The DA in the Eastern Cape is fighting tooth and nail to have the province’s beaches opened during the festive season. The party fears that the closure of the beaches will have a negative impact on tourism in the province.
On Monday President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that all the beaches in the province would be closed in order to stop the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
The Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Gauteng are leading in infections as the second wave of the virus hits the country.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, the Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape and the Garden Route in the Western Cape, have been declared Covid-19 hotspots.
The daily report into the outbreak of coronavirus infections in the Eastern Cape brought some good news for the first time in months on Wednesday as the National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported a significant decrease in new cases of the virus in Nelson Mandela Bay and the Sarah Baartman District.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane said the race was on to get enough oxygen to facilities in provincial hotspots as the virus continued to ravage the Eastern Cape.
The province has 13,033 active cases of the virus and the cumulative death toll for Covid-19 since March stands at 5,681 cases.
The two districts, Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman, have borne the brunt of a massive outbreak since late October, with hospitals battling to cope and multiple deaths reported daily.
The first day of a 19-day beach ban in the Eastern Cape to fight the Covid-19 outbreak coincided with what traditionally is one of the year’s busiest beach days, the 16 December public holiday, near-perfect weather and mass compliance with the controversial regulations.
The province has a cumulative total of 149,510 Covid-19 cases and the highest death toll in the country at 5,568.
“These numbers are a worrying concern to us. The festive season poses a serious threat to the people of the province because of the possible spread of infections. That is why we are implementing the integrated Festive Season Plan to protect the lives of our people,” said Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane.
Loading Keep our beaches open “Our plea and request/submission from this morning’s engagement and from the onset of the resurgence of COVID-19 in our region, has been for beaches in the Garden Route to remain open,” Ald. Booysen said. Tuesday, 15 December 2020, 19:00 One of the popular beaches along the Garden Route coastline, the unspoilt, safe and breathtakingly beautiful Wilderness beach.
GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Garden Route district now faces similar COVID-19 restrictions as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, which are meant to curb resurgence of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday, 14 December 2020 that Cabinet took a decision to declare the Garden Route District municipal area as a Coronavirus hotspot with some additional restrictions.
The Eastern Cape’s seaside towns put on a brave face on Tuesday, with tourism organisations quickly jumping in to emphasise that there were many other things to do in the province instead of hitting the beach, but the cancellations kept on coming.
President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the beach ban on Monday, 14 December as a part of stricter regulations to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections after a second wave hit several provinces. Ramaphosa said all beaches in the Eastern Cape would remain closed from 16 December for the duration of the festive season. The Garden Route’s beaches have also been closed, but KwaZulu-Natal’s beaches will be closed only on certain days. Other beaches in the Western Cape and Northern Cape will remain open.