COVID-19 WRAP | SA records 305 cases, 48 deaths in the past 24 hours

November 10 2021 - 19:36

Covid-19: SA records 305 cases, 48 deaths in the past 24 hours

There were only 305 new Covid-19 cases recorded across SA in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Wednesday.

There were also 48 newly recorded coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the same period. According to the NICD, this means that there have been 2,924,622 infections and 89,435 fatalities recorded countrywide since the outbreak of Covid-19 in SA in March 2020.

November 10 2021 — 12:05

‘This is the miracle we've been looking for’: Bishop urges science over politics in Covid-19 vaccination drive

Science should trump politics in SA’s drive to vaccinate its population against Covid-19, says SA Council of Churches general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana.

​​Speaking at the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority-hosted "Mitigating Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in SA" briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Mpumlwana said parties should not politicise the country’s vaccination drive.

November 10 2021 — 11:58

EU to decide on Moderna's Covid-19 shot for younger kids in two months

The European Union's drug regulator expects to decide in about two months on whether to allow the use of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine in children aged six to 11 years, it said on Wednesday, after the US drugmaker sought approval.

“The current timeline for evaluation foresees an opinion in approximately 2 months, unless supplementary information or analysis is needed,” the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

Moderna said on Tuesday it had applied for European authorisation for use of a 50 micrograms dose of its shot in the 6-11 years age group, weeks after it delayed a similar filing with US regulators.

The company had in October said its vaccine generated a strong immune response in children in that age group.

The European Union had in July authorised the vaccine for use in teens aged 12 to 17 years, but several countries including Sweden have paused its use for people 30 or younger due to rare heart-related side-effects. 

Reuters

November 10 2021 -09:09

S.Korea urges Covid-19 booster shots, as severe cases hit record

South Korea encouraged its citizens to take Covid-19 booster shots on Wednesday, as more of the elderly fell ill and reported vaccine breakthrough infections, driving serious and critical cases to a record.

Severe coronavirus cases jumped from the mid-300s in October to 460 on Wednesday, official data showed. Of the severely ill patients, more than 82% were aged 60 and older.

Son Young-rae, a senior health ministry official, told a news conference that the increase is not posing a threat to the country's healthcare system yet, as there are nearly 500 ICU beds available.

He said the speed of the rise in severe cases and the size of total infections, especially among the unvaccinated, are the major points to consider in deciding its future response to the healthcare system.

South Korea's overall rate of vaccine breakthrough infections remains low at 85.5 people per every 100,000 inoculated.

But it has steadily risen in recent weeks, led by the elderly, as vaccine protection wanes over time and the group's weaker immune system makes them more vulnerable to infections.

Of the total serious and critical patients with vaccine breakthrough infections in the past eight weeks, 93% were from those aged 60 and above, according to the government data.

The country has inoculated 640,232 people with a booster shot, since the programme began last month, mainly using vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna .South Korea started a gradual easing of Covid-19 restrictions this month, as it has fully vaccinated nearly 90% of its adult population, or 77% of its 52 million people.

The authorities have said a circuit breaker will be issued when there is a major strain on the number of hospital beds to treat serious cases, but have not revealed the exact threshold.

The country reported 2,425 new cases for Tuesday. It has recorded a total of 385,831 infections, with 3,012 deaths so far. 

Reuters

November 10 2021 -07:40

Pfizer seeks booster approval for all US adults

Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking the FDA's approval for all adults in the US to receive their Covid-19 vaccine boosters

November 10 2021 -07:00

Can adding chillies to my food help prevent or fight Covid-19?

As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, many have turned to nature to find a cure or way to ward off the coronavirus, but chilli peppers should not be one of them.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), adding peppers to your food does not prevent nor cure Covid-19.

“Hot peppers in your food, though very tasty, cannot prevent nor cure Covid-19. The best way to protect yourself against the coronavirus is to stay at least 1m away from others and wash your hands frequently and thoroughly.

“It is also beneficial for your general health to maintain a balanced diet, stay well hydrated, exercise regularly and sleep well,” it advised.

November 10 2021 -06:00

Covid-19 medical waste is making the global plastic problem even worse

An increase in demand for single-use plastics such as face masks, gloves and face shields as a result of Covid-19 is intensifying pressure on a burgeoning global plastic problem.

While many researchers suspect there will be a huge influx of mismanaged pandemic-related plastic waste, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal is the first to project the magnitude and fate of it in oceans.

The study uses a newly developed ocean-plastic numerical model to quantify the impact of the pandemic on plastic discharge from land sources. 

The researchers found that more than eight million tonnes of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated globally, with more than 25,000 tonnes entering the global ocean.

Within three to four years, a significant portion of this debris is expected to make its way onto beaches or the seabed.

A smaller portion will go into the open ocean, eventually to be trapped in the centres of ocean basins or subtropical gyres, which can become rubbish patches, and a circumpolar plastic accumulation zone in the Arctic Ocean.

The researchers incorporated data from the start of the pandemic in 2020 to August 2021, finding that most global plastic waste entering the ocean is coming from Asia, with hospital waste representing the bulk of land discharge.