Covid-19: What the festive lockdown level 3 entails

The new adjusted regulations have officially been gazetted which now gives effect to the move to lockdown level 3 announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday evening.

The latest amendments to the disaster management act were gazetted by co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday.

The move to an adjusted lockdown level 3, makes changes to the rules and regulations in place to protect the country from a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here is what you should know about the movement of persons:

• Every person should be confined to his or her place of residence from 21:00 until 06:00 daily.
• Unless a person has been granted permission through directions by the relevant cabinet member or a permit.
• Any person who fails to abide by the curfew is committing an offence and is liable to a fine or on conviction, to a period of imprisonment not exceeding six months, a fine or both.
• Closing time for the following establishments, whether indoors or outdoors. is 20:00.
• Cinemas, theatres, casinos, museums, galleries and archives, gyms and fitness centres, restaurants, venues hosting auctions and venues hosting professional sport.

Mandatory protocols when in a public place are:

• Any person who fails to comply with an instruction by an enforcement officer to wear a face mask commits an offence and is liable to a fine or a period of imprisonment not exceeding six months or to both.
• No person will be allowed to use, operate, perform any service on any form of public transport, enter or be in a building or be in any public open space, if he or she is not wearing a face mask.
• The prohibition of masks shall not apply to a person who undertakes vigorous exercise in a public place, provided that the person maintains a distance of at least one and a half metres from any other person, and subject to directions on what is considered to be vigorous, issued by the health minister.
• An employer may not allow any employee to perform any duties or enter the employment premises if the employee is not wearing a face mask while performing his or her duties.
• Every business premises needs to take steps to ensure that persons queuing inside or outside the premises are able to maintain a distance of one and a half metres from each other and provide hand sanitisers for use by the public and employees at the entrance to the premises.
• All courier and delivery services shall provide for minimal personal contact during delivery.

The level 3 restrictions will remain in place until 15 January 2021.