Various media houses have reported that their popular soapies are running out of episodes to air and they could face being taken off air till the lockdown is lifted.

For the popular 1Magic show,The River, they are planning on resuming shooting next week. They will be ensuring strict measures are put in place to ensure the safety of their cast and crew members.

With the country getting ready to begin with level 4 of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on Friday, the production is set on having a limited number of actors on set and no extras.

Not giving out the exact date of the commencement of production, creative producer Percy Vilakazi told TshisaLive that they will have an abundance of skeleton actors and no extras on set to curb the spread of the virus among the crew.

He also spoke about cleaning the equipment, implementing ways to minimize contact with make-up crew and styling crew. New crew members have not started shooting as yet, as they do not have any new costumes for them.

“Although we don’t know the exact date, we are gearing up to go back to shooting. It would most likely be next week. I am trying to check the script to see what is feasible as a lot of scenes will have skeleton actors and no extras.

“This entire day I will look at what can be best possible for the show while keeping the safety of the actors and crew in mind.

He warned that if one person contracts the virus then they would unfortunately have to halt production.

“We will be limiting the number of actors who will appear on the screen. We are looking at ways to curb the spread of the virus because safety comes first.” he said.