COVID-19 WRAP | SA records 2,327 Covid-19 cases and 230 deaths in 24 hours

February 18 2021 - 23:24

SA records 2,327 Covid-19 cases and 230 deaths in 24 hours

SA recorded 2,327 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases to date to 1,498,766.

The new cases came from 34,556 tests at a positivity rate of 6.73%.

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize also announced on Thursday that 230 new Covid-19 related deaths had been recorded in the past 24 hours. This means that 48,708 fatalities from the coronavirus have now been confirmed.

February 18 2021 - 18:43

Zimbabwe's vice-president becomes first citizen to get Covid-19 vaccine

"Life can never be bought. Once you die, that’s it."

These were the words of Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga as he became the first citizen to get the first shot of the two-dose Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday.

The retired army general who doubles up as health minister volunteered to take his jab in public at Wilkins Hospital, a Covid-19 centre in Harare, as part of the government’s effort to get buy-in from a sceptical public.

February 18 2021 - 15:30

UK Black and South Asian groups lagging behind white people in COVID-19 vaccinations

Only 55% of Black people in England aged between 70 to 79 had been vaccinated against Covid-19 by February 11, compared to 86% of white people in this age group, according to early research on England's coronavirus vaccination programme.

Among people from South Asian backgrounds the figure stood at 73 percent, according to a study by OpenSafely, run by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

These ethnic groups have been particularly hard hit by Covid-19 with a disproportionate number of deaths. Government advisers have said that factors such as living circumstances and profession are driving the increased risk.

Reuters

February 18 2021 - 15:05

'We eat pap and cabbage': Air Chefs staff crippled financially by pandemic

Crippled by debt, surviving on pap and selling valuables to buy school stationery.

This is the bleak reality for many employees of SAA subsidiary Air Chefs - which provides in-flight catering services to airlines - who have gone without normal salaries since March 2020.

Brian* has worked there for the past 15 years. He said the company was hit hard when the nationwide lockdown was imposed and only a handful employees worked during repatriation flights. This was also the last time he received his full salary of R11,800. Since then, he has relied on the temporary employee relief scheme (Ters).

February 18 2021 - 12:32

Cigarette lockdown ban: Big brands still suffering as smokers choose cheap

The legal multinationals' market share of the sale of cigarettes went from 70% (pre-ban) to 33% (in ban) to 50% (post-ban), a survey shows.

The prohibition did not prevent smoking either: 85% of smokers kept smoking during the cigarette ban, only 8% quit and half of those who stopped smoking indicated they started smoking again once the ban was lifted.

This data is provided in the latest National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile survey (Nids-Cram).

February 18 2021 - 12:19

Nairobi airport ready to switch from fruit to vaccines

Kenya's main airport in Nairobi will find it easy to switch from handling fruit to importing vaccines because it already has extensive cold storage, a leading logistics executive says.

Farm commodities such as fresh fruit and vegetables, which must be kept cold before being loaded onto planes at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, are among Kenya's main exports.

“The fortunate thing about Jomo Kenyatta is it has the biggest capacity within the East Africa region because of the nature of our trade,” said Daniel Tanui, MD of Mitchell Cotts, one of the biggest logistics companies in the country.

February 18 2021 - 12:14

Mask wearing has increased for all groups, irrespective of Covid-19 beliefs

South Africans have widely adopted face masks to counter the threat of Covid-19 but are slipping on social distancing and hand washing.

This is according to the latest National Income Dynamics Study — Coronavirus Rapid Mobile survey (Nids-Cram)

Reported mask wearing has increased for all groups over time, irrespective of Covid-19 beliefs, the survey shows.

February 18 2021 - 10:47

Doctor who did Covid ward rounds with tears in her eyes relieved as KZN receives almost 11,000 vaccines

A doctor at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, south of Durban, has told of how staff who manned Covid-19 wards with tears in their eyes since the pandemic hit were “relieved” to receive the vaccine on Thursday.

Dr Nerika Maharaj, a specialist physician, at the hospital was the first health-care worker to receive the vaccine.

“We've been running and managing the Covid ward throughout the pandemic. We have all been extremely relieved for this day — [it is a] really big and momentous day for all of us,” Maharaj said.

February 18 2021 - 10:00

China arrests scammers for selling saline and mineral water as 'Covid-19 vaccine'

Chinese law enforcement have arrested the leader of a gang who packaged and sold around 58,000 doses of saline and mineral water solutions as a Covid-19 vaccine.

Chinese state media Global Times reported that the scammer, known as Kong, had worked with several others to replicate existing vaccine packaging.

According to the Hindustan Times, the gang told potential buyers that they were able to secure the vaccine because they knew someone inside credible vaccine manufacturers.

February 18 2021 - 08:34

Politics plays pivotal role in how the public buys into the Covid-19 vaccine, survey shows

There is a strong relationship between politics and willingness to accept the Covid-19 vaccine.

This is the evidence presented in a study released on Wednesday.

The study — by the University of Johannesburg’s sociology department and the Human Sciences Research Council titled “Who wants the vaccine, who doesn’t and why” — revealed that people who were not willing to participate in elections and vote, and who did not support any political party, had a very low level of acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccine and would most likely not take it.

February 18 2021 - 08:24

India to test travellers from Brazil, SA, UK after detecting new virus strains

India will make Covid-19 molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, SA and Brazil in a bid to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries.

India, which has reported the highest number of overall Covid-19 cases after the US, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month.

The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person's lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant.

February 18 2021 - 08:05

Researchers urge delay in administering Pfizer vaccine's second dose, cite strong data

Researchers on Wednesday urged governments to delay administering the second dose of Pfizer Inc's Covid-19 vaccine, which they said had an efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose.

The researchers, Danuta Skowronski and Gaston De Serres, said their findings were derived from Pfizer's documents submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration.

These findings were also similar to the first-dose efficacy of 92.1% reported for Moderna Inc's mRNA-1273 vaccine, Skowronski and De Serres said in their letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

February 18 2021 - 07:30

Johnson & Johnson has only a few million COVID-19 vaccine doses in stock as likely launch nears

Johnson & Johnson has only a few million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in its inventory even as likely U.S. regulatory authorization is only a few weeks away, White House officials said on Wednesday.

J&J remains committed to providing 100 million doses by June but deliveries are likely to be "back-end loaded" as J&J works with the U.S. government to boost supply, Jeffrey Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, said during a press call.

“Across the last few weeks we've learned that there is not a big inventory of Johnson and Johnson. There's a few million doses that we’ll start with," Zients said.

J&J said in a statement it intends to immediately begin distributing doses upon U.S. authorization and expects to supply 100 million doses to the United States in the first half of 2021.

-REUTERS

February 18 2021 - 07:15

'Leading from the front'- SA praises Ramaphosa for taking Covid-19 vaccine

President Cyril Ramaphosa was praised by many for leading by example as scores witnessed him receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Khayelitsha Hospital in Cape Town.

80,000 vaccines arrive at OR Tambo on Tuesday, and Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize joined health-care workers who received the first jabs on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa admitted that he was scared to get the injection, saying he was pleased that five health-care workers got jabbed before him. He described the occasion as a milestone for SA.

February 18 2021 - 07:05

Yesterday was practice — today the vaccine rollout hits second-gear

Yesterday was just for practice, today marks the start of the real Covid vaccine dash at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Tshwane.

On Wednesday the hospital did a test run of 20 shots of the 80,000 Johnson and Johnson vaccines which arrived in the country on Tuesday evening.

At 3pm the media witnessed the day's last five recipients starting with the hospital CEO, Dr Mathabo Mathebula, who got her jab at 3.30pm.

February 18 2021 - 06:00

WATCH | Vaccines for Ramaphosa and health-care workers, SA joins Covid-19 vaccination drive

President Cyril Ramaphosa was vaccinated on Wednesday at Khayelitsha District Hospital in Cape Town.

Ramaphosa was one of the first citizens to receive the vaccine, which is first being given to health-care workers across the country.

“At first I was a bit terrified of this long needle that was going to be embedded into my arm, but it happened so quickly, so easily, it was just a prick on my flesh and I really did not feel much pain,” Ramaphosa said afterwards, describing the first vaccinations as a “real milestone” for SA.