COVID-19 WRAP | 5,000 Durban buses and taxis to be sanitised daily in city's fight against Covid-19

January 29 2021 - 18:42

Ster-Kinekor enters business rescue, but cinemas will stay open

Ster-Kinekor announced on Friday that it had commenced voluntary business rescue proceedings on Wednesday, despite its theatres being open nationwide.

In a statement, Ster-Kinekor said its board of directors took the decision in an attempt to facilitate the rehabilitation of the company.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown instituted by government at the end of March 2020, all cinemas were required to shut down, and only permitted to reopen under strict conditions as from the end of August 2020.

January 29 2021 - 18:22

Equal Education says R431m spent on 'unnecessary decontamination' could have built five schools

Equal education says the R431m used by the Gauteng education department on the deep-cleaning of schools could have been used to build five new facilities in the province.

This week, it emerged that the department spent the money from June last year, when schools reopened, until December.

Equal Education said on Friday that Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi owed the public answers, including how the spending on deep-cleaning was authorised when it was not required by the basic education department's Covid-19  standard operating procedures.

January 29 2021 - 18:00

Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine proven 57% effective in SA

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday that its single-dose vaccine was 66% effective in preventing Covid-19 in a large global trial against multiple variants which will give health officials another weapon to tackle the coronavirus.

In the trial of nearly 44,000 volunteers, the level of protection against moderate and severe Covid-19 varied from 72% in the US, to 66% in Latin America and just 57% in SA, from where a worrying variant has spread.

A high bar has been set by two authorised vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which were around 95% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in pivotal trials when given in two doses.

January 29 2021 - 17:01

DA calls for answers on R260m invoiced by SANDF for 'emergency' Cuban drug

The DA is demanding that the Military Command Council (MCC) and minister of defence and military veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula appear before parliament to account for the millions the defence force spent on an unregistered Cuban drug to fight Covid-19.

Its call comes in the wake of a statement by the SA National Defence Force on Friday in which it said it had procured Heberon interferon-alfa-2b, a skin cancer drug, from Cuba for use solely by its members who were employed to assist the country in managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

In December, TimesLIVE reported that the auditor-general had confirmed that the defence department had been invoiced an amount of R260m for Heberon interferon alfa-2b, “an unregistered medical drug from Cuba”.

January 29 2021 - 15:30

Gauteng premier claims his hands are clean in PPE corruption

Gauteng premier David Makhura has asked the Special Tribunal to rectify an error which seems to purport that he is linked to Covid-19 personal protective equipment corruption.

Makhura has asked the Special Tribunal judge to clarify that in her affidavit, the former department of health CFO Kabelo Lehloenya did not say she received names of who should get the PPE contracts from Makhura himself but rather from his office, which could be anyone.

The mistake, Makhura insists, was made by the judge in his ruling which directly implicated him instead of his office. He says Lehloenya, in her affidavit, did not say she got the names from Makhura personally.

January 29 2021 - 14:13

5,000 Durban buses and taxis to be sanitised daily in city's fight against Covid-19

For the next two months, 5,000 buses and taxis belonging to 112 associations in the greater Durban area will be sanitised every day.

In a bid to limit the spread of Covid 19, Durban taxi organisations launched a public transport sanitation programme on Friday

The eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA) has joined forces with the eThekwini Metro Taxi Council (EMTC) and the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) to provide sanitising equipment to bus and taxi ranks across five regions around the city.

January 29 2021 - 11:54

SANDF clarifies use of interferon drugs for its members

The SA National Defence Force (SANDF) says it has procured the drug interferon for use solely by its members who are employed to assist the country in managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It should be mentioned that interferon is not a vaccine and does not treat Covid-19 pneumonia among hospitalised patients, but it confers heightened protection against Covid-19 ... to attack natural interferons of the victim,” the SANDF said in a statement.

January 29 2021 - 11:22

Blade Nzimande urges health students to 'volunteer' to help with Covid-19 vaccine rollout

Higher education minister Blade Nzimande has called on health students to assist the health department with the Covid-19 vaccine rollout on a volunteer basis.

Speaking at the Higher Health webinar this week, Nzimande said the health department couldn't vaccinate 40 million people all by itself.

He said his department needed to play its part as a sector.

January 29 2021 - 10:30

AstraZeneca to seek Japan's approval of Covid-19 vaccine as early as mid-February

AstraZeneca Plc will file for Japanese approval of its Covid-19 vaccine as early as mid-February, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, making it the second vaccine maker to seek approval in Japan.

January 29 2021 - 10:02

Here's why tweaking Covid-19 vaccines to fight variants won't be simple

After developing and rolling out Covid-19 vaccines at record speed, drugmakers are already facing variants of the rapidly-evolving coronavirus that may render them ineffective, a challenge that will require months of research and a huge financial investment, according to disease experts.

Executives from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE are considering new versions of their vaccines to respond to the most concerning variants identified so far. That is just one piece of the work needed to stay ahead of the virus, nearly a dozen experts told Reuters.

January 29 2021 - 10:00

India's Serum applies to conduct local trial for Novavax vaccine — CEO

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, has applied to local authorities to conduct a small domestic trial of Novavax Inc's Covid-19 vaccine, which was found to be 89.3% effective in a UK trial.

January 29 2021 - 09:12

WHO-led team in Wuhan probing Covid origins meet Chinese scientists

A World Health Organisation-led team of experts investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic began meeting with Chinese scientists on Friday, and the WHO said the group plans to visit labs, markets and hospitals in Wuhan.

On Thursday, the team completed two weeks of quarantine after its arrival in China, moving to a lakeside hotel in the central Chinese city where the deadly virus emerged in late 2019.

January 29 2021 - 09:01

Philippines to relax ban on visitors from countries with UK Covid-19 variant

The Philippines will relax travel curbs on foreigners coming from more than 30 countries that have detected cases of the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus starting from next month, the presidential spokesman said on Friday.

January 29 2021 - 08:38

Novavax vaccine trial 'shows efficacy against Covid-19 UK, SA variants'

The Novavax vaccine has demonstrated not only high clinical efficacy against the prototype SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, but also significant clinical effectiveness against both the rapidly emerging South African and UK variants.

January 29 2021 - 07:00

Pretoria restaurateur angry as police refuse to give back R112k of seized alcohol

A Pretoria-based restaurateur is livid that police have refused to release R112,000 worth of alcohol that was seized from his establishment last week. 

TimesLIVE reported how police officers raided Hennie's Moreleta Restaurant in Pretoria at the weekend, accusing his staff of serving alcohol before seizing his stock and detaining an employee for eight hours. 

January 29 2021 - 06:45

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 14,022 to 2,192,850 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 14,022 to 2,192,850, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by 839 to 55,752, the tally showed.

Reuters

January 29 2021 - 06:00

Vaccines for Africa! CDC director announces 670 million doses

The AU has secured 670 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the continent.

This was revealed by Africa Centres for Disease (CDC) director Dr John Nkengasong on Thursday at his weekly pandemic briefing.

Nearly 3,5 million infections and 87,937 deaths were reported in Africa by then, out of almost 100 million infections and two million deaths worldwide.