HEALTH - The African Mirror

Apr

08

2021

European countries may have to mix COVID-19 shots amid AstraZeneca crisis

COVID-19

MATTHIAS BLAMONT, GWLADYS FOUCHE and ESSI LOHTO SEVERAL European countries are considering mixing up COVID-19 vaccines for citizens who received a first dose of AstraZeneca's shot, an unprecedented move that highlights challenges for governments struggling to tame fresh rises in infections. Vaccination programmes have been upset after a small number of reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered extremely rare blood clots, leading some countries worldwide to suspend its use out of caution. A senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday there was a link between the vaccine and rare…

Apr

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Ramadan night curfew for Morocco

COVID-19

MOROCCO will keep its nightly curfew in place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when people gather after breaking their fast at sunset, the government said yesterday, underlining resolve to counter new variants of the coronavirus. The decision to keep the 8 p.m. - 6 a.m. curfew will hurt restaurants, shops and markets that make most of their money in the evenings, especially during Ramadan, which this year will begin on April 13 and run through May 12. Moroccan law prohibits public eating by day during the fasting period. Morocco will also maintain until June financial aid for workers…

Jul

09

2021

By The African Mirror

COVAX to deliver 520 million doses to Africa

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING and GEORGE OBULUTSA THE global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX aims to deliver 520 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa this year, its managing director said, with supplies ramping up from September after delays caused by Indian export restrictions. Aurelia Nguyen told a news conference organised by the World Health Organization's Africa region that the scheme had delivered around 25 million doses to 44 African countries so far, but she was not happy with progress. In early March, the CEO of vaccine alliance Gavi, one of the organisations co-leading COVAX, had said the aim was to supply Africa -…

Jul

09

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia’s health care system collapsing

COVID-19

TUNISIA’S health care system is collapsing due to the coronavirus, with intensive care departments full and doctors overburdened by a rapid outbreak of cases and deaths, the health ministry said has revealed. Tunisia recorded near 10,000 new coronavirus cases and 134 deaths on Wednesday, a daily record since the start of the pandemic, as concerns grow that the country will not be able to control the pandemic. "We are in a catastrophic situation ... the health system collapsed, we can only find a bed in hospitals with great difficulty," ministry spokesperson Nisaf Ben Alaya said. "We are struggling to provide…

Jul

09

2021

By The African Mirror

U.N. warns excluding women from top jobs threatens COVID-19 recovery

COVID-19

SHARON KIMATHI GLOBAL efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are under threat because women are being excluded from critical decision-making roles, according to the United Nations. Only 6% of coronavirus task forces, which are responsible for coordinating government responses to the deadly virus, have equal numbers of men and women, while 11% have no women at all, found the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). "The pivotal decisions being made today will affect the well-being of people and planet for generations to come," Achim Steiner, UNDP's administrator, said in a statement. "Sustainable recovery is only possible when women are able to…

Jul

09

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe gets 2 million doses

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE has received 2 million COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac, its single largest shipment that it hopes will boost a vaccination campaign that had been slowed by shortages while infections and deaths rise. The southern African nation imposed a dusk to dawn curfew and curbed the movement of people on June 29 in a bid to contain infections, which have since increased by 24% to 60,227. Zimbabwe has only registered vaccines from China, India and Russia and not from Western countries. The three countries have made donations to Zimbabwe. Thursday's delivery took Zimbabwe's total number of vaccines from purchases and…

Jul

09

2021

By The African Mirror

Water, power cuts and neglect are taking their toll on South Africa’s top hospitals

HEALTH

A fire at one of the biggest public hospitals in Johannesburg, the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and the delay in reopening the facility has brought infrastructural issues into sharp focus. The fire broke out in mid-April. Only now is a phased re-opening of the hospital being undertaken. PROFESSOR DAYNIA BALLOT, Head, School of Clinical Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand The reopening was delayed due to fire safety issues. A host of compliance measures weren’t in place. These included fire hydrants without a water supply, fire hydrants without correct couplings, non-functional fire doors and a lack of emergency lighting in…

Apr

07

2021

By The African Mirror

It’s a ‘travesty’ that some nations are unable to start COVID-19 vaccinations – WHO

COVID-19

IT is a travesty that some countries still have not had enough access to vaccines to begin inoculating health workers and the most vulnerable people against COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. "Scaling up production and equitable distribution remains the major barrier to ending the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. "It's a travesty that in some countries health workers and those at-risk groups remain completely unvaccinated." The president of Namibia, Hage Geingob, one of several world leaders invited to address the WHO news conference for…

Apr

07

2021

By The African Mirror

SA signs deal for 20 million Pfizer doses

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa has signed an agreement to buy 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech dual-shot COVID-19 vaccine, a senior government official has announced, boosting plans to ramp up vaccinations from this month. The deal is a boost for the country worst hit by coronavirus infections in Africa, as it adds to 31 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine that the government has already secured. The first batch from Pfizer is expected to arrive later in April, Anban Pillay, deputy director-general at the Department of Health, told Reuters. He said he was not allowed to disclose the price, but…

Apr

07

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa needs $12 billion for vaccines

COVID-19

THE World Bank estimates that Africa would need about $12 billion for COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution to attain sufficient levels of vaccination coverage to interrupt virus transmission, according to new paper by the bank and the IMF. The paper argued for a further extension of the Group of 20's debt service moratorium through year-end, noting the continued high liquidity needs of developing countries and their deteriorating debt sustainability outlooks. It said the amount of money Africa needed to interrupt transmission of the virus was about the same as the total amount of official debt service payments already deferred by…