The decision to institute a lockdown is evidence of a government taking both scientific evidence and the need to save lives seriously and then taking carefully considered action, writes Marcus Low.
Eight days ago President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster. Spotlight looks back at the last week and listens to what community groups, farm workers, taxi operators and others have to say about COVID-19 and the various measures to prevent or slow its spread.
We are a world and a nation at war and if we don’t respond accordingly, we will suffer serious casualties – infrastructure, jobs, economic growth, food security, social cohesion and life itself, writes a team of public health doctors as they call on all South Africans to join them as they pledge to put the ‘(YO)U back into UBUNTU’.
A heavy onus rests on our leaders to see us through the COVID-19 pandemic, yet this pandemic also calls on all of us to be active participants during this state of disaster and beyond. This includes making sure that constitutional rights are not disproportionately eroded in the process, writes Ektaa Deochand and Mbalenhle Baduza.
Our aim in the next couple of weeks should be to make sure that we all, together, reduce the amount of physical contact between groups of people while, at the same time, building social solidarity, writes a coalition of civil society organisations.
Mamelodi Hospital in Pretoria made headlines in May last year when 76-year-old Martha Marais was found tied to a bench in the facility’s Accident and Emergency section. Spotlight visited the hospital to see what has changed.
On Sunday evening President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed South Africa’s battle plan against COVID-19. We asked public health experts, political parties, health workers and civil society organisations what they thought of it.
All schools in South Africa will close from Wednesday as part of South Africa’s efforts to reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Kathryn Cleary rounds up what we do and do not know about the virus in children.
How might COVID-19 exacerbate medicines shortages in South Africa and what measures are in place to mitigate the impact of shortages. Catherine Tomlinson investigates for Spotlight.
Professor Lynn Morris interim director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has a lifetime of experience fighting viruses. She has encountered HIV, Ebola, TB, Listeria, Klebsiella, a multitude of ‘lesser’ pathogens and now COVID-19. However, she thinks that COVID-19, the name given for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, presents one of the greatest challenges yet to both South Africa and the world.
After two months in constant lockdown, with the ever-persistent fear of being infected with the coronavirus, a Free State student can’t wait to return to South Africa – even if it means spending 21 days in quarantine.
How prepared is South Africa really for COVID-19? Spotlight and Daily Maverick sent government a combined list of 22 questions aiming to get beyond the hype and into the nitty-gritty of how and on what legal authority measures will be taken.
