COVID-19 WRAP | 76,037 health-care workers vaccinated in SA

02 March 2021 - 07:34

By TimesLIVE

March 02 2021 - 21:30

Ghana kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign with Covax shots

Ghana launched its coronavirus vaccination drive on Tuesday after receiving 600,000 AstraZeneca doses from the global Covax vaccine-sharing scheme aimed at helping developing nations combat the pandemic.

The start of vaccinations in Ghana, and in neighbouring Ivory Coast on Monday, and the expected delivery of millions of vaccines from the Covax programme this week will enable more poor countries to start inoculating mostly front-line workers and the most vulnerable, months after wealthier countries began.

Covax is the programme backed by the World Health Organisation and GAVI vaccine alliance to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries. It said on Tuesday it aims to deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca's shot to 142 countries by the end of May as it steps up the global rollout.

March 02 2021 - 20:07

Contagious Brazil Covid-19 variant evades immunity, scientists warn

A highly transmissible Covid-19 variant that emerged in Brazil and has now been found in at least 20 countries can reinfect people who previously recovered from the disease, scientists said on Tuesday.

In a study of the mutant virus's emergence and its spread in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus, the scientists said the variant — known as P. 1 — has a “unique constellation of mutations” and had very rapidly become the dominant variant circulating there.

Out of 100 people in Manaus who had previously recovered from infection with the coronavirus, “somewhere between 25 and 61 of them are susceptible to reinfection with P. 1,” said Nuno Faria, a virus expert at Imperial College London, who co-led the research which has not yet been peer reviewed.

March 02 2021 - 17:56

Pharmacists add their voices to ivermectin campaign

A group of pharmacists have joined the legal chorus seeking to get blanket approval for the use of ivermectin, presently only registered in SA for veterinary and agricultural use, for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.

The application by the eight pharmacists, who operate under the Pharma Valu chain of pharmacies, will be heard along with three others instituted by AfriForum, the ACDP and a group of 55 doctors callings themselves the “I can make a difference doctors and medical practitioners group” at the end of March.

Attorney Kuben Moodley, who represents the doctors, said the applications had been allocated to Pretoria high court judge Cassim Sardiwalla to case manage and determine.

March 02 2021 - 17:35

David Mabuza gives thumbs up to vaccine cold-storage facility

Deputy President David Mabuza has given the Biovac Institute, where the county's Covid-19 vaccines are being stored, the thumbs up.

“What we have learnt today is that the cold-chain can be broken for some days and that won’t alter the quality of the vaccine. However, it cannot go beyond a certain number of days,” said Mabuza on Tuesday, shortly after a walkabout inside the cold rooms where the vaccines are being stored in Gauteng.

The visit follows a decision by the interministerial committee on Covid-19 vaccines, chaired by Mabuza, to visit various sites established for the purposes of the vaccine rollout.

March 02 2021 - 16:43

Covax to deliver 237 million vaccine doses to 142 nations by end of May

The Covax vaccine sharing programme said on Tuesday it will deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot to 142 countries by the end of May as it steps up the global rollout of its vaccine supplies.

The timeline for the delivery of doses, made by AstraZeneca and by India’s Serum Institute, will be split into separate two-month schedules, Covax said, with the first in February and March and the second in April and May.

“These timelines are dependent on factors including national regulatory requirements, availability of supply and fulfilment of other criteria such as validated national deployment and vaccination plans,” Covax said.

March 02 2021 - 15:00

Woman dies from brain haemorrhage in Japan days after vaccine, but link uncertain

A Japanese woman in her 60s died from a brain haemorrhage three days after receiving a Pfizer coronavirus vaccination, the health ministry said on Tuesday, adding that there may not be a link between the two.

The woman was vaccinated on Friday and is suspected to have suffered a brain haemorrhage three days later, on Monday, it said. It was Japan's first reported death after a vaccination.

“The brain haemorrhage that is suspected as a cause is relatively common among people from their 40s to their 60s, and at this time, based on examples overseas, there does not seem to be a link between brain haemorrhages and the coronavirus vaccine,” the ministry quoted Tomohiro Morio, a doctor advising the government, as saying.

March 02 2021 - 13:57

Nigeria takes delivery of its first Covid-19 vaccines

Nigeria received its first Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday to kick off an inoculation programme in Africa's most populous nation, delivered under the international Covax scheme.

The West African nation of 200 million people took delivery of 3.92 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Nigeria is the third West African country to receive Covax shots, after Ghana and Ivory Coast, which have both started vaccination campaigns.

March 02 2021 - 13:55

Philippines reports first cases of Covid-19 variant first discovered in SA

The Philippines has documented six cases of the coronavirus variant first discovered in SA, its health ministry said on Tuesday, raising concern among its experts that the current vaccines might be less effective.

The Philippines started its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Monday, an important milestone for a country among the hardest hit by the pandemic in Asia, but the discovery of another variant could complicate its recovery effort.

"While there is no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease, the pattern of mutations within this variant suggests higher transmissibility and may have an impact on vaccine efficacy," the health ministry said in a statement.

March 02 2021 - 13:54

Level 1 lockdown: here is what can get you fined or arrested

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has outlined level 1 lockdown changes and some restrictions.

On Monday, Dlamini-Zuma published the new gazette that confirms the move to lockdown level 1, after President Cyril Ramaphosa's address to the nation on Sunday.

Ramaphosa said the country had emerged from the second wave, with fewer than 10,000 new Covid-19 infections recorded in the past week compared to December last year and January.

March 02 2021 - 13:53

Fraudsters offer 1 billion Covid-19 doses across EU

Dubious intermediaries have offered governments across the European Union about 1 billion non-existent Covid-19 vaccine doses worth about €14bn, the bloc's anti-fraud agency told Reuters on Monday.

Such middleman are asking for advance payments and giving no delivery details, Ville Itala, the head of the European anti-fraud office OLAF, said, stressing that pharmaceutical companies insist they sell directly to governments.

“It's quite huge,” he added.

March 02 2021 - 13:42

Government ‘admits’ private sector may purchase Covid-19 vaccines: AfriForum and Solidarity

AfriForum and Solidarity on Tuesday said there were no legal restrictions on the purchasing of Covid-19 vaccines and called on the private sector to start buying and distributing them in SA.

They announced at a media briefing that the government had admitted in an affidavit — responding to their legal challenge on the procurement of vaccines — that there were no restrictions preventing the private sector from purchasing vaccines.

COO of Solidarity Dirk Hermann charged that the government did not have the ability to manage the vaccine rollout process alone.

March 02 2021 - 07:36

Public sector unions want 12% of basic salary Covid-19 risk allowance

Public sector unions want a general salary rise of consumer inflation plus 4% for all workers, a document they presented to the government showed on Monday, as talks began on a wage deal seen as key to helping the government contain its spiralling debt.

The list of 16 demands, which includes better housing payments and a risk allowance of 12% of basic salary due to the Covid-19 pandemic, comes amid a court fight between the unions representing more than 1 million teachers, nurses and police and the state over salaries.

Public sector unions, including those from the Cosatu federation aligned with the ANC, have approached the country's highest court to try to force the National Treasury to pay the final tranche of the preceding three-year wage settlement struck in 2018.

March 02 2021 - 07:35

Nigeria to receive 3.92-million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday

Nigeria launched an online registration portal for Covid-19 vaccinations, its primary healthcare agency said on Monday, the day before the first doses are expected to arrive for its 200 million people.

Osindeinde Ademilayo Abodede, a healthcare worker, was the first to register for the vaccine, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said in a Tweet on Monday. Her appointment was scheduled for March 12 in Abuja.

"Our goal is to introduce Covid-19 vaccine in a phased and equitable manner...ultimately vaccinating all eligible Nigerians within the next two years, to ensure herd immunity," Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement posted to Twitter.