COVID-19 WRAP | SA records 358 new cases

November 06 2021 - 19:00

November 06 2021 - 17:25

New Zealand's daily coronavirus cases cross 200 for first time in pandemic

New Zealand's 206 new daily community infections on Saturday carried it past the double-hundred mark for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, as the nation scrambles to vaccinate its population of 5 million.

The most populous city of Auckland, which reported 200 of the new cases, has lived under COVID-19 curbs for nearly three months as it battles an outbreak of the infectious Delta variant, although restrictions are expected to ease on Monday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she wanted Auckland residents to be able to travel for the southern hemisphere summer and Christmas.

"We will not keep Aucklanders isolated to Auckland through that period - we simply cannot do that," Ardern told a news conference at the national gathering of her Labour Party.

Saturday's cases served to remind people of the importance of vaccination as the number one protection against the virus, the health ministry said in a statement.

It said 78% of New Zealanders aged 12 and above had been fully vaccinated, while 89% had a first dose by Friday.

Once praised globally for stamping out COVID-19, New Zealand has been unable to vanquish the Delta outbreak in Auckland, forcing Ardern to abandon a strategy of eliminating the virus in favour of efforts to live with it.

Still, it has fared far better than many other countries, with tough curbs that kept infections to just under 7,000 and a toll of 31 deaths.

-Reuters

November 06 2021 - 10:25

SA leads vaccine efforts to save the lives of 100,000 newborns annually

South Africa is taking the lead in the development of a maternal vaccine against group B Streptococcus (GBS), which can kill newborns and cause maternal complications.

Vaccinology expert Prof Shabir Madhi, dean of health sciences at Wits University, said SA is the country worst affected by group B strep bacteria, which kills nearly 100,000 newborns across the globe annually.

November 06 2021 - 09:00

Australia hits 'magnificent milestone' with 80% rate of vaccinations

Australia reached on Saturday a full inoculation rate of 80% of those aged 16 and older, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison called a "magnificent milestone" on the path to becoming one of the world's most vaccinated countries against COVID-19.

Once a champion of a COVID-zero strategy to manage the pandemic, the country of 25 million has moved towards living with the virus through extensive vaccinations, as the Delta variant has proven too infectious to suppress.

"Another, magnificent milestone, Australia," Morrison said in a video post on Facebook. "That's four out of five, how good is that? This has been a true Australian national effort."

While vaccinations remain voluntary on the federal level, Australia's states and territories introduced mandatory measures for many occupations and workers. The unvaccinated are barred from many activities, such as dining out or concerts.

On Monday, Australia eased international border curbs for the first time during the pandemic, but only for vaccinated people from highly inoculated states.

Media said about 3,000 people gathered for a peaceful protest against vaccine mandate protests in Melbourne, the capital of the southeastern state of Victoria, which spent nearly nine months in six lockdowns through the pandemic.

Australia has seen frequent, occasionally violent anti-vaccine rallies during the past few months, but the movement remains small, with polls showing the numbers of those who oppose vaccinations are in the single digits across the nation.

The nationwide vaccination figure incorporates some uneven levels, however.

Nearly 90% of eligible people have been fully vaccinated in the most populous state of New South Wales, and almost 95% in the capital Canberra, but this figure drops to just 65% in the sparsely populated Northern Territory and Western Australia.

The country recorded 1,558 infections and 10 deaths on Saturday, with the majority of infections in Victoria. Some parts of the Northern Territory are in a snap, three-day lockdown, after an outbreak grew to three cases.

Despite the Delta outbreaks that led to months of lockdown in the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, the national tally of less than 179,000 infections and 1,587 deaths is far lower than that of many developed nations. 

-Reuters