OPINIONISTA: Maths and Artificial Intelligence can help us decide when to lift the lockdown

As there is no vaccine or specific treatment for Covid-19, countries have implemented physical distancing guidelines to spur collective action to prevent the spread of the virus. Physical distancing is not new in South Africa – it has long been an integral part of our way of life. In African societies, for example, people traditionally lived far apart and the clustering of people into densely populated areas is a new phenomenon. In addition, when African people greeted, traditionally there was no physical contact. In fact, there was a distance maintained between the people greeting.