COVID-19 WRAP | 51 more deaths recorded in SA

April 27 2021 - 22:03

51 more deaths recorded in SA

There were 880 new cases of Covid-19 recorded in SA, according to the latest statistics released by the health department on Tuesday. 

The cumulative number of cases in the country is now 1,577,200.

There were also 51 more deaths recorded, bringing the total number of deaths in SA to 54,237.

April 27 2021 - 19:42

Russia's Sputnik V developers reject Brazil's criticisms

Russian developers of Sputnik V rejected Brazil's criticisms of the Covid-19 shot, saying on Tuesday that its refusal to approve the vaccine for use was not justified on scientific grounds.

The board of Brazil's health regulator Anvisa voted unanimously not to approve Covid-19 after technical staff warned of flaws in its development along with incomplete data regarding the vaccine's safety and efficacy.

State governors in Brazil had earlier asked permission to use Sputnik V as they battle a deadly second wave of the virus.

A crucial issue for the Brazilian regulator was the risk of other viruses used to make the vaccine reproducing in patients, which Anvisa's medicines and biological products manager Gustavo Mendes called a "serious" defect.

Denis Logunov, the main developer of Sputnik V, denied that the two viral vectors, or adenoviruses, used to produce the Covid-19 shot could replicate.

He said every batch underwent rigorous checks both by the Gamaleya Institute and the Russian health watchdog and none had shown the presence of adenoviruses that could replicate.

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 18:56

Number of French Covid-19 patients in ICUs below 6,000 again

French health authorities said on Tuesday that the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs) fell by 58 to 5,943, after the ICU tally set a one-year high of 6,001 on Monday.

The total number of people in hospital with Covid-19 also fell, by 315 to 30,281, a 17-day low, health ministry data showed.

The ministry reported 325 new Covid-19 deaths in hospitals, compared to 398 on Monday. 

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 17:50

Italy reports 373 coronavirus deaths and 10,404 new cases

Italy reported 373 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 301 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 10,404 from 8,444.

Italy has registered 119,912 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.98 million cases to date.

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 17:31

UK records 2,685 new Covid cases, 17 deaths on Tuesday

Britain recorded 2,685 new cases of Covid-19 and 17 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Tuesday, according to official government data.

That compares to 2,064 new cases and six deaths reported a day earlier.

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 17:29

US probing two new blood clot cases after J&J's Covid-19 vaccine

Two new cases of blood clots after administration of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine are being investigated by federal health officials, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

One case was in a male and the other was in a female, both of whom were below 60 years, according to the agency, taking the total number of confirmed such cases to 17 out of 8 million shots given.

April 27 2021 - 17:18

Kazakhstan rolls out its own Covid-19 vaccine

Kazakhstan on Tuesday launched its own, domestically-developed vaccine for mass inoculations against Covid-19, starting with popular locations such as shopping malls.

Almost a million people in the former Soviet republic of 19 million have already received the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine that Kazakhstan both imports and produces domestically.

The Central Asian republic's sovereign wealth fund has also ordered a million doses of Chinese-developed Sinopharm vaccine.

But this week, the oil-exporting country made its own vaccine available to the general public, with healthcare minister Alexei Tsoi receiving a jab in front of the media.

Like Sputnik V, the QazVac vaccine is delivered in two shots with a three-week interval.

QazVac is currently in a stage 3 trial to be completed by July. All 222 people who participated in the first two stages have developed immunity to Covid-19, with no major side-effects reported, according to its Kazakh developer, the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems.

Reuters

April 27 2021 2021 - 16:23

French health minister say no trace of Indian Covid variant in Paris area

Health minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday that the South African variant of the Covid-19 virus is on the rise in the Paris area but that no Indian variant has been detected in the region around the capital. 

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 16:15

Britain says 33.8 million people have had first Covid-19 vaccine dose

Britain's health ministry on Tuesday said 33,843,580 people had received a first Covid-19 vaccine dose, adding that a quarter of adults in the country had now received both doses of a coronavirus shot. 

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 15:36

Ireland approves AstraZeneca, J&J vaccines for over-50s

The Irish government has agreed to allow the use of both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines for people over 50 years old, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Tuesday.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been paused by health authorities and AstraZeneca was only allowed for those over 60.

The country is broadly on target in its rollout, Martin told journalists when asked if he expected to achieve its goal of vaccinating 80% of the adult population by the end of June.

Reuters

April 27 2021 - 11:03

Loss of livelihoods: 216 more businesses go bang

A total of 216 liquidations recorded this March is an increase of 49% compared with the same month last year, says Statistics SA.

Voluntary liquidations increased by 61 cases and compulsory liquidations increased by 10 cases.

The total number of liquidations increased by 18.9% in the first four months of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020.

Financing, insurance, real estate, business services (77 liquidations), trade, catering, and accommodation (47), and manufacturing (10) are the hardest hit, Beyond-Covid, a registered non-for-profit company, said of the data released by StatsSA on Monday.

April 27 2021 - 08:34

Brazil health regulator rejects Russia's Sputnik vaccine

The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Monday rejected importing the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine requested by state governors battling a deadly second wave of the virus that is battering Latin America's largest nation.

Anvisa's five-strong board voted unanimously not to approve the Russian vaccine after technical staff had highlighted "inherent risks" and "serious" defects, citing a lack of information guaranteeing its safety, quality and effectiveness.

Ana Carolina Moreira Marino Araujo, general manager for health monitoring, said that taking into account all the documentation presented, data acquired at in-person inspections and information from other regulators, "inherent risks" were too great.

April 27 2021 - 08:31

India asks Twitter to take down some tweets critical of its Covid-19 handling

The Indian government asked social media platform Twitter to take down dozens of tweets, including some by local lawmakers, that were critical of its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, as cases of Covid-19 again hit a world record.

Twitter has withheld some of the tweets after the legal request by the Indian government, a company spokeswoman told Reuters on Saturday.

The government made an emergency order to censor the tweets, Twitter disclosed on Lumen database, a Harvard University project.

April 27 2021 - 08:30

Australia to consider proposal to suspend flights from India

Australia is set to consider a proposal on Tuesday to suspend flights from India to prevent more virulent coronavirus variants entering the country following a surge in positive Covid-19 cases in the world's second-most populous nation.

Queensland state has urged the federal government to halt all flights from India due to the high risk of potential Covid-19 outbreaks from highly contagious virus variants in Australia's hotel quarantine system.

"I sent a letter to the Prime Minister at the end of last week asking for the suspension of flights coming in from India ... and I know that the federal government is considering it today," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday.

April 27 2021 - 08:27

Congo to lose 1.3 million Covid-19 shots after delayed distribution

Health authorities are reallocating around 75% of Democratic Republic of Congo's 1.7 million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses to other African countries to make sure they're used before they expire, a UNICEF representative said on Monday.

Congo received the doses from the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility on March 2, but delayed the rollout after several European countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca shot in response to reports of rare blood clots.

The country began its vaccination campaign on April 19, but had administered doses to just 1,265 people out of its population of over 85 million as of Saturday, according to the state biomedical research laboratory.

April 27 2021 - 08:26

Egypt approves China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use

Egypt's drug authority said on Monday it had granted approval to China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.

Egypt has so far approved and received shipments of the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines, and has said it is preparing to produce up to 80 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine locally.

April 26 2021 - 07:00

SA has recorded 10,545,817 Covid-19 tests