South Africa to tighten COVID-19 restrictions for 14 days

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa will tighten COVID-19 restrictions for 14 days as current containment measures are insufficient to cope with the speed and scale of new infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

The country, the worst-hit on the African continent in terms of recorded cases and deaths, is in the grip of a "third wave" of infections. It recorded almost 18,000 new cases on Saturday, approaching the peak of daily infections seen in a second wave in January, and local scientists say the Delta coronavirus variant first identified in India seems to be spreading fast.