OLIVER DICKSON: No need for another hard lockdown to deal with Omicron

Last year about this time there was an uptick of Covid-19 infections in SA, and after the holiday festivities kicked off from December 16 it became clear that we were heading into a second wave, with Gauteng leading the provincial pack.

However, this address happened before we started experiencing the shocking daily doubling in Covid-19 cases that was catalysed by the Omicron variant. The question now is, should this prompt the president to reconsider his position of little more than a week ago? The answer is no.

Some scientists are arguing that there is a lag in the data and it is therefore too soon to consider the epidemiological threat of Omicron unremarkable. So the question then becomes, what should the response be should we see a sharp rise in hospitalisation in future? Or what if we are met with another variant that is less forgiving than Omicron has been thus far?

Planning for the worst-case scenario has been where Ramaphosa has been failing. Restricting movement and interactions among the populace may be a necessary intervention during a time of high hospitalisation, but some of the ancillary regulatory attachments have either been unnecessary at best or irrevocably damaging at worst.

Knee-jerk bans reveal a lack of creativity in government’s approach to dealing with the crisis. This is not a victimless intervention, given SA’s expanded unemployed level of close to 45%. Ramaphosa cannot afford to put another 1-million jobs at risk in an already ailing industry and value chain. Countless restaurants, taverns and other participants in the alcohol value chain will not survive another ban or excessive restrictions.

U're talking sense

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