The government has departed at times from scientific advice on managing the coronavirus pandemic, as it sought to balance the need to protect lives and livelihoods, spokesperson Phumla Williams said on Thursday.
A series of documents detailing the recommendations made by scientists to health minister Zweli Mkhize have been released by the government, revealing how it has overridden or only partly implemented much of their counsel on contentious issues such as alcohol restrictions and school closures. These ministerial advisories, initially published on the health department’s website, are now located on the government’s official coronavirus site.
Williams said a number of stakeholders and sectors made recommendations to the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints), which provided technical input to the National Coronavirus Command Council and the cabinet. The scientists on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 appointed by Mkhize were just one of the stakeholder groups providing input, she said.
“The decisions announced are a culmination of all these consultations and recommendations. It is always (about) balancing the outcomes of consultations and recommendations from all stakeholders. This includes the presidential co-ordinating committee [comprising premiers, MECs and mayors] and in the case of the Easter weekend, even religious institutions,” she said.
“The priority of government in dealing with the pandemic is to protect people’s lives and the economy,” she said.
The government imposed a five-week prohibition on alcohol sales in late December, as SA’s second wave of coronavirus infections surged. The ban had a devastating impact on fragile businesses that had already suffered from previous liquor bans, curfews, and restrictions on travel and social gatherings, and was at odds with the advice penned by the MAC.
The MAC advisory on the December festive period shows scientists supported the health department’s proposal that alcohol sales from shops be restricted to between Mondays and Thursdays, from 10am to 6pm, and that wine farms and wine-tasting venues continue to operate. But the government imposed a complete ban on alcohol sales, in a huge blow to an industry struggling to recover from previous restrictions.
The documents show the government took a softer stance than the MAC’s recommendations ahead of the Easter period, when it advised tightening lockdown restrictions and moving the country from level 1 to level 2, including limiting alcohol sales for off-site consumption to weekdays. Instead, the government imposed only a four-day prohibition on alcohol sales from shops over the Easter long weekend and relaxed rules on mass gatherings.
The advisories also show how the government departed from scientific advice on the reopening of schools in 2021. The MAC recommended that early childhood development centres and primary schools reopen as planned on January 27, but that the opening of high schools be delayed by two weeks, as younger children were less likely to transmit the virus to each other and to staff. But the government decided to keep all schools closed until February 15.
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