As Coronavirus-related deaths in the country continue to decline, President Cyril Ramaphosa has laid hopes of further easing of restrictions on increased vaccinations.

It has been two years since Ramaphosa announced the first 21-day Covid-19 outbreak shutdown in 2020 and the country still remains under Covid-related restrictions.

In a televised address, giving an update on the government’s response to Covid-19 on Tuesday, Ramaphosa announced the further easing of adjusted alert level one.

Although Ramaphosa said scientists have reported 60% to 80% of the population gained some form of immunity to the virus, either from previous infection or vaccination, this was not yet enough to scrap all Covid-related restrictions.

“The further easing of the remaining restrictions will require that we increase the rate of vaccination among South Africans. The vaccine has been shown to significantly reduce severe illness,” he said.

The biggest struggle for government has been the 18-35-years of age cohort.

“While we welcome the fact that more than 68% of people older than 60 years have been vaccinated, we are concerned that only 35% of people between 18 and 35 years have been vaccinated.”

Some 33 296 217 vaccines have been administered thus far.

He said it was ‘vitally important’ for the government to ensure more 18 – 35-year-olds vaccinate, adding that, ‘if we are all vaccinated, we can turn our energy, resources and effort to rebuilding our economy and creating much-needed jobs’.

While the Department of Health’s proposed regulations are set to be implemented in the absence of the Covid-19 national state of disaster, Ramaphosa said the public must be mindful that the end of the disaster management act does not mean the end of the pandemic.

“It just means that we are changing the way we manage the pandemic, and we will be relying on health regulations rather than disaster management regulations.”

While restrictions remain, DA leader John Steenhuisen says the party will take the government to court over the extended state of disaster. The party is calling for the scrapping of all Covid-19 regulations.

“The science now tells us that the lockdown is unnecessary, irrational and unreasonable,” Steenhuisen says.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, thousands of livelihoods have been destroyed, millions of school and university days have been missed, and billions of rands have been lost to tax revenue, which could have gone to poverty relief.”

This week reported Covid-19 fatalities were fewer at 56 compared to 156 reported by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), last week.

The majority of new cases recorded recently are from Gauteng province, followed by Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

National Vaccination breakdown:

– Eastern Cape: 3 658 119
– Free State: 1 972 847
– Gauteng: 9 385 785
– KwaZulu-Natal: 5 137 174
– Limpopo: 3 267 971
– Mpumalanga: 1 969 124
– North West: 2 058 660
– Northern Cape 665 123
– Western Cape: 5 181 414

Health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Gauteng MEC for Health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, were expected to hold a media briefing on Friday to provide an update on the vaccination programme and progress made to address challenges facing the Gauteng health department.