COVID-19 WRAP | More than 14,700 new Covid-19 cases and 384 deaths recorded in 24 hours

August 18 2021 - 20:19

More than 14,700 new Covid-19 cases and 384 deaths recorded in 24 hours

The Western Cape appears to be showing “early signs” that it has reached the peak of its third wave of Covid-19 infections, an expert said on Wednesday, but there were still concerns over rising cases in four other provinces.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Wednesday that there were 14,728 new Covid-19 cases identified in SA in the past 24 hours, along with 384 coronavirus related deaths.

The Western Cape was again the worst-hit province, with 3,931 new infections, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (3,750), the Eastern Cape (1,877) and Gauteng (1,756). The Free State recorded just shy of the 1,000 mark, with 995 cases in the past 24 hours.

August 18 2021 - 16:57

Want to go to Plett Rage? You'll have to be vaccinated and have a negative Covid-19 test

Plett Rage organisers are confident the famous end-of-matric festival will go ahead in December.

Ronen Klugman, founder and owner of the student festival, said they will require that a person be vaccinated to attend.

“We are going to require everyone to have been vaccinated before they come. We feel that it's our responsibility to make sure that people are safe,” he said. Safety was vital, said Klugman, to “unlock the entertainment industry”.

A post-matric Rage Festival event in Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, was identified as a super-spreader event after nearly 1,000 cases of Covid-19 were linked to it in 2020.

August 18 2021 - 16:54

The shadow side of SA's second pandemic

A new research project into what happened with regard to domestic violence in SA during lockdown has found that, despite an increase being expected and some initial hysteria over incorrect figures, attacks on women may have gone down.

While details and nuances of available information are not known, researcher Lisa Vetten has found that while the prevalence of attacks on women may not have changed dramatically, other factors have influenced the numbers and may be masking what actually took place in homes.

Vetten and Bernadine Bachar, director of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children, have released the findings of research carried out into what was dubbed “the shadow pandemic”.

August 18 2021 - 16:31

No-fault compensation fund not yet finalised: deputy health minister

The national health department announced with much fanfare in April the establishment of the no-fault compensation fund which aimed to protect citizens who were injured during the Covid-19 vaccination rollout.

However, four months after it was gazetted there is very little information on how South Africans can go about reporting injury, adverse events or deaths after being vaccinated as the fund is still being finalised.

Newly appointed deputy health minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo on Tuesday told TimesLIVE that the process to establish the scheme was under way.

August 18 2021 - 14:39

Vaccine hesitancy fuelled by youth and white adults, survey finds

Younger people and white adults are SA's most vaccine-hesitant groups, but overall vaccine acceptance is now at 72%.

This is according to the latest round of a survey conducted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

The UJ/HSRC Covid-19 Democracy Survey was completed by 7,631 participants and was conducted in six languages, HSRC research trainee Ngqapheli Mchunu said on Wednesday.

August 18 2021 - 13:00

POLL | Would you leave your partner if they refuse to get the Covid-19 jab?

The divide between anti-vaxxers and those who advocate for the Covid-19 vaccines is real.

Celebrities and social media users have weighed in on the subject, and poet Lebo Mashile recently got people talking when she went as far as suggesting that withholding sex from men might encourage them to get the jab.

Last week Gauteng provincial spokesman Vuyo Mhaga said the province has programmes in the pipeline to get more men to vaccinate.

August 18 2021 - 11:05

Hold the fries! Western Cape to launch drive-through vaccinations: here’s how it will work

The Western Cape is gearing up for the launch of a drive-in vaccination site which will see eligible residents drive through several stations before getting the jab.

The drive-through site will begin operations at the end of August, after the province opened the walk-in section of the Athlone Stadium mass vaccination site on Monday. The site is expected to be among the biggest inoculation sites in the province, according to premier Alan Winde.

Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said the opening of another mass vaccination site will strengthen the province's efforts to avert a fourth wave of Covid-19.

August 18 2021 - 10:00

What you said: Don’t make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory

As the country faces rising Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy, readers have shut down suggestions that the jab should be mandatory.

To date 9,753,138 vaccines have been administered. Last Friday 153,999 jabs were administered, more than 43% fewer than the daily record of 273,011 set on July 21. Last week’s total was the lowest since the end of June.

Statistics from the health department revealed that in the 50-59 age group, only 14% of women and 10% of men have been vaccinated. About 25% of women over the age of 60 have been vaccinated, but only 16% of men.

August 18 2021 - 07:09

Pope Francis urges everyone to get Covid-19 vaccines for the good of all

Pope Francis issued an appeal on Wednesday urging people to get inoculated against COVID-19, saying the vaccines could bring an end to the pandemic, but needed to be taken by everyone.

"Thanks to God's grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19," the pope said in a video message made on behalf of the nonprofit U.S. group the Ad Council and the public health coalition COVID Collaborative.

"They grant us the hope of ending the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we work together.

"Vaccines are widely available in mainly wealthier nations, but mistrust and hesitancy over the newly developed shots have meant that many people are refusing to take them, leaving them especially vulnerable as the Delta variant spreads.

By contrast, poorer nations still do not have access to large-scale vaccine supplies.

Medical experts have warned that ever-more dangerous variants might develop if the virus is allowed to circulate in large pools of non-vaccinated people.

Pope Francis was himself vaccinated in March, saying at the time that it was an ethical obligation.

"Vaccination is a simple but profound way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable. I pray to God that everyone may contribute their own small grain of sand, their own small gesture of love," the pope said in his latest video message.

The Ad Council and COVID Collaborative launched vaccine public service announcements to the U.S. public in January across television, websites and social media.

In a statement, the Ad Council said the pope's message represented its first campaign designed for a global audience.

-Reuters

August 18 2021 - 07:06

U.S. reports more than 1,000 Covid deaths in single day

The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, or about 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates.

Coronavirus-related deaths have spiked in the past month and are averaging 769 per day, the highest since mid-April, according to a Reuters tally. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has lost 622,813 people to COVID-19, the highest number of deaths for any country in the world.

-Reuters

August 18 2021 - 07:00

How do I know when I have recovered from Covid-19?

Signs you have recovered from Covid-19 differ from person to person depending on the severity of your illness, says the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Covid-19 patients who don’t require hospitalisation must self-isolate for 10 days, after which the symptoms will not be transmissible to other people.

According to the NICD, symptomatic patients with mild disease who are not in hospital can come out of isolation if their symptoms, including fever, show improvement after the 10 day isolation period.

August 18 2021 - 06:15

Sydney warned worse to come as Delta cases surge

Sydney's Delta outbreak has not peaked and residents must brace for more deaths, authorities said on Wednesday, as Australia's largest city continued to break records for new daily infections despite a nearly two-month lockdown.

"We haven't seen the worst of it and the way that we stop this is by everybody staying at home," New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.

NSW reported its biggest daily rise of 633 new cases, including 545 in Sydney, eclipsing the state's previous daily high of 478 hit on Monday. Sixty people have died since the first Delta case was reported in Sydney on June 16, including three confirmed on Wednesday.

With only about 28% of people in NSW above 16 years of age fully vaccinated, state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant warned there would be more deaths if cases continued to rise.

Australia is in the grip of a third wave of infections that has exposed weaknesses in the country's vaccine rollout and forced more than half of its 25 million people into lockdown.

Only one-fourth of the adult population is fully vaccinated so far, putting pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison whose government missed its initial vaccine targets.

Sydney, Melbourne and the capital Canberra are under stay-at-home orders, pushing the A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy the brink of its second recession in as many years.

Victoria state, home to Melbourne, reported 24 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, the same number as a day earlier, as authorities race to track infections with an unknown source.

Reuters

August 18 2021 - 06:05

Texas governor tests positive for Covid-19, has no symptoms

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose state is engulfed in a fourth Covid surge, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday but so far has no symptoms of the illness, his office said.

Abbott, a Republican who is locked in battle with some local leaders over his ban on mask mandates in schools, is isolating, his office said. The governor, who is fully vaccinated, is also receiving a monoclonal antibody treatment.

"I test myself everyday, and today is the first day that I tested positive," Abbott said in a video posted on Twitter. "Also want you to know that I have received the Covid-19 vaccine, and that may be one reason why I'm really not feeling any symptoms right now."

On Monday night Abbott spoke before a crowd of hundreds at an indoor Republican Party event in suburban Dallas where few wore masks. On Tuesday, the governor tweeted a photo of himself meeting with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, brother of the legendary Texas strummer Stevie Ray Vaughan."

Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified," said Mark Miner, Abbott's communications director. "Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative."

The statement did not give any indication as to when the governor contracted the virus.

The news of Abbott's infection came on the same day that officials in Houston said they would pay $100 to anybody receiving their first dose of a Covid vaccine and as hospitals in the area are expected this week to surpass records for the number of Covid patients in their care.

Vaccines protect people from serious illness, hospitalizations and death after contracting the coronavirus, but vaccinated people can still be infected and pass it on.

Reuters

August 18 2021 - 06:00

Japan extends Covid-19 emergency lockdown as cases surge

Japan on Tuesday extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and announced new measures covering seven more prefectures to counter a spike in Covid-19 infections that is threatening the medical system.

The current state of emergency, the fourth of the pandemic so far, was due to expire on Aug. 31 but will now last until September 12.

Tokyo announced 4,377 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, after a record 5,773 on Friday."

The Delta variant raging across the world is causing unprecedented cases in our country," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said.

"Serious cases are increasing rapidly and severely burdening the medical system, particularly in the capital region."

The emergency will now cover nearly 60% of Japan's population with the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka included. Less strict "quasi-emergency" measures will be applied to a further 10 prefectures.

Restaurants are being asked to close early and stop serving alcohol in exchange for a subsidy. Suga announced a fresh subsidy of 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) to help businesses cope with the fall-out.

Suga said the government would also request occupancy limits at department stores and ask people to reduce by half the times they go to crowded areas.

Speaking at a news conference explaining the steps, the government's top health advisor, Shigeru Omi, said Japan needed to come up with steps to "prod individuals to avoid taking action that could potentially spread infections".

He said that could be done under the current laws, which are mostly based on voluntary cooperation, but added that there's also room for a nationwide debate on how to do this under a new legal framework. 

Reuters