COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Apr

01

2021

Data withheld from WHO team

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and JOHN MILLER DATA was withheld from World Health Organization investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. The United States, the European Union and other Western countries immediately called for China to give "full access" to independent experts to all data about the original outbreak in late 2019. In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another…

Jan

08

2021

By The African Mirror

S.A set to be 1st African country to produce COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19

PROMIT MUKHERJEE SOUTH Africa is set to become the first African country to produce COVID-19 vaccine. Aspen Pharmacare has announced that it could start production of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa by late March or early April if all approvals are in place. All the vaccines produced will be exported to J&J and will be a part of its global supply inventory, Stavros Nicolaou, Group Senior Executive, Strategic Trade at Aspen, added. "We are going to receive a tech transfer to contract manufacture for them (J&J)... Aspen has current capacity to manufacture up to 300 million doses…

Jan

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Senegal seeking vaccines beyond WHO-backed COVAX scheme

COVID-19

SENEGAL is trying to acquire coronavirus vaccines to complement those it will get through the World Health Organization-backed global COVAX scheme, Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr has told reporters. Senegalese President Macky Sall this week announced a state of emergency to deal with a surge in infections. Senegalese President Macky Sall Unlike Europe, the United States and China, where large-scale vaccination campaigns are underway, most African countries have so far been unable to secure vaccine supply deals with drug companies. That has left some of the world's poorest countries relying on the COVAX alliance, which says it has reached agreements…

Jan

08

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa aims to vaccinate for herd immunity

COVID-19

TIM COCKS SOUTH Africa will vaccinate 40 million people, or two-thirds of its population, against COVID-19 in order to achieve herd immunity, its health minister has said, as a mutant variant drove daily new cases above 21,000 for the first time. He spoke as the government said it would receive 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca's shot from the Serum Institute of India (SII), spread over January and February. Health workers have voiced concern that authorities have not acted fast enough to secure enough vaccines. A more contagious coronavirus variant, first found on South Africa's east coast late last year, is…

Jan

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya expects 24 million vaccine doses

COVID-19

KENYA has ordered 24 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and expects them to start arriving in the second week of February, its health minister said. The East African nation of around 47 million people has so far reported 97,398 cases of COVID-19 and 1,694 deaths. Its economy is also reeling from pandemic-related disruptions. Mutahi Kagwe, the health minister, was quoted by the local Standard newspaper on Thursday as saying the vaccines would start landing next month. A public communications official at the ministry told Reuters the report was accurate. AstraZeneca and its partner Oxford University tested…

Jan

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia reports daily coronavirus record of 2,820 cases

COVID-19

TUNISIA recorded 2,820 new confirmed coronavirus cases, a record since the start of the pandemic last year, the health ministry has announced. Seventy more deaths were reported, taking the death toll to more than 5,000, the ministry added. The total number of cases has jumped to around 150,000. Tunisia banned travel between the country's regions, and extended a curfew in October, as it tried to contain a rapid surge of COVID-19 cases with hospitals nearly full.

Jan

07

2021

By The African Mirror

South African medical schemes to fund COVID-19 vaccines for 30% of adults

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING MILLIONS of South Africans will have their COVID-19 vaccinations subsidised by medical schemes that pool health insurance premiums through an agreement with the government, a top medical scheme administrator said. Under the arrangement, medical schemes will pay above cost for doses for their members - roughly 7 million adults over the age of 15 - subsidising procurement for another 7 million adults who are without private medical cover, Ryan Noach, chief executive of the country's largest medical scheme administrator, Discovery Health, said. In all, vaccines for around 30% of the country's adult population would be financed by the…

Jan

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Senegal imposes new state of emergency

COVID-19

SENEGAL’S President Macky Sall has announced a new state of emergency in response to record cases of coronavirus sweeping parts of the West African nation. Starting today, a nighttime curfew will be enforced in the regions of Dakar and Thies, which Sall said are home to more than 90% of cases. Mask-wearing will be mandatory and large gatherings banned. The new measures come six months after the first state of emergency was lifted in an attempt to bolster an economy hit hard by restrictions on movement during the first wave of the virus. Senegal has reported 19,964 COVID-19 infections and…

Jan

06

2021

By The African Mirror

New variant unlikely to fully negate vaccines

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING A variant of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa is unlikely to completely negate the immunising effects of vaccines, a researcher studying it told Reuters. British scientists expressed concern on Monday that COVID-19 vaccines may not be able to protect against the variant identified by South African genomics scientists and which has spread internationally. Richard Lessells, an infectious disease expert at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, which played a central role in identifying the variant known as 501Y.V2, said his understanding was that the comments were not based on any new data but on shared…

Jan

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria aims for 42 million vaccines

COVID-19

FELIX ONUAH NIGERIA hopes to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one-fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme, said Faisal Shuaib, head of the country's primary healthcare agency. Shuaib said the batch of vaccines would come as part of Nigeria's plan to inoculate 40% of the population this year, with another 30% in 2022. By the end of January, 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to arrive, he said. The COVAX scheme was set up to provide vaccines to poorer countries such as Nigeria, whose 200 million people and poor infrastructure pose a daunting challenge…