The shuls in South Africa have been closed since before Pesach and Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein announced last week that shuls will remain closed until further notice.

The government has given its approval to re-open shuls but in a meeting of the heads of the Jewish community in Johannesburg last week, it was decided to leave the shuls closed due to a recent rise in the infection rate.

“Here in South Africa, we hold small minyanim here and there but the shuls are completely closed,” a resident told B’Chadrei Chareidim. “People in the community don’t like the fact that there are even small minyanim. They claim that they’re putting everyone at risk.”

Schools are expected to open soon, stores are almost all open but shuls are closed because “new coronavirus patients are filling the hospitals.”

South Africa partially lifted its three-month lockdown last month, which was one of the strictest in the world, but there has been an uptick of new virus cases in recent days. To date, South Africa has recorded 187,977 confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest on the African continent, and 3,026 fatalities.

Recent news report say that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa chose to ease lockdown restrictions despite the uptick in cases due to the need to preserve the economy. However, the health minister warned last week that another strict lockdown may be imposed if the uptick in coronavirus infections continues.

The Western Cape province, home to the port city of Cape Town, the second-most populous city in the country after Johannesburg and seat of the South African parliament, has been the hardest hit in the country.

The countries most affected by the coronavirus in Africa have been South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria and Nigeria, with South Africa leading in the number of cases but Egypt recording the most deaths.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)