SA unlikely to impose harsh lockdown over monkeypox outbreak

South Africa is unlikely to impose a harsh lockdown as fears of Monkeypox reaching the country and spreading quickly grow. The reassurance from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) comes as there are growing fears that harsh measures during the Covid-19 pandemic could return.

During the outbreak of Covid-19, travel bans were imposed, and hard lockdown brought the country to a grinding halt. As a result, the unemployment rate increased significantly and poverty, crime and corruption seemed to increase even more.

While the country has not recorded any case of Monkeypox yet, government and health experts remain on high alert.

“It’s not a virus that’s highly transmissible, it’s not like Covid-19 at all and we can get ahead of the outbreak by contact tracing, monitoring and isolation of cases,” said NICD’s Jacqueline Weyer at a media briefing on Wednesday.

“I think we’re all acutely aware of the economic and the social impact of such a decision and I think it’s always like a cost-benefit discussion that one needs to have. Even if we were to have one or two cases of monkeypox, our system would deal with that and the cost would not be the same than closing the borders, even for one day,” Weyer said.

“We need to weigh up the risks and the benefits of the situation in an objective way and I think that’s what we’re seeing in the global community as well, it’s not just South Africa, no other countries have closed their borders or imposed travel embargoes on any country,” Weyer added.

Weyer said the situation would be assessed with new developments. Adrian Puren, the NICD’s Executive Director shared the same sentiment.

“We know that Johannesburg and South Africa is a hub of international travel so I think that is one of our risks, that there will likely be importation but we don’t force that, even though we may have cases, that we will see any establishment of this disease in South Africa. In other words, I don’t foresee monkeypox becoming endemic in South Africa,” Puren said.

Source: Jacaranda FM, East Coast Radio, image from Twitter

Doctor Mahlaule

Doctor Mahlaule previously worked as a Freelance Journalist at Find-it SA where he was responsible for writing news articles and sharing them on social media platforms. Doctor Mahlaule holds a Diploma in Journalism, BA in Communication Science and a BA Honours in Media Studies. Doctor began his journey as a knowledge Management and Communications Intern at Zenex Foundation. He was responsible for support in event management, social media, website maintenance, writing and brand management. On weekends Doctor attends prison ministry and shares the scriptures with inmates at Krugersdorp prison and plays soccer in the afternoon on some weekends. He has a passion for reading and writing and enjoys going out with friends and socialising in his spare time. He has a one-year-old son and is planning on getting married soon. When asked about what keeps him going, he said: “My family keeps me going. I’m the man I am because I come from a loving home. I have a very supportive family who always encourages me to keep pushing hard.”

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