By Chris Fallen Apr 5, 2020

Image: M.B

Durban – Police have arrested 1845 people in KwaZulu-Natal for flouting the law since the lockdown regulations came into effect at midnight last week Thursday.

National police minister Bheki Cele said in total, 17 209 people have been arrested around the country.

“What has been a dampener since the beginning of the lockdown has been the consistently high number of people being arrested for violating the lockdown regulations,” he said.

Cele said 2 298 arrests were effected on March 30. By close of business on March 31, the total sum of arrests had reached over 17 000 since the kick-off of the lockdown. Offences vary between transport related offences, liquor related and general non-compliance with the Regulations. Ideally,we would prefer that our communities and all stakeholders cooperate and comply to minimise the risk of exposure of both themselves as well as our 24 389 law enforcement members to Covid-19. We really do not want to arrest people but to contain the spread of the virus,” he said.

He added that members of the SAPS, the SANDF, Metro Police departments and all law enforcement agencies will remain on deployment throughout the lockdown period.

Minister Cele reiterated the need for provinces to align themselves to the national regulations, and not to unilaterally sanction their own unauthorised province-specific version of the regulations as this ends up confusing the public and of more concern, confusing the law enforcement agencies who are expected to enforce the national regulations.

Meanwhile, police made several arrests in Durban this week where people were found to be working without the necessary permits.

In Phoenix, police found two businesses that were sewing face masks while another was found have been manufacturing hand sanitisers. The items were confiscated.

Provincial breakdown of total arrests:

Gauteng – 1 888

Western Cape – 4 769

KwaZulu Natal – 1 845

Eastern Cape – 1 613

Northern Cape – 832

North West – 1 562

Free State – 3 098

Mpumalanga – 752

Limpopo – 850

Total – 17 209

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COVID-19LOCKDOWN

Combating Covid-19: Anti-parasitic drug killed coronavirus within 48 hours in labUpdate: April 4, 2020Picture: OnlineAmid a barrage of research on finding treatment for new coronavirus, Australian scientists have found that a common anti-parasitic drug killed SARS-CoV-2 virus, growing in cell culture, within 48 hours in lab settings.Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug that has also been shown to be effective in vitro against a broad range of viruses including HIV, dengue, influenza and zika virus.Published in the journal Antiviral Research, the study from Monash University showed that a single dose of Ivermectin could stop the coronavirus growing in cell culture — effectively eradicating all genetic material of the virus within two days.”We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it,” said study lead author Dr Kylie Wagstaff.Dr Wagstaff, however, cautioned that the tests conducted in the study were in vitro and that trials needed to be carried out in people.”Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective – that’s the next step,” Wagstaff informed.In times when we’re having a global pandemic and there isn’t an approved treatment, “if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner”.”Realistically it’s going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available,” she said.Although the mechanism by which Ivermectin works on the virus is not known, it is likely, based on its action in other viruses, that it works to stop the virus ‘dampening down’ the host cells’ ability to clear it.Dr Wagstaff made a previous breakthrough finding on Ivermectin in 2012 when she identified the drug and its antiviral activity with Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Professor David Jans, also an author on this paper.Professor Jans and his team have been researching Ivermectin for more than 10 years with different viruses.Dr Wagstaff and Professor Jans started investigating whether it worked on the SARS-CoV-2 virus as soon as the pandemic was known to have started.The use of Ivermectin to combat Covid-19 depends on pre-clinical testing and clinical trials, with funding urgently required to progress the work, the researchers noted.We Give You All The Information You Need 🌍
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Lockdown: Spaza shops and informal traders are free to trade

| 09:36 04/04/2020 | Chris Fallen

Picture by: M.B

All spaza shops and street vendors have been given the green light to operate their businesses.

On Thursday, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced informal traders could again start earning a living during the lockdown.

She warned some of the 21-day lockdown regulations could change, with some being relaxed and others tightened.

“We have learned a few lessons from the past week of the shutdown. We have realised that spaza shops were supposed to be open, but for some reasons some were asked to close. We are clarifying that all spaza shops should be opened. We have included informal food traders.

Free to trade

“Informal food traders must get a permit from their ward councillors or their municipality. They are free to trade.”

Dlamini-Zuma apologised to South Africans affected by the travel ban from one province to the other for funerals.

“Even though funerals are not a prohibited gathering of 50 people. We have not said anything in the regulations about how people should move to the funerals because there was a prohibition of movement between provinces, this then affected those who wanted to move from one province to the other for funerals.”

She said close relatives of the deceased were allowed to attend and should stick to the number of people allowed.

Night vigils are also prohibited.

“Funerals are like church services. Night vigils are worse because people get very close in a small space. Undertakers are not included in the number of people allowed to attend. In rural areas, those who dig graves are not part of the 50.

“You have to have a permit from a magistrate, police station commander to travel to another province.”

On the hospitality sector, she said not all establishments were closed during the shutdown because some were being used as quarantine sites.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 SA Update,number of cases rises. illovuonline.news.blog

“There are lodges, hotels and guest houses that have been quarantining people and not allowed to bring in new people. You are allowed to visit [them] if you can’t stay with the relatives of the deceased.”

Regulations around the closure of borders were still in place, Dlamini-Zuma said, with the only exception being the movement of essential goods going to neighbouring countries.

“There are some South Africans who are stuck across our borders and if there is a need for them to be repatriated they can be repatriated and will be quarantined for 14 days when they touch down in South Africa,” she added.

“Foreigners who are also stuck here when the lockdown started and want to go back to their countries, they are also allowed to be repatriated,” said Dlamini-Zuma.

There is now a regulation that will allow health officials and tracers to track the history of people who had tested positive and whom they had been in contact with via cellphones.

This move was not to spy on anyone, but to assist tracing teams to reach people who were in contact with a Covid-19 patient more speedily and to raise awareness to those who may be oblivious, she added.

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eThekwini Mayor announces door-to-door COVID-19 testing

Updated April 4, 2020, 8:02a.m. | By Chris Fallen

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eThekwini Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda says door-to-door coronavirus testing will soon begin in identified hotspots in the city.

“Informal settlements are the first targets, especially in areas where we have identified people who are positive, in townships like Umlazi, KwaMashu, Amaoti, Inanda and many other informal settlements that are around the areas and hostels,” he said.

He made the remarks while doing an awareness walk at Umlazi’s Glebelands Hostel on 02 April 2020 – which is home to some 2000 residents.

READ: Kaunda missions to Glebelands Hostel to reinforce lockdown regulations

He says councillors and local community structures will communicate with residents when health officials will be in their areas.

“To avert a situation where people will take advantage and come to people’s houses and commit a crime. We will be able to make awareness before the exercise begins, because we do not want to see a situation where people will be robbed of their own goods.”

Kaunda says they’ll also be providing sanitizers and soaps to residents of 11 hostels in the city, informal settlements and transit camps.

“We are also conducting cleaning services in informal settlements, supplying much-needed water in areas where there is no supply of water, by bringing water tanks.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle’s mayor says the language used in government’s coronavirus messaging might be making the communication inaccessible to some communities.

ALSO READ: Durban doctor pleads for protective virus gear donations

Ntuthuko Mahlaba says he’s noticed that life is continuing as normal for some citizens in the northwestern parts of KZN – with many not observing the lockdown.

“The majority of our residents in Newcastle even in the entire district reside in the rural areas and in the township.”

“We need to communicate the message in the best possible way in the language that they can understand, but the challenge now for us is that how do we make sure that the message gets to the majority of our residents because once it hits those areas, it can hit informal settlements and we’ll be in trouble.”

Updated April 4, 2020, 8:02a.m. | By Chris Fallen

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