COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES | SA’s new infection control plan must be put into action ... fast

January 17 2022 - 10:00

Court vaccine ruling public health 'setback,' Murthy says

The U.S. surgeon general said a Supreme Court ruling that blocked a nationwide employer coronavirus vaccine mandate was 'a setback for public health.'

January 17 2022 - 08:30

EDITORIAL | As the state of disaster nears two years, it’s time for a rethink

On Friday, a typically short gazette from cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was published. Its contents are straightforward.

The national state of disaster has been extended by another month to February 15. This, the gazette reads, takes into account the need to “continue augmenting existing legislation and contingency arrangements undertaken by some organs of state to address the impact of the disaster”.

It is not an unexpected deadline extension, given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and that the country has just started emerging from a fourth wave of infections. It is also unsurprising the government has gone the extension route given this piece of legislation has been used to enforce all of the country’s coronavirus-related laws, from mask-wearing mandates to the controversial tobacco and alcohol bans.

January 17 2022 - 07:00

Has government made a decision on mandatory vaccinations?

Health minister Joe Phaahla said announcements regarding mandatory vaccinations will be made in due time as the government is deliberating the matter. 

The minister said though there was a decline in hospitalisation, deaths related to Covid-19 and daily infections, the department hoped vaccination uptake would increase during the festive season, but this was not the case. 

He said government was aiming to vaccinate 70% of the population to achieve what herd immunity.

January 17 2022 - 06:30

SA’s new infection control plan must be put into action ... fast

Whether it is in the queue outside a community healthcare clinic, in a GP’s waiting room or the ICU at a private-sector hospital, healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) pose a threat to people.

Measures taken to reduce these infection risks are referred to in healthcare circles as infection prevention and control (IPC) practices. Though the Covid-19 pandemic has firmly placed the spotlight on infection control, particularly as it relates to personal protective equipment (PPE) and limited access to Covid-19 wards, challenges with IPC are much older and broader than just the virus. Last year, for example, Spotlight took an in-depth look at the problem of infants getting infected with dangerous germs such as Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella in South African hospitals.

January 17 2022 - 06:00

Will 2022 be the year in which Covid becomes endemic?