COVID-19 WRAP | US recruits scientists from South Africa for Covid-19 vaccine trials

August 13 2020 - 22:07

US recruits scientists from South Africa and Latin America for Covid-19 vaccine trials, pledges access to supply

The Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine project is recruiting scientists in South Africa and Latin America to help test possible vaccines in US- backed clinical trials, pledging to ease their countries’ access to any successful products, Reuters has learned.

Moncef Slaoui, a former pharmaceutical executive who heads Operation Warp Speed, a multi-billion dollar US collaboration between the federal government and drugmakers, made the commitment to international scientists late last month, two people familiar with the matter said.

August 13 2020 - 18:45

Almost R2bn spent to fight Covid-19 in KZN: premier

Of the close to R1.9bn given to KwaZulu-Natal departments for Covid-19 expenditure, over half has been spent on infrastructure.

This was revealed by premier Sihle Zikalala during a briefing on Thursday on expenditure by provincial departments in response to the pandemic.

He said infrastructure projects had been undertaken at schools and hospitals, including the establishment of quarantine facilities, since March. 

August 13 2020 - 18:22

Body bags in high demand as SA's Covid death toll mounts

As SA continues counting its dead as Covid-19 spreads through the country, body bags are fast becoming a crucial part in the fight against the coronavirus.

It is essential, the health department told TimesLIVE, that bodies are buried inside a body bag — even if the mortal remains are in a coffin. And this has been a boon for companies who make the macabre products.

August 13 2020 - 18:09

SA's alcohol ban: reinventing a broken wheel

Back in the 1920s, Al Capone was a notorious gangster and bootlegger who ran the streets of Chicago. He rose from being a street thug to becoming an underworld mob boss when he took advantage of the era of alcohol prohibition in the US in the 1920 and 1930s when the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcohol was outlawed.

Capone made tonnes of money smuggling illegally imported alcohol into the US, in defiance of the ban, wresting control of the lucrative illicit market. He was, at the height of his reign and terror, named America’s most wanted gangster by the federal government.

The idea behind the Volstead Act of 1919 — which outlawed the production and sale of alcohol — was ostensibly to minimise the harm that alcohol consumption was doing to society.

August 13 2020 - 17:13

PODCAST | Is SA ready for lockdown level 2?

The president was in consultation on Wednesday night before an expected move to lockdown level 2. But the decision​, following the urging of directors-general, hinges on a nod from the virus command council and the cabinet.

In this episode of the Sunday Times Politics Weekly podcast, the politics team considers SA's readiness to enter level 2 and what that may entail.

August 13 2020 - 15:16

Gauteng promises to name every company that scored Covid-19 tenders

Gauteng premier David Makhura has promised to name every company that scored from Covid-19 tenders.

This is in addition to his announcement last week that the State Security Agency would conduct lifestyle audits on all members of his provincial cabinet — and comes amid allegations of tender irregularities at the provincial department of health.

Makhura made the commitment during this week’s command council update on Thursday.

August 13 2020 - 15:09

Covid-19 creates conflict over English school leavers' results

England's exam authority awarded lower grades than teachers had predicted to almost 40% of pupils studying for their main school-leaving exams, results showed on Thursday, after the government cancelled the exams due to Covid-19.

Overall results were up on a year ago, but many teachers said their pupils had been unfairly treated while others raised concerns that the system adopted by the Ofqual exam board regulator favoured students at private schools.

The stakes are high for school leavers, whose places at the universities or training colleges of their choice hang on their grades.

August 13 2020 - 13:44

'Don't lift bans on alcohol and tobacco': ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini

ANC Women's League president Bathabile Dlamini has reiterated the league's opposition to the lifting of the ban on alcohol and cigarettes sales as pressure mounts on President Cyril Ramaphosa to open the economy.

Dlamini told TimesLIVE that the league had not changed its position on the matter and it stood by a submission the organisation made to the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) in May.

August 13 2020 - 12:52

Social distancing working in Gauteng but risks loom with schools opening

If schools open fully at month end, the predicted peak for Covid-19 could be brought forward and the number of infections could double, says an expert.

The data prediction was presented by Prof Bruce Mellado of Wits University during the week’s Covid-19 provincial command council update on Thursday.

Mellado is one of the experts helping the Gauteng government with a modelling strategy for Covid-19 using the data from the previous months.

August 13 2020 - 12:15

'Unban alcohol sales now': calls from across the industry grow louder

Various organisations and politicians are calling for the alcohol sales ban to be lifted. The sale and distribution of alcohol was reintroduced in June, more than two months after a ban was implemented on March 26.

But a second ban was imposed in July with President Cyril Ramaphosa insisting it was to help reduce trauma-related injuries in hospitals as the country battled to halt the spread of Covid-19.

TimesLIVE reported that the government has been advised by the Forum of SA Directors-General (Fosad) to rethink the ban and the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) suggested that the country be moved to level 2 of the lockdown. The council met on Sunday to discuss reopening the majority of the country.

August 13 2020 - 12:00

Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 20.69 million, death toll at 749,028

More than 20.69 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 749,028​ have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. 

-REUTERS

August 13 2020 - 08:31

Coronavirus infection rate among health workers in SA is 5% — below global average

A total of 27,360 SA hospital workers — which include doctors, nurses, porters and other hospital staff — have contracted Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak.

Two-hundred-and-forty of them have died from the virus, the health ministry announced on Thursday.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize said data provided by the provinces had revealed that 21,333 of these infections — 78% — had been reported from employees in the public health sector.

August 13 2020 - 07:52

Mkhize mourns paediatric cardiologist Lungile Pepeta, who died from Covid-19

Health minister Zweli Mkhize has paid homage to the chairperson of the Council for Medical Schemes, Prof Lungile Pepeta, who died from Covid-19 related complications last week.

Pepeta had been appointed to the position in June after the death of the previous chairperson, Dr Clarence Mini, in May, who also succumbed to Covid-19.

“SA has lost one of her best sons — confident, knowledgeable, articulate and inspiring ... one of the top thinkers, a brilliant mind, an outstanding academic and a pioneering researcher.

“He was a visionary who held high hopes for our country and an innovator who always harboured dreams of a better SA and spent time figuring out strategies to take this nation to the future of his ideals,” Mkhize said.

August 13 2020 - 07:24

Nearly 30,000 SA health workers infected with Covid-19

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has revealed that 27,360 health workers have been infected with Covid-19 since February.

August 13 2020 - 07:15

Report to court shows departments face challenges in supplying school meals

The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) is ready to implement on a full scale but due to fears of Covid-19, parents are not allowing pupils to collect the meals.

Long distances from schools also prevent pupils from coming to school to collect the meals and this affects the number of pupils benefiting from the programme.

These submissions are contained in an affidavit filed by department of basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli in compliance with a judgment passed by the high court in Pretoria on July 22.

August 13 2020 - 06:32

Worldwide coronavirus cases cross 20.62 million, death toll at 748,063

More than 20.62 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 748,063​ have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

-REUTERS

August 13 2020 - 06:00

SA far from safe, but signs of Covid-19 herd immunity are showing

It might take fewer infected people to achieve Covid-19 herd immunity than previously thought — and some spots in SA are already showing signs of this happening.

Herd immunity is when a disease can’t find new people to infect in a community because enough people have become immune. This comes about from many people having been infected and thus developing antibodies, or when enough people have been vaccinated so that transmission is properly interrupted.

With no vaccine in the mix yet, the antibody road to herd immunity has had scientists working non-stop to figure out the relationship between Covid-19 and how easily reinfection occurs.