HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jul

14

2021

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…

Apr

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Measles resurgent in Congo eight months after epidemic declared over

HEALTH

HEREWARD HOLLAND A new measles outbreak has flared up in the Democratic Republic of Congo just eight months after authorities declared an end to the worst known outbreak in the country's history, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. More than 13,000 cases of measles have been recorded in the country since Jan 1., the medical charity said, despite vaccination campaigns that have targeted millions of children across the country's remote jungle areas in the last two years. The vaccine drive greatly reduced the number of patients, but failed to cut the chain of transmission, MSF said in a statement…

Jul

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s Lagos state faces “potential third wave” of COVID-19

COVID-19

LIBBY GEORGE NIGERIA’S Lagos state faces a "potential third wave" of coronavirus infections, its governor said in a statement. He warned of fines or even imprisonment for those who break rules to contain the virus and said Lagos state would step up its vaccination campaign, following the detection of the highly infectious Delta variant in an incoming traveller. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, has not been as hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as other parts of the continent, with just over 168,000 cases and 2,124 deaths confirmed since the outbreak began. But Nation Centre for Disease Control officials last…

Jul

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Virus variants threaten global recovery, G20 warns

COVID-19

GAVIN JONES and LEIGH THOMAS AN upsurge in new coronavirus variants and poor access to vaccines in developing countries threaten the global economic recovery, finance ministers of the world's 20 largest economies warned on Saturday. The G20 gathering in the Italian city of Venice was the ministers' first face-to-face meeting since the start of the pandemic. Decisions include the endorsement of new rules aimed at stopping multinationals shifting profits to low-tax havens. That paves the way for G20 leaders to finalise a new global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% at a Rome summit in October, a move that could…

Apr

10

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO chief laments ‘shocking imbalance’ in shot distribution

COVID-19

THERE is a "shocking imbalance" in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide and most countries do not have anywhere near enough shots to cover health workers and others at high-risk, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday. More than 700 million jabs have been administered worldwide against the disease, but 87% have gone to high income or upper middle-income countries, with low income countries receiving just 0.2%, he said. "On average in high-income countries, almost one in four people has received a COVID-19 vaccine. In low-income countries, it's one in more than 500," Tedros told a briefing. The COVAX facility…

Apr

10

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Vaccine grabbing’ fuels risk of fake jabs

COVID-19

NITA BHALLA THE unequal global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines could spur the trade in fake doses in Africa - a hotspot for counterfeit medicines, analysts have warned, citing the seizure of falsified vaccination shots in South Africa. With poorer countries grappling to procure enough vaccine doses for their people, criminals will likely see an opportunity to profit, especially in Africa where imports account for more than 80% of pharmaceutical needs, they said. "Already Africa has a problem with counterfeit medicines. The lack of local production and weak enforcement has for years allowed products to enter countries, such as fake medication…

Jul

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Gyms, restaurants re-open in South Africa

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER THE South African government has, in the face of consistent rise in infections, hospitalisation and deaths, maintained the country at a strict lockdown alert level four for another 14 days, but has made minor adjustments in terms of which restaurants will be allowed to operate In a special address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that gyms will also be allowed to operate, under strict health protocols. Sale of agricultural livestock, as well as game auctions, will also be allowed. However, Ramaphosa said the sale of alcohol will remain prohibited as well as all social, religious…