COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Sep

04

2021

South African health minister says C.1.2 variant not a threat for now

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday that scientists had told the government that at this stage the C.1.2 coronavirus variant detected locally was not a threat. The C.1.2 variant was first identified in May and has now been seen in all of the country's nine provinces. Health Minister Joe Phaahla It contains some mutations associated in other variants with increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to neutralising antibodies, leading researchers to flag its detection to the government and the World Health Organization (WHO). "At this stage, they (scientists) have assured us it's not really a threat, they are…

Jan

09

2021

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX-Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

COVID-19

THE European Union said it had secured nearly half of Pfizer's 2021 global output of COVID-19 shots, while a study found that this vaccine appears able to protect against a key mutation in the new variants. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals here for a case tracker and summary of news. EUROPE * Germany has secured 50 million vaccine doses from German biotech firms BioNTech and CureVac on top of EU supplies, a document showed, amid record daily deaths and concerns about a new variant. * France and Britain approved Moderna's vaccine, while the Mayor of London declared a…

Feb

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria to use drones to deliver vaccines

COVID-19

LIBBY GEORGE NIGERIA’S Kaduna state has signed a deal with medical delivery firm Zipline that will allow drone shipment of COVID-19 vaccines without significant state investment in cold-chain storage, the company has announced. Kaduna's partnership with Zipline, which delivered more than 1 million doses of other vaccines in Africa over the past year, will also enable on-demand delivery of blood products, medications and other vaccines. "It will help ensure that millions of people in Kaduna State will always get the care they need," Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai said. Zipline said its end-to-end cold chain distribution capability, which can safely deliver…

Feb

04

2021

By The African Mirror

COVAX allocates at least 330 million COVID vaccines for poor countries

COVID-19

THE COVAX coronavirus vaccine sharing scheme has allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer countries in the first half of 2021, the GAVI vaccine alliance said yesterday. The allocation includes an initial 240 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, an additional 96 million doses of the same shot made by AstraZeneca, plus 1.2 million doses of Pfizer -BioNTech'S COVID-19 vaccine. Publishing an interim distribution plan, the COVAX Facility, which is co-led by GAVI, the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the U.N. Children's Fund,…

Feb

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Guinea says China will donate 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses

COVID-19

CHINA will donate 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Guinea, the West African nation's foreign minister Ibrahima Khalil Kaba told Reuters yesterday. China's ambassador in Conakry announced the donation in a meeting on Tuesday, Kaba said. He did not specify which Chinese-developed vaccine would be donated or when the doses would arrive. While vaccination campaigns are well underway in many wealthy countries, limited early access to vaccines made by Western drugmakers means most African countries have yet to launch inoculation drives. So-called vaccine diplomacy by China and Russia is cultivating goodwill in parts of the world after pharmaceutical companies including…

Feb

04

2021

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus: a single ‘escape mutant’ shouldn’t render a vaccine useless

COVID-19

SEVERAL coronavirus variants have emerged in recent weeks that have got scientists worried. The variants, which were first identified in the UK (B117), South Africa (B1351) and Brazil (P1 and P2), have several mutations in the spike protein – the little projections on the surface of the virus that help it latch onto human cells. This protein is the target for all the COVID vaccines currently being rolled out. So will the vaccines protect us from these new variants? SARAH L CADDY, Clinical Research Fellow in Viral Immunology and Veterinary Surgeon, University of Cambridge Viruses are often not very good…

Sep

03

2021

By The African Mirror

SAfrica’s Aspen seeks licence for J&J COVID shot as EU shipments halted

COVID-19

PROMIT MUKHERJEE and MAGGIE FICK ASPEN Pharmacare is in talks to make Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus shot under licence in South Africa, at what would be the continent's first major independent distribution base for a global vaccine against COVID-19, the company has announced. News of the talks coincided with the suspension of heavily criticised shipments to Europe from Africa of the same shot, which is already being made under contract and packaged by Aspen but distributed by J&J. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month he was "stunned" by that arrangement, since Europe has very high inoculation rates while…

Sep

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya and Ghana to get vaccines from the US

COVID-19

THE United States will begin shipping more than 2 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to Kenya and Ghana on Wednesday through the COVAX global distribution program, a White House official said. The United States is sending 880,460 doses to Kenya and 1,229,620 doses to Ghana, the official said, the latest instalments in a U.S. vaccine diplomacy push that has sent vaccines to dozens of countries. The doses will be delivered through the COVAX facility, jointly run by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Africa has lagged sharply behind other regions in vaccinating…

Sep

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Canada to donate vaccines to African countries

COVID-19

CANADA will donate more than 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to three African countries through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, GAVI said on Thursday. Nigeria, Kenya and Niger will receive the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said. The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI, aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of 2021.

Feb

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Study suggests Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine less effective against S.African variant

COVID-19

KATE KELLAND THE Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine may be less able to protect against infection with a South African variant of the virus that has a worrying mutation, according to results of a British study released yesterday. The preliminary data, which have yet to be peer-reviewed and involve a small number of patients, also suggest a significant proportion of people aged over 80 may not be sufficiently protected against new variants of the virus until they have had two doses of the vaccine, researchers leading the study said. "Of particular concern ... is the emergence of the E484K mutation (found in…