COVID-19 WRAP | Covid-19: 2,364 cases, 181 deaths recorded in SA in past 24 hours

February 15 2022 - 19:34

Covid-19: 2,364 cases, 181 deaths recorded in SA in past 24 hours

There were 2,364 Covid-19 infections and 181 fatalities recorded in SA in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Tuesday.

Of the new cases, 983 were in Gauteng, 374 in the Western Cape and 326 in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Due to the ongoing audit exercise by the national department of health, there may be a backlog of Covid-19 mortality cases reported. Today, the [department] reports 181 deaths and, of these, seven occurred in the past 24 to 48 hours,” the NICD said.

February 15 2022 - 13:30

Pollution causing more deaths than Covid, action needed, says UN expert

Pollution by states and companies is contributing to more deaths globally than Covid-19, a UN environmental report published on Tuesday said, calling for "immediate and ambitious action" to ban some toxic chemicals.

The report said pollution from pesticides, plastics and electronic waste is causing widespread human rights violations as well as at least 9 million premature deaths a year, and that the issue is largely being overlooked.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused close to 5.9 million deaths, according to data aggregator Worldometer.

"Current approaches to managing the risks posed by pollution and toxic substances are clearly failing, resulting in widespread violations of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment," the report's author, UN Special Rapporteur David Boyd, concluded.

Due to be presented next month to the UN Human Rights Council, which has declared a clean environment a human right, the document was posted on the Council's website on Tuesday.

It urges a ban on polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl, man-made substances used in household products such as non-stick cookware that have been linked to cancer and dubbed "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily.

It also recommends the clean-up of polluted sites and, in extreme cases, the possible relocations of affected communities - many of them poor, marginalised and indigenous - from so-called "sacrifice zones"

.That term, originally used to describe nuclear test zones, was expanded in the report to include any heavily contaminated site or place rendered uninhabitable by climate change.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has called environmental threats the biggest global rights challenge, and a growing number of climate and environmental justice cases are invoking human rights with success. 

Reuters

February 15 2022 - 11:25

J&J pauses vaccine production, but SA stands strong with own clone in the pipeline

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has temporarily paused production of their Covid-19 vaccine to pursue something more lucrative, but SA will not fall victim to the shortfall.

The pause in production, according to the New York Times, is a worry for much of the developing world as the J&J vaccine is their main supply in the fight against Covid-19.

The paper said J&J “late last year quietly shut the only plant making usable batches of the vaccine”, and the facility in the Dutch city of Leiden “has instead been making an experimental but potentially more profitable vaccine to protect against an unrelated virus”. 

February 15 2022 - 10:36

Government extends South Africa’s state of disaster as it nears two-year mark

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has extended South Africa’s national state of disaster by a further month.

The state of disaster is now set to expire on 15 March 2022. This would make it nearly 24 months the country has been under a state of disaster since it was first declared at the end of March 2020.

February 15 2022 - 08:04

Man sets unenviable Covid-19 record by testing positive for 14 straight months

Kayasan, 56, has Turkey's longest recorded continuous Covid-19 infection, doctors say, possibly due to a weakened immune system from the cancer. Despite being in and out of hospital since November 2020, his spirits have been high.

“I guess this is the female version of Covid — she has been obsessed with me,” Kayasan joked last week as he found out that his latest PCR test was, yet again, positive.

Nine months in hospital and five months mostly alone in his flat have separated him from much of the outside world, including his granddaughter, Azra, who stays in the garden while visiting, talking through the glass back door.

February 15 2022 - 07:53

LISTEN | Covid-19 vaccines can cause ‘temporary’ changes to menstrual cycles

A study conducted in the US on participants who had the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine found “temporary” to no significant or serious changes to menstrual cycles

February 15 2022 - 07:00

Can I get Covid-19 from swimming in a public pool?

The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is little chance of you getting Covid-19 from swimming in a public pool because the Covid-19 virus does not transmit through water.

“However, the virus spreads between people when someone has close contact with an infected person,” it adds. So avoid crowds.

The organisation, along with The National Institute for Communicable Diseases of SA, advises that if you do visit public pools or spaces to maintain at least a 1m distance from others, even when you are swimming or in swimming areas.

Wear a mask when you’re not in the water and clean your hands frequently.

February 15 2022 - 06:00

Uncoupling of cases and deaths suggests end to Covid emergency phase

The pandemic looks a whole lot different in 2022. Vaccines are working, treatments are advancing and, at least for now, the virus seems less intent on killing. The likelihood of surviving Covid-19 is improving around the world. 

In the US there were nearly four times as many positive cases for each death this year when compared with the peak there last winter. In the EU, where more people have been vaccinated, this survival ratio was 11 times higher than last winter. Even in countries with lower vaccination rates, Covid-19 patients were increasingly likely to recover. 

Bloomberg’s new analysis shows that in country after country the link between infections and deaths is uncoupling.