April 09, 2021

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sashnee Moodley.

Making headlines:

Number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases almost doubles

Double Troika Summit orders ‘immediate technical deployment’ to Mozambique

And, Russia says Sputnik shot less effective against South African Covid-19 variant

Number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases almost doubles

The number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases has almost doubled, according to the latest update from the Department of Health.

The number of new cases totalled 1 366 on Thursday, compared to 756 on Wednesday.

Another 62 deaths attributed to Covid-19 were reported on Thursday.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the country had secured 51-million doses of vaccines from manufacturers with a target of vaccinating between 250 000 to 270 000 people per day.

Double Troika Summit orders ‘immediate technical deployment’ to Mozambique

The Extraordinary Double Troika Summit of heads of States and government of the Southern African Development Community has directed an immediate SADC Organ on Politics Defence and Security technical deployment to Mozambique following insurgent attacks in northern town of Palma.

It condemned the attacks in the strongest terms and warned of a “proportionate regional response”.

The SADC Organ will provide feedback from the technical deployment on April 29, at the Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit.

Russia says Sputnik shot less effective against South African Covid-19 variant

Russia's Sputnik V shot is less effective against South African Covid-19 variant, but still does better than other vaccines, the lead scientist behind it was quoted as saying.

Alexander Gintsburg said against the 'South African' variant, the effectiveness of the antibodies produced by Sputnik V, like all other vaccines, against it declines.

He said that Sputnik V was tested against the South African and British strains, as well as the original strain, first detected in China's Wuhan province, by laboratories in the United States. The labs used blood samples collected from people vaccinated with Sputnik V in Argentina.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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