HEALTH - The African Mirror

Jun

15

2021

‘Africa to be a priority for G7’s vaccines’

COVID-19

AFRICA will get priority treatment for the Group of Seven's pledged 870 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, a senior World Health Organization adviser has said. "You will see that Africa is one of the most vulnerable, under-served (areas), so the priority would be for doses to go... to the African continent writ large. Those numbers will be sorted out in the coming weeks," Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO adviser and coordinator of the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator, told an online news briefing from Geneva. The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the G7's weekend pledge of 870…

Jun

15

2021

By The African Mirror

J&J to send S.A 300,000 vaccine doses

COVID-19

PROMIT MUKHERJEE JOHNSON & Johnson (J&J) will export more ready-to-administer COVID-19 vaccines to South Africa beyond the 300,000 doses already pledged, the CEO of Aspen Pharmacare has announced. South African regulator SAHPRA on Sunday said that J&J would supply the country with 300,000 finished doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the next few days as a means to compensate for a loss of 2 million ready doses that Aspen, J&J's local contract manufacturer, will have to destroy. The watchdog's statement came a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) asked the global pharmaceuticals giant to destroy millions of…

May

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenyan president lifts COVID-19 lockdown imposed last month

COVID-19

KENYAN President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday lifted the COVID-19 lockdown he imposed last month, allowing for a reopening of bars and restaurants, religious services and schools, as the rate of infections eases in the East African country. Curbs on travel in the capital Nairobi and four surrounding counties would be lifted, schools will be allowed to reopen following an Education Ministry calendar. Religious services will resume with some restrictions, while political gatherings would still be banned, he said in a speech. An evening curfew that currently starts at 8 p.m. will be revised to 10 p.m.. The changes will be in…

May

02

2021

By The African Mirror

Latest developments in COVID science

COVID-19

NANCY LAPID THE following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Vaccine protects COVID-19 survivors against variants In COVID-19 survivors, the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine protects not only against the original virus strain but also against worrisome variants, two studies show. UK researchers analyzed immune responses after a single dose of the vaccine in 51 people, including 25 people previously infected with an early version of the novel coronavirus. Survivors showed enhanced antibody responses against the newer, more infectious…

Jun

14

2021

By The African Mirror

SA holds back unsuitable vaccines

COVID-19

South African health inspectors have said they will not release Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines that may have been contaminated during production at a U.S. plant. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said it made the decision after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised concerns over manufacturing practices at the Baltimore plant. "SAHPRA reviewed the data provided by the FDA and has made a decision not to release vaccine produced using the drug substance batches that were not suitable," SAHPRA said in a statement. The findings by the FDA would impact two million vaccines that are…

May

01

2021

By The African Mirror

‘J&J shot can be given to pregnant women’

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa's drug regulator has said that Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine can be given to pregnant women with co-morbidities or at high risk of contracting the coronavirus. The South African health ministry said SAHPRA had previously said pregnant and breastfeeding women should be excluded from a local research study evaluating the J&J vaccine's efficacy. That research study, which aims to immunize 500,000 health workers, resumed on Wednesday after it was temporarily suspended over extremely rare cases of blood clots in people given J&J's vaccine in the United States. But in recommendations posted on its website on Thursday, the regulator…

May

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Assessment of vaccines to be finalised

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization expects to release its assessments for emergency use listing of the two main Chinese vaccines for COVID-19 as well as the Moderna shot by the end of next week, according to WHO Assistant Director-General Mariangela Simao. Simao said the WHO's independent panel was assessing the Moderna vaccine and a vaccine from China's Sinopharm on Friday and was due to look at China's other main vaccine, made by Sinovac Biotech, next week. "So, by the beginning of next week or the end of next week we will have the final assessment of these three vaccines out," she…

May

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania installs oxygen production plants

COVID-19

TANZANIA has installed medical oxygen production plants in its biggest national hospitals to serve intensive care wards treating coronavirus patients, its health ministry said yesterday. The ministry statement said the plants installed in each hospital will produce 200 medical oxygen cylinders a day. The announcement that the plants had been installed in seven referral hospitals in a World Bank-backed project was another change of COVID-19 policies since the death of President John Magufuli in March. Earlier this month, President Samia Suluhu Hassan shifted the country's approach to COVID-19 from the controversial stances of her predecessor by announcing she was forming…

Jun

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Kinshasa hospitals ‘overwhelmed’

COVID-19

HOSPITALS in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa are "overwhelmed" by a rise in COVID-19 infections, President Felix Tshisekedi said yesterday, as the country was hit by a third wave of the disease. Like many African countries, Congo has officially registered relatively few cases. But the virus has killed a number of prominent politicians, and low vaccination rates have left the country vulnerable to more contagious variants. Health officials recorded 254 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began. In all, Congo has registered 35,000 cases and 830 deaths. "I am going…

Jun

13

2021

By The African Mirror

SA to analyse J&J vaccines made in U.S.

COVID-19

SOUTH African health inspectors will carry out further checks on a batch of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines following a contamination error earlier this year at the U.S. plant where the doses were produced, the health ministry said. As fears of a third COVID-19 wave grow in the hard-hit country, the ministry said late on Friday that officials from the health products regulator would assess the vaccines to ensure they are suitable for use. "There is now a real possibility that they may not be, however this is for the regulator to rule on," a ministry statement said. The ministry…