Draft health regulations the ‘bare minimum’ to control Covid-19, says Phaahla

Health minister Joe Phaahla has defended the draft regulations for the surveillance and control of notifiable medical conditions as the bare minimum required to keep the Covid-19 infection rate low.

He rejected the description of the draft regulations by opposition party MPs as “draconian”. 

More than 150,000 submissions have been made so far to the department on the draft regulations and Phaahla announced on Thursday a seven-day extension of the period for public comment from April 16 to April 24. This would be in Thursday’s government gazette, health department director-general Sandile Buthelezi told MPs.

Phaahla told parliament’s health committee in a briefing on Thursday on the draft regulations that the Department of Health was considering the separation of regulations required for the control of the Covid-19 pandemic and those required for the control of future notifiable diseases.

The Western Cape cabinet believes the draft regulations reflect a Covid-19 bias and should not be applicable to all notifiable medical conditions as this was likely to have “costly and burdensome unintended consequences” for how other notifiable medical conditions are managed.

Phaahla said there was still a need for public health measures as there was no reason to believe at this stage that the trend of increased Covid-19 infections would not continue, especially as SA entered the winter season. Even countries with a high level of vaccination had experienced a rise in infections of the omicron variant.

The proposed regulations under the National Health Act will fill the gap left by the termination of the national state of disaster.

He rejected the claim by opposition party MPs that the draft regulations were an infringement of individual freedom and human rights. “There is no desire to control people’s lives unnecessarily,” the minister said.

The draft regulations provide that a court order can be obtained to force a person to take a medical examination, be admitted to a health establishment or undergo mandatory isolation or quarantine when they are infected, suspected to be infected or have been in contact with an infected person. They also deal with contact tracing, the wearing of face masks, social distancing, and the control of funerals and public gatherings.

The draft regulations amend the regulations of 2017 relating to the surveillance and control of notifiable medical conditions and replace the regulations under the Disaster Management Act, which have been used to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

The health department’s chief director for legal services, advocate Lufuno Makhoshi, explained that while the 2017 regulations were intended for the control of infectious diseases on a case-by-case basis, the draft regulations were intended to address a pandemic.

Freedom Front Plus MP Philip van Staden said the draft regulations were merely a transfer of power from the minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was responsible for the regulations under the Disaster Management Act, to the minister of health.

He and other MPs questioned whether the draft regulations were scientifically based, with EFF MP Suzan Thembekwayo saying that the minister would be empowered to impose regulations without any consultation with scientists as was the case with the management of the national state of disaster.

ANC MPs, however, supported the regulations.

The Western Cape government has rejected the proposed regulations. “It is our view that many of the proposed provisions are not based on the latest available science and evidence, and they are at times onerous, costly, irrational and detrimental to the economy and job creation. It is also our view that some may be found to be unconstitutional,” Western Cape premier Alan Winde and health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said in a statement on Thursday. 

“Overall, we are concerned that the draft health regulations do not adequately consider the reality that Covid-19 is transitioning into an epidemic phase. This brings into question the rationality of many of the proposed initiatives. To be frank, some parts of the draft health regulations take us back to March 2020 (the start of the pandemic), ignoring much of what we have learnt over the last two years.

“Furthermore, a number of the mechanisms proposed to prevent transmission have been shown to be ineffective, particularly regarding contact tracing and quarantining of contacts ... It is neither practical nor wise to implement costly measures that have very little impact.”

ensorl@businesslive.co.za