The government in South Africa is considering stricter lockdown measures, including an earlier curfew and further limits on gatherings.
The tougher measures may be announced this weekend by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
It follows Thursday’s meeting of the national coronavirus command council, a body set up in 2020 to co-ordinate the government’s response as the pandemic.
South Africa is seeing a rise in infections and an increasing death toll in the hardest-hit country in Africa.
South Africa has a midnight to 4am curfew and gatherings are limited to 250 indoors and twice as many outside.
According to the country’s Covid modelling, a third wave will occur when the seven-day moving average of new cases exceeds 30% of the previous wave’s peak.
The daily infection rate topped 4,000 on Wednesday, compared with an average of between 1,000 and 1,500 for most of the year.
However, this is still lower than rates seen at the end of 2020, when daily infections topped 20,000, sparking a new round of restrictions, including an alcohol sales ban and the closure of beaches.
Ahead of the Easter holiday in April, the government took a softer stance.
Now there are discussions on prohibiting alcohol sales. Previous bans caused much controversy, cost the industry billions of rand and damaged relations with the government, which found itself fighting court battles.
The new wave of infections comes as South Africa’s vaccination drive finally gets off the ground in earnest, though the slow pace has led to questions about whether it would blunt a new wave of infections during the winter months.
South Africa has a target to reach 67% of the population by the end of 2021 to achieve so-called herd immunity.
So far, about 750,000 people have been vaccinated, though the programme is expected to pick up pace.
Minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni confirmed during a post-cabinet briefing on Thursday that Ramaphosa would address the nation “soon”. She did not comment on reports that this could happen as soon as Sunday.
Ntshavheni said the government is concerned about the spike in infections, deaths and active cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks.
Gauteng, the Free State, Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the North West have seen a dramatic increase in new daily infections, which suggests some areas in these provinces have already entered a third wave.
“As cabinet, we are discussing and consulting on the measures to ensure we protect South Africans,” she said.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said this week there had been a 17% rise in hospitalisations due to Covid-19.
In its statement, the cabinet said a third wave was “imminent” and called on people to follow non-pharmaceutical interventions such as wearing a mask in public, social distancing and washing hands.
Addressing the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday, Mkhize warned that if the infection rate continued to rise and spread to other provinces, the entire country could be affected by the third wave
