COVID -19 WRAP | Nearly 4,400 new Covid-19 cases recorded across SA in 24 hours: NICD

November 30 2021 - 21:08

Nearly 4,400 new Covid-19 cases recorded across SA in 24 hours: NICD

SA recorded 4,373 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with more than 3,100 of them in Gauteng.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Tuesday that there were 4,373 new cases recorded across SA, as well as 21 Covid-19 related deaths.

This means that there have been 2,968,052 total cases and 89,843 fatalities recorded across SA to date.

November 30 2021 - 19:50

Discovery staff respond well to firm's instruction to vaccinate

Discovery employees have strongly supported a Covid-19 vaccination mandate by the medical-scheme administrator — SA’s largest — with almost 95% of them taking the shots.

The Johannesburg-based company announced its plan to make vaccinations compulsory for all its employees in early September. At the time, only 22% of its more than 10,000 employees were inoculated. 

Discovery took the decision after a lengthy consultation process and decided that a regulatory lever was needed to ensure safety for all in its offices and for the broader public, CEO Adrian Gore said in a briefing on Tuesday. The compulsory vaccines policy accommodates employees with religious beliefs or health conditions preventing their participation.

November 30 2021 - 18:24

Aspen licensing deal secures supply of J&J vaccines to Africa

Aspen Pharmacare has signed a deal to license Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine in SA, opening the way for increased supply of vaccines to Africa.

Under the terms of the deal, Aspen and Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, two of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J, are close to finalising a “definitive agreement” for the Gqeberha-based pharmaceutical company to manufacture and sell an Aspen-branded Covid-19 vaccine throughout Africa, the company said on Tuesday.

“This [deal] gives us security of supply which we did not have before,” said Strive Masiyiwa, African Union Special Envoy for Covid and Africa Vaccine African Union Special Envoy for Covid and Africa Vaccine.

November 30 2021 -  14:05

Omicron variant was detected in the Netherlands before SA flights

The Covid-19 Omicron variant was detected in the Netherlands before two flights arrived from SA last week, Dutch health officials said on Tuesday.

“We have found the Omicron coronavirus variant in two test samples that were taken on November 19 and 23,” the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said.

“It is not clear yet whether these people have visited Southern Africa.”

The discovery of Omicron has sparked worries around the world that it could prolong the nearly two-year-old Covid-19 pandemic.

November 30 2021 -  13:30

‘It’s a vax dompas’ — Carl Niehaus slams vaccine passports

Former ANC staffer Carl Niehaus has responded toPresident Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement about possible mandatory vaccinations, saying SA is moving towards coercing citizens to have a “vax dompas” before they can access public spaces.

Niehaus said South Africans must be allowed to choose whether they want to get vaccinated in line with their constitutional rights. 

During the apartheid era a dompas was a permit black South Africans needed if they wanted to travel to certain areas. This was done to limit and control the movement of black South Africans. 

Niehaus, who was hospitalised after he contracted Covid-19 earlier this year, said his decision not to be vaccinated did not imply he is an anti-vaxxer nor hesitant, saying he is exercising his right to choose.

November 30 2021 -  12:18

Vaccination of children will ensure they get back to school soon: Section27

Section27 has asked to be admitted as a friend of the court in an application by the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) which seeks to interdict the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to adolescents aged 12 to 17. 

The public-interest law centre says it wants to argue that granting an order stopping the vaccination of adolescents will have a negative effect on children’s rights to basic education, health and equality.

“This is because Covid-19 has made school closures and rotational timetables necessary, which has led to significant lost learning time. Vaccinations are crucial to help prevent further school closures and rotational learning,” Section27 said in a statement.

November 30 2021 -  12:06

No cruise ship cheer for Cape Town tourism amid Omicron alarm

The docking of the Europa passenger liner in Cape Town on Tuesday was meant to be a ribbon-cutting celebration marking the official start of the cruise ship season in SA’s top tourist hub, the first since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

November 30 2021 -  12:00

Here are the places government has been advised to restrict access to for unvaccinated people

Lobby group Business for SA (B4SA) has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s move to consider mandatory vaccinations, suggesting that a vaccine mandate be urgently implemented in workplaces. 

Ramaphosa on Sunday said the country would remain on level 1 lockdown but urged people to get vaccinated.

He said a task team would be established to consider mandatory vaccinations. 

November 30 2021 -  11:36

LISTEN | What you need to know about the new Omicron variant

The emergence of a new Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529, named Omicron by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has rattled many people as the world battles an ongoing pandemic.

There are ongoing studies and research globally and in SA by scientists and organisations to find out more about the “variant of concern” in terms of its mutation characteristics, transmissibility and its effect on current vaccines.

General practitioner and member of the ministerial advisory committee on vaccines Dr Angelique Coetzee stated that those with the new Omicron variant showed “extremely mild” symptoms.

November 30 2021 -  09:33

Risky indoor events should only be allowed to be attended by vaccinated people, says Abdool Karim

Prof Salim Abdool Karim, former head of the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, has proposed that those who are not vaccinated should not be allowed at indoor settings amid the Omicron variant.

November 30 2021 - 07:57

EUSEBIUS MCKAISER | Don’t be a selfish git — get vaccinated

It is disappointing when ethical questions are so poorly handled by us that the state might be forced to resort to law making to try to get us to do the right thing. The ongoing debate about whether it should be compulsory to get vaccinated is an example of this quandary.

There are no compelling reasons to choose not to get vaccinated. It reduces the chances of you getting infected with Covid-19 and, if you do get infected, it reduces the chances of severe symptoms developing in you, and therefore also minimising the possibility of hospitalisation.

November 30 2021 - 07:36

Moderna CEO says vaccines likely less effective against Omicron 

 The head of drugmaker Moderna said Covid-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been against the Delta variant.

"There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level . . . we had with Delta," Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview.

"I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to . . . are like 'this is not going to be good'’. 

Reuters

November 30 2021 - 06:30

Biden warns against Omicron panic

President Joe Biden urged Americans not to panic about the new Covid-19 Omicron variant and said the U.S. was making contingency plans with pharmaceutical companies if new vaccines are needed.

November 30 2021 - 06:20

Omicron may be mild, but ‘concerning elements’ keep experts on alert

The WHO is working with researchers around the globe to better understand the new coronavirus variant after health experts in SA, where Omicron was first detected, said it appeared to cause only mild symptoms.

There’s no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron differ from those caused by other variants, the Geneva-based WHO cautioned on Sunday. Some of the earliest reported infections occurred among university students who are more likely to experience less severe illness from Covid-19, and understanding the level of severity of the new strain “will take days to several weeks”, the WHO said.

November 30 2021 - 06:10

TOM EATON | Ignorance was Cyril’s saving grace until it hit close to home

The travel bans imposed on Southern African countries at the weekend were less a knee-jerk than a full-bodied paroxysm of prejudice, as the global north revealed just how deeply it is still in thrall to “Swart Gevaar” notions of dark and dangerous Africa.

For Cyril Ramaphosa, however, they were a gift straight from the political gods. And yet how differently things might have gone.

Consider, for example, Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College in London, who, last Tuesday, posted a series of tweets about a curious new variant of Covid-19.

Had Dr Peacock been in a postprandial slump after a lengthy forage in the Imperial dining hall when he sat down to write his tweets, he might have limited himself to some dry, undemonstrative observations, perhaps presented via impenetrable jargon or hedged in that deeply cautious, don’t-quote-me tone that distinguishes scientists from rank-and-file tweeters.

November 30 2021 - 06:00

EDITORIAL | State’s Covid carnage-to-creativity rollout is exactly what we need

Whether naysayers like it or not, government’s focus on vaccines rather than lockdowns is SA’s only way forward