President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said a look at the Covid-19 hospitalisations suggested that the country had been victorious in dealing with the virus.

While announcing the lifting of the national state of disaster, which started 750 days ago, Ramaphosa said the highest average daily number of Covid-19-related deaths recorded was 420.

“In the fourth wave in February this year, the highest daily number of Covid-19-related deaths was 240. In the past week, this number has dropped to just 12,” Ramaphosa said.

“We are seeing a similar pattern in our health facilities. Of the 108,000 regular beds in the country, only 1,805 are now occupied by Covid-19 patients. Of the 5,600 ICU beds in the country, only 175 are occupied by Covid-19 patients. This is part of a downward trend that is enabling us to return to normality in public health facilities,” he said.

“This shows that while the virus continues to circulate, it is not causing the same levels of severe illness that require hospitalisation or the same number of deaths.”

The various restrictions which have been in place will be phased out over the next days. These include the wearing of masks in indoor public spaces.

“We are hopeful that the worst is behind us, and we are confident that there are only better days ahead. Now is the time to grow our economy and create jobs. Now is the time to get our country back on track. Now is the time to heal, to recover and to rebuild,” Ramaphosa said.