HEALTH - The African Mirror

Apr

05

2021

Libya PM hails “first drop of rain”

COVID-19

MORE than 100,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Tripoli's Mitiga airport yesterday, Libya's ministry of health said, the first shipment to reach the country. Around 1,000 new infections are announced daily by the National Centre for Disease Control, posing a challenge to a health sector ravaged by years of conflict. "It is the first drop of rain. Thank God, we are able to supply the first batch of corona vaccine," interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh said in a tweet. "The rest of the shipment will arrive in succession," he added, without giving details of how many…

Jul

15

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco to send aid to Tunisia

COVID-19

MOROCCO plans to send 100 intensive care beds and a similar number of ventilators to help Tunisia tackle a surge in COVID-19 cases, Rabat's foreign ministry has announced. Morocco joins other Arab states which promised to help the North African country as it struggles to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, putting its health care system under severe stress and depleting oxygen supplies. Intensive care units are full and there is a severe shortage of oxygen, officials said. The total number of coronavirus cases so far in Tunisia has climbed to 497,613, including 16,388 deaths.

Apr

05

2021

By The African Mirror

14-day quarantine for South Africans travelling to Portugal

COVID-19

PORTUGAL has extended restrictions on travel via land and sea to Spain that had been due to end this weekend until April 15 as it works to contain the spread of COVID-19. The two countries imposed the restrictions on January 28. The interior ministry said the restrictions would remain in place for a further 11 days, adding that the measures did not prevent citizens or residents of Portugal from entering the country. Vehicles transporting goods, emergency vehicles and seasonal border workers are also exempt. Nationals from Britain, Brazil and South Africa - where more contagious coronavirus variants were first detected…

Apr

05

2021

By The African Mirror

England trials vaccine passport

COVID-19

ENGLAND will launch a vaccine passport trial in a comedy club, a nightclub and FA Cup matches at Wembley in the coming weeks to determine how it can reopen the economy and host mass events safely. The government said a COVID-status certification system was being developed that would show whether a person had had a vaccine, a recent negative test or natural immunity from a positive test taken in the last six months. The trial, to be run at nine events including the FA Cup semi-final and final, will be used to assess whether large events can be held in…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria expects nearly 8 million vaccines

COVID-19

CHIJIOKE OHUOCHA NIGERIA expects to receive nearly 8 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of August, including from a U.S. government donation, the head of its primary care agency said on Tuesday. Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria exhausted its initial supply of nearly 4 million shots last week and aims to resume vaccinations within weeks, when the new doses arrive. Nigeria expects delivery of 3.924 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca shots from global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX by the end of July or early August, Shuaib said, and an additional…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

In South African COVID-19 ward, medics battle worst infection wave yet

COVID-19

SISIPHO SKWEYIYA AT an emergency COVID-19 ward run by a charity in southern Johannesburg, medics wheel gasping patients to their beds, rush from room to room with oxygen cylinders and pat the back of someone in the grip of a coughing fit. The scenes in the converted community hall are a reminder of how badly South Africa has been hit by its third and most debilitating COVID-19 wave yet, as the infectious Delta variant surges through a mostly unvaccinated population. "The Delta variant has caused enormous strain on the resources ... Every hospital is getting strained, every healthcare worker is…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe targets a million people

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE is aiming to vaccinate 1 million people against COVID-19 in the next two weeks, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday as he extended tough lockdown measures by another 14 days. Faced with rising infections and deaths, Mnangagwa on June 29 introduced tough lockdown measures that included dusk to dawn curfew and curbs on inter-city travel. Mnangagwa said infections were rising at "an alarming rate" as the more transmissible Delta variant spreads locally. He said the government would inoculate 1 million people during the extended lockdown period. The southern African nation has to date recorded 70,426 infections, a quarter of them…

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian parliament speaker contracts COVID-19

COVID-19

THE speaker of Tunisia's parliament and the leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party, Rached Ghannouchi, has contracted COVID-19, an advisor to Ghannouchi has told Reuters. Ghannouchi, 80, is at home and will work remotely, the advisor said. Ghannouchi, the leader of the biggest party in the parliament, received two doses of an anti-COVID vaccine this year. Tunisia is seeing a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, with intensive care wards almost full, health authorities said, after successfully containing the virus in the first wave last year. In total, Tunisia has recorded more than 500,000 coronavirus cases and about 16,500 deaths.

Jul

14

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa says vaccine rollout, essential healthcare disrupted by unrest

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa's health department has said that violent protests had disrupted the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and essential healthcare services like the collection of chronic medication by tuberculosis, HIV and diabetes patients. The department said in a statement that it was temporarily closing some vaccination sites, adding that anyone with an inoculation scheduled in an area affected by ongoing unrest was advised to defer their vaccination.

Apr

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya stops private import of COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19

KENYA has ordered an immediate halt to imports of COVID-19 vaccines by private companies, the health minister said on Friday, saying such shipments were unlicensed and potentially dangerous because the shots could be counterfeit. Kenya, which went into a partial lockdown on March 26 after a surge of infections and deaths, has started vaccinating its citizens using just over 1 million shots secured through the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility. At least one private firm has also brought in shots of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, according to Kenyan news media, who say the shots are being sold for about 16,000 shillings…