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Weekly Roundup
Excess deaths metric means as many as 8,000 may have died in the Eastern Cape
As many as 8,000 people may already have died in the Eastern Cape as a result of COVID-19 – almost four times higher than...
Government acts to bolt the COVID-19 corruption stable door
South Africa’s National Treasury (NT) has resolved to end emergency procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19 protective clothing after revelations of...
Two more COVID-19 vaccine candidates to be trialled in SA
Dr Glenda Gray, president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), has confirmed that a Johnson & Johnson product called Ad26.COV2-S...
Gauteng Health staff to be disciplined for swapping newborns
The Gauteng Health Department will be taking action against staff members involved in the swapping of newborn babies at Tambo Memorial Hospital, in Boksburg....
Mkhize 'reads riot act' over shoddy treatment of patients
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has read the riot act to health management that they will be held accountable for the shoddy job such as...
Hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment not recommended by SA's DoH and private sector
The Health Department says it does not recommend the use of the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment. And, says an IoL...
Discovery's trend analysis: Leading causes of death of insured clients
Insurer and medical scheme, Discovery has highlighted claims data trends through its shared-value insurance model, reports Business Tech.
Discovery Life’s chief medical officer, Dr Maritha...
SA's private hospitals order cut-price remdesivir generic but state holds back
South Africa’s biggest private hospital groups have obtained supplies of Indian drug manufacturer Cipla’s cut-price generic version of the coronavirus drug remdesivir, which speeds...
WHO sends 43 experts to assist SA with pandemic
The first team of experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), that will assist South Africa in its fight against the novel coronavirus, was...
Mkhize orders Occupational and safety committees at every level
In a bid to ensure continuous engagement with all stakeholders critical to the fight against COVID-19, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has given a...
Fauci: 'Really bad if US cases don't drop below 10,000 cases daily
Anthony Fauci the country’s top infectious disease expert, warned that the US could be in a “really bad situation” if the number of new...
SA invests R25m to boost pan-African vaccine and therapeutic capacity
South Africa is in the process of finalising a R25m investment to boost pan-African vaccine manufacturing capabilities towards COVID-19 through the African Renaissance Fund,...
Kenyan crackdown on private clinics offering emergency contraception
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered county commissioners to carry out a nationwide crackdown on private clinics offering emergency contraceptives to underage females. The...
Vietnam struggles to track origin of severe COVID-19 strain in new outbreak
Vietnamese authorities say they were finding it hard to track the origin of a fresh coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of...
Health agencies fear that wealthy countries will monopolise vaccine supplies
It's dog eat dog in the world of COVID-19 vaccines. Reuters Health reports that that's the fear of global health agencies planning a scheme...
COVID-19 globally causing massive disruption of vaccination of children
Tens of millions of children around the world have been denied life-saving vaccines against measles in both rich and poor countries due to COVID-19...
UK to roll out 90-minute LamPORE coronavirus test
New 90-minute tests that can detect coronavirus and flu are to be rolled out in UK care homes and laboratories. BBC News reports that...
Covid emergency services 'inundated' by Vodacom customer care callers
Comment is sought by 4 August on proposals for harmonising the short code for national emergency services, which were published in the Government Gazette....
FDA again warns about dangerous alcohol-based hand sanitisers
The US Food and Drug Administration has again warn consumers and health care professionals not to use certain alcohol-based hand sanitisers due to the...
WHO: Travel bans can't be indefinite and countries must do more to reduce COVID-19 spread
Bans on international travel cannot stay in place indefinitely, and countries are going to have to do more to reduce the spread of the...
Two doctors and two nurses die of COVID-19 in single week in North West
The North West Health Department has been rocked by the deaths of four medical workers in a single week due to COVID-19, reports The...
Nursing union says fear pushing members with comorbidities into early retirement
Many nurses with comorbidities have allegedly resigned or taken early retirement because of their fears of being exposed to the coronavirus. Daily News reports...
Operation Healing Hands to perform life-changing surgeries during Mandela Month
What began as a one-week charity drive in 2016, to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, has grown into an NPO that to date...
Foreign-trained doctors rue not able to register to help fight COVID-19
Frustrated, helpless and dejected – that’s how foreign-trained doctors desperate to register with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) and help stem the...
EC to continue with controversial scooter project
The Eastern Cape government plans to continue with its R10m scooter project. News24 reports that this was according to Premier Oscar Mabuyane who said...
The high cost of SA's hopelessly wrong pandemic models
The first official prediction of how many ICU beds would be used in the Western Cape by COVID-19 patients, made back in May, overestimated...
CMSA urges govt to reconsider new taxi loading rules
Despite claims by by Transport Minister Fikile Mbablula that unnamed "health experts" backed the government’s decision to allow taxi operators’ full loads, the Colleges...
Discovery may move members around SA to ensure hospital admission
South Africa’s biggest medical scheme administrator, Discovery Health, is prepared to move members around the country to make room for COVID-19 patients should the...
Western Cape Health unlikely to need private hospital beds
The Western Cape Health Department may be spared the cost of referring state patients to private hospitals if the region’s apparent decline in coronavirus...
Western Cape COVID-19 facility and community centre burned by mob
Protesters torched the Desmond Tutu Community Hall and a new facility for COVID-19 patients in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, on Saturday. The new facility opened a...
Alleged looting of KZN COVID-19 relief funds
An investigation by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) government into alleged looting of COVID-19 funds has revealed that its Social Development Department squandered more than R15m...
KZN Health establishes committee to handle rise in COID-19 positive health workers
The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department and unions have established a personal health and safety committee at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban to tackle the...
Staff shut down KZN hospital because of community protests
Worried about their safety, staff at Montebello Hospital downed tools and left the hospital with the gates closed. But, says a Groundup report, in...
UK's home finger-prick antibody test passes first clinical trial
The hunt for a “game-changing” antibody test may be over after a version backed by the UK government passed its first major trials with...
Eastern Cape emergency services buckling under the weight of pandemic
Health workers in Port Elizabeth say the city’s hospitals are swamped — the pandemic has overwhelmed facilities that were already under-equipped and under-resourced.
“A minimum...
Netherlands donates critical COVID-19 testing equipment to SA
Over 100,000 vials of GLY, used in testing and diagnosing COVID-19 has been donated to South Africa by the Netherlands. Polity reports that the Glucose-Lactalbumin-Yeast,...
COVID-19 weighs on Mediclinic's performance
Private hospital group Mediclinic said COVID-19 weighed on the performance in its Southern African business in June, though its offshore operations performed better. Business...
Afrox denies reports of medical oxygen shortages
Gas supplier Afrox has assured the public that there is no shortage of medical oxygen in South Africa, contrary to what some media reports...
National project for 20,000 ventilators delayed another month
The deadline to produce 20,000 non-invasive ventilators has been pushed back for a third time, with the National Ventilator Project (NVP) running a month...
SA vaccine trial protocols amended because of high percentage of asymptomatic volunteers
Almost a fifth of the 474 South Africans screened for South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination trial were excluded from participation due to underlying conditions, including...