Thank you hon member. Indeed what the hon member has stated is true that the WHO has insisted that we need to find or identify and test people who are positive and put them in isolation and make sure that all those who came into contact with them can be quarantined. Delays in this case affect the issue of early management but let me say that what we have discussed with various provinces, particularly the Western Cape - because of some of the challenges we encountered where there are certain constraints - is that we need to balance between a PCR test and a clinical diagnosis so that we are able to manage without necessarily being constrained by the availability of test results.
I think that there is another issue that is going to become important as we move into the future. In most of the cases, the diagnosis as to whether the person has Covid-19 or not is a clinical decision that the doctor should confirm. We are going through the guidelines in order to improve them so that the delays in the tests will not compromise the treatment of the individual or even the ability to contain the infection - so we are looking at that issue.
Now, the question with regard to churches and the concession for opening them is based on the fact that when the first case of Covid-19 was diagnosed, we were asked that there should be a reduction of a number of people at gatherings and we put up a number of containment measures. In this case we have said that with regard to churches, there should not be more than 50 people gathering and also at funerals there should also be not more than 50 people gathering. Over the past few weeks, there was everything happening with the lockdown. Once we start resumption of activities, we need to understand that there is a problem with economic activities that have to be resumed. There are also issues regarding resumption of social activities which are very critical for some of the people's lives, particularly the aspect of spiritual ministry in areas of supporting people spiritually and psychological counselling
- these are very important.
Moving forward, we need to understand that we will be having this Covid-19 for the next year or two, therefore it would be impossible to say that there would be no religious activity allowed. In the course of all of this, we have protocols that are now being developed based on the co- operation and consultation with the religious leaders where they will be party in ensuring that the behavioural changes are improved.
If you compare that with the situation that arose in the Western Cape where we had a problem and it was found that, about 25 people were tested positive for Covid-19 in supermarkets and in another supermarket, about 30 to 40 people tested positive. The key issue is more about how we can bring in the culture of containment of social distancing, wearing masking, and so on. This is what I think we should focus on - for example, we should ensure that at the funerals people are aware of what they need to do to avoid being infected and even in churches - that should be the case.
In a number of areas we have mines where hundreds and hundreds of miners are being allowed to go back to work. We cannot say it is difficult to allow 50 people to attend a church or a synagogue while it is possible to allow 2000 people into a mine. I think that balance is needed; we need to understand that there is a degree of fairness in trying to balance the social and economic issues. Thank you.