COVID-19 WRAP | SA records 1,378 Covid-19 cases

March 20 2021 - 22:48

SA records 1,378 Covid-19 cases

March 20 2021 - 16:49

Portugal to quarantine travellers from South Africa via other countries

Portugal said on Saturday that passengers arriving from South Africa via a stopover in another country must also quarantine for 14 days and present a negative Covid-19 test taken 72 hours before arrival, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

March 20 2021 - 14:45

Three Austrian teachers dismissed after refusing to wear masks

Three Austrian teachers who persistently refused to wear particle filtering masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus have been fired, the Kronen Zeitung newspaper reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, a customer who refused to wear a mask has been banned for five years from the Migros supermarket chain.

Coronavirus fatigue is rising in both countries with protests taking place against restrictions which have seen shops and restaurants closed, and mandatory mask wearing introduced.

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 14:10

Britain hits milestone as half of all adults get first vaccine dose

Half of all adults in Britain have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, becoming the world's first major economy to hit that milestone.

Health minister Matt Hancock said on Twitter the figure had been reached after a record 660,276 shots were administered on Friday.

Israel is the leader in vaccinating its population, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Chile and then the United Kingdom - and investors are watching closely to see which economies could recover first.

"The vaccine is a national success story and our way out of this pandemic," said Hancock, adding that he was "delighted".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson got his first vaccine dose on Friday, receiving AstraZeneca's shot - which several European countries had temporarily stopped using earlier this week over safety fears.

Distributed by the state-run health service, Britain's vaccine roll-out has got off to a blistering start but the government has warned this week of a marked slowdown in April due to a delay of a shipment from India's Serum Institute and because a batch in the UK needed to be retested.

Britain has so far relied on vaccines from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Pfizer and BioNTech.

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 13:32

March 20 2021 - 13:27

Tokyo 2020 organisers say to refund around 600,000 Olympic tickets

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics will refund around 600,000 tickets for the Games and another 300,000 for the Paralympics, the chief executive of the organising committee said.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto made the comment at a news conference on Saturday after organisers said they would bar international spectators from entering Japan for the Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Muto said they would not be announcing how much the refunds would cost. 

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 12:43

SA Covid-19 variant produces antibodies that provide broad protection

People who have been infected with the coronavirus variant responsible for 98% of SA's Covid-19 cases have antibodies that fend off all variants.

The discovery, by National Institute for Communicable Diseases virologist Penny Moore, suggests vaccines might offer protection against all variants of the virus — even those that have not yet evolved.

March 20 2021 - 12:16 

Pakistan PM Khan tests positive for Covid-19, health minister says

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for COVID-19, the country's health minister said on Saturday, two days after the premier got his vaccination.

Khan is "self isolating at home," said minister Faisal Sultan in a tweet, without giving further details as to whether other people who have been in contact with Khan would also be isolating.

Khan, 68, has been holding regular and frequent meetings lately, including attending a security conference held in capital Islamabad that was attended by a large number of people.

He addressed the conference without wearing a mask, and attended another gathering to inaugurate a housing project for poor people in a similar fashion on Friday.

Khan was vaccinated on Thursday.

The South Asian nation of 220 million is seeing a sharp rise in coronavirus infections.

According to numbers released by government, 3,876 people tested positive in the last 24 hours – the highest number of daily infections since early July – taking the total number of infections in the country past 620,000.

Reuters 

March 20 2021 - 11:50

Denmark reports two cases of blood clots after AstraZeneca shot

Denmark on Saturday reported two cases of hospital staff with blood clots and cerebral haemorrhage after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination.

The Capital Region of Denmark, the authority which handles the health care system in Copenhagen, said that one of the hospital staff had died and both had received the AstraZeneca vaccine less than 14 days before getting ill.

The Danish medicines agency confirmed it had received two 'serious reports', without giving further details.

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 10:00

Russia reports 9,632 new Covid-19 cases, 392 deaths

Russia on Saturday reported 9,632 new Covid-19 cases, including 1,728 in Moscow, pushing the national tally of cases to 4,447,570 since the pandemic began.

The government coronavirus taskforce said that 392 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 94,569. 

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 09:57

Picture this ... a country where happiness is a Covid-19 vaccination

A communication company wants to encourage South Africans to be vaccinated against Covid-19 with the help of artfully choreographed images.

BreadCrumbs has created free stock images which it hopes will help to persuade  people to be vaccinated when their time comes.

March 20 2021 - 09:14

India coronavirus cases surge to four-month high, some lockdowns return

India reported 40,953 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the biggest daily jump in nearly four months, with its richest state and economic backbone Maharashtra accounting for more than half the infections.

Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404, the health ministry reported, underscoring a resurgence of the virus in the world's third worst affected country, after the United States and Brazil.

Some regions in India have already reimposed containment measures, including lockdowns and restaurant closures, and more are being considered.

Doctors have blamed the fresh infection wave on people's relaxed attitude to mask-wearing and other social distancing measures, warning that hospital wards were swiftly filling up in states like Maharashtra.

Maharashtra reported a record 25,681 cases, including 3,000 in the financial capital of Mumbai, over the past 24 hours.

The state of 112 million people has imposed a lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels and restaurants until the end of the month.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a wider lockdown is an option, according to local media.

Reuters

March 20 2021 - 09:00

Scientists probe new theories on whether AstraZeneca shot linked to blood clots

Scientists are exploring several possibilities that might explain at least 18 reports of extremely rare blood clots in the brain that occurred in individuals in the days and weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

European investigators have put forward one theory that the vaccine triggers an unusual antibody in some rare cases; others are trying to understand whether the cases are linked with birth control pills.

But many scientists say there is no definitive evidence and it is not clear whether or why AstraZeneca's vaccine would cause an issue not shared by other vaccines that target a similar part of the coronavirus.

Most of the rare blood clots have been seen in women and most cases have been reported in Europe. Two cases have been reported in India.

Reuters