By OBAKENG MAJE
Acting North West Premier, Motlalepula Rosho will brief the media on the Provincial COVID-19 Vaccination Roll-out campaign in Mahikeng on Friday. According to the North West health department, spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, MEC Madoda Sambatha will also be part of the briefing.
“North West has shown improvements in its recovery rate as it reported 143 704 total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases with 131 400 people recovered. The recovery rate amounts to 91,4% and has reported 3 813 deaths thus far.
“The province now has a total of 8 491 active cases. According to the statement, the International Pageant title holder Dr Thato Mosehle who is doing her medicine internship in the province will be at the forefront of the CoVID-19 battle in the province,” Lekgethwane said.
He said Mosehle will also share her role in the vaccination rollout.
Meanwhile, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) CEO, Dr Tumi Semete said the regulator is able to make informed decisions on the safety of vaccines. Semete was briefing the Portfolio Committee on Health on COVID-19 vaccine licensing, vaccine efficacy rates, and on the latest vaccine research.
“The key aspects of vaccine evaluation are an assessment of the data, which necessitates an adequate number of vaccine recipients and monitoring for a sufficiently long time. The assessment of the efficacy of the data requires robust evidence of the vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19 infection in well-conducted phase-three clinical trials in humans and the assessment of the risk management plan the applicant requires, that is the ability to record and report side effects,” she said.
Responding to the question posed by the committee on the safety and monitoring of the vaccines after learning of 30 coincidental fatalities, Sahpra Board Chairperson, Prof Helen Reese said: “I have not seen reported cases of people being infected with Covid-19 and resulting in deaths after they have received a vaccine.
“You might get side-effects, as the immune system might be enhanced if you get a Covid-19 vaccine if infected. It is not about dying; not at all. There is no report of that and it has not been reported to my knowledge. Our concern is side-effects.”
Reese added that they are monitoring vaccines worldwide and in South Africa, they are working closely with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the Medical Research Council, and academics.
She said vaccines that are 100% effective are quite rare.
“Similarly, the Covid-19 vaccines are not 100% effective. As such, the different vaccines that we are looking at will have various levels of efficacy. Regarding the new Covid-19 variant C.1.2, it was first detected in May and represents 2% of the current testing, but it has been detected in eight of the nine provinces.
“It has also been detected in eight countries around the world. Mutations of the virus are a concern. We have seen that this might be more transmissible or could be better in evading our immune systems in resisting our immune response. We are watching it closely,” said Reese.
Sahpra agreed with the committee that its communication should improve and must engage more and share its messages in indigenous languages.
The Guardian 