South Africa to ease lockdown restrictions in May

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday (local time) said that the country would gradually start easing lockdown restrictions from May 1.

The country will adopt a five-level alert system to determine future restrictions related to the spread on COVID-19 and readiness to fight the virus, with an immediate downgrade from the strictest level five to level four on May 1, CNN reported.

Ramaphosa said, "We have decided on this approach because there is still much that is unknown about the rate and manner of the spread of the virus within our population."

South Africa is currently at the high-level national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. The lockdown measures will be lowered gradually as some activity will be allowed to resume subject to extreme precautions.

Moreover, the country will further outline how these sectors would return to production amid lockdown.

On Wednesday, the President had announced an economic and social relief package of about USD 26 billion to support the population amid the crisis.

The total number of those infected with coronavirus in the African country is approaching 4,000, according to the recent data by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. The death toll is 75.

( With inputs from ANI )