South Africa’s East Coast beaches to remain open for holidays despite rising COVID-19 cases

By CGTN Africa

Beaches in South Africa’s east coast will remain open as the winter school holidays approach despite an increase in COVID-19 infections in the country.

According to local publication News24, Premier Sihle Zikalala, during a briefing on Sunday, expressed concern over the upcoming holiday season, but maintained that the East Coast would welcome all holidaymakers, provided they followed Covid-19 protocols

“We welcome all visitors who will be enjoying themselves at our beaches and other areas. However, we urge everyone to understand that we should not compromise on compliance with COVID-19 protocols.”

He urged everyone to be more vigilant than before in curbing the spread of the deadly virus.

Members of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) recently expressed concerns that interprovincial travel during the school holidays could spell a repeat of the second wave that hit the country in December 2020 to January.

The second wave was triggered after visitors from Gauteng travelled to coastal cities and set off a deadly wave of infections.

KwaZulu-Natal continues to rank as the second-highest in terms of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases countrywide, contributing 19% or 346 329 of the cases and fourth-highest for countrywide deaths following Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Western Cape.