COVID-19 vaccination - The African Mirror

Mar

2021

Kenya’s president orders new lockdown to curb COVID-19 wave

MAGGIE FICK and GEORGE OBULUTSA KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta restricted travel in the capital Nairobi and four surrounding counties on Friday as COVID-19 infections hit record levels in East Africa's richest economy. In a televised address, Kenyatta said a wave of new curbs including a stricter curfew and the closure of bars would hurt but were essential to fight the pandemic. The new restrictions come a week before the Easter holiday, when many Nairobi residents traditionally travel to visit family in other parts of the country. "Whereas the foregoing measures will have a negative impact on the economy, these measures…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Zambia sets out vaccination plans for all

COVID-19

ZAMBIA has announced plans to vaccinate all people over 18, or 46% of the 18.3 million population, against COVID-19 as it prepares for a third wave of the pandemic. The southern African country has registered more than 87,000 cases of COVID-19 and the death toll from the disease is more than 1,000. Health Minister Jonas Chanda said health workers, the police, security officers, teachers and the clergy would be among those given priority in the vaccination campaign. Cross-border traders, bus and truck drivers, and people over 65 - including those with chronic illnesses and their care givers - would also…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco’s vaccination drive bypasses undocumented migrants

COVID-19

AHMED ELJECHTIMI MOROCCO is further ahead with its COVID-19 vaccination programme than any other African country, but undocumented migrants are not a part of its plans, potentially undermining efforts to come to grips with the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged Morocco's tourism sector, and led to a drop in industrial exports. The country hopes that the inoculation programme will help its economy recover. Its vaccination rate of 14 doses per 100 people has outperformed that of much wealthier France and Italy. So far, the programme has concentrated on medics, other key workers, older people and those with chronic ailments,…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

No vaccine yet, for “careful” Ugandan leader

COVID-19

UGANDA’S President Yoweri Museveni has said he has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 because he is "careful" and is still weighing which jab to take, days after the East African country began its inoculation campaign. The apparent hesitation may fuel already significant vaccine scepticism in the country, which is in the earliest stages of its roll out of the jab. Many African countries have struggled to get doses and have not administered a single shot. Uganda began vaccinating health workers and the elderly last week after receiving 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX, the World Health Organisation-backed programme…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Slow start to Zimbabwe’s vaccination campaign

COVID-19

SCEPTICISM and concerns over the government’s lack of transparency in dealing with many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic have derailed the plan to vaccinate frontline workers. The first phase of Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign has been extended in most parts of the country owing to a low turnout of the targeted groups. The initial programme, which started at the end of February, was supposed to be finished at the end of the first week in March, but the Ministry of Health and Child Care has given the green light to let it continue in order to reach the set target…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Most African countries to begin vaccinations by end of March

COVID-19

MOST African countries will kick-start their COVID-19 vaccination programs by the end of March as efforts to procure doses for the continent's 1.3 billion people gather pace, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday. The world's poorest continent faces logistical and financial obstacles to securing all the vaccines it needs, but the WHO-led COVAX facility has begun to bear fruit. "This week Africa has been at the forefront of COVAX facility deliveries, finally, with almost 10 million vaccine doses being delivered to 11 countries as of this morning," WHO Africa's Matshidiso Moeti told a virtual news conference. "We expect that…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Can my employer make me get a vaccine?

COVID-19

JACK GRAHAM AFTER widespread disruption caused by COVID-19 in 2020, businesses around the world hope the roll-out of vaccines this year can accelerate a return to normal. To speed things up, some are even incentivising their staff to get vaccinated. Dollar General Corp, Instacart and Trader Joe’s in the United States are paying frontline employees to get inoculated. A British plumbing company has gone further, announcing plans to make a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for new hires and exploring adding the requirement to existing staff contracts. Britain's justice secretary said it may be legal for firms to insist on new staff…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

No jab, no job: Vatican gets tough with COVID anti-vaxxers

COVID-19

PHILIP PULLELLA THE Vatican has told employees that they may risk losing their jobs if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination without legitimate health reasons. A decree by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, effectively the governor of Vatican City, said getting a vaccine was "the responsible choice" because of the risk of harming other people. Vatican City, at 108 acres the world's smallest state, has several thousand employees, most of whom live in Italy. Its vaccination programme began last month and Pope Francis, 84, was among the first to get the jab. The seven-page decree says that those who cannot get…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

‘I feel blessed’, says doctor

COVID-19

WENDELL ROELF and ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH Africa launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive yesterday, battling to tame a more infectious variant of the coronavirus with a roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson shot for the first time outside a major clinical trial. "I actually feel blessed, you know, after all our hard work and effort in the first and second wave that we finally have another layer of protection, another tool...in the fight against COVID-19," said emergency physician Sa'ad Lahri, one of the first South Africans to be vaccinated. "I am still Zoliswa, no side-effects," said nurse Zoliswa Gidi-Dyosi, who was…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Egypt begins COVID-19 vaccination drive

COVID-19

EGYPT began vaccinating frontline medical staff against COVID-19, using the jab developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The vaccine will be provided free of charge first to all doctors and frontline workers treating coronavirus patients, then to other medical workers, senior citizens and people with chronic illnesses, Health Minister Hala Zayed said. "As soon as each citizen registers, they will take their turn. But you cannot set a timeframe for when this will be, and even the countries that have set a timeframe have not been able to fulfil it, not because they have a problem, but because of…