COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Jan

20

2021

Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf discouraged by COVID vaccine roll-out plan

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization's pandemic review panel co-chair Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has expressed disappointment in COVID-19 vaccine roll-out plans which she said means shots will not be widely available in Africa until 2022 or 2023. "The panel is discouraged and frankly disappointed by the unequal plans for vaccine rollout," the former Liberian president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate told an Executive Board meeting of the WHO.

Jan

20

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria seeks vaccines less dependent on cooling facilities

COVID-19

NIGERIA will seek to procure vaccines that are less dependent on cooling facilities, the head of the country's primary healthcare agency has said, adding that talks were in progress with Russia and India to procure such vaccines. Africa's most populous country, where officials recorded low coronavirus numbers through much of 2020, is in its second wave of infections and has seen cases surge in recent weeks. Nigerian health authorities have said the country is working with the COVAX programme backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that aims to provide vaccines to poorer countries. Faisal Shuaib, who heads the National…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO close to vaccine deal for the poor

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE World Health Organization is in advanced negotiations with Pfizer to include the firm's COVID-19 shot in the body's vaccine-sharing scheme, which would speed vaccine deliveries to poorer countries, according to a senior WHO official. The COVAX scheme -- led by the WHO and GAVI vaccine alliance -- is due to start rolling out vaccines to poor and middle-income countries in February, with 2 of 3 billion doses expected to be delivered this year. "We are in ... detailed discussions with Pfizer. We believe very soon we will have access to that product," WHO senior…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria requests 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses

COVID-19

FELIX ONUAH NIGERIA has written to the African Union to request 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to supplement the COVAX programme and has allocated $26 million for licensed vaccine production, the health minister said yesterday. Nigeria, like other countries across Africa, is grappling with a second wave of the novel coronavirus. As of Monday, Nigeria, the continent's most populous country of 200 million inhabitants, had 110,387 confirmed cases and 1,435 deaths. The African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from manufacturers for member states, its chair South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week. "Nigeria has…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

S.A fears post-Christmas homecoming, funerals

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa's second wave of COVID-19 cases, which has already far outpaced its first, could be driven even higher by post-Christmas holiday homecoming and overcrowded funerals, according to the health minister. Africa's most industrialised nation has recorded 1.34 million cases of COVID-19 so far, and some 37,000 deaths. Daily new cases, which surged to a record high of 21,000 earlier this month, have since fallen to just over 12,000 a day -- around the level its first-wave peak back in July. The pandemic and lockdowns to tackle it have damaged an economy that was already in recession and left millions…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Norway says advice on use of Pfizer vaccine is unchanged

COVID-19

NORWAY does not plan to change its policy on the use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine following reports of deaths in highly frail recipients after the inoculation was given. BioNTech had earlier say that "Norwegian Health Authorities have now changed (their) recommendation in relation to vaccination of the terminally ill". But the company later retracted the statement following clarification from Norway. The Nordic country is currently vaccinating residents of care homes, including those with serious underlying diseases. COVID-19 vaccines Of these 23 reports, 13 have been looked into by Norwegian health authorities. These concerned individuals who were described as…

Jan

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Malawi to close schools, bars to shut early

COVID-19

MALAWI’S schools are to shut for at least 15 days, and all bars must close at 8 p.m., under new coronavirus restrictions announced by President Lazarus Chakwera in a television address. After reporting no positive cases for almost two months, the country has seen a sudden resurgence in coronavirus cases since the middle of last month. The new measures concerning schools and bars will take effect from Monday. Chakwera also said the government has allocated an additional 1.6 billion kwacha ($2.10 million) in funds to be spent on recruiting frontline healthcare workers, 1,000 intensive care unit beds and 1,000 oxygen…

Jul

04

2020

By The African Mirror

Africa waited for solutions to past health crises: will it be different for COVID-19?

COVID-19

HAILAY GESESEW, NHMRC Research Fellow (Public Health), Flinders University The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently noted that “researchers are working at break-neck speed” to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19). They are also working to develop potential vaccines, medicines and other technologies that are affordable and equitable. By June 2020 – six months since it was first identified – thousands of therapeutic trials and dozens of vaccine development studies were underway, including one vaccine study each in South Africa and Nigeria. As a public health specialist and infectious diseases epidemiologist, I am very happy and impressed to…

Jul

02

2020

By The African Mirror

More than 40,000 people forcefully evicted in East Africa

COVID-19

MORE than 40,000 people across East Africa have been forcibly evicted from theirhomes since March, putting them at risk of contracting the new coronavirus, saidcharities on Wednesday, calling for a moratorium on all evictions during thepandemic. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) found that communities already displacedby violence, droughts and floods in Somalia were worst hit, while in Kenya andEthiopia, people living in informal settlements had also seen their homes demolished."Evictions expose vulnerable people to greater risk of infection as they are forced intomore crowded and unsanitary conditions," said Evelyn Aero, NRC's legal assistanceregional advisor in East Africa. "Evicted people do…

Jun

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Chinese researchers warn of new virus in pigs with human pandemic risk

COVID-19

A NEW flu virus found in Chinese pigs has become more infectious to humans and needs to be watched closely in case it becomes a potential "pandemic virus", a study said, although experts said there is no imminent threat. A team of Chinese researchers looked at influenza viruses found in pigs from 2011 to 2018 and found a "G4" strain of H1N1 that has "all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus", according to the paper, published by the U.S. journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Pig farm workers also showed elevated levels of the virus…