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The Department of Correctional Services has the daunting task of curbing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in correctional centres, despite massive overcrowding.

Physical or social distancing is among the measures stipulated by government to combat the spread of the virus but Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola says the country’s correctional centres were 32.58 percent overcrowded at the start of May.

This has led to correctional facilities being considered high-risk areas for infection.

Smokers who contract the coronavirus (COVID-19) are at risk of suffering more severe symptoms.

COVID-19 is a respiratory virus. As such, smokers are twice as likely to suffer more serious symptoms than people who have never smoked, says Dr Catherine Egbe, a specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit.

Physical scars left by violence and abuse may heal over time, but the emotional scars may never heal if not treated.

The Department of Social Development says victims of violence and abuse who seek professional help benefit greatly from these supportive external interventions, which help them heal and become empowered.

Applying for the special R350 coronavirus relief grant will be easy and paperless.

The Department of Social Development has relooked at and strengthened the criteria and payment methods for the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant.

The lockdown caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has not stopped non-profit organisation Childline South Africa and its 86 counsellors from assisting children and families calling in to seek help.

Childline provides a 24-hour, toll-free telephone counselling service in all nine provinces. Since the start of lockdown, the organisation has received an increased number of calls.

It is cruel and insensitive for employers to not pay their employees after receiving funds from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme.

This practice has been condemned by the Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi.

The Free State Digital Creative Festival brought poetry and visual and digital arts together in a virtual exhibition.

Artists in the Free State have made the best of enforced social distancing, brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19), for the Free State Digital Creative Festival.

The aim of the festival is to raise awareness about COVID-19, by fusing the work of artists such as Mpho Thulo, a poet  and Luis Kruger, a digital artist. 

A substantial injection of cash is bolstering government’s health response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.