Daily Podcast – January 04, 2021

4th January 2021 By: Sane Dhlamini - Creamer Media Senior Contributing Editor and Researcher

Daily Podcast – January 04, 2021

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

Making headlines: British Health Secretary says South Africa Covid variant more infectious than UK strain, Nehawu says Covid-19 vaccine roll out plan is ambiguous and, at least 50 fake Covid-19 tests discovered at Beitbridge border crossing

 

British Health Secretary says South Africa Covid variant more infectious than UK strain

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the new Covid-19 variant identified in South Africa is a bigger risk than the highly infectious UK variant.

Hancock said he was incredibly worried about the South African variant.

He said Britain needs to tighten restrictions in some areas of the country to tackle the rapid spread of a new variant of the coronavirus after cases surged in recent weeks.

Both Britain and South Africa have discovered new variants in the coronavirus in recent months.

 

Nehawu says Covid-19 vaccine roll out plan is ambiguous

A Covid-19 vaccine roll out plan unveiled by South Africa’s Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize at the weekend was very scant on details and ambiguous on timelines, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union said.

Nehawu said because of the delay in starting negotiations with drug manufacturers as well as participating in the COVAX facility South Africa would now have to wait for availability while other countries began their rollout.

Government hopes to vaccinate about 67 percent of South Africa’s population by the end of 2021.

 

At least 50 fake Covid-19 tests discovered at Beitbridge border crossing

At least 50 fake Covid-19 tests were discovered by officials at the Beitbridge border crossing this weekend.

Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba confirmed fake tests, showing a negative Covid-19 result, were being sold to those attempting to enter South Africa at Beitbridge.

This as the Department of Health enforces regulations requiring anyone entering the country to produce a negative test, taken no more than 72 hours prior to a border crossing.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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