WHO Didn’t Say South Africa Isn’t Ready to End Lockdown

Misbar has discovered that in March, the South African government introduced some of the toughest lockdown restrictions in the world. Borders were shut to international travelers, schools were closed, alcohol was banned, and people were told to stay home according to the BBC. Similar to many other countries, this slowed the spread of Covid-19 but also slowed the economy. To ease the economic distress, the government began a gradual reopening in June. This brought about the response by Dr. Ndlozi that WHO had declared South Africa not ready to reopen.

There appears to be no evidence that WHO unequivocally declared South Africa not ready to ease restrictions. However, at the end of May, the World Health Organization did urge caution related to countries in Africa easing lockdowns: “Many countries implemented lockdowns and key public health measures early and these appear to have helped slow down the spread of the disease. However, there are concerns that if these measures are relaxed too quickly, Covid-19 cases could start increasing rapidly.”

The World Health Organization does not tell countries when to lift restrictions. Instead, they issue criteria to help individual regions know when it is safe to reopen. According to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Business Insider, “Countries must balance between measures that address the mortality caused by Covid-19 and from other diseases due to other health systems as well as the social economic impacts.”

However, WHO did not unequivocally say that South Africa was not ready to lift the lockdown.