Health Minister Phaahla defends Covid regulations
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has defended the country's Covid-19 lockdown regulations, saying they can't give in to critics calling for them to be scrapped.
South Africa's seen an uptick in the number of daily cases recently, which's heightened fears over a fifth wave of the pandemic.
Infections rose by more than 7 500 in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday.
Phaahla says government gets no joy in enforcing Covid restrictions but stresses that this is being done to protect people from the severe impact of the virus.
The minister addressed the issue while tabling his department's budget vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
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"We say sorry where we have wronged you, but please be assured that all interventions were meant and even now are still meant for all of us to avoid severe impact of Covid-19.
"We completely disagree with armchair critics who argue that we should drop all public health measures and just let the virus spread at will and that we should only worry about whether we got enough beds in hospital and whether we still have oxygen and ICUs.
"We disagree with this as public health authorities. We believe that we should guide the nation in terms of prevention of severe impact of this pandemic."
