COVID-19

• On 4 May amendments to National Health Act regulations on the surveillance and control of notifiable medical conditions were gazetted:
  • inserting provisions for controlling the spread of Covid-19, which
    • to a large extent replicate post-State-of-Disaster measures prescribed in the disaster management regulations of 4 April 2022 (now lapsed) regarding:
      • face masks
      • gatherings, and
      • ports of entry.
• The new measures appear to be temporary, pending the finalisation and operationalisation of draft amendments to regulations under both the National Health Act and the International Health Regulations Act that were:
  • released in March for public comment, and regarding which
  • the deadline for input has once again been extended.
• The Department of Health has issued two media statements on the apparently temporary measures now in place.
  • The first statement confirmed that:
    • face masks must be worn when using public transport, and that
    • vaccination requirements at ports of entry do not apply to daily commuters from neighbouring countries or children under the age of 12.
  • The second statement corrected an error in the first by confirming that, at school, children are required to wear masks when indoors but not during outdoor activities.

 

FINANCIAL SECTOR

• The Competition Commission has issued a practice note on the establishment and review of supplier panels by banks and insurers. According to an accompanying media statement, among other things the practice note draws attention to measures intended to enable market entry and participation by new suppliers, including:
  • eliminating long-term exclusive agreements, and
  • reducing contract periods to five years or less.

 

JUSTICE

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has called for public comments on draft regulations under the Legal Practice Act. Their purpose is to prescribe the number of hours’ community service to be rendered annually by practising and candidate legal practitioners.

 

Prepared by Pam Saxby