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Weekly Roundup
'Significant decline' in COVID-19 cases at schools — Motshekga
The Basic Education Department has said it has seen a significant decline in COVID-19 cases at schools, hence hardly any schools have been closed...
Actuarial Society: SA's second wave of pandemic likely to be less deadly
A second wave of coronavirus infections in South Africa is likely to be less deadly than the first, according to the expert co-ordinating the...
HSRC to study extent of COVID-19 infection in SA's general population
The Human Sciences Research Council is in the final stages of preparation for a study that will establish the extent of COVID-19 infection in...
How SA's state hospitals are addressing elective procedures backlog
As hospital visits were limited during lockdown, this meant surgical procedures such as gallbladder removals, cataracts, elective removal of tonsils and elective knee replacements,...
WHO Sitrep: 13% decrease in COVID-19 cases in Africa, 7% increase in deaths
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa region says there has been a 13% decrease in incidence cases and a 7% increase in deaths since...
WHO survey: COVID-19's 'devastating' effect on mental health services
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide while the demand for mental health is increasing,...
Lab-free rapid COVID-19 test cleared for use in Europe
A Becton Dickinson lab-free COVID-19 test that returns results in 15 minutes has been cleared for use in Europe. Business Insider reports the US...
Nigeria develops cheaper and faster COVID-19 test kit
The Nigerian government has developed the Sars-CoV-2 isothermal molecular assay (SIMA) test kit to improve its testing capacity for COVID-19. A Polity report quotes...
Zungu to be acting head of EC Health despite corruption cloud
Dr Sibongile Zungu has been announced as the new acting superintendent-general for the department of health in the Eastern Cape. News24 reports that Zungu...
Spotlight: Little or no improvement in dire state of Eastern Cape hospitals
The dire state of health infrastructure and services in the Eastern Cape has made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic and triggered promises of government...
Gauteng Health apologises for payment delays to community health workers
strong>Gauteng Health has apologised to community health workers who have been negatively impacted by the delay in the finalisation of their appointment and payment,...
COVID-19 causes million-women backlog in UK screening for breast cancer
Almost a million British women have missed a breast cancer screening appointment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Guardian reports a charity has estimated....
UK to trial arthritis drug on care-home residents with COVID-19
A commonly used arthritis drug is to be trialled with care home residents who have COVID-19, after it was observed that those taking it...
Mkhize: 'Sin taxes' won't be used to fund healthcare
The Health Department is not considering using alcohol and other sin taxes to help fund the country’s healthcare sector. This, says a BusinessLIVE report,...
Eastern Cape reports worrying coronavirus infection outbreaks in some small towns
A week after the joint operations centre at the Joe Gqabi District Municipality warned in its COVID-19 updated report that the district now had...
SA leg of MMR trial to protect healthcare workers against Sars-CoV-2
Researchers are preparing to launch the South Africa leg of an international trial investigating whether the well-established measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot used...
Nurses at hospital residences evicted to make way for Cuban-trained doctors
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the department was not throwing out nurses from staff residences at Wentworth and King Edward VIII hospitals to...
SA makes Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children a notifiable medical condition
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) – associated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) – has been included in the notifiable medical conditions (NMC) in...
Most Limpopo burn patients are male victims of intimate partner violence
Most patients in Limpopo admitted for burn treatment sustained their injuries from intimate partner violence and are men. The Times reports that this is...
SA employed more than 13,000 new nurses to cope with COVID-19
COVID-19 has meant the employment of 13,135 new nurses over South Africa’s nine provinces since the start of the pandemic. Skills Portal reports that...
Western Cape ambulance crews to get live-streaming body cams for safety
The Western Cape plans to equip its ambulance crews with live-streaming video cameras monitored at a central location by operators who can dispatch an...
KZN government releases ownership details of R2.1bn in COVID-19 contracts
The KwaZulu-Natal government paid R17m of its total R2.1bn expenditure on COVID-19 to companies for which it has no details, Premier Sihle Zikalala is...
WHO report on global epidemiology and the burden of sepsis — 1 in 5 deaths
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its first report on the global epidemiology and burden of sepsis, estimating that the life-threatening reaction to...
WHO and Africa's CDC launch SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing laboratory network
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a network of laboratories to...
Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine trial resumes but only in the UK
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has announced that it has resumed its coronavirus vaccine trial in the UK after suspending it six days ago over...
NHS England has 'worrying' shortage of 2,500 cancer nurses
Cancer care across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was already at “crisis level” before the emergence of COVID-19, due to a shortage of...
Outrage over 'political' attempts by Trump appointees to change CDC reports
Scientists and physicians are expressing frustration and outrage following reports that top politically appointed Trump administration officials have demanded the right to edit and...
Nigerian health workers strike over hazard pay to treat pandemic patients
Nigerian health workers demanding the payment of a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients have gone on strike only a week after doctors in...
Auditor-General's special report on COVID-19 relief fund irregularities
Besides red flags such as payments to deceased people, duplicate payments and over-payments in the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) COVID-19 Ters benefit scheme, Auditor-General...
Argentine professor battling COVID-19 dies while giving Zoom lecture
A 46-year-old professor in Argentina, who had reportedly been showing symptoms of coronavirus for weeks, died while teaching an online class, reports New18. Paola...
AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial paused over an illness
AstraZeneca Plc said it has paused global trials, including large late-stage trials, of its experimental coronavirus vaccine due to an unexplained illness in a...
SA Health Department launches digital contract tracing app
The national Health Department has launched the COVID Alert SA app, which informs people if they have been in contact with someone who has...
Germany's Qiagen launches 15-minute COVID-19 antigen test
German diagnostic test maker Qiagen has announced that it planned to launch a COVID-19 antigen test that can provide results in 15 minutes and...
EC will refurbish hospitals and clinics rather than build anew
The Eastern Cape provincial government has been forced to fast track the refurbishment of many rural hospitals to capacitate them to deal with the...
Nehawu march on Parliament dispersed with water cannon and stun grenades
Police used stun grenades and a water cannon to disperse members of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) who had marched...
African Centres for Disease Control back test-and-travel app
Two major African organisations are promoting a new technology that could connect the continent’s COVID-19 testing centres and ease a reopening of travel across...
WEF survey: Lack of confidence in COVID-19 vaccine may compromise effectiveness
In a new World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey of nearly 20,000 adults from 27 countries, 74% say they would get a vaccine for COVID-19. This...
WHO wants to secure 230m COVID-19 vaccine does for Africa
The World Health Organisation (WHO) wants to secure an initial 230m doses of any COVID-19 vaccine for Africa, officials said, while emphasising that any...
Up to 60,000 in UK suffering from 'long COVID' beyond 3 months
Up to 60,000 people in the UK may have been suffering from “long COVID” for more than three months, unable to get the care...
Nigerian doctors again strike over pay and working conditions
Nigerian resident doctors began their second strike of the year over pay and working conditions amid the spread of the new coronavirus, the doctors'...