pandemic - The African Mirror

Jan

2023

China says COVID outbreak has infected 80% of population

THE possibility of a big COVID-19 rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote as 80% of people have been infected, a prominent government scientist said. The mass movement of people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday period may spread the pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second COVID wave is unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the Weibo social media platform. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are travelling across the country for holiday reunions that had been suspended…

Dec

2022

By The African Mirror

Shanghai hospital warns of ‘tragic battle’ as COVID spreads

WORLD

ZOEY ZHANG and BERNARD ORR A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a "tragic battle" with COVID-19 as it expects half of the city's 25 million people will get infected by the end of next week, while the virus sweeps through China largely unchecked. After widespread protests against strict mitigation measures, China this month began dismantling its "zero-COVID" regime, which had taken a great financial and psychological toll on its 1.4 billion people. China's official death count since the pandemic began three years ago stands at 5,241 - a fraction of what most other countries faced -…

Jun

2022

By The African Mirror

Here’s how much learning South African children lost in the pandemic

COVID-19

WHEN a state of disaster was declared in South Africa in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic, a hard lockdown was instituted and schools were shut. This was followed by varying periods of lockdowns, school closure and rotational timetables to maintain social distancing across different grades. Administrative data show that children in South Africa missed at least three-quarters of a year of school in the past two school years. This reduced their opportunities to learn and allowed more time to forget what they had learnt. Authors SERVAAS VAN DER BERG, Professor of Economics and South African Research Chair in…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Africa seeing uptick of Covd-19 cases – WHO

COVID-19

AFRICA is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 infections, largely driven by a doubling in cases reported in South Africa, the World Health Organization said, urging people across the continent to continue to get vaccinated. Africa had been experiencing a lull in COVID cases, with the WHO earlier this month pointing to the longest-running decline in weekly infections on the continent since the start of the pandemic. But last week cases started to pick up in South Africa -- the country that has recorded the most infections and deaths in Africa to date -- and health authorities there are monitoring for…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

SA lifts curbs, cautions Covid-19 is not over

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER BUOYED by low infection rates and better management of the pandemic, South Africa has announced the end of the state of disaster and a significant relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions on social and economic activity. SA President Cyril Ramaphosa said the state of disaster, which was imposed with the onset of COVID-19, would be replaced by health regulations designed to help South Africans live with the pandemic. Ramaphosa announced the following changes: Masks should only be worn indoors. In office, shops and public transport.Both indoor and outdoor venues can now take up to 50 percent of their capacity…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

New COVID data: South Africa has arrived at the recovery stage of the pandemic

COVID-19

A recently published South African study set out to determine sero-positivity against SARS-CoV-2 before the fourth wave of COVID-19, in which the omicron variant was dominant. Sero-positivity measures the presence of antibodies against the virus; it indicates past infection. The study focused on Gauteng, the country’s economic hub. Ozayr Patel asked Shabir Madhi to unpack the results and explain why the findings suggest that South Africa has reached a turning point in the pandemic. Author SHABIR A. MADHI, Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

Like COVID, TB is a pandemic and must be treated as an emergency

HEALTH

IN 1993, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global public health emergency. It urged nations to coordinate efforts to avert millions of deaths. Author RICHARD E. CHAISSON, Director, Center for Tuberculosis Research, Johns Hopkins University In January 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19, another airborne infectious disease, a public health emergency of international concern. The similarity between the global responses to these two pandemics ends there. The scientific, public health, medical, and pharmaceutical communities’ responses to COVID-19 in the past two years has been spectacular. Within two weeks of declaring COVID-19 a global emergency, the WHO had convened…

Feb

2022

By The African Mirror

COVID vaccines: African countries need to fix their distribution chains

COVID-19

SUB-SAHARAN Africa still has too few vaccines for too few people. Delivering more inoculations to the region deserves top priority. But there is another hurdle to overcome to successfully deploy vaccines: the region’s poor trade and logistics quality. Logistics are a network of services that support the physical movement of goods both within and across a country’s borders. Author JONATHAN MUNEMO, Professor of Economics, Salisbury University No journey is more critical in determining the fate of a pandemic than the distance a vaccine must travel from the production line to a person’s arm. In sub-Saharan Africa, the last mile of…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Olympic host Tokyo hits record 2,848 COVID-19 cases, seeks more hospital beds

WORLD

ANTONI SLODKOWSKI and SAM NUSSEY TOKYO’S 2,848 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday were the Olympic host city's highest since the pandemic began, officials said, as media reported that authorities had asked hospitals to prepare more beds for patients as the Delta variant drives the surge. The rise in cases threatens to further erode support for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose ratings have slid to their lowest level since he took office last September, in large part because of his haphazard handling of the pandemic. It also spells trouble for the Olympics, as many Japanese fear the influx of athletes and officials…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa hits record 26,845 new COVID-19 cases in third wave

COVID-19

SOUTH Africa has registered more than 26 485 cases of COVID-19 , its highest tally of new infections since the pandemic began, as a third wave of the virus spread through a population in which just 5% have been vaccinated. The surge in cases in Africa's most industrialised nation has overwhelmed hospitals, especially in the main city of Johannesburg, and left overworked healthcare personnel struggling to find enough beds for critically ill patients. Bureaucratic failures have worsened the health crisis. The South African Medical Association threatened on Thursday to take the government to court because more than 200 new junior…