Growing concerns over South Africa’s new Covid rules – as Thursday deadline approaches
The opposition Democratic Alliance has called on the government to provide clarity on the current state of South Africa’s draft Covid regulations. Public comment for the Draft Health Regulations closed on 24 April 2022, which gave health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and his department only 12 days to process and analyze more than 300,000 submissions […]
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What to expect from the next Covid wave and lockdown restrictions: Absa
While the Covid-19 risk has diminished in South Africa, it has not disappeared, and a resurgence of cases in recent weeks could weigh on the economy this year, say economists at Absa bank. “New Covid-19 cases are again on the rise, with the positive test ratio reaching 21% on 27 April, the highest level since […]
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Can the Technology Behind Covid Vaccines Cure Other Diseases?
The vaccines that have helped billions of people around the world to protect themselves from Covid-19 were a surprise even to their manufacturers. Harnessing a new and relatively untried technology called messenger RNA, or mRNA, the vaccines were available many months and possibly even years ahead of when health experts expected safe and effective traditional […]
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App uses smartphone cameras to test for Covid, with high accuracy
Researchers continue working to make it much easier — and cheaper — to test for Covid-19. A team led by scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, announced Friday that it has designed a system that uses a smartphone’s camera to perform Covid tests, with accuracy that could match lab-based PCR tests. In a […]
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COVID vaccine mRNA technology offers hope for heart disease treatment
Combining technologies that proved hugely successful against cancer and in COVID-19 vaccines, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown they can effectively treat a leading cause of heart disease. For now the success has only been achieved in mice, but the milestone offers hope for millions of people whose heart muscle is damaged by […]
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Previous Covid recovery doesn’t offer much protection against Omicron: UK study
A previous Covid-19 recovery provides little shield against infection with the omicron variant, a research team from Imperial College London showed in a large study that underlines the importance of booster shots. Having had Covid probably only offers 19% protection against omicron, the study showed on Friday. That was roughly in line with two doses of vaccine, […]
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What a hospital in Tshwane is teaching us about vaccinated vs unvaccinated Covid patients
The majority of the patients who were treated for Covid-19 at Tshwane public hospitals were unvaccinated. The information is contained in a report on the early experience of the patient profile at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Tshwane District Hospital (SBAH-TDH) complex, in the heart of the Tshwane District. The SBAH combined its workforce […]
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Vaccine-evading Covid mutations warning
The proliferation of Covid-19 variants in Africa, partly attributed to the low rates of vaccination on the continent, could lead to vaccine-evading mutations that complicate attempts to end the pandemic, a group of 112 African and 25 international organisations said. A study of genomes from 33 African nations and two “overseas territories,” published in the […]
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