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South Africa

Disaster Management Act, 2002

Directions Regarding the Criteria to Guide the Determination of Alert Levels

Government Notice R867 of 2020

Published in Government Gazette no. 43599 on 7 August 2020
Assented to on 15 July 2020
Commenced on 7 August 2020
[This is the version of this document from 7 August 2020.]

I, Dr Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize, the Minister of Health, hereby, in terms of regulation 3(3) of the Regulations made under section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No. 57 of 2002), issue the Directions set out in the Schedule regarding the criteria that will guide the determination of alert levels.Dr Zwelini Lawrence Mkhize, MPMinister of Health

1. Definitions

In these Directions, unless the context otherwise indicates—"Alert Levels" means the levels of restriction that will be applicable nationally or in a province, metropolitan area or district, as set out in regulation 3(2) of the Regulations;"epidemiological trends" means the analysis of the distribution and patterns of the spread of Covid-19 infections in the population;"Ministerial Advisory Committee" means the committee appointed by the Minister of Health in terms of section 91 of the National Health Act, 2003 (Act No. 61 of 2003), for the purposes of advising on Covid-19 related matters;"Regulations" means the Regulations made in terms of section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No. 57 of 2002), and published in Government Gazette No. 43258, Government Notice No. R480 of 29 April 2020.

2. Criteria for the determination of Alert Levels

(1)Alert levels determine the level of restrictions to be applied during the national state of disaster.

(a)'Alert Level 1' indicates a low Covid-19 spread with a high health system readiness;

(b)'Alert Level 2' indicates a moderate Covid-19 spread with a high health system readiness;

(c)'Alert Level 3' indicates a moderate Covid-19 spread with a moderate health system readiness;

(d)'Alert Level 4' indicates a moderate to a high Covid-19 spread with a low to moderate health system readiness;

(e)'Alert Level 5' indicates a high Covid-19 spread with a low health system readiness.

(3)The Ministerial Advisory Committee must advise the Minister of Health regarding which Alert Level should be declared nationally, provincially, in a metropolitan area, or a district, when taking into account-

(a)the epidemiological trends of Covid-19 infections;

(b)the health system capacity in a specified area to respond to the disease burden; and

(c)any other factor that would influence the level of infection, hospitalisation and mortality.

(4)Epidemiological trends includes a consideration of the trends in the number of tests done, number of persons screened, number of positive cases, number of recoveries and the demographic profile of the positive cases.

(5)Health system capacity includes a consideration of the number of facilities available to support Covid-19, bed-occupancy levels for the various levels of care, human resource capacity, equipment and related resources.

3. Role of the Ministerial Advisory Committee

(1)The Ministerial Advisory Committee must—

(a)conduct its work in terms of its Terms of Reference, as approved by the Minister of Health; and

(b)establish sub-committees, led by a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee, with the approval of the Minister, to efficiently and effectively perform its functions.

(2)The sub-committees referred to in subparagraph (1)(b) may invite additional experts and provincial health representatives to participate in the work of the sub-committee.

(3)The National Department of Health must act as the secretariat for the Ministerial Advisory Committee and its sub-committees.

4. Commencement

These Directions come into operation on the date of publication in the Government Gazette.

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History of this Government Notice

7 August 2020 this version

Published in Government Gazette no. 43599

Government Notice commences.
15 July 2020

Assented to by council.

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