COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Protests on Cape Town’s Beaches

Residents of Cape Town are Over the Lockdown

Scores of Cape Town Residents defied the nation’s coronavirus-prevention beach ban - flocking to a number of the city’s sandy locales on Saturday in protest of both the ban and the rest of the most recent lockdown restrictions in the country.

Sanitary measures put in place by the South African government in light of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which not only has hit South Africa the hardest on the continent but also now includes new variants of the virus.

South Africa Readies for Vaccine Campaign

As the surge in new infections overwhelms the country’s health system, Africa's most industrialised economy is expecting the first batch of 1.5 million Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines on February 1, will also get nine million doses from Johnson & Johnson, if its vaccine is approved, and is negotiating with other undisclosed manufacturers.

President Cyril Ramaphosa During the virtual 2021 World Economic Forum this week publicly called out "vaccine nationalism" as he accused certain developed countries of hoarding i.e. bulk-buying excess doses directly from manufacturers which limit supply and secures better deals to the detriment of governments with less purchasing clout.