Lockdown diaries - COVID-19 matters!

What are you going to be doing during the lockdown?

  • At home. I’m non essential

    Votes: 70 41.2%

  • Working. The virus doesn’t scare me

    Votes: 41 24.1%

  • On standby

    Votes: 10 5.9%

  • Working from home. Too essential to take any risk!

    Votes: 66 38.8%
  • Total voters
    170
  • Poll closed .
How Limpopo – one of SA's poorest provinces – is leading SA’s vaccine rollout
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/limpopo-fast-covid-19-vaccine-rollout-in-south-africa-2021-6
19 June 2021

  • Limpopo is South Africa's second-poorest province, with more than 80% of its population living in under-resourced rural areas.
  • Despite this, the province has managed to register 66% of residents over the age of 60 for their Covid-19 vaccinations.
  • It's also already vaccinated 6.37% of the adult population, outpacing the national average.
  • Using an army of 9,000 community healthcare workers and getting churches on-board have been underpinned this success, says Limpopo's health MEC.
 
Spike in infections at Gauteng schools
https://www.enca.com/news/covid-19-watch-spike-infections-gauteng-schools
19 June 2021

"Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to hold a briefing on Saturday, with many wondering if schools around the country will be closed?

In Gauteng, there have been close to 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in schools in a week.

The provincial education department says the total number of school-related cases is nearing 5,000.

But teacher's union Sadtu says it's encouraged that teachers will soon get vaccinated."
 
China's about to administer its billionth coronavirus shot.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/18/china/billion-vaccine-shots-mic-intl-hnk/index.html
18 June 2021

"Within days, China will reach a staggering 1 billion doses in its Covid-19 vaccination drive -- a scale and speed unrivaled by any other country in the world.

As of Wednesday, China had administered more than 945 million doses -- three times the number delivered in the United States, and almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots given globally.

The number is all the more remarkable given its rollout had a slow start. China only reached its first million doses on March 27 -- two weeks behind the US. But the pace picked up significantly in May, with more than 500 million shots given over the past month, according to data from China's National Health Commission.

On Tuesday alone, it administered more than 20 million doses. At that rate, it is likely to exceed 1 billion doses this weekend..."
 
Adephi said:
Transmissions in nursery schools at this stage are very low. From all the articles I have read I have not heard of a single nursery school that has been the source of an outbreak.

My wife works in a nursery school and the regulations set out by the Dept. Of Social Development are overboard, but in a good way. Things like sanitising baths that you step in before you go into the school, parents not allowed on the premises, classes kept seperate and different playtimes, hands washed every 30-45 minutes. Every night the school gets sanitised. Even the toys gets spread out and sprayed with ethanol.

In her class of 2-3 year olds 3 parents tested positive in the last few weeks but none of the kids. Obviously the kids had to stay home in any case. None of the teachers had Covid as yet. Some assistants had it but they live in townships and travel with taxi's. So they are prone to be high risk of contracting.

Regarding the nurseries for infants even before Covid they were kept seperate and in low numbers.

In terms of nurseries I'd say if its a registered nursery there is nothing to worry about but still be vigilant.

But, this is the first wave to happen while the schools are open. So there might still be new findings made in the next few weeks.

I would suggest you wait maybe 2 months for this wave to pass just to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...

many thanks @Adephi
I appreciate all the detail and info !
 
Uber offers 100,000 free rides to get teachers to vaccination sites – here’s how the rollout will work
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/u...hers-in-south-africa-to-get-vaccinated-2021-6
19 June 2021

"Teachers and staff in South African schools will start receiving their Covid-19 jabs on Wednesday 23 June in a two-week push to administer 582,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine.

The rollout to the education sector will start with 300,000 doses of the J&J vaccine, with a further 282,000 arriving before the end of June. This specialised rollout, detailed by the department of basic education on Saturday, will be managed by provincial authorities.

Staff don’t need to self-register on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) and will instead have their details – obtained via the Personal and Salary System (PERSAL) – uploaded by provincial school management teams.

... the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, said staff with the following criteria would not qualify for vaccination:
  • Any person who had contracted Covid-19 in the past 30 days.
  • Any person who was vaccinated using another vaccine (Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson, under Sisonke).
  • Any person who had received a flu vaccine in the past 14 days.
... South Africa’s leading e-hailing service, Uber, has already offered 100,000 free rides to get teachers to and from vaccination sites, according to Whittle. “These will obviously be made available in the metros and we’re hoping to make a further announcement about the details of that particular process.”

Uber, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), previously announced that it would offer 1 million free rides to vaccination sites around the world..."
 
Major healthcare worker shortages – R460-million Gauteng hospital stands empty
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/scie...pital-stands-empty.html?utm_source=newsletter
A hospital funded by the provincial government to the tune of R460 million stands empty in Gauteng despite being handed over to Gauteng’s Health Department last month, reports City Press.

This is reportedly due to a shortage of healthcare workers available to make use of this new facility.

City Press also highlights that another R550 million COVID-19 facility – at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital – is operating at a fraction of its capacity due to staff shortages.

Gauteng health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana told City press that only 92 of the 500 available beds at this facility are in use.
 
Tokyo cancels Olympic live-viewing events and will turn some venues into vaccination sites
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/tokyo-olympics-live-viewing-events-vaccinations-2021-6
20 June 2021

"Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Saturday that live in-person viewing events in the city scheduled for next month's Olympic games were canceled, the Japan Times reported...

Some of the six venues, which included Yoyogi, Inokashira, and Hibiya parks in Tokyo, will instead be used as Covid-19 vaccination sites, Koike said..."
 
Businesses told they can fire workers who refuse Covid-19 vaccines – but it’s not that simple
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/covid-19-vaccinations-in-the-workplace-in-south-africa-2021-6
21 June 2021

"South Africa's labour department recently updated its guidelines for dealing with Covid-19 in the workplace, which now requires companies to declare whether they plan to make vaccinations compulsory.

At the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), government and the private sector agreed that workers' refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine should not justify a dismissal. But, last week, Business for South Africa (B4SA) told businesses that the revised guidance does not bar employers from firing workers who reject the vaccine.

"There is nothing contained in the Revised Occupational Health and Safety Direction which prohibits an employer from dismissing an employee who has been identified as high risk and who has refused to be vaccinated (and cannot be reasonably accommodated)," B4SA told its constituents.

"… but employers are encouraged, before considering such action, to seek legal advice given the complexities of such a dismissal," said B4SA.

Before considering a dismal, employers must have first conduct a risk assessment of their workplace to determine the category of employees which it requires to be vaccinated on a mandatory basis, Riola Kok, a professional support lawyer at law firm CDH's employment practice, said.

According to Kok, there are two main reasons you could get fired for refusing to be vaccinated if you are a high-risk employee and cannot be accommodated in the workplace.

After considering the employee's reasons for refusal, such as medical, religious, constitutional, and cultural, the employer is mandated to assess whether it is necessary for the employee in question to be inoculated and whether they fall under a high-risk category where vaccinations are required.

Dealing with dismissals on a case-by-case basis will determine the fairness of the termination and the employee's role, work environment, the alternatives they have or have not been provided, and their reasons for objection should be taken to account, Kok said.

Workers can be dismissed based on the operational requirements of the employer which would lead to standard retrenchment, Kok said.

"A dismissal for operational requirements, being a standard form retrenchment, [could mean] you no longer fit into the organogram because you refuse to be vaccinated where all the employees in this category are required to be vaccinated," Kok said.

The company could argue that a particular Covid-19 high-risk category, because of the vaccination requirement, has had to undergo a restructuring and disqualifies workers who refuse the vaccine, she said.

"In a situation where this is an employee that we've identified must be vaccinated due to their job role, the vaccine is available to be administered and there's a refusal and you require somebody in that position, then the employer would need to go the operational requirement route," she said...

"Where you have employees, for example who don't really require the vaccine because of the nature of their job; they're not interacting with the public, they're not even interacting perhaps with other employees, because they sit in an office and they can self-isolate… there's simply no need, in relation to that employee, to make vaccinations mandatory," said Kok."
 
Webinar on COVID from Discovery Health
June 2021

The presenter is their CEO, Dr Ryan Noach
He is a friend of mine. He is extremely passionate and dedicated to helping in the fight against COVID.

I think this is an excellent presentation. It gives a great picture of where we are with the 3rd wave, concerns about Gauteng and progress with vaccination.

I am very grateful that people like Ryan and his team have worked so hard on this and continue to do so.

Have a look

 
Last edited:
Silver said:
Webinar on COVID from Discovery Health
June 2021

The presenter is their CEO, Dr Ryan Noach
He is a friend of mine. He is extremely passionate and dedicated to helping in the fight against COVID.

I think this is an excellent presentation. It gives a great picture of where we are with the 3rd wave, concerns about Gauteng and progress with vaccination.

I am very grateful that people like Ryan and his team have worked so hard on this and continue to do so.

Have a look

Click to expand...


Thank you @Silver . Really interesting and worth a watch.

The graphs in the beginning I see is dated 10 June. And we have seen how the official numbers have increased in the last 10 days especially here in Gauteng. It's not looking good. But the vaccine data is very reassuring.
 
Adephi said:
Thank you @Silver . Really interesting and worth a watch.

The graphs in the beginning I see is dated 10 June. And we have seen how the official numbers have increased in the last 10 days especially here in Gauteng. It's not looking good. But the vaccine data is very reassuring.
Click to expand...

The daily cases are almost 50% higher than the first two peaks
graphs.png
 
Thanks @Adephi
Appreciate that you had a look and pointed that out.

I liked the way he discussed the vaccines in the 4 countries - Israel, UK, USA and Chile
And that Chile chose the Chinese vaccine - and that didn't do as well as the other vaccines
Reassuring to know we are on the J&J and Pfizer route here.
 
So this happened in Madison Square Gardens last night.

Over 20k crammed into closed arena.

We'll get there. Just a little bit longer.

FB_IMG_1624297052817.jpg
 
Adephi said:
So this happened in Madison Square Gardens last night.

Over 20k crammed into closed arena.

We'll get there. Just a little bit longer.

View attachment 232714
Click to expand...

This freaks me out, Delta variant and gamma variant both showing signs of smacking kids hard, many children not vaccinated, vaccines show a strong trend to stopping "severe" infection in these variants but not stopping infection, honestly seems like we're going to push in a path for strains that nail kids spread by adults.
 
SOUTH AFRICA SET TO HOST VACCINE TECH TRANSFER HUB
https://ewn.co.za/2021/06/21/south-africa-set-to-host-vaccine-tech-transfer-hub
22 June 2021

"South Africa is set to host a "technology transfer hub" for coronavirus vaccines to scale up production know-how in Africa's worst-hit nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday.

Ramaphosa said French President Emmanuel Macron and World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would join him at a media briefing to announce the initiative at 1500 GMT.

"The briefing will focus on the establishment of the first messenger RNA technology transfer hub for COVID-19 vaccines, located in South Africa," the presidency said in a brief statement.

The WHO has previously set up such hubs, which provide know-how and training to local manufacturers, to boost global production of influenza vaccines..."

During a visit to South Africa last month, Macron said he was pushing for faster transfer of technology to allow poorer countries to start manufacturing their own COVID-19 jabs.
 
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