The Department of Health is continuing with controversial plans to update the regulations for managing notifiable diseases, despite the draft regulations in the National Health Act and International Health Regulations Act having already attracted extensive criticism.
And this is despite the scrapping of SA’s last remaining coronavirus curbs last Wednesday.
Business Day reports that the draft regulations to the National Health Act and International Health Regulations Act have drawn criticism and face legal challenge from several quarters. The deadline for public comment is 5 August.
In a notice published in the Government Gazette last week, Health Minister Joe Phaahla repealed three regulations relating to the surveillance and control of notifiable conditions, opening the way for the tourism, leisure and entertainment sectors to operate as normal. But his department’s plans for an overhaul of the legislative framework for managing notifiable diseases and pandemics remain unchanged.
All the main COVID-19 indicators measured by the government, including daily cases, hospital admissions and the test positivity rated have plummeted since the peak of the fifth wave, Phaala said.
Organisations such as care homes, schools and businesses will determine themselves whether to continue requiring masks on their premises, he said.
46590_22-6_HealthBusiness Day PressReader article – Health regulation overhaul goes on (Open access)
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