COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Feb

20

2021

South Africa backs Pfizer vaccine

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING TWO of the South African government's top advisers on COVID-19 backed Pfizer's vaccine on Friday, despite a study earlier this week showing that the dominant local coronavirus variant may reduce protective antibodies it triggers. The country is counting on the Pfizer shot, developed with German partner BioNTech, to step up its vaccination programme after administering its first Johnson & Johnson doses on Wednesday. Professor Barry Schoub AstraZeneca vaccinations are on hold after a small local trial found the shot offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year. The laboratory…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

The lawyer using sculptures to fight COVID-19

COVID-19

FAFADZWA UFUMELI NOT so long ago, 40-year-old David Ngwerume was running his law firm ‘Ngwerume Attorney and Law’ and defending clients fearlessly in the courts of Harare. But then COVID-19 struck. Now he uses his free time and a childhood hobby to chisel away in the fight against COVID. In what feels like a different universe - those days before the arrival of COVID-19 - David Ngwerume would be found on most weekdays neatly clad in a dark suit, white shirt and tie, working long hours at his law firm. The restrictions on movement due to lockdowns meant that the…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya suspends in-person meetings

COVID-19

GEORGE OBULUTSA KENYA’S health minister said on Friday the government had suspended all in-person meetings and public gatherings to try to contain COVID-19, whose spread in the country he now attributes to the more infectious Delta variant. Mutahi Kagwe said in a televised address that the government had asked public and private-sector employers to allow their workers to work from home, unless they were classified as essential services. "All public gatherings and in-person meetings of whatever nature are suspended countrywide. In this regard, all government, including intergovernmental meetings and conferences, should henceforth be converted to either virtual or postponed in…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Germany drops S.A from ‘virus variant’ list

COVID-19

GERMANY no longer considers South Africa and eight other African countries as so-called 'virus variant' areas, the Health Ministry said on Friday, in a move that will ease strict travel restrictions. The change, which takes effect on Sunday, comes after the Delta strain of COVID-19 became dominant in both Germany and South Africa, displacing the Beta strain originally found in the southern African nation. Only German nationals and those with permanent residency are currently able to travel to the country from virus variant areas, subject to quarantine. The reclassification will make it possible for others to travel to Germany, subject…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Hard-won gains at risk as Delta variant spreads- WHO

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and MICHAEL SHIELDS THE world is at risk of losing hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, but WHO-approved vaccines remain effective, the World Health Organization has warned. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described the Delta variant of the coronavirus as being as transmissible as chickenpox and cautioned it could cause severe disease, the Washington Post said, citing an internal CDC document. COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Deaths in Africa…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

No jab, no job: Vatican gets tough with COVID anti-vaxxers

COVID-19

PHILIP PULLELLA THE Vatican has told employees that they may risk losing their jobs if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons. A decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, effectively the governor of Vatican City, said getting a vaccine was "the responsible choice" because of the risk of harming other people. Vatican City, at 108 acres the world's smallest state, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. Its vaccination programme began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to get the jab. The seven-page decree says that those who cannot get…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana pays $15 a dose for vaccine

COVID-19

BOTSWANA’S health minister said on Friday that the government was paying the equivalent of $15 a dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech and almost $29 a dose for U.S. company Moderna's shot. African countries have struggled to procure enough vaccines in the global scramble for doses, with coverage secured through World Health Organization (WHO) and African Union (AU)-backed schemes so far falling short of the continent's needs. Under pressure over a recent spike in COVID-19 infections, health minister Edwin Dikoloti revealed how much the diamond-rich southern African country was paying in bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Testing vaccine in pregnant women

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN PFIZER Inc and BioNTech SE have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday. Pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, and many public health officials have recommended some women in high-risk professions take coronavirus vaccines even without proof they are safe for them. Last week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health called for greater inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in COVID-19 vaccine research. Bioethicists, vaccine and maternal health experts have argued for years that pregnant…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Fair distribution undermined’

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization has urged nations producing COVID-19 vaccines not to distribute them unilaterally but to donate them to the global COVAX scheme to ensure fairness. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the plea as China hashes out agreements across Africa, Russia distributes shots in Latin America and the European Union eyes giving vaccines to poorer countries, all outside of the COVAX facility. Tedros said nations striking one-on-one deals undermine COVAX's goal of equitable access, adding the WHO's scheme can even accommodate requests from governments that "prefer to give their donations to certain countries, because they are their neighbours…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

‘I feel blessed’, says doctor

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF and ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH Africa launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive yesterday, battling to tame a more infectious variant of the coronavirus with a roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson shot for the first time outside a major clinical trial. "I actually feel blessed, you know, after all our hard work and effort in the first and second wave that we finally have another layer of protection, another tool...in the fight against COVID-19," said emergency physician Sa'ad Lahri, one of the first South Africans to be vaccinated. "I am still Zoliswa, no side-effects," said nurse Zoliswa Gidi-Dyosi, who was…