-down. Here Are the New Regulations

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has published the official alert level 2 lockdown regulations for South Africa.

The directive comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country will ease its lockdown restrictions from midnight on Monday (17 August).

While Ramaphosa has announced most of the prominent changes, the directive provides further clarity on a number of issues and makes the change to level 2 official.

Notably, the directive does not make any mention around the sale of tobacco products, although this may be clarified in a later set of regulations.

The most prominent changes are outlined below.

Curfew and masks

  • Every person is confined to his or her place of residence from 22h00 until 04h00 daily, except where a person has been granted a permit or is attending to a security or medical emergency;
  • A person must when in a public place, wear a face mask; and may not be allowed to be in a public place, use any form of public transport, or enter a public building, place or premises, if that person is not wearing a face mask.

Gatherings

All gatherings are prohibited except a gathering at:

  • A social event at a place of residence, subject to a limitation of 10 visitors or less;
  • A faith-based institution, which is limited to 50 persons or less, depending on the size of the place of worship;
  • Attendance at a funeral is limited to 50 persons and will not be regarded as a prohibited gathering;
  • A workplace for work purposes;
  • Theatres, concerts and live performances, subject to a limitation of 50 persons or less;
  • Casinos, subject to a restriction on the number of persons allowed in the casino to not more than 50 percent of the available floor space.
  • Weddings, subject to a limitation of 50 persons,
  • Events at function venues, subject to a limitation of 50 persons, and directions issued by the relevant Cabinet member.

Open to the public

The directive states that the following places which are open to the public, subject to all persons wearing face masks and strict adherence to all health protocols and social distancing measure:

  • Fitness centres and gyms, further subject to a limitation of 50 persons or less;
  • Sports grounds and fields;
  • Swimming pools, further subject to a limitation of 50 persons or less;
  • Beaches and public parks;
  • Museums, galleries, libraries and archives;
  • Personal care services, including hairdressing, beauty treatments, make -up and nails salons and piercing and tattoo parlours;
  • Restaurants;
  • Bars, taverns, shebeens, and similar establishments, further subject to a limitation of 50 persons or less;
  • Al accommodation establishments and tour operators, subject to a restriction on the number of persons allowed in such establishments to not more than 50% of the available floor space.

The directive states that night clubs remain closed to the public.

Alcohol and tobacco

The sale of liquor by licensed premises for off-consumption, is permitted from 09h00 to 17h00, from Mondays to Thursdays, excluding Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays;

A licensed premises may also sell for on-site consumption, subject to strict adherence to the curfew.

In terms of tobacco, the sale of tobacco products has been removed from the list of economic exclusions.

Transport

Bus and taxi services – may not carry more than 70% of the licensed capacity for long distance travel.

However, they may carry 100% of the licensed capacity for any trip not regarded as long-distance travel.

A driver, owner or operator of public transport may not allow any member of the public not wearing a face mask, to board or be conveyed in a public transport owned or operated by him or her.

Warning from the President

Writing in his weekly open letter to the nation, Ramaphosa said that the country must urgently focus its efforts on recovery, but warned that a move to a lower level is not a ‘free for all’.

“It is a sign of the progress we are making in reducing new infections and demand on our health facilities. It is also a very important development as we strive to restart our economy. But it is too soon to celebrate,” he said.

Ramaphosa said that country is ‘still very much in the middle of a deadly pandemic’ that has claimed 11,000 lives in South Africa alone.

At more than half a million confirmed cases, the country has the fifth-highest number of infections globally, and there is always a chance of a resurgence of the disease, he said.

“If we ever need a stark reminder of the need for vigilance, we should look to recent events thousands of kilometres away in New Zealand.

“Three months since the country was declared coronavirus-free, New Zealand is once again under lockdown. Although the latest outbreak was of relatively few cases, the government swiftly re-imposed lockdown restrictions.”

Ramaphosa said that similar restrictions have had to be reimposed in several parts of Europe as they experience a ‘second wave’ of infections.

“We now need to manage this risk and ensure the gains we have made thus far in containing the pandemic’s spread are not reversed. The greatest threat to the health of nation right now is complacency.

“It may be that we are now permitted to meet friends and family, to visit entertainment venues, to travel for leisure and to consume alcohol in restaurants, bars and taverns.

“But as the old adage goes, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
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Entry Update on Quarantine Protocols in Nigeria

Lynn Mackenzie, J.D., LLM
Courtesy of Bloomfield Law Practice

The Federal Government of Nigeria has expressed its readiness to reopen the nation’s International airspace in a matter of weeks. Although there is no set date yet, we can confirm that the Federal Government has commenced putting measures in place for the process of the gradual resumption of international flight operations.

The Nigerian Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 requires persons arriving in Nigeria to self-isolate for 14 days at a location of their choosing in the City/State of their point of entry (i.e. Lagos or Abuja).  Travelers will have their passports retained by the Nigeria Immigration Service throughout the isolation period. We have highlighted below the arrival requirement for the quarantine process in existence in Nigeria;

  1. Upon arrival at the airport passengers are mandated to present a COVID-19 tested certificate stating a negative result. The certificate is also a mandatory requirement to board any international aircraft during the period and must be obtained 72 hours before the flight.
  2. The passenger will be handed a form to complete and provide their full correct address and phone number.
  3. Upon completion of the form, the passenger will be required to submit their original international passport, COVID-19 test result and the completed form to the immigration officials present at the pot of entry.
  4. Passengers will be given an appointment time and date to present them at the sample collection center located in Lagos or Abuja for a repeat COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of arrival.
  5. Once the test has been successfully carried our, the test result will be available after the compulsory 14 day quarantine period, and if the result is negative, a certificate will be issued.
  6. The certificate once available for the exit interview will be taken to the immigration officials at the airport to retrieve passports submitted.
  7. Once the passport is retrieved, the passenger is allowed to reintegrate with the public.

Please be advised that it has been confirmed that the assignee’s presence will not be required to retrieve their passport at the airport after the completion of the compulsory 14 days quarantine process.

The content of this article is provided for general information purposes. The provision of this article does not constitute legal advice or opinion of any kind; no advisory or fiduciary relationship is created between Relocation Africa and any other person accessing or using this article. Relocation Africa will not be liable for any damages or loss arising from using any part of this article.  

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
,

South Africa Starts Coronavirus Plasma Treatment Study

South African researchers started a study to see whether the plasma from donors who’ve had the coronavirus and developed antibodies can be used to treat those who are still sick. Convalescent plasma treatment is part of the US government’s efforts to get drugs and preventatives against Covid-19 on the market. It was recently shown to reduce the death rate of hospitalized patients, according to Johns Hopkins University. The South African trial is a first on the continent.

“The hope is that antibodies in plasma will shorten and lessen the illness,” Karin van den Berg, head of translational research at the South African National Blood Service, said Wednesday. The service has started collecting plasma – the liquid part of blood – from donors and is waiting for the health products regulator’s approval before it can begin a randomized control trial on 600 patients. Half of these will get plasma and the other half a placebo.

Patients in the trial need to be hospitalized but can’t be so sick they are on mechanical ventilation. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, left antibodies in an infected person’s blood for around 18 months, but current research shows that this effect may start to wane after four months in those that have had Covid-19, said Marion Vermeulen, a biomedical scientist who’s also working on the trial.   For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
,

Department of Tourism: Best and Worst Case Scenarios for When South Africa Will Reopen for Tourists

The Department of Tourism has published a new draft recovery plan, outlining the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and how the tourism industry is likely to be impacted over the coming year.

The document is a detailed breakdown of international and local projections for when tourism will likely open up, using modelling that takes into account various infection patterns and recovery scenarios.

South Africa’s projections are predicated on international trends, which modelling shows is likely to open up for travel in a wide window of between August 2020 and May 2021.

Depending on the local spread of Covid-19 and recovery scenarios, South Africa’s tourism could start opening up as early as August 2020 in the best-case scenario, the department said – but in the worst-case, the industry could remain shut until well into 2021.

International travel

The policy document notes that the reopening of international tourism and the country borders will not only be dependent on South Africa’s coronavirus response, but also 44 primary source markets which drive international tourism to the country.

To help model when these countries are likely to reopen, pandemic data for individual countries was sourced and manipulated to obtain the pandemic duration, maximum number of deaths per day, date of peak daily mortality and days since peak daily mortality.

Date of peak daily mortality and peak value had to be determined for each country, and if a country had not yet reached its peak, these were estimated either by extrapolation or by setting a peak number and peak factor.

A linear recovery equation was found for three benchmark countries: South Korea (plateau), China (steep) and the United States (very steep). Gradients and limitations were adjusted to apply more optimistic or pessimistic assumptions and develop alternative scenarios.

Lastly, using China as a benchmark, where it took 60 days to open partially and a further 30 days for full domestic opening, the Oxford Lockdown Stringency Index (LSI) was used to approximate the number of days it would take from the point of recording zero daily deaths to full opening per source country.

Using this data, the department forecasts a global tourism re-opening between August 2020 and early 2021.

“This scenario assumes that the general observed recovery trajectory persists and that progress towards enhanced treatments for Covid-19 by the end of 2020 continue, with an accessible vaccine coming to market by the end of 2021,” the department said.

“Since indications of international border re-openings remain speculative at the time of writing, these dates represent the earliest likely date at which international travel will resume.”

The below model shows the estimated travel periods for South Africa’s primary ‘source countries’  for tourism.

  • The model is set between August 2020 and May 2021;
  • For domestic travel (travel within the respective country), the opening window is set between August 2020 and mid-February 2021;
  • For international travel (to and from the respective country), the opening window is set between November 2020 and May 2021.

Localised and global reinfection 

While the above model provides a positive picture globally, the risk of localised or global reinfection waves continue to threaten the global economic recovery and the strength and consistency of projected recoveries therefore come with low levels of certainty.

“As countries begin the process of re-opening, there remains a strong likelihood that trajectories out of lockdown conditions will prove far more fragile than hoped and that contagion risk in neighbouring countries or regions will force many nations to remain closed off from the world well into 2021,” the department said.

For this reason, the department provided two further global scenarios:

  • A more fragile recovery that contains isolated setbacks and takes longer, but still reflects an extension of the current global trajectory;
  • A prolonged pandemic where the search for a vaccine proves elusive, herd immunity does not successfully contain transmission and multiple re-infection waves result.

Under the first of these scenarios, the timeframe for early Asian/Australasian re-opening moves from July/August 2020 to November 2020, while core markets (the UK, Germany and the US) can only be expected to return after April 2021.

The second scenario paints an even bleaker picture, with international outbound travel from Asia picking up between May and July 2021 and travel from core markets only returning from November 2021.

“In both of the more pessimistic scenarios, the 2020/21 summer season will be seriously affected, with even the following year’s peak months being under threat.

“This will have grave implications for supply-side survival. Given the modelling outputs and qualitative data emerging from the market, however, the stronger international recovery scenario remains the core outlook,” the department said.

It added that containment of the virus ultimately requires effective treatment and vaccine lead times will be a key indicator of the duration of the stabilisation phase.

This will inform visa policies and port of entry protocols as countries without sufficient herd immunity or access to treatment will seek to limit viral vectors, it said.

“In the interim, temporary and semi-permanent restrictions on traveller mobility are inevitable and unlikely to be standardised across markets.

“Measures such as immunity certification, pre- and post-travel quarantine and mandatory visitor tracking will reassure travellers but also impede the visitor experience”

South Africa

The document notes that South Africa’s pandemic curve thus far resembles the ‘plateau’ shape of countries such as South Korea, Australia and Singapore more than it does the ‘exponential growth’ experience of China, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The implication is therefore that, having successfully ‘flattened the curve’ to prevent health services from being overwhelmed, the country now faces a more prolonged, but less acute battle against the pandemic, the department said.

Using the above model it used for foreign countries, it produced the three following scenarios for South Africa:

  • A strong recovery scenario where South Africa is able to contemplate re-opening in August;
  • A fragile recovery scenario, where the horizon shifts out to November 2020;
  • A low-road, prolonged crisis scenario where the pandemic rages well into 2021.

Citing data from the South African Covid-19 modelling consortium, the department said that the country is on track for a ‘middle-road recovery’.

Under this outlook, South Africa recovers slower than many other parts of the world but does not lag far behind key source markets in Europe and North America.

“It is therefore likely that tourism recovery will experience a number of phases, from hyper-local community attractions, through broader domestic tourism, followed potentially by regional land and air markets, and then the resumption of world-wide international travel,” the department said.

“The implementation of the government’s risk-adjusted strategy is based on sector-level risk assessments that consider transmission risk across a number of dimensions, including; age of workforce, remote working potential, ability to enforce health and safety regulations and travel considerations of employees.”

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email info@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].