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FEARS OF TRADE RESTRICTIONS EXTENSION AS CASES SURGE

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MBABANE – With no sign of a decline in COVID-19 cases since government enforced a strengthened lockdown over 10 days ago, there are fears of an extension this week among some businesses.

On January 7 this year, Acting PM Themba Masuku had announced strengthened partial lockdown measures that came into effect at midnight the following day (Saturday morning). For retailers, these restrictions were headlined by the reduction in trading hours and changes on sale of alcohol. No retailers shall trade after 6pm, according to the regulations, while all liquor outlets are to operate from Monday to Thursday between 11am and 4pm.

Strengthened

Calculations done by this publication showed that during the first 10 days of the strengthened lockdown (January 8 to 17) the number of new infections still did not make for riveting reading. During the period under review, new cases were still averaging 200 per day. Up to 2 171 new cases and 108 deaths were recorded during the 10-day period. The relatively unchanged infection figures are recorded at a time when government is expected to review the regulations this week. When making the pronouncement, the acting premier said the new measures would be reviewed after 14 days. This means they must have been reviewed by this coming Friday.

Regulations

The Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) President Henry ‘Tum’ du Pont, who is also in the hospitality industry, said they reached a dead end under the new regulations.
He highlighted that there were still bills to pay and said the introduction of staff rotation under the new regulations did little to remedy the situation. He was quick to highlight that they respected the measures, as they were in place to curtail the spread of the virus but never hid the fact that they were facing extreme difficulties. Du Pont said they were having virtual meetings to find a way forward. A visit to some shops outside town suggested that they were expecting to resume normal operations before the end of the week. There was a notice in one of the shops alerting customers that the store would close at 6pm until January 20 (Thursday).

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