New Covid rules for travellers fly in the face of scientific advice

The government’s latest regulations for managing the coronavirus pandemic are at odds with the most recent counsel it received from its scientific advisers, documents released late on Tuesday night reveal.

The ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19 recommended scrapping Covid-19 testing and screening of all visitors to SA and dropping social distancing rules, saying those measures no longer had a meaningful effect on the trajectory of the disease in SA.

After four successive waves of infection and widening vaccine coverage, scientists estimate that up to 80% of the population has some immunity to the virus.

The government has instead opted to exempt only vaccinated travellers from costly PCR testing and is maintaining the 1m social distancing requirement in public spaces, including outdoors and in hotels and shops.

The latest iteration of the government’s coronavirus regulations was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in a national address on Tuesday evening, and came into effect on Wednesday.

It is not the first time the government has overridden the advice of the ministerial advisory committee, despite Ramaphosa’s repeated assurances that the state’s response to the pandemic is underpinned by scientific evidence.

In December 2020, for example, the committee proposed limiting alcohol sales during the festive season to alleviate the load on hospital trauma units, but the government imposed a total ban. The government also opted to delay the start of the 2021 school year for all pupils, despite scientists recommending that only secondary schools defer opening.

The latest advisories, released on the government’s coronavirus website, cover public gatherings, screening requirements for land, sea and air travel ports of entry, and self-testing for Covid-19.

“Covid-19 is expected to persist globally for years, possibly indefinitely. “Costly, large-scale containment efforts are therefore inappropriate,” the scientists wrote in the advisory on gatherings. “While it is inevitable that easing restrictions on outdoor and indoor gatherings will allow for greater transmission of the virus, the focus should be on preventing severe disease by promoting vaccination and focusing protective measures on high-risk individuals, rather than trying to prevent infections per se,” they wrote.

Describing the measures as “regulatory theatre”, Progressive Health Forum convener Aslam Dasoo said the continued restrictions will damage the economy but have no epidemiological effect. It is not clear why the government rejected scientific advice, he said.

“The lack of transparency is a real concern. It is the behaviour of a government that has a desperate need to be seen to be doing something,” he said.

The advisory on border screening noted that PCR testing is “prohibitively expensive” in many countries, making it unaffordable to many travellers, “with a significant impact on economic and tourist travel”.

Given the high level of population immunity in SA, imported cases of Covid-19 no longer make a meaningful contribution to the incidence of the disease, they said.

The ministerial advisory committee has also recommended SA allow people to do their own rapid tests, but the tests will become available only once approved by the medicines regulator. Currently only healthcare professionals may administer Covid-19 tests.

Health Justice Initiative researcher Marlise Richter said the public has a right to know who all of the government’s advisers were, and how they contributed to the decisions that were made.

“In the context of a contested history, in which some of the regulations were completely absurd, there is an obligation on government to make very clear their decision-making and where it diverges from the recommendations of experts,” Richter said.

Attempts to obtain comment from government spokesperson Phumla Williams were not successful.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde said the provincial government is consulting the tourism and events sector to get feedback on how the revised regulations could impedetheir operations.

“Our view on the president’s announcements is that they are a step in right direction but it is important that we listen to the sector to get areas for improvement so that their growth is enabled immediately,” he said.

kahnt@businesslive.co.za