Now that South Africa has detected Covid-19 cases of B 1.617.2 dominant in India and B 1.1.7 dominant in the UK, in addition to our own variant of concern B 1.351, we can all accept that the collision of these variants raises alarm given the arrival of a 3rd Wave. 1/n

Let us now focus our attention on making sure people are safe. Let us not make things worse by unnecessarily feeding emotions of anger, panic and fear. The fact is, all these variants of concern are not necessarily worse than the variant dominant in South Africa. 2/n

Let me say this clearly, there is no evidence to suggest that these two variants dominant in the UK and India are more highly transmissable than the variant dominant here in South Africa. The variant in South Africa has more mutations of concern than the one in India. 3/n

In December 2020 and January 2021, we faced one of the worst variant in the world, and countries banned travel from South Africa. We said this was unfair, but proceeded to escalate restrictions to Alert Level 3 with extra restrictions. We succeeded in doing the impossible. 4/n

Right now, we know these new variants are not yet dominant in South Africa, so we can prevent them from spreading. Unlike India, we have Alert Level regulations, restrictions and laws to help contain spread. Let's wear masks, avoid gatherings, wash hands and keep distancing. 5/n

We should prepare to move to Alert Level 3 with restrictions similar to Dec 2020 and Jan 2021 as soon as the country breaches the official metrics for a 3rd wave, expected if Gauteng enters a 3rd wave officially in the next couple of weeks. For now, let's just do our part. 6/n

We unfortunately have to buy time to scale up the vaccine programme without excessive loss of life seen in Dec 2020 and Jan 2021. This balance is difficult, but I don't see how we curb restrictions without high levels of vaccine coverage. Let's get people over 60 registered. 7/n