COVID-19 WRAP | SA records more than 5,000 new Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

June 05 2021 - 23:32

SA records more than 5,000 new Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

South Africa recorded 5,451 new Covid-19 cases and 97 deaths in the past 24 hours, department of health said on Saturday evening.

June 05 2021 - 15:28

KZN has vaccinated over 225,000 pensioners, says health MEC

More than 225 000 senior citizens have so far received their Covid-19 vaccine shots in KwaZulu-Natal.

June 05 2021 - 12:00

Nurse is willing to lose her job to avoid getting vaccine. Hear why

CNN's Alisyn Camerota speaks to four Americans about why they do not plan to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

June 05 2021 - 11:15

Taiwan says it is discussing making Covid-19 vaccines for US firms

Taiwan is in talks with US companies about making their Covid-19 vaccines, following similar talks with European firms, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Saturday.

Taiwan, like much of the world, has been trying to speed up its vaccination programme following a spike in domestic cases, but has been stymied by global supply shortages.

Chen told reporters that they previously had talks with European companies he did not name about producing their vaccines under licence.

"Only recently have we started to have talks with US companies, to see if it's possible or not to carry out relevant subcontracting work," he added, without providing details.

Taiwan has ordered around five million shots from US firm Moderna Inc, of which 150,000 have arrived. It has ordered 10 millions shots from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca PLC.

Taiwan, also in talks with BioNTech SE, blames China - which claims the island as its own territory - for blocking a deal with the German company earlier this year.

Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it has been in talks with Taiwan about providing its Covid-19 vaccine to the island since last year.

Around 3% of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one shot of a vaccine.

Japan on Friday donated 1.24 million doses of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine.

Although Taiwan's domestic cases have not exploded, they are not falling dramatically either. Chen announced 511 new domestic infections on Saturday.

Reuters

June 05 2021 - 10:58

Photographing India's second Covid-19 wave

Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui discusses his experience documenting India's second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It's a daily circuit of crematoriums, cemeteries and hospitals, capturing the struggles of a nation of 1.4 billion people.

June 05 2021 - 10:39

Social development minister admits ending Covid-19 grant will fuel hunger

Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has admitted that terminating relief programmes, including the R350 Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant, will increase hunger, exacerbate social and political stress and slow down economic recovery.

June 05 2021 - 10:15

More stats show the third wave of Covid-19 is starting to engulf SA

The new R number, as of May 27, emerges in a bulletin from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, which is notified of every confirmed case of Covid-19.

The figure of 1.33 is based on new cases, but R is also calculated using data on hospital admissions and deaths in hospital.

June 05 2021 - 10:03

Australia's Victoria state reports five new Covid-19 cases, Delta cluster grows

Australia's second-most populous state Victoria on Saturday reported a small increase in locally acquired Covid-19 cases as authorities hunted for the source of a highly infectious variant that has been detected in a new cluster.

June 05 2021 - 09:10

Australia's Victoria state reports five new Covid-19 cases, Delta cluster grows

Australia's second-most populous state Victoria on Saturday reported a small increase in locally acquired Covid-19 cases as authorities hunted for the source of a highly infectious variant that has been detected in a new cluster.

Five new local cases were reported, taking Victoria's total to 70 in the latest outbreak, including one recovered case, as the state capital Melbourne entered its second weekend of a hard lockdown, due to end on June 10. Curbs were eased for the rest of the state on Friday.

Saturday's count was up from four new locally acquired cases on Friday.

Authorities on Friday were alarmed after detecting the highly infectious Delta Covid-19 virus variant for the first time in Australia, sparking concerns cases could spike.

Reuters 

June 05 2021 - 09:05

India's capital preparing to deal with Covid-19 peak of 37,000 cases - minister

India's capital city is preparing to deal with a coronavirus infection peak of 37,000 cases a day in future, its chief minister said on Saturday as he also announced a partial easing of a lockdown.

New Delhi is also preparing for oxygen storage capacity of 420 tons, and will set up genome sequencing labs to study coronavirus variants, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a web news conference.

Reuters 

June 05 2021 - 09:00

Taiwan reports more than 500 new domestic Covid-19 cases

Taiwan reported 511 new domestic Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 35 cases added to totals for recent days as authorities readjust infection numbers following delays in reporting positive tests.

That was up from the 472 domestic infections reported on Friday. 

Reuters