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South Africa has entered a new phase of the COVID pandemic: what that means

South Africa has entered a new phase of the COVID pandemic: what that means

CONFIRMED cases of SARS-CoV-2 have been increasing in South Africa in recent weeks. This has been largely driven by two offspring – known as the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages – of the Omicron variant first identified in South Africa late last year. What’s notable about the most recent spike is that there are a number of differences between what the country is currently experiencing and the first four waves of COVID-19 in South Africa. Authors MICHELLE J. GROOME, Head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, National Institute for Communicable Diseases JULIET PULLIAM, Director: SACEMA, South African Centre…
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Africa seeing uptick of Covd-19 cases – WHO

Africa seeing uptick of Covd-19 cases – WHO

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…
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Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

POPE Francis plans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others. "I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine," the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. "It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others." Vatican City, the smallest independent county in the world, home to about 450 people including Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own…
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Push for digital COVID-19 record

Push for digital COVID-19 record

MANAS MISHRA and AMRUTA KHANDEKAR MICROSOFT Corp, health insurer Cigna Corp and Mayo Clinic are part of a coalition pushing for digital records of people who get vaccinated against COVID-19. A key aim of the project, called Vaccination Credential Initiative, is to help people store encrypted digital copies of their immunization records in a digital wallet of their choice, the companies said in a joint statement on Thursday. These records could eventually be used, with an individual's consent, by colleges that are trying to re-open or even for entry into concerts in the future, Joan Harvey, an executive at Cigna…
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Zimbabwe president gets COVID-19 dose

Zimbabwe president gets COVID-19 dose

ZIMBABWE's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some opposition politicians received China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls yesterday as part of efforts to encourage citizens to get inoculated. Zimbabwe has registered vaccines from China, India and Russia for emergency use but none so far from Western manufacturers. In a country where suspicion and scepticism often trump facts, Mnangagwa's vaccination at a public event, together with opposition leaders, was meant to assure citizens that the vaccines were safe. The southern African nation had planned to administer the Sinopharm vaccine to 53,000 health workers and selected security forces when…
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“20-million Americans could be vaccinated this year”

“20-million Americans could be vaccinated this year”

THE U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expects to move quickly after a December 10 review of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and 20 million Americans could be vaccinated this year, its commissioner has revealed. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn declined to give a specific timeline of how long approval of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech would take but said that he hoped there would be a decision by the regulator in December. As soon as the FDA approves a vaccine, "I will be first in line and I will encourage my family to take this vaccine," Hahn…
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Celebrated French DJ tells fans ahead of Louvre gig: ‘get the vaccine’

Celebrated French DJ tells fans ahead of Louvre gig: ‘get the vaccine’

FRENCH DJ David Guetta said he hoped everybody would get vaccinated against COVID-19, shortly before recording a charity concert outside the Louvre Museum in Paris that will be streamed on New Year's Eve. Guetta, known for his collaborations over nearly two decades with artists such as Akon, J Balvin, Nicki Minaj and Kelly Rowland, is raising money for UNICEF and French charity Les Restos du Coeur, which provides food and meals to people in need. "I'm going to do the vaccine, and I hope people are going to do it too because I don't see any other way to go…
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Vaccinating the world: Lessons learned from India, Haiti and Sierra Leone

Vaccinating the world: Lessons learned from India, Haiti and Sierra Leone

ANASTASIA MOLONEY ROLLING out COVID-19 vaccines to billions of people across the world means managing the most complex supply chains the world has ever seen. But valuable lessons are there to be learned including from India where hundreds of millions of children are vaccinated against diseases every year and Sierra Leone where people received Ebola shots after the deadly disease outbreak in 2014. We asked public health experts and a community health worker who survived Ebola how they ensure vaccines reach those most in need. INCLUDE WOMEN Globally about 70% of health workers are female, and women are often the…
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Less than 3.5 % of Africans vaccinated against COVID

Less than 3.5 % of Africans vaccinated against COVID

LESS than 3.5% of Africans are vaccinated against COVID-19, far short of its official target of 60%, John Nkengasong, director of Africa's Centers for Disease Control, said on Tuesday. World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the same briefing that the continent was being "left behind by the rest of the world" and that this would allow the coronavirus to keep circulating.
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