APRIL 2020 - CORONA VIRUS update

Hi Em,

This is what has happened to our world since the pandemic was announced on 11 March 2020

-Petrol price  R13.76
- Rate of exchange R20.55 to €1
-Schools cancelled
-Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers 2 m apart from each other.
-Limited number of people allowed inside stores, therefore, queues outside the store doors.
-Non-essential stores and businesses are closed.
-Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
-Entire sports seasons cancelled.
-Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
-Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
-No funerals
-No masses, churches are closed.
-No gatherings of 50 or more
-Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
-Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
-Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
-Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
-Shelves are bare.
-Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE (Personnel Protection Equipment)-Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
-Fines are established for breaking the rules.
-Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
-Press conferences daily from the Presidential task force and various ministers. (They have been brilliant)
- Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
-Barely anyone on the roads.
-People wearing masks and gloves outside.
-Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
-Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

On 9 April, it was announced that South Africa's cabinet members, which include the President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers would donate one-third of their salaries for three months to a solidarity fund.

On 9 April, the St Augustine's Hospital in Durban was shut down following a localised outbreak of over 60 confirmed cases and four COVID-19 related deaths; by then 1,845 had tested positive for the virus nationally with total 18 deaths.

On 10 April, Dr Mkhize recommended that the general public use cloth facemasks when going out in public.

On 13 April, chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Professor Salim Abdool Karim indicated that the lockdown had been effective in delaying transmissions. He also described the country's 8-stage plan to combat the coronavirus. This included criteria for extending or easing the lockdown.^[47]

By 23 April, when President Ramaphosa again addressed the nation the total number of cases had increased to 3953. Detailed figures released by the NICD showed that in April that the number of cases had taken distinct trajectories in different provinces. In the two weeks from 9 to 23 April, the cases in the coastal provinces had a very high increase – Eastern Cape cases rose 583% from a low base, KwaZulu-Natal rose 108% and Western Cape 148%. North West (67%) and Gauteng (57%) had high increases, while the other provinces 

On 21 April, a R500 billion rand stimulus was announced in response to the pandemic.

Ramaphosa announced that from 1 May 2020, a gradual and phased easing of the lockdown restrictions would begin, lowering the national alert level to 4.

We still won't be able to visit our families and friends though 😪