Opinion
Covid still at the gate, but the country can't stand another lockdown
On day 213 of our national lockdown, today, the bad news appears to be that a resurgence of the pandemic is well under way. The unknown is how we will handle it as a country with a broken economy and a state whose performance could charitably be described as "uneven". There is no more certain indicator of the persistence of the Covid menace than the "excess deaths" report issued weekly by the South African Medical Research Council. From October 7 to 13, for example, "excess deaths" topped 10,109, well above a projected 8,860. The report prompted health minister Zweli Mkhize to remind provinces of the need for strict surveillance of their Covid-19 situation and numbers, and their being able to mount a rapid response in the form of quarantines and contact tracing...
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