The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula on Friday banned contact sport and reduced the number of spectators at sporting events from 100 to 50 following an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in Namibia.
Speaking during the occasion of the 28th COVID-19 briefing session at State House, Shangula said the new regulations will be enforced for a period of one month starting on 01 June until 30 June 2021.
“It is mandatory for the spectators to comply with public health measures at all times. Contact sports are prohibited,” Shangula explained.
This ban is expected to affect sporting activities such as football, rugby and cricket who had recently started actively engaging locally and internationally.
However Cricket Namibia Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johan Muller said they will not be affected by the new regulations as their programme will resume only in August.
Namibia Premier Football League Director, Mabos Vries said matches scheduled for this weekend will continue as planned.
“The new regulations are kicking in on 01 June so we will then sit down and discuss with all the stakeholders and chart the way forward regarding football matches,” he said.
Namibia Rugby Union CEO Theo Grunewald said they are disappointed with the latest update, but noted that the most important thing was the wellbeing and safety of the players and the nation at large.
“The two matches against Zimbabwe scheduled for June are cancelled, we have however requested the Namibia Sports Commission to allow us to continue training, and they will get back to us on Wednesday. The national league will also stop from 01 June as per the government order,” he said.
Grunewald said the matches pencilled for the last week of May will go ahead as planned because the new regulations are only effective for the month of June.
The month of May saw Namibia recording 5 497 new COVID-19 cases with 152 COVID-19 deaths.
Shangula said the government had observed that members of the public were deliberately disobeying the regulations and putting everyone at risk.
“I must emphasise that the current surge in cases being experienced in Namibia is mainly fuelled by the fact that many of our people are not complying with the public health regulations especially when it comes to public gatherings,” Shangula stressed.
He called on Namibians to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of getting infected by COVID-19.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
