The Western Cape has approached the cabinet to lift the alcohol ban within its provincial borders.
They expect the Cabinet to make a final decision on the matter this week.
The representative for the Western Cape Department of Health, Dr Saadiq Kariem, the Chief Director-General for Specialist and Emergency Services in the province revealed that some of the provincial politicians presented the case to the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC).
The virus has already reached the peak in the province and they have less than 1,000 coronavirus patients in their general ward.
“We are coming off our peak already and our numbers are going down, if I just look at yesterday’s current admissions from COVID-19. Our capacity at the moment is sitting at 69%, so we can cope with both the COVID-19 workload, the pandemic and we can cope with the upswing in trauma again.”
Dr Kariem revealed that Cabinet was likely to get back to Premier Alan Winde ‘within the next few days‘.
“The Premier also mentioned we will have a task team that reduces alcohol harm going forward. We are going to increase our counseling services and pilot projects in places like Heideveld have been successful. At some point this week, we will have an answer from Cabinet – our data and figures have been presented.”
