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··Omega Qualified WatchmakerUnfortunately, a significant percentage of hospitalizations in South Africa are alcohol-related (alcohol poisoning, vehicle accidents from drunk driving, alcohol-fueled domestic violence, etc), particularly those cases that end up in the emergency room. So, the alcohol sales ban is a logical, though extreme, policy to reduce hospital caseload during the current COVID surge.
Of course, as soon as the SA government announced the sales ban, the bootleggers went to work...
Here the decision was justified because removing alcohol in particular would cause people who are dependent issues, and that would likely increase hospitalizations. I guess just different situations, but the same goal overall. No surprise that bootleggers fired up right away.
Many distillers here started making alcohol based hand sanitizers early on in the pandemic, as supplies were very limited for pharmacopeia grade alcohol worldwide, and the government temporarily allowed certain technical grades to be used on a temporary basis. Getting the distillers involved helped increase supply, but was a bit of a regulatory mess. My wife is a consultant in this area so has helped register more hand sanitizers in the last year than you can shake a stick at.
