For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: South African officials argue for harsher measures to curb Covid, Eskom to implement Stage 2 load-shedding on Wednesday and Thursday night and, Nigeria aims to get 42-million Covid-19 vaccines through COVAX scheme

South African officials argue for harsher measures to curb Covid

South African government officials have called for stricter measures to curb soaring coronavirus infections, according to two people familiar with the matter.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council today to assess the spread of the disease.

With the number of infections now over 1-million and more than 30 000 people having died from the disease, Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Police Minister Bheki Cele have recommended the country move to virus alert level 4 for 30 days, sources say.

Eskom to implement Stage 2 load-shedding on Wednesday and Thursday night

State-owned power utility Eskom will be implementing Stage 2 load-shedding between 22:00pm and 05:00am on January 6 and 7.

Load-shedding is necessary to recover and preserve the emergency generation reserves that have been used to support the system during the week following the earlier-than-planned shutdown of Koeberg power station’s Unit 1 and other units whose return to service has been delayed, the utility notes.

Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these units to service as soon as possible.

Nigeria aims to get 42-million Covid-19 vaccines through COVAX scheme

Nigeria hopes to get 42-million Covid-19 vaccines to cover one-fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme, said head of the country's primary healthcare agency Faisal Shuaib.

He said the batch of vaccines would come as part of Nigeria's plan to inoculate 40% of the population this year, with another 30% in 2022.

Nigeria will first inoculate frontline health workers, first responders, national leaders, people vulnerable to coronavirus and the elderly.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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