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

Making headlines: Right2know to picket against PPE corruption, Covid-19 claims another 132 people and, Nigeria develops its own Covid-19 test kit

Right2know to picket against PPE corruption

Non-profit advocacy organisation Right2know will hold a peaceful picket tomorrow outside the Department of Health office, in Johannesburg, in a show of dismay against coronavirus corruption.

Despite government spending R10-billion to procure personal protective equipment for frontline workers, R2K says many have died due to lack of PPEs, while others have not received their monthly stipends.

Gauteng premier David Makhura placed the head of the Department of Health in Gauteng Professor Mkhululi Lukhele on precautionary leave.

He was found to have failed to exercise his responsibilities in awarding the contracts to certain companies.

Covid-19 claims another 132 people

Another 132 people died of Covid-19-related illnesses, the Department of Health said, bringing the total number to 16 866.

Of those, 41 were from Mpumalanga, 49 were from KwaZulu-Natal, eight from Gauteng, seven from the North West, seven from the Northern Cape, six from the Western Cape and 14 from the Free State.

Recoveries are 609 854 out of 676 084.

Nigeria develops its own Covid-19 test kit

The Nigerian government has developed the Sars-CoV-2 isothermal molecular assay test kit to improve its testing capacity for Covid-19.

Health Minister Olorunnimbe Mamora said the test kit developed by the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research can produce results in less than 40 minutes.

Mamora said this is faster than the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, which is currently the main source of testing in the country.

This method of testing takes several hours to produce results.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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