The government announced that the ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes will be in place until the end of lockdown, but it quickly backtracked on the issue.
On its Twitter page the government on Wednesday announced that the ban would remain until the lockdown aimed at curbing Covid-19 was lifted.
The government has pointed out the people suffering from alcohol-related illnesses and injuries as putting a strain on the health system.
“By limiting alcohol-related hospital admissions, we are limiting exposure to and transmission of Covid-19. A ban on alcohol sales will also have an impact in terms of reducing the burden on health facilities,” the state said.
But by the end of a day of fierce criticism, the state backtracked, saying the ban was only in place during level 3 restrictions.
The outlawing of the sale of alcohol and cigarettes started on March 27.
The alcohol ban was first lifted on June 1 before it was reinstated on July 12.
The alcohol ban has had mixed effects on Gauteng’s main public hospitals as some saw a spike in patient admissions due to incidents of assault and car accidents.
During the lockdown, Tembisa Hospital in Ekurhuleni saw trauma unit figures that went against the government statement.
The highest number of trauma admissions at the hospital were in May – a month when alcohol was not sold – at 1 246.
In April, the hospital saw 778 trauma patients and 227 in June. The majority of cases in May were assault (at 256) and car accidents (at 135).
More people in the Tembisa area were shot in May as the hospital dealt with 40 patients as compared to seven cases in June.
Sebokeng Hospital in the Vaal saw a big decline in the number of assault cases year on year.
Last year, between March and May, there were 311 assault cases. These went down to 78 in the same period this year.
Car accidents also went from 143 to 55 while pedestrian accidents were reduced to 28 from 111 last year. Assaults also went down from 259 last year to 155 cases this year.
At the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, car accidents accounted for 55 patients in February and the number went down to 17 in May when alcohol was not for sale.
They then shot up to 31 in June, after alcohol sales were allowed again. The number of pedestrians injured also increased from 10 in May to 28 in June.
The hospital also registered three cases of human bites in June. So far, the best month that the trauma unit at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Auckland Park has had was in April when it recorded only 320 cases.
This is way lower than the 1 075 cases recorded in February.
The largest portion of trauma cases at the hospital was for assault with 483 cases recorded in February and 320 in April. June saw a rise in assault cases to 403 and car accidents at 131, up from May’s 71 cases.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto received a total of 3 761 emergency unit visits in March.
These included 702 falls, 204 car accidents and 442 assaults. In June, the number plummeted to 117 with five car accidents, 28 falls and 19 assaults.