ICYMI: WRAP  

These are some of today’s headlines you may have missed.

Covid-19: Worcester Pick n Pay temporarily closes after employee tests positive

One of the three Pick n Pay stores in Worcester in the Western Cape was closed at the weekend after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

According to Netwerk24, on Saturday customers were greeted by a sign stating that the shop in High Street had provisionally been closed.  

OPINION | Why releasing low-risk prisoners amid the Covid-19 pandemic is a good idea

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola made the long-overdue announcement earlier this month that 19 000 low-risk inmates would be released from prison.

It is a bold and necessary step to save lives as Covid-19 threatens to wreak havoc in South Africa’s overcrowded prisons, GroundUp reported.  

Glenda Gray ‘grateful for support’ as SAMRC calls off investigation into her lockdown criticism

South African Medical Research Council president and member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) Professor Glenda Gray has expressed her gratitude after the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) on Tuesday cleared her for recent comments about government’s Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

“I wish to thank the Board of the SAMRC for having acted with the requisite urgency in its deliberations over this matter, the findings of which I have noted with appreciation. I would like to assure the Board and colleagues at the SAMRC that I remain focused on the important work of the SAMRC,” Gray said in a statement following the SAMRC’s announcement.  

Acting health DG Anban Pillay acted ‘unconstitutionally’ in Glenda Gray fight – top academics

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize should distance himself from the actions of his acting director-general Anban Pillay, who requested the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) to investigate its president Dr Glenda Gray, according to three top academics.

The article, published by the South African Medical Journal on Tuesday, called for level heads from the scientific community and government in an article titled “Freedom of speech and public interest, not allegiance, should underpin science advisement to government”.  

Social media posts that Wuhan ‘repatriation pilot’ died of Covid-19 untrue

Social media posts claiming that an SAA staffer who passed away on Sunday died of Covid-19 and was a pilot responsible for the repatriation of 112 South Africans from China in March are untrue.

News24 has spoken to various sources who have indicated that Nakedi Tebatso Ntshane, 39, did not die of coronavirus-related causes, nor was she a pilot during the repatriation of the South Africans back home on 14 March.  

Covid-19: Another school in Cape Town hit by positive case during prep week

Parkvale Primary School in Valhalla Park is the second school in Cape Town to have a positive Covid-19 case among educators, the Western Cape education department said on Tuesday.

The case was recorded in the first week of teachers’ return to school to prepare for the phased reopening this Monday for grades 7 and 12.  

Covid-19: Potch Hospital’s outpatient department closed after nurse tested positive

The outpatient department of the Potchefstroom Hospital has been closed and decontaminated after a positive case of Covid-19, the North West health department said on Monday.

A 59-year-old nurse at the hospital tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. “The nurse is attached to the outpatient department of the hospital,” health department spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said.  

Coronavirus: Dlamini-Zuma, Mkhize double down on cigarette ban

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma stuck to her guns on the medical reasons for the cigarette ban during the Covid-19 pandemic, and denied being friends with self-confessed cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti.

Dlamini-Zuma and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize briefed the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mkhize said it was not even worth debating the matter, and it could never be said that tobacco was an essential service.