[LuganoPirate]

Dear South African hands,

As you probably know 14 day quarantine is a must.
Have any of you, or your friends come to SA and been quarantined? If so how did it work, were they marched off to a hotel, could they self isolate at home? Could they choose the hotel and I presume had to pay for it.

Did they have to stay in a hotel room all the time or could they eat in the restaurant. I’d be grateful for any advice, and I’ll let you know if I glean any useful info.

Thanks in advance.

[capetonianm]

Expats should rather not visit South Africa for their holidays now

This may provide some answers. If anyone finds out more, please post here as I am sure that Lugano Pirate and I are not the only ones facing this situation.

[J_Pathmore]

Cape Town is meant to peak in the next 7 days, JNB cases are on the rise – this is all good news so that SA can soon follow the path of Europe (hopefully). All things point to a September re-opening of borders so if you can hold off booking until August I would.

Interestingly SA has only had ~2,000 deaths despite over 100,000 known cases. This is an incredible death rate success story. Doctors that I’ve spoke to there believe that there is some natural immunity in the population that lessens the severity of symptoms. They say it’s due to TB and the BCG vaccine.

Fingers crossed they open travel there soon. They won’t want Kenya, Tanzania etc. getting the one up on tourism…and the gov. continues to soften their lockdown stance in the name of “livelihood” (took them long enough).

1 user thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate

[VMR Travel UK]

But we also dont know how many people have really died from Covid especially in the townships up north or in places like Kaiylidhsa. Yes, everybody talks about natural immunity but the truth is that we have no means of testing everyone and therefore we have no clue whats happening in SA.SA immunisations are not unique to SA otherwise surely we would have heard similar stories already. I am very careful believing anything we hear these days.
And just to throw in a few numbers – 1.3 million tests done in a country of 56 million – hardly a representative number!
https://www.africanews.com/2020/06/23/south-africa-coronavirus-daily-updates-on-covid-19/

[J_Pathmore]

VMR Travel UK you are confusing testing proactively at a center with hospitals. If a patient is hospitalized or passes on, they are tested. The shortage in testing only relates to those trying to get tested with mild symptoms. Not great, but important to note the difference. I trust that the death figure is a highly accurate in this case.

[LuganoPirate]

Just posted in another thread.

Just seen this about a potential vaccine being made in South Africa.

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/dexamethasone-made-in-south-africa-2020-6

I just hope the Americans don’t come along and try to buy it all up as they have done with Remdesivir!

[nevereconomy]

I don’t know if the BCG idea holds water – I certainly had one – do they still do them ? Would be interesting to see if any age group here has had less serious issues and compare with the incidence of this vaccination. If that death rate is indeed accurate, there needs to be very urgent research to see what the secret is !

[stellaa9x]

Hi, How is the epidemic situation now?

[SimonS1]

Reports from my guys on the ground are not great. Passed through 500,000 cases with new infections running at 10,000 a day.

No surprise that the ANC snouts are in the trough to see who can get the biggest ‘cuts’ of the PPE budget.

Shame as there were high hopes for Ramaphosa who I think most people now consider as all mouth and trousers and as useless as his predecessors. In fact it seems he is currently taking an interest in Zimbabwe in some pathetic attempt to look like a statesman and avert the gaze from domestic failings.

Let’s face it the country was going down the toilet during the Gupta presidency, it certainly isn’t getting any better.

[Tom Otley]

It’s so sad,

This made very grim reading yesterday

South Africa Nears the Point of No Return

The continent’s dominant powerhouse is being pushed to the edge of economic and political disaster.

The report starts with the demise of various wind powers projects, but then examines a few other industries

“Telecommunications companies have waited over a decade for the sale of spectrum needed to expand their services and potential offshore oil resources lie untapped because the requisite laws haven’t been passed. Labor unions have used their political power to block everything from education reform to the closure of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants.”

There’s a summary of Bloomberg reporting on it here

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2020-07-24/south-africa-news-economic-downturn-and-how-long-it-may-last

Tom

3 users thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate, cwoodward, GivingupBA

[openfly]

But the totally corrupt SA govt are expecting to find yet another massive amount in the region of R25billion to support SAA2….while so many people in poverty, real poverty, are dying of cold and hunger!

[Author]

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