HEALTH - The African Mirror

Apr

16

2021

“Shocking vaccine disparity”

COVID-19

THERE is still a "shocking disparity" in the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. Tedros, addressing an event of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, said that some low and middle-income countries in the COVAX facility still had not received any vaccines, while others had not received their second round allocation. "We need an urgent scale-up in financing COVAX," he said. Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and chair of the African Union, said he hoped that people on the African continent would have the same…

Apr

16

2021

By The African Mirror

WTO chief lays out global action to increase vaccine access

COVID-19

THE head of the World Trade Organization laid out a series of actions yesterday for countries and drug makers to increase production of coronavirus vaccines and share them more widely and fairly. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who became WTO director-general in March, called a closed-door meeting of producers, governments and others over inequitable access, with low-income countries administering just 0.2% of 700 million global doses. In her concluding remarks, Okonjo-Iweala said that concerns over cross-border supply chains, including export curbs and shortages of skilled personnel, had reinforced her view that the WTO must play a central role in the response to the…

Jun

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa bolsters telemedicine in race for good health

HEALTH

CONRAD ONYANGO FOR a long time, most Africans were used to visiting dispensaries, chemists or present themselves physically to hospitals to gain access to life-saving healthcare services. However, the trend has seen a significant change over the last two years as countries in the continent begin to set up virtual health care systems in the race for good health. More Africans are now accessing life-saving medicines, check-ups, referrals, and consultation services over their mobile phones, on the back of the rapidly growing digital healthcare system. Since 2019, Africa has recorded a steady rise in the number of health tech start-ups…

Jun

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Egypt to receive 1.9 million doses

COVID-19

EGYPT expects to receive 1.9-million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility next month, its health ministry said in a statement. The country has also procured 210,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, and aims to procure 20 million doses by the end of the year, the statement said.

Apr

15

2021

By The African Mirror

DRC to start vaccination campaign

COVID-19

THE Democratic Republic of Congo will start its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on April 19 with 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses it received from the COVAX global vaccines sharing scheme after delaying the rollout for more than a month. Congo received the vaccines on March 2 and was expected to begin the inoculation campaign almost immediately but delayed rollout after several European countries suspended use of the shots. A government statement late yesterday said a task force had determined that the AstraZeneca vaccines already available in the country presented no risks to the population. Congo has reported 28,542 infections and 745 coronavirus-related…

Apr

15

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Vaccine down payments terms among onerous’

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF and ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH Africa agreed to onerous conditions like non-refundable down payments to secure COVID-19 vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer, its health minister said on Wednesday, describing terms vaccine manufacturers had demanded as "difficult and sometimes unreasonable". The country worst-hit by the pandemic on the African continent in terms of coronavirus infections and deaths is counting on the single-dose J&J and double-shot Pfizer vaccines to ramp up immunisations after a slow start. It has signed deals with the two firms for a combined 61 million doses, enough to vaccinate 46 million people out of…

Apr

15

2021

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX- Some countries limit AstraZeneca vaccine use, US pauses J&J shot

COVID-19

SOME countries are restricting the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to certain age groups or suspending use after European and British regulators confirmed possible links to rare blood clots. Denmark became the first country to stop using the vaccine altogether, as it said results of investigations showed "real and serious side-effects". Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine has also been hit by concerns over blood clots, with European regulators reviewing such cases and U.S. federal health agencies recommending pausing its use for a few days. J&J noted no clear causal relationship had been established between the clots and its vaccine.…

Jun

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana’s “miracle” COVID-19 unit

COVID-19

PEARL AKANYA OFORI THE man behind Ghana's "COVID-19 miracle facility" reflects on what it took to build and how the effort showed that a sense of civic duty is alive and kicking across Africa, a year after Ghanaian civil society came together in unprecedented fashion to deliver the state of the art COVID-19 facility to the nation in record time Building a 100-bed hospital in 91 days may seem unrealistic, but faced with unprecedented healthcare challenges, "ordinary" Ghanaians not only built the country’s first Infectious Disease Isolation and Treatment Centre but did so in record time, a feat that makes…

Apr

15

2021

By The African Mirror

Vaccine show protection 6 months on

COVID-19

MICHAEL ERMAN MODERNA Inc said on Tuesday that its COVID-19 vaccine still showed strong protection against the illness six months after people received their second shot, with efficacy of more than 90 percent against all cases of COVID-19 and more than 95 percent against severe COVID-19. The vaccine maker, which will be updating investors on the progress of its vaccines at an event on Wednesday, said the six-month follow-up of its original late-stage study of the vaccine showed that vaccine efficacy remained consistent with its previous updates. The company has also started testing new versions of the vaccine that target…

Jun

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Delta variant starting to dominate in S.Africa, scientists say

COVID-19

THE Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India, appears to be dominating new infections in South Africa, local scientists told a news conference yesterday. South Africa is the worst-hit country on the African continent in terms of confirmed COVID-19 infections and deaths. It is in the middle of a "third wave" of infections, recording more than 18,000 new cases on Friday. Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane (pictured left) told the same news conference that it was now likely that the peak of the third wave would surpass the peak of the second wave in January.