“We would like to assure South Africans that the alcohol restriction is very much evidence-based. Studies have revealed that we, unfortunately, do not have a healthy relationship with alcohol,” said Mkhize.

The Health Minister said during level four and five of lockdown, a study by Parry et al showed that there was a 60- 70% reduction in trauma admissions.

“Conversely, when alcohol restrictions were lifted during level three, facilities reported up to 60% increase in trauma emergency centre admissions and up to 200% increase in ICU trauma admissions,” he said.
According to Mkhize, some modeling was done to predict the impact of an alcohol ban, where it was “demonstrated that the reintroduction of an alcohol ban could result in 20% reduction of all trauma and 40% reduction of all alcohol-related trauma by the third week.”

Mkhize said the country expected a spike in COVID-19 cases between July, August and September.

eNCA