COVID-19 CONFUSION

Changes to the rules and regulations are unclear and bewildering – here experts unpack them

- NASIFA SULAIMAN

TAKING in information about the new rules related to Covid-19 isolation feels a bit like watching a tennis ball being volleyed between two energetic opponents.

Isolate for 10 days if you test positive for Covid-19.

No, wait, now it’s only seven days. No, wait, you isolate only if you’re showing symptoms – if not, you don’t need to isolate at all.

No wonder many people are confused about what’s going on.

Because, yes, according to the new rules, if you’ve tested positive for Covid19 but are showing no symptoms you don’t need to stay indoors for 10 days as we’ve done for the past two years.

It’s a dramatic departure from what we’ve been told since the pandemic restrictions started in March 2020. And although many are relieved that we’re starting to go back to a pre-Covid world, others are worried that some of these rules might take us back to square one.

“There’s no coherent explanation for the changes in the midst of a vaccination programme that missed every target by a mile,” says Professor Francois Venter from the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

And the government could’ve done a lot more to communicate the details of the changes in a better way. “There’s no urgency, no communication, no clear strategy – it really erodes public trust and amplifies the dreadful disinformation we see on social media,” Venter says.

But government off icials believe increased vaccination levels and the “trajectory of the pandemic” means we don’t need to follow the strict regulations that were implemented as part of the national state of disaster.