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Jacob Zuma of South Africa Is Granted Medical Parole

Jacob Zuma of South Africa Is Granted Medical Parole

Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, has been released on medical parole a little over two months after he was ordered imprisoned on contempt charges, triggering violent protests that devolved into deadly clashes and looting.

The government’s department of correctional services said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. Zuma’s parole had been “impelled by a medical report,” but it provided no details about the nature of his illness. Mr. Zuma was admitted to a hospital to undergo the first of several medical procedures last month, the department said then.

Mr. Zuma will serve the remainder of his 15-month sentence under supervision in the community corrections system, the department said, adding that he would be subjected to “supervision until his sentence expires.” But it gave no details about where exactly he would serve his parole.

His release comes after his staggering downfall as a once-celebrated freedom fighter who fought against apartheid alongside Nelson Mandela and was a powerful figure in the governing African National Congress.

Mr. Zuma, 79, was forced to step down in 2018 after being rejected by the A.N.C., threatened by a no-confidence vote in Parliament and abandoned by millions of voters. He was taken into custody on July 7 after South Africa’s highest judicial body found him guilty of contempt for refusing to appear before a commission investigating sweeping corruption allegations during his nine years as president.

John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s opposition party, said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. Zuma’s medical parole was “entirely unlawful” and made a “mockery” of the country’s correctional law.

“Jacob Zuma publicly refused to be examined by an independent medical professional, let alone a medical advisory board,” Mr. Steenhuisen said, adding that such an assessment was required under law in order for a prisoner to be granted medical parole.

Under South Africa’s correctional law, those eligible to be released for medical reasons include terminally ill inmates serving 24 months or less, those who are physically incapacitated and inmates suffering from an illness that severely limits their daily activity or capacity to care for themselves. The risk of reoffending must also be low.

“We appeal to all South Africans to afford Mr. Zuma dignity as he continues to receive medical treatment,” the correctional department said.

A foundation named after Mr. Zuma, which posted on Twitter that it welcomed the decision, said that he was still in the hospital.

But the One South Africa Movement, which focuses on policy solutions to South Africa’s development challenges, said in a statement on Twitter that the government’s decision had been questionable and lacked transparency.

When Mr. Zuma was detained in July, supporters denounced the arrest, arguing that he had been treated unfairly and that sentencing him to prison without a trial was unconstitutional. Some called for a shutdown of his home province, KwaZulu-Natal.

Protests led to several deaths, tens of millions of dollars in damage and the disruption of the nation’s coronavirus vaccination program.

President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the military to curb the civil unrest, describing it as some of the worst in the country’s history.

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An Experimental H.I.V. Vaccine Fails in Africa

An Experimental H.I.V. Vaccine Fails in Africa

An advanced H.I.V. vaccine trial in Africa has been shut down after data showed the shots offered only limited protection against the virus, researchers announced on Tuesday.

The vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, is one in a long line found to offer little defense against H.I.V., one of medicine’s most intractable adversaries. One candidate vaccine even increased the risk of infection.

Another trial was halted last year in South Africa after a different experimental vaccine failed to offer sufficient protection. Some 1.5 million people were infected with H.I.V. worldwide in 2020, and 38 million are living with the infection.

Scientists were dismayed by the most recent failure.

“I should be used to it by now, but you’re never used to it — you still put your heart and soul into it,” said Glenda Gray, the principal investigator of the trial and chair of the South African Medical Research Council. Dr. Gray has been working to develop an H.I.V. vaccine for more than 15 years.

Entirely new approaches may be needed. This month, Moderna announced that it would test a vaccine based on the mRNA platform used to devise the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

The trial, called Imbokodo, tested an experimental vaccine in 2,600 young women deemed at high risk of H.I.V. infection in five sub-Saharan African countries. Women and girls accounted for almost two-thirds of new H.I.V. infections in the region last year.

The trial was funded by Johnson & Johnson, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

The vaccine relied on an adenovirus called Ad26, modified to carry fragments of four H.I.V. subtypes into the body in hopes of provoking an immune response that might defend against infection.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an advocacy group that lobbies for AIDS prevention and treatment, said the cancellation of the trial was a “reality check” amid excitement about new vaccine technologies.

“It’s a grand reminder that H.I.V. is a pathogen unlike any other in its complexity,” he said. “We know the platform worked, but what do we put in it? Because this virus is infecting the exact same immune system that we’re trying to boost with a vaccine.”

Participants in the Imbokodo trial, which began in 2017, were given two initial shots and two boosters over the course of a year. Researchers tracked the numbers of new infections in the placebo and vaccine groups from the seventh month (one month after the third vaccination) through the 24th month.

Over two years, 63 of 1,109 participants who received the placebo were infected with H.I.V., compared with 51 of 1,079 participants who received the vaccine — giving the vaccine an efficacy rate of 25 percent.

Earlier studies, including one carried out in Thailand, had indicated that the kind of antibodies this vaccine provoked might be sufficient to offer good protection from H.I.V. for at least an initial period of time.

“But in South Africa, the higher rates of H.I.V. incidence means you need something much more potent,” Dr. Gray said. “The kind of immune responses that were induced were just not enough to stop the high attack rates we see in Africa.”

When the disappointing data showed a low efficacy rate, guidelines set up before the trial dictated it should be shut down. A vaccine that offered only 25 percent protection risked giving women a “false sense of security,” Dr. Gray said.

But a parallel trial that uses a different iteration of this vaccine will continue, Johnson & Johnson said. It is being tested on men who have sex with men and transgender people, in eight countries including Poland, Brazil and the United States.

That study, called Mosaico, is testing the vaccine against different subtypes of H.I.V. in different populations, and could produce different efficacy results.

Dr. Gray said that the lesson from the failed trial lies in figuring out why it worked for the 25 percent of people who were protected and not for the others, and then trying to translate those clues into a recipe for a future vaccine.

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Abebech Gobena, the ‘Mom Teresa’ of Africa, Dies at 85

Abebech Gobena, the ‘Mother Teresa’ of Africa, Dies at 85

Abebech Gobena was returning from a pilgrimage to the holy site of Gishen Mariam, about 300 miles north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, when she saw the woman and her baby.

It was 1980, and Ms. Gobena was passing through an area recently stricken by drought and an accompanying famine. All along the road were bodies — many dead, some dying, some still able to sit up and ask for food.

“There were so many of these hungry people sprawled all over, you could not even walk,” she said in a 2010 interview with CNN. She handed out what little she had — a loaf of bread, a few liters of water.

At first, Ms. Gobena thought the woman was asleep, and she watched as the baby tried to suckle at her breast. Then she realized the mother was dead.

A man nearby was collecting bodies. He told her he was waiting for the child, a girl, to die.

Without thinking further, Ms. Gobena picked up the baby, wrapped her in a cloth and took her home to Addis Ababa. She returned the next day with more food and water.

“One of the men dying by the side of the road said to me, ‘This is my child. She is dying. I am dying. Please save my child,’” she recalled. “It was a terrible famine. There were no authorities. The government at that time did not want the famine to be public knowledge. So I had to pretend the children were mine and smuggle them out.”

By the end of the year she had 21 children living with her and her husband, Kebede Yikoster. At first supportive, he eventually gave her an ultimatum: him or the children.

Ms. Gobena left him, and most of her possessions, taking the children to live with her in a shack in the woods. She sold her jewelry to raise money, then eked out an income selling injera bread and honey wine. Unable to pay the children’s school fees, she found a tutor to visit the shack.

She took in more children, and after years of battling government bureaucracy in Ethiopia, in 1986 she managed to register her organization — Abebech Gobena Children’s Care and Development Association — as a nonprofit, enabling her to raise money and accept grants.

She bought farmland outside Addis Ababa, where she and the orphans worked, and sold the produce to fund the orphanage. They also built dozens of latrines, public kitchens and water points around the city.

Today the organization, known by its acronym in Amharic, Agohelma, is one of the largest nonprofits in Ethiopia. Along with its orphanage, it provides free school for hundreds of children, HIV/AIDS prevention and maternal health care — according to its own estimate, some 1.5 million Ethiopians have benefited from its services since 1980. They and many others call her the “Mother Teresa of Africa.”

In June Ms. Gobena contracted Covid-19. She entered the intensive care unit at St. Paul’s Hospital in Addis Ababa, where she died on July 4. She was 85. Yitbarek Tekalign, a spokesman for Agohelma, confirmed her death.

“Abebech Gobena was one of the most selfless and pure-hearted people I ever met,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization and a former Ethiopian minister of health, said in a statement. “She helped many children not only to survive, but succeed in life.”

Abebech Gobena Heye was born on Oct. 20, 1935, in Shebel Abo, a village north of Addis Ababa in what was then Shewa Province. That same month, Italian forces in Eritrea invaded Ethiopia, setting off the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Her father, Gofe Heye, was a farmer who died in the fighting.

Ms. Gobena and her mother, Wosene Biru, went to live with her grandparents. When she was 10 her family arranged for her to marry a much older man, but she ran home soon after the ceremony. Her family returned her to her husband, who kept her locked in a room at night.

Ms. Gobena managed to escape through a hole in the roof and made her way to Addis Ababa, where she found a family to take her in. She attended school and later found work as a quality control inspector with a company that exported coffee and grain.

The job afforded her a stable, middle-class life, but after establishing Agohelma she lived in near poverty. She never took a salary, and her bedroom was attached to one of the orphanage dormitories.

Ms. Gobena — known to many as Emaye, an Amharic word that loosely translates as “Wonderful Mother” — did not simply raise the children under her charge. Along with their classroom education, she made sure that they learned marketable skills, like metalworking, embroidery and, more recently, photography. She gave the older children seed money to start their own businesses.

“I don’t have words to describe Emaye; she was my everything,” said Rahel Berhanu, a former Agohelma orphan, in an interview with the magazine Addis Standard. “After getting my diploma, I started working with her. She was a mother above mothers.’’

Ms. Gobena did not leave any immediate survivors, though she might disagree.

“I have no children of my own,” she told The Times of London in 2004, “but I have a family of hundreds of thousands, and I have absolutely no regrets.”

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Deaths From Covid in Africa Are Rising as Circumstances Surge Worldwide

Deaths From Covid in Africa Are Rising as Cases Surge Worldwide

Confirmed coronavirus infections have jumped in much of the world, and deaths from the disease in Africa have increased by 80 percent over the last four weeks, the director-general of the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The continued spread of the virus and its variants, and its disparate impact on poorer countries with lower rates of vaccination, reflect a global failure, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it,” he said at a news conference. “It is in our hands. We have all the tools we need. We can prevent this disease, we can test for it, and we can treat it.”

Dr. Tedros said that nearly four million new infections had been reported to the W.H.O. in the past week, and the organization expected the world to surpass 200 million total known cases in the next two weeks. However, the totals are underestimates, because countries often undercount cases — sometimes by very large margins. The known global death toll of roughly 4.2 million is assumed to be similarly skewed.

The global spread of the virus is now largely driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant and worsened by inconsistent use of public health measures, increased social mixing and mobility, and the inequitable use of vaccines and other treatments, Dr. Tedros said.

“Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed,” he said.

Things are still not as bad as they were not long ago; more than 500,000 new cases are being recorded daily, compared with more than 800,000 three months ago, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccines remain powerfully effective against severe illness and death, but some highly inoculated countries have recently seen sharp rises in caseloads in recent days. A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday showed that fully vaccinated people with “breakthrough” infections of the Delta variant, while still thought to be comparatively rare, may spread the virus to others as easily as unvaccinated people.

Vaccination rates range greatly, from more than 80 percent of adults in some countries to less than 1 percent in some of the world’s poorest nations, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

And even with increased vaccine production and more generous donations to Covax, a vaccine sharing initiative, meeting the needs of lower-income countries with large unvaccinated populations would be difficult, Dr. Tedros said.

He pointed to Africa, where cases have skyrocketed in July and where less than 1.5 percent of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated, as a particularly stark example of the problem.

“Many African countries have prepared well to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived,” Dr. Tedros said, calling for a donation of $7.7 billion to a partnership for tests, treatments and vaccines, as well as more financing for Covax.

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Africa suffers worst surge in Covid instances officers brace for third wave

Africa suffers worst surge in Covid cases officials brace for third wave

Employees of the Tunisian community saw them carry a coffin of a COVID-19 victim in the regional hospital during the coronavirus infections.

Jdidi Wassim | SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

Africa, where less than 2% of the population is vaccinated against Covid-19, saw the worst increase in cases since the pandemic began last week, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The second largest continent saw more than 251,000 new Covid cases in the week ending July 4, a 20% increase from the previous week and a 12% increase from the January high. Active cases in Africa recently surpassed 642,000, beating a peak in the second wave of 528,000 active cases in January, according to a BBC analysis of the Johns Hopkins University data.

“Africa has just marked the continent’s worst pandemic week ever. But the worst is yet to come as the fast-paced third wave continues to accelerate and gain new terrain,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “The end of this steep climb is still weeks away. Cases are now doubling every 18 days compared to all 21 days a week ago.”

A security guard takes a man’s temperature at the entrance of a market in Kampala, Uganda on June 20, 2021.

Nicholas Kajoba | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

More than sixteen African countries, including Malawi and Senegal, are seeing an increase in new cases. In at least 10 of these countries, the more easily transferable delta variant was found.

Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Zambia, Rwanda and Tunisia are also experiencing some of the worst spikes in infections, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Hospital admissions have increased more than 40% across the continent in recent weeks.

“The alarm bells should ring,” says Dr. Tom Kenyon, Chief Health Officer at Project HOPE and former director of the Center for Global Health at the US CDC. He said Africa’s rate of new cases will soon surpass Asia’s. “Given the horrors we have just seen in India, this should be cause for concern and action.”

He said the Covid emergency in Africa “could get worse than anywhere else we’ve seen”.

South Africa is currently battling a devastating third wave of infections after the Delta variant forced the country to lock it down again on June 28. There is currently a 9 p.m. curfew in the country while less than 1% of its residents are against Covid. are vaccinated. Across the continent, less than 2% of people were vaccinated due to a slow international introduction of vaccines that kept poor countries waiting for life-saving syringes. The 50 million doses administered so far in Africa represent only 1.6% of the doses administered worldwide.

A resident receives a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca Plc on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 at Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.

Patrick Meinhardt | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“Vaccination nationalism, in which a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share, is morally unjustifiable and an ineffective strategy for public health,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference on Wednesday. Tedros also blamed the lack of immunization justice for a “wave of death” in parts of the world, including Africa.

Vaccine deliveries by Covax, a global initiative aimed at ensuring fair access to Covid vaccines, are finally picking up speed after months of delay. More than 1.6 million doses have been shipped to Africa under the initiative and more than 20 million doses of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines are expected to be shipped to the continent in the near future. Norway and Sweden will also donate large quantities of vaccines to Africa.

“Some vaccine shipments are expected in August, but nowhere near what is needed,” said Kenyon, who also served as CDC country director in Botswana, Namibia and Ethiopia. “To be successful, vaccine supply must be paired with trained labor and delivery systems.”

A total of 66 million doses were shipped to Africa, of which 40 million doses were delivered under bilateral agreements, 25 million via Covax and 800,000 doses via the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.

“With much larger Covid-19 vaccine shipments expected in July and August, African countries must use this time to prepare for a rapid roll-out,” said Moeti. By comparison, the US has administered approximately 332 million shots to 55% of its population, according to the US CDC.

Roofing Rolling Mills workers load oxygen tanks onto a vehicle for free delivery to various hospitals in Uganda at their plant in Namanve, Wakiso, Uganda on June 29, 2021.

Badru Katumba | AFP | Getty Images

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Delta variant first present in India spreads to 62 nations, sizzling spots type in Asia and Africa, WHO says

Delta variant first found in India spreads to 62 countries, hot spots form in Asia and Africa, WHO says

A health worker attends to a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient who is assisted by a mechanical ventilator and is undergoing dialysis in the COVID-19 emergency room at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute State Hospital in Quezon City COVID- 19 infections in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, April 26, 2021.

Eloisa Lopez | Reuters

The variant of Covid-19, first discovered in India in October, has now spread to at least 62 countries as outbreaks increase across Asia and Africa – despite a 15% decrease in cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

“We continue to see significantly increased communicability and a growing number of countries reporting outbreaks related to this variant,” said WHO of the Delta strain, noting that further studies were a high priority.

The WHO changed the name of the variant to “Delta” to simplify the scientific name B.1.617.2. The new naming system for Covid variants by letters of the Greek alphabet also avoids stigmatizing countries that discover new tribes.

The P.1 variant, now known as “Gamma”, which was first discovered in Japan from Brazil, has now spread to 64 countries, according to the WHO.

Even in countries with high vaccination rates, there has been an increase in cases in the last week or two, “so no one is out of the woods,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Emergency Health Program, in a WHO-hosted Q&A on Wednesday on social media platforms.

In Bahrain, where around 55% of the population are vaccinated with at least one dose, Covid cases have risen since the beginning of May and, according to Our World in Data, have reached the highest level of daily reported cases since the pandemic began.

“Relaxation of public health and social measures, increased social mobility, virus variants and unfair vaccinations are a very dangerous combination,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for Covid-19, explained some of the recent increases.

The West Pacific region reports the highest Covid cases and deaths since the pandemic began, according to the agency’s weekly update. The region reported more than 139,000 new cases in the past week, up 6% from the previous week. The highest number of new cases in the region was reported from Myanmar with 53,419 new cases in the past week. Most of the deaths in the region were reported from the Philippines, with 776 deaths in the past week.

“In every region (of the world) there are hotspots, there are countries that are really facing very, very difficult situations with an increase in transmission,” said Van Kerkhove, noting that a combination of highly contagious variants, relaxed measures Public health and inconsistent vaccination rates around the world are responsible for the recent surge in cases. “Eighteen months later, we are all fed up with this virus. It’s not done with us yet, and if we give it a chance to expand, it will. “

The African region reported over 52,000 new cases and over 1,100 new deaths in the past week, up 22% and 11% respectively compared to the previous week, according to the weekly update.

WHO also said last week that Africa would need at least 20 million AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses within the next six weeks to get the second round of vaccinations to people who have already received the first. The continent has received only 1% of all vaccines administered worldwide and needs another 200 million doses of all approved Covid-19 vaccines to vaccinate 10% of the continent by September.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is pulling out all the stops to at least partially vaccinate at least 70% of all American adults by July 4th, offering vaccines at hair and beauty stores, free babysitting, and Uber rides for people vaccinated, among other incentives. As of Tuesday, more than 62% of all adults in the US had at least one syringe.

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South Africa races to halt third Covid wave as its financial outlook improves

South Africa races to halt third Covid wave as its economic outlook improves

A healthcare worker holds a vile containing Pfizer vaccine to be administered on elderly persons at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston, on May 17, 2021.

Michele Spatari | AFP | Getty Images

South African economic activity has rebounded quicker than expected in recent months and the rand is the strongest-performing emerging market currency this year, but the country is racing to roll out Covid-19 vaccines as a third wave looms.

In its Financial Stability Review on Thursday, the South African Reserve Bank said the economy was continuing to rebound from a 2020 recession that saw gross domestic product contract by 7%, its steepest decline for over a century.

“Positive data releases, an uptick in global economic activity, robust international trade, elevated commodity prices and improved mobility” led NKC African Economics to upgrade its first-quarter GDP forecast to a 1.4% quarterly expansion, up from a previous forecast of a 3.3% contraction. NKC analysts now expect GDP to grow by 3.1% in 2021.

The industrial sector, particularly mining and manufacturing, has demonstrated positive growth rates on the back of increased global demand and high commodity prices 

“Google Mobility data, which has proven to be a good indicator of economic activity, has improved to its best levels since the coronavirus shock occurred,” NKC senior economist Pieter du Preez highlighted in a note Wednesday.

Third wave risks

The major ratings agencies have all reaffirmed their ratings for South Africa over the past week, but Fitch noted that although the fiscal accounts surprised to the upside on both the fourth quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021, the country still faces “substantial risks to debt stabilization.”

S&P also highlighted structural complaints, a lack of economic reforms and a sluggish vaccination drive as hindrances to medium-term growth potential.

Despite the positive surprises thus far, the SARB warned the outlook remains highly dependent on the pace of the vaccine rollout and possible resurgence of the virus, suggesting that the pandemic could last into 2022.

To date, the country has reported a total of over 1.6 million Covid cases, and more than 56,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Now, South Africa’s seven-day rolling average of new daily cases is rising, up from its nadir of around 780 in early April to over 3,700 at the end of last week.

Given the scale of the previous hit to economic activity, the government appears reluctant to reimpose stringent virus restrictions, though President Cyril Ramaphosa met with the country’s coronavirus taskforce this week to discuss possible strategies.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visits the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment facilities at the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa April 24, 2020.

Jerome Delay | Reuters

South Africa has begun working toward its goal to vaccinate 5 million senior citizens by the end of June and 67% of its 60 million population by February. The country has purchased 30 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation and ordered 31 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, both of which have proven effective against the dominant variant circulating in the country.

The central bank also noted the risks posed by an abrupt shift in global financial conditions and the consistently “high and rising level of public debt” in South Africa.

NKC’s du Preez said the impending third wave of Covid-19 will disrupt the economic recovery process. Meanwhile, the government is embroiled in protracted negotiations with unions over its commitment to freezing public sector wages, which du Preez said is also negative for the economic outlook.

“The National Treasury would either be forced to reprioritize expenditure or over-spend on an already large fiscal deficit,” he said. 

“Reprioritizing expenditure would entail reducing funding for critically important sectors in the economy or reducing very much needed infrastructure upgrades.”

The Treasury therefore finds itself “between a rock and a hard place,” du Preez added, since overspending could send out a signal that authorities are not serious about fiscal consolidation.

Roaring rand

Any sign of fading commitment to this austerity drive would exert pressure on the rand, Capital Economics senior emerging markets economist Jason Tuvey highlighted in a recent note.

The rand has soared on the back of higher metals prices, and was trading up at around 13.76 to the dollar by Monday morning. 

However, Capital Economics analysts said in a note Thursday that “the star performance of the rand is unlikely to last as we expect most commodity prices to fall back, and that U.S. long-term yields will begin to rise again, putting renewed pressure on EM currencies.”

“In addition, we think the SARB will not tighten policy as quickly as investors now discount, and that concerns about South Africa’s fiscal situation will eventually resurface.”

Capital Economics anticipates that the rand will weaken to around 15.5 to the dollar by the end of the year.

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Africa wants at the very least 20 million doses within the subsequent six weeks, WHO says

Africa needs at least 20 million doses in the next six weeks, WHO says

A medical worker injects a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine into a man at a hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, on May 19, 2021.

Seth | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Africa will need at least 20 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine within the next six weeks to allow people who have already received the first round of shooting, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The data shows that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 70% effective for at least 12 weeks, but the second dose offers 81% protection against Covid over a longer period, according to the WHO. Antibodies have been seen in the body for up to six months after a dose.

In order for the continent to be able to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by September, another 200 million doses of an approved Covid-19 vaccine are urgently needed, according to the WHO.

As of Thursday, 28 million doses of Covid-19 had been administered in Africa by various drug manufacturers that have nearly 1.4 billion people, which is less than two doses for every 100 people on the continent. For comparison, more than 165 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost half the country’s population.

“Africa needs vaccines now. Any break in our vaccination campaigns will result in deaths and a loss of hope,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We urge countries that have vaccinated their high-risk groups to speed up dose distribution to fully protect the most vulnerable.”

France has pledged to share half a million cans with six African countries over the next few weeks and has already sent 31,000 cans to Mauritania. Another 74,400 doses are to be delivered soon, the WHO announced.

The European Union has announced that it will send 100 million doses to low-income countries by the end of 2021, and the United States has pledged 80 million doses. Other countries around the world have also expressed an interest in sharing the doses. Countries in Africa that don’t use all of their cans are also sharing them with other countries on the continent, according to the WHO.

Redistributing vaccine doses is helpful, but expensive. WHO says Africa needs to increase its vaccine production capacity.

“Giving up intellectual property is a critical first step, but it needs to go hand in hand with sharing expertise and critical technologies,” the WHO wrote in a press release.

In Africa, 54 countries are involved in WHO efforts in more than 100 countries to submit a draft resolution to the World Health Assembly. The resolution aims to “strengthen local production, promote technology transfer and innovation and examine the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights and intellectual property rights from the point of view of increasing local production,” according to the WHO.

Around 40 African countries have also followed WHO training on building production capacities. The WHO claims to be working with the African Union on a plan to support feasibility studies and technology transfers upon request.

“It’s too early to say if Africa is on the verge of a third wave. We do know, however, that cases are rising and the clock is ticking,” said Moeti.

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Extreme Covid Is Extra Typically Deadly in Africa Than in Different Areas

Severe Covid Is More Often Fatal in Africa Than in Other Regions

People in Africa who are seriously ill with Covid-19 are more likely to die than patients in other parts of the world, according to a report published Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The report, which is based on data from 64 hospitals in 10 countries, is the first comprehensive look at what is happening to critically ill Covid patients in Africa, the authors say.

The increased risk of death only applies to seriously ill people, not to everyone with the disease. Overall, the disease and death rates from Covid appear to be lower in Africa than in the rest of the world. However, if the virus spreads faster in Africa, as in other regions, these results suggest that the death toll may worsen.

Among 3,077 critically ill patients admitted to African hospitals, 48.2 percent died within 30 days, compared with a global average of 31.5 percent, according to the Lancet study.

The study was observational, which meant the researchers tracked patients’ progress but did not experiment with treatments. The work was done by a large team called The African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study Investigators.

For Africa as a whole, the death rate among seriously ill Covid patients could be even higher than the study, the researchers said, as much of their information came from relatively well-equipped hospitals and 36 percent of those facilities in hospitals were South Africa and Egypt, which had better ones Resources than many other African countries. In addition, with a mean age of 56, the patients in the study were younger than many other critically ill Covid patients, suggesting that death rates outside the study may be higher.

The other eight countries in the study were Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Nigeria. Leaders from 16 other African nations had also agreed but ultimately refused to participate.

Reasons for the higher mortality rates are a lack of resources such as surge capacity in intensive care units, devices for measuring patient oxygen levels, dialysis machines and so-called ECMO devices for pumping oxygen into the bloodstream of patients whose lungs are so impaired that even a ventilator is used not enough to keep them alive.

However, the study’s authors suggested that the available resources were obviously not being used. Proning – placing patients on their stomachs to make it easier for them to breathe – was under-used and only performed on about a sixth of the patients who needed it.

Almost 16 percent of hospitals had ECMO, but fewer than 1 percent of patients offered it. Although 68 percent of the sites had access to dialysis to treat kidney failure, which is common in severe Covid cases, only 10 percent of critically ill patients received it. Half of the patients who died never received oxygen, but the study’s authors said they had little data to explain why.

A Lancet editorial by experts who were not involved in the study said, “It is common in Africa to have expensive equipment that is inoperable due to poor maintenance or a lack of skilled labor.” According to a report by Tropical Health and Education Trust from 2017, around 40 percent of medical equipment in Africa was out of order.

Another factor is that few doctors in Africa have pulmonary and critical care training that is considered essential to treating Covid patients.

As in other studies, chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and diseases of the heart, kidneys or liver increased the risk of dying from Covid. This study was the first to involve a large proportion of HIV patients, which nearly doubled the risk of death. The report said, “Our data suggest that HIV / AIDS is a major risk factor for Covid-19 mortality.” However, the authors also said they had no data on how the severity of HIV infection was related could affect the risk.

An unexpected finding from the study was that, unlike Covid patients in the rest of the world, men in Africa are no more likely to die than women. This finding suggests that African women are at higher risk than women in other regions.

The authors suggested that women in Africa “may face barriers to access to care and limitations or prejudices in care when they are seriously ill”.

The editorial asked if new variants could cause the high mortality rate noted in the study, but also said, “This is a question that could take a long time to answer in a continent with severe sequencing deficiencies.”

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Covid variant from South Africa was capable of ‘break by means of’ Pfizer vaccine in Israeli research

Israeli data suggest mass vaccinations led to drop in severe Covid cases, CDC study finds

An Israeli health worker from Maccabi Healthcare Services prepares to deliver a dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2021.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

The coronavirus variant, first discovered in South Africa, may evade some of the protection provided by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, according to a new Israeli study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Clalit, the largest health organization in Israel, examined nearly 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 after receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. They compared it to the same number of people who were infected and not vaccinated.

The researchers found that the prevalence of the South African variant known as B.1.351 was about eight times higher in patients who received two doses of the vaccine than in those who were not vaccinated. The data, released online over the weekend, suggest that B.1.351 may “break through” the vaccine’s protection better than the original strain, the researchers in the study wrote.

“Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected only one case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Professor Adi Stern, who led the research, told The Times of Israel. “We can say it’s less effective, but more research is needed to see exactly how much.”

CNBC asked Pfizer to comment on the study.

The new data comes as public health officials are increasingly concerned that highly contagious variants, studies have shown can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, could slow global advances in the pandemic.

Last month, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a terrible warning, telling reporters that she feared the United States was facing “impending doom” as variants spread and daily Covid-19 cases rise again, threatening to move more people to the US send hospital.

“I’m going to stop here, I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to think about the recurring feeling I have before the impending doom,” she said on March 29, so much promise and potential where we are and so much reason to Hope, but right now I’m scared. “

Israel launched its national vaccination campaign in December, prioritizing people aged 60 and over, healthcare workers, and people with comorbid illnesses. By February, it was the world leader in vaccinations, vaccinating millions of its citizens against the virus.

In January, Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health signed a collaboration agreement to monitor the real effects of its vaccine.

The researchers found that the study’s main limitation was sample size. B.1,351 only made up about 1% of all Covid-19 cases, they said. B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in Great Britain, is more common.

As the variants spread, drug manufacturers tested whether a third dose would offer more protection.

In February, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they were testing a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.