Fresh court challenge likely after govt backtracks on lifting cigarette sales ban
On Thursday, the chairperson of the committee said they agreed with the decision.
“We understood all the reasons mentioned and we agree that smoking is bordering on personal hygiene, and it is a collective responsibility for all of us not to spread the virus from one person to the other,” said Dhlomo, a former MEC for health in KwaZulu-Natal, according to a statement.
“One of the other aspects that we have noted from understanding the physiology of this illness is that it heavily affects the respiratory system, in particular, the lungs. We have observed that a significant number of people that have died of Covid-19 are those that had asthma and other respiratory conditions.”
According to Dhlomo, if you have the Covid-19 infection and tobacco on the same respiratory organ, the lungs are simply overburdened.
“We note that the significant number of people that have died in the world as a result of the pandemic have comorbidities that affect the lungs, asthma, chronic obstructive airwaves diseases and cardiovascular diseases. This comes in as a relief not to allow cigarettes, tobacco and related products at this time,” said Dhlomo.
– Compiled by Jan Gerber
