COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES | South Korea orders revamp of Covid-19 social distancing rules
Image: REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana
February 04 2021 - 21:18
100,000 Zimbabweans will get free Covid vaccination, thanks to China
About 100,000 Zimbabweans will be vaccinated against Covid-19 courtesy of a donation by China, expected within a week.
The 100,000 are drawn from front-line workers, the elderly and people with underlying illnesses. Zimbabwe will receive about 200,000 doses of the two-shot Sinopharm vaccine.
The front-line workers in Zimbabwe are nurses, police and the army. They make up the majority of the civil service of about 350,000.
February 04 2021 - 19:45
Western Cape to start Covid-19 vaccination in 10 days
It's official: the Western Cape will start its vaccination programme on February 15.
On Thursday, the head of health in the province, Keith Cloete, said the Western Cape was ready to roll out the programme which would see 138,000 front line health-care workers vaccinated during the first phase.
So far, almost 2,000 vaccinators, mostly health-care workers, have been trained to work at the more than 400 vaccination sites which had already been identified. The training focused on the handling of Covid-19 vaccines, storage and data management.
February 04 2021 - 15:31
India survey finds a quarter of children may have Covid antibodies, more than average
More than a quarter of Indian children aged between 10 and 17 may have already contracted Covid-19, according to a government serological survey released on Thursday, higher than the 21.5% of the overall population found to have been infected.
The survey of more than 35,700 people above 10, conducted in the last two months, gave a much lower estimate for the average number of people to have contracted Covid-19 than other research.
Separate tests done on more than 700,000 people across India by diagnostics company Thyrocare Technologies showed 55% of the country's 1.35 billion people may have already been infected, its chief told Reuters last week.
Reuters
February 04 2021 - 15:00
Sweden plans for digital coronavirus "vaccine passport" by summer
Sweden plans to launch a digital coronavirus "vaccine passport" by summer, assuming there is an international standard in place for the document by then, the government said on Thursday.
Governments and developers around the world are exploring how such certificates could help to reopen economies by identifying those protected against Covid-19.
"When Sweden and countries around us start to open up our societies again, vaccination certificates are likely to be required for travel and possibly for taking part in other activities," Swedish digitalisation minister Anders Ygeman told a news conference.
Reuters
February 04 2021 - 14:04
Wedding under lockdown? Only if you’re in separate hospital rooms and it’s over FaceTime
A US couple proved that their love and desire to be married was stronger than Covid-19.
According to Metro UK, Justin and Stephanie Armstrong from Kansas were supposed to get married a week ago, but the groom tested positive for Covid-19 a day before the wedding.
The couple were reportedly heartbroken over the news but managed to get the doctor and attorney's consent to be married at two different places.
February 04 2021 - 13:25
Sixteen African nations interested in AU vaccine plan
Sixteen African countries have shown interest in securing Covid-19 vaccines under an AU initiative and the aim is to deliver allocations in the next three weeks, the head of a continental disease control body said on Thursday.
As wealthier nations push ahead with mass immunisation, Africa is seeking to immunise 60% of its 1.3 billion people in the next three years. Only a handful of African nations have begun giving doses.
The AU bloc initially secured 270 million doses from manufacturers for member states, then late last month said it would receive another 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
February 04 2021 - 12:32
'Some clinical trials were carried out in Africa': Naledi Pandor slams Covid-19 vaccine nationalism
International relations minister Naledi Pandor has spoken out against Covid-19 vaccine nationalism, saying Africa had a part to play in developing the vaccine and yet struggled to get sufficient doses for its citizens.
She added vaccine equity is significant in the fight to eradicate the impact of the coronavirus globally.
Pandor, who is also the chairperson of the AU executive council, shared this view during the 38th ordinary session of the council, held virtually under the theme “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want”.
February 04 2021 - 12:16
Teen wakes up from 10-month coma with no memory of the pandemic
A teenager from the UK has woken up from a 10-month coma with no recollection of the coronavirus pandemic.
Joseph Flavill, a 19-year-old recovering from being hit by a car in March 2020, has finally regained consciousness and according to the BBC, has no recollection of the pandemic despite contracting Covid-19 twice while in hospital.
February 04 2021 - 12:11
LISTEN | Police minister Bheki Cele reveals how he feels about alcohol & more
Police minister Bheki Cele reveals how he really feels about alcohol and speaks about his personal fears of Covid-19 and non-racial policing during a pandemic.
Cele has been lampooned for his tough talk on alcohol but, he says, it’s not personal. For him, it is the actions of South Africans when under the influence that have a knock-on effect on social behaviour that worry him.
Here is what he had to say:
February 04 2021 - 11:27
Survey will tell department how health workers feel about Covid-19 vaccines
The national health department is conducting a survey among health-care workers to gauge how they feel about the Covid-19 vaccine.
The department, which has partnered with Unicef, put out a notice on social media platforms earlier this week, urging health-care workers to participate in the survey.
“With the upcoming rollout of the vaccine programme, the survey will help us understand what health-care workers think and feel about the vaccine. It is an opportunity to address questions and concerns,” the department said.
February 04 2021 - 11:00
WATCH | Liquor board slams viral video of youth celebrating return of booze sales
The Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) has condemned a viral video showing mask-less East London residents celebrating the lifting of the booze ban.
In the video, residents can be seen celebrating in the streets without masks and not social distancing, while shouting “buvuliwe” (it's open).
The video was shared this week after President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that some lockdown restrictions would be eased.
February 04 2021 - 10:22
Trauma as family loses six members to Covid-19
The Malatsi family gathered on December 29 in the small village of Tafelkop, near Groblersdal in Limpopo, to mourn and pay their last respects at the funeral of 80-year-old Mike Malatsi.
They sang, cried and prayed together in grief as they honoured the elderly member of the family who was certified dead on arrival at a local clinic. The cause of death was unknown.
Five days after his funeral, another Malatsi family member died from Covid-19 in hospital in Emalahleni in Mpumalanga. Since then the Malatsis have buried another five family members, all of whom died from Covid-19, while at least 10 others have tested positive.
February 04 2021 - 10:04
Holomisa urges Mkhize to hire unemployed pharmacists to assist with Covid-19 vaccine rollout
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa has written to health minister Zweli Mkhize asking him to consider hiring 32 unemployed Eastern Cape pharmacists to assist with the rollout of the province's Covid-19 vaccination programme.
In a public letter to the minister on Wednesday, Holomisa said the pharmacists reached out to him seeking employment.
Holomisa asked Mkhize to urgently consider the group's request that they be absorbed into the health-care system in the Eastern Cape to assist with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme and the general value chain of pharmaceutical services.
February 04 2021 - 08:25
On road to ending pandemic, more people vaccinated than total cases to date — data
More people are now vaccinated against Covid-19 than have been infected by the virus that has swept the globe over the past year, a milestone on the road to ending the pandemic, based on data reported on Wednesday.
Despite the landmark data, it remains unclear how long it will take to vaccinate the world. Many of those vaccinated have received only one of two doses required.
A total of 104.9 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to University of Oxford-based Our World in Data and the latest data on Wednesday from the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total vaccinated now exceeds the 104.1 million Covid-19 cases of infection in a Reuters global tracker.
February 04 2021 - 08:20
Australia to buy 10 mln additional doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine
Australia will buy 10 million additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine jointly developed by US drugmaker Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech, prime minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday."
These additional vaccines have been secured consistent with our requirements," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Australia last week approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use for people aged 16 years and older, and expects to begin inoculation at 80,000 doses per week by the end of February.
Reuters
February 04 2021 - 08:00
South Korea PM orders revamp of COVID-19 social distancing rules
South Korean prime minister Chung Sye-kyun on Thursday ordered a revamp of social distancing guidelines in a bid to win greater public support for efforts to stop local transmission of the new coronavirus.
The country's five-tier social distancing system has faced a public backlash for imposing unfair restrictions and curfews on specific businesses, including a ban on indoor restaurant dining after 9pm.
"Rather than introduce the guidelines unilaterally, we should make the virus prevention rules along with the public," Chung told an intra-agency meeting on Thursday.
Reuters