COVID-19 WRAP | Gauteng records 1,472 of SA's 4,500 new Covid-19 cases: NICD

February 02 2022 - 20:48

Gauteng records 1,472 of SA's 4,500 new Covid-19 cases: NICD

SA recorded 4,502 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Wednesday.

This means that there have been 3,612,809 confirmed cases across the country to date.

The new cases came at a positivity rate of 11.3% — higher than it has been in recent days.

February 02 2022 - 12:26

Time to disempower Covid-19 command council, says union

SA needs to return to a functioning democracy, says trade union Solidarity, which on Wednesday served court papers asking for the continuation of the Covid-19 state of disaster to be declared invalid. 

The union lodged its papers in the high court in Pretoria against co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the national coronavirus command council and Dr Mmaphaka Tau of the national disaster management centre.

February 02 2022 - 12:19

Australia's Covid-19 hospital admissions fall to lowest in weeks

Australia's Covid-19 hospitalisation rate fell to its lowest in nearly three weeks on Wednesday, while a steady rate of daily infections raised hopes the worst of an outbreak fuelled by the Omicron coronavirus variant may have passed.

Hospital cases fell to about 4,600 on Wednesday, with all states seeing a dip in admission numbers, after a peak of nearly 5,400 a week ago.

“We've seen the peaks of Omicron, I think, come through in (New South Wales and Victoria)," Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is under pressure over his handling of the Omicron wave, told a media briefing.

With Covid-19 hospitalisations stabilising, Morrison said he had tasked health officials to check the impact on the health system before easing more border curbs. Morrison said last week he hoped international borders may fully reopen “before Easter”.

Australia is going through a staggered border reopening allowing in only skilled migrants, international students and backpackers.

February 02 2022 - 12:00

DA welcomes schools reopening, calls for scrapping of state of disaster

The DA in Gauteng has welcomed cabinet’s decision to scrap rotational schooling under lockdown alert level 1, but criticised the continued national state of disaster. 

The presidency announced the return of full-time schooling on a daily basis and scrapped the 1m social distancing requirement for pupils.

DA basic education shadow minister Baxolile Nodada said government needs to adopt a normalised approach to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic by ending the state of disaster to allow it to focus on unemployment and recovering schooling time lost at the height of the pandemic, lockdowns and rotational teaching and learning. 

February 02 2022 - 11:58

Tonga goes into lockdown; Covid-19 cases not at international aid port

Tsunami-hit Tonga said two wharf workers had come down with Covid-19, prompting the previously virus-free nation to go into lockdown on Wednesday, but the waterfront workers were not on docks being used by foreign navies to deliver aid.

There have been fears an influx of international ships and planes delivering badly-needed water, shelter and food after a devastating volcanic eruption had increased the risk of a pandemic outbreak in the isolated Pacific nation. Tonga had recorded only one previous Covid-19 case.

The Australian navy ship, HMAS Adelaide, was known to have 23 Covid-19 cases on-board when it docked at Vuna wharf last week and offloaded 250 pallets of aid to a quarantine zone.

February 02 2022 - 08:50

Australia's Covid-19 hospital admissions fall to lowest in weeks

Australia's Covid-19 hospitalisation rate fell to its lowest in nearly three weeks on Wednesday, while a steady rate of daily infections raised hopes the worst of an outbreak fuelled by the Omicron coronavirus variant may have passed.

Hospital cases fell to about 4,600 on Wednesday, with all states seeing a dip in admission numbers, after a peak of nearly 5,400 a week ago.

"We've seen the peaks of Omicron, I think, come through in (New South Wales and Victoria)," Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is under pressure over his handling of the Omicron wave, told a media briefing.

With Covid-19 hospitalisations stabilising, Morrison said he had tasked health officials to check the impact on the health system before easing more border curbs. Morrison said last week he hoped international borders may fully reopen "before Easter".

Australia is going through a staggered border reopening allowing in only skilled migrants, international students and backpackers.

Airlines and tourism businesses, already battered by rounds of lockdowns over the past two years, are hoping for a quick re-opening to all tourists.

Fuelled by fast-spreading Omicron, Australia's total infections surged over the past two months, most in its most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, with about 2.3 million cases recorded.

Until then, it had only detected some 200,000 infections since the pandemic began.

About 8.2 million boosters have been administered as of Wednesday, shots for half of the eligible population, with authorities pressing people to get their third dose soon to mitigate the threat of severe illness from Omicron.

New South Wales and South Australia said they would allow a staged return of non-urgent surgeries from Monday after hospitalisation rates steadied.

On Wednesday, Australia reported 70 new deaths, down from a record of 98 set last Friday, and just over 40,000 new cases

Reuters

February 02 2022 - 08:35

WHO warns of huge volumes of Covid-19 hospital waste

Discarded syringes, used test kits and old vaccine bottles from the Covid-19 pandemic have piled up to create tens of thousands of tonnes of medical waste, threatening human health and the environment, a World Health Organization report said.

February 02 2022 - 08:00

Omicron BA.2 likely as severe as 'original,' says WHO

The emerging BA.2 form of the Omicron coronavirus variant does not seem to be any more severe than the original, the World Health Organization said, as the subvariant begins to replace Omicron's more common ‘original’ BA.1 in several countries.

February 02 2022 - 07:30

Israeli hospitals struggle to cope with Omicron cases 

Israel's government has adopted ‘Living with Covid’ as its mantra since a few months before Omicron arrived. Omicron is causing fewer severe infections and deaths, but the skyrocketing caseload has meant that hospitals are filling up fast.

February 02 2022 - 07:00

Can I get Covid-19 from second-hand smoke?

While further studies are needed to understand if second-hand smoke can lead to the spread of Covid-19, experts say it is theoretically possible. 

Assistant professor at the division of pulmonary and critical medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US, Dr Panagis Galiatsatos, said second-hand smoke can propel viruses into the air from the nose and throat.

“Second-hand cigarette smoke is known to cause health problems, and though there isn’t yet scientific proof that it can spread the coronavirus, theoretically it’s a possibility.”

The school’s Dr Amesh Adalja said Covid-19 may spread “if someone is smoking a cigarette and coughing at the same time”.

February 02 2022 - 06:30

Pfizer seeks approval of Covid-19 shots for kids under 5

Pfizer and BioNTech have begun submitting data to U.S. regulators seeking emergency use authorization of their Covid-19 vaccine for children under the age of 5, despite weaker than expected immune responses in their clinical trial of 2- to 4-year-olds.