Four Seasons Before Lunch Gauteng (Pretoria)

-
 I have lived in Pretoria for half my life, but even at almost 50, l still am not ready for mornings like this . I step out of  home in the morning at 7 a.m., greeted by a warm, gentle breeze and sunshine so golden it felt like summer had arrived overnight. The sky was clear; the jacaranda trees glowed purple; the air smelled of warmth and possibility. “Perfect day,” l muttered, locking his door. By the time l drive out—five minutes later—the sky starts to be darkened. A cold wind came crawling in from nowhere, sweeping dust across the pavement. The temperature dropped so suddenly that  l have  to switch the heater for warmth. Laughing. “Ah, Pretoria… you never disappoint.” Halfway to the office, the heavens opened. Not soft rain— a storm . Sheets of water hammered the road, street gutters overflowed instantly, and distant thunder rolled like a grumpy giant waking up too early. People scattered, hiding under bus shelters already too full.  “Ten minutes ago...
Post a Comment

CAPE TOWN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - South Africa's drugs regulator SAHPRA said on Monday it has approved an implementation study of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way to start the country's first inoculations among health workers.

-

 * Govt still reviewing J&J’s full market application

* Implementation study is to vaccinate health workers
* S.Africa expected to receive J&J’s vaccines this week (Adds detail, quotes)

By Wendell Roelf

South Africa is yet to start its COVID-19 vaccination programme and the government has decided to go with the J&J dose after trial results this month showed AstraZeneca’s two-shot vaccine was less effective against the new variant of the coronavirus dominating South African infections.

“SAHPRA has approved the implementation study,” the regulator said in response to Reuters questions, but added it was still reviewing its separate full market application.

The implementation study, similar to the final phase of a vaccine trial, will test the effects of the vaccine in the field after it is administered to around 350,000 to 500,000 health care workers.

The first batch of J&J’s 80,000 doses are expected to arrive this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa told lawmakers on Thursday.

J&J was the first pharmaceutical major to apply to the local regulator in December to register its COVID-19 vaccine, although Pfizer and AstraZeneca have also applied.

South Africa is currently the hardest hit African country and accounts for over a third of the continent’s infections and almost half of the deaths, led primarily by the new, more contagious variant called 501Y.V2.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said J&J has not yet submitted a special domestic application for emergency use authorisation of its vaccine – known as a Section 21 application.

Normally valid for six months, Section 21 authorisation allows emergency use of a product that is unregistered, SAHPRA officials said.

However, J&J’s application for full market registration was being processed as part of a rolling review approach, which allows data to be evaluated by SAHPRA as it becomes available, the regulator said. “The rolling review has received its second batch of data and is under review. The full process is estimated to be complete after four batches of rolling data (are received),” said SAHPRA.

This is one of several methods the domestic regulator is pursuing to help fast-track vaccine approvals. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; editing by Promit Mukherjee and Jason Neely)

Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email letters@dailymaverick.co.za

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MultiChoice’s BEE scheme trying to find 22 000 shareholders who are missing out on millions

-
Image
  USINESS REPORT COMPANIES MultiChoice’s black economic empowerment scheme is looking for about 22 000 shareholders who owned shares and did not receive dividends of R207 million between 2006 and 2020. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency(ANA) MultiChoice’s BEE scheme trying to find 22 000 shareholders who are missing out on millions By Edward West   Feb 16, 2021 CAPE TOWN - PHUTUMA Nathi, the MultiChoice black economic empowerment scheme of more than 80 000 shareholders, is looking for about 22 000 shareholders who owned shares and did not receive dividends of R207 million between 2006 and 2020. “This money belongs to our shareholders. We’re calling on them to contact us to get their money. In these tough economic times we want to do everything in our power to give them what is rightfully theirs,” Phuthuma Nathi chairperson Mandla Langa said in a statement yesterday. Phuthuma Nathi has been paying dividends every year since the start of the scheme in 2006. Am...
Read more

Fighting Drug addiction

-
 Here's the story: We sat down with a man who had a harrowing journey with addiction. He began by telling us about his early days in tertiary education, where he would occasionally smoke dagga with friends. However, his focus remained on his studies, and he worked hard to graduate and secure a qualification. After landing a job, he started building a life for himself. He got married, bought a property, and even splurged on a car. Life was good, and he felt like he was on top of the world. But one fateful night, while out with friends, he was introduced to heavier narcotics. At first, the experience was exhilarating. He described it as an elevation from the mild high of dagga to a level 5 high, where he felt invincible and euphoric. The effects would last for days, allowing him to party from Friday to Sunday without sleep. The problem, however, began to manifest on Mondays and Tuesdays every week, when the withdrawal symptoms would kick in, and he'd struggle to function at work....
Read more

Ultra-Widebody Volkswagen Bus "Volkswide" Looks Like a Porsche Racing Van

-
Image
  Home   >   News   >   Renderings It's easy to understand why a muscle car or a Ferrari is cool - the big engine and cool body. But car culture is also influenced by television, rarity, or simply a generation growing up with a particular vehicle. The Volkswagen Bus is a perfect example of this because it's slow, not sporty-looking, yet it can cost a lot of money.  16 photos The Bus is perhaps one of the least understood collectibles, right up there with bubble cars. You see them grabbing huge money at auctions, making it difficult to visualize why somebody wouldn't rather have a Ferrari or some 1960s Mustang. Comedian Gabriel Iglesias is known as the VW Bus King, as his collection of Vdubs is reportedly worth in excess of $3 million. The Hoonigan crew recently did a feature video, but we still had trouble picturing the value of these vehicles. Fortunately, there's a set of renderings that takes the visuals of the Microbus to the level where everybody...
Read more