Health Minister, Dr Joe Paahla, says his Department is ready to present new regulations that could replace the Disaster Management Act in dealing with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Resuming his weekly media briefings on Friday, Paahla said this was in response to the government's stated intention to do away with the State of Disaster as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address.
The Health Minister said he and other Departments, were given the task of coming up with other instruments which could be used to provide whatever safety measures will still be required to limit the spread and impact of the pandemic.
He said the Health Department has been hard at work revising its regulations to control notifiable infectious diseases and the Department is ready to present to the NCCC with recommendations of new regulations which can take over from the Disaster Management Act.
Meanwhile, Dr Paahla said the issue of a vaccine mandate remains a thorny issue.
He said a team of senior government officials has been leading consultations with various stakeholders, including at Nedlac.
The Health Minister said the team should be ready to report to the next meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council with recommendations.
The country recorded a 20% reduction in new Covid19 cases in the past week, down from an average of 16 000 cases per week to an average of 12 800 a week.
The National death-toll as at 3 March 2022 is 99 499
