COVID-19 WRAP | SA Covid-19 death toll rises to 52,535

March 25 2021 - 22:47

SA records 163 Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours

SA recorded 163 Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, the majority coming from Limpopo, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.

In the same period, there were 1,554 new infections recorded.

This means that there have been 52,535 total fatalities recorded across SA and 1,541,563 confirmed cases.

The new cases came from 32,002 tests at a positivity rate of 4.85%.

March 25 2021 - 19:19

Zambia sets out plans to vaccinate all people over 18 against Covid-19

Zambia announced plans on Thursday to vaccinate all people over 18, or 46% of the 18.3 million population, against Covid-19 as it prepares for a third wave of the pandemic.

The southern African country has registered more than 87,000 cases of COVID-19 and the death toll from the disease is more than 1,000.

Health Minister Jonas Chanda said health workers, the police, security officers, teachers and the clergy would be among those given priority in the vaccination campaign.

March 25 2021 - 15:37

Survey detects overall willingness to accept Covid-19 vaccine in 19 countries

Two-thirds of citizens polled in 19 African countries have indicated a willingness to accept Covid-19 vaccines.

But the sentiment varied across the continent, according to a report released by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to Covid-19 (PERC).

March 25 2021 - 15:16

PODCAST | We have paid a hefty mental toll — a year since the land fell quiet

“We are now living in world where grief itself is transmitted globally,” says Wits University historian Prof Hlonipha Mokoena.

That's a far cry from a year ago, when we as a country were just about to go into lockdown.

March 25 2021 - 14:10

Government confirms Easter plan under discussion, spells out dates for vaccine rollout

The national coronavirus command council (NCCC) is considering proposals on how to manage the spread of the coronavirus over the Easter holidays, acting minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has confirmed.

“The NCCC is considering measures that should be implemented during that period and we cannot discuss the advice provided either by the ministerial advisory committee or the Nat-joint to the NCCC,” said Ntshavheni on Thursday.

Ntshavheni also revealed that phase 1 of the Covid-19 vaccination rollout plan will only be concluded on May 17.

March 25 2021 - 13:44

Churches await government decision on Easter weekend restrictions

With the Easter weekend looming, churches are waiting for the government to announce whether it will temporarily tighten lockdown restrictions on gatherings as a precautionary measure against the spread of Covid-19.

Last year, due to stringent lockdown regulations, churches had to shut their doors and could not partake in the Easter celebrations.  

Health minister Zweli Mkhize told the SABC in an interview on Wednesday evening that super-spreader events needed to be discouraged over the long weekend.

March 25 2021 - 13:19

EU's vaccine failure is because it didn't 'shoot for the stars,' Macron says

European leaders failed to see that Covid-19 vaccines would be developed as soon as they were and this was why rollouts in the EU now lagged behind some other countries, France's president Emmanuel Macron said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

“Everybody, all the experts said: Never in the history of mankind was a vaccine developed in less than a year,” Macron told Greek television channel ERT.

March 25 2021 - 13:16

Vaccine failures cast shadow over EU summit as Covid-19 surges

EU leaders meet on Thursday to discuss a co-ordinated path out of the Covid-19 pandemic as infections surge again in many of their countries, seeking agreement on how to ramp up supplies of vaccines after a feeble start to inoculation.

Ahead of the summit, France's President Emmanuel Macron spelt out the frustration over vaccine rollouts that are far behind those of Britain and the US, acknowledging that European leaders had been too timid.

March 25 2021 - 13:13

Nine African countries take delivery of Covid-19 vaccines donated by MTN Group

The first 723,000 of up to 7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses that MTN Group is donating to African countries have arrived in nine nations, the AU's disease control body said on Thursday.

Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong told a news conference that Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritius and Togo had received doses from the South African telecoms company.

March 25 2021 - 11:38

SA's Covid-19 adviser Prof Salim Abdool Karim steps down

The country's head of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, Salim Abdool Karim, has stepped down from his position saying he needs to devote his attention to science and research.

Abdool Karim made the announcement during an interview on SAfm on Thursday morning, when he corrected presenter Stephen Grootes who referred to him as the ministerial advisory committee (MAC) chair.

March 25 2021 - 11:33

No, booze will not be banned for 21 days

The government will not implement a 21-day booze ban, contrary to a viral post that has been doing the rounds.

Head of digital communications in the presidency Athi Geleba on Wednesday dismissed rumours circulating on social media about a looming ban on the sale of alcohol as a measure to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

March 25 2021 - 11:19

Coronavirus fallout traps more Congolese girls in sex work

When Naomie's mother asked the teenager to join her as a sex worker in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo last September, she knew it was a matter of survival for the family.

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic — from rising food prices to a curfew resulting in fewer clients for her mother — left the 15-year-old with no choice but to take to the streets.

March 25 2021 - 10:49

Emmerson Mnangagwa receives first jab as he promotes vaccinations

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some opposition politicians received a Covid-19 jab in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls on Wednesday, a month after the country started its vaccination programme.

In a country where suspicion and scepticism often trump facts, Mnangagwa's vaccination at a public event, together with opposition leaders, was meant to assure citizens that the vaccines were safe.

March 25 2021 - 10:35

AstraZeneca says Covid-19 vaccine 76% effective in new analysis, to seek US approval

AstraZeneca's said its Covid-19 vaccine was 76% effective in a new analysis of its US trial — only a tad lower than the level in an earlier report this week criticised for using outdated data.

Interim data published on Monday had put the vaccine's efficacy rate at 79% but had not included more recent infections, leading to a highly unusual public rebuke from US health officials.

March 25 2021 - 09:30

Covid-19 has set back alarmingly the fight against TB, says WHO

The year 2020 has become synonymous with Covid-19, as the pandemic swept throughout the globe. But a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has painted a bleak picture about the affect that the pandemic has had on tuberculosis control efforts.

The affect was particularly severe in high-burden countries such as SA, where TB testing alone had dropped by almost 50%.