-
Uganda To Fine Citizens For Refusing Covid-19 Vaccine
The Ugandan government is working on a new law that would mandate citizens to pay a fine if they refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Failure to pay could lead to some jail time, according to lawmakers. The public health law currently being amended by the parliament is partly to protect vulnerable citizens from infection…
-
80% of PHCs Can’t Store, Administer COVID-19 Vaccines
A non-governmental human right organization has revealed in its investigation that 80 percent of the PHCs were “substandard and unfit to store, and effectively administer COVID-19 vaccines.” The human rights organization said this after investigating the efficacy of 90 PHCs in 15 states. To strengthen and foster health sector accountability in Nigeria, the organization and…
-
BioNTech To Kickoff Modular Vaccine Factories In Africa
German pharmaceutical company, BioNTech has finalized plans to establish vaccine factories in Africa in order to increase the availability of the vaccine in Africa. The company would ship containers fitted with the equipment necessary to make the company’s mRNA-based vaccine, save for the final step of putting doses into bottles, a process known as fill…
-
Orodata Science Investigative Journalism Grantee Wins Award
Nigeria Health Watch hosted the second edition of the #PreventEpidemicsNaija Journalism Awards, an annual ceremony that celebrates TV, radio, and print journalists whose reporting on epidemic preparedness and response has been exemplary in drawing public and policymakers attention to the need to fund activities to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. Among this…
-
Why Is South Africa Scrapping Isolation For Asymptomatic COVID Patients?
The South African government has announced they would no longer require people who test positive for COVID-19 without symptoms to isolate, based on the trajectory of the pandemic and levels of vaccination in the country, According to a statement issued by Mondli Gungubele, a minister in the presidency, Isolation for patients who exhibit symptoms have…
-
What To Know About The New Omicron Sub-Variant?
The World Health Organization has announced it has discovered a highly contagious sub-variant of the Omicron coronavirus strain. According to the United Nation’s health body, the BA.2, also known as the “stealth variant”, has been detected in 57 countries, including the UK, Sweden, India and the US. According to Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut (SSI), BA.2…
-
Morocco Begins Construction Of Vaccine Production Plants
Morocco has officially launched the construction of its covid-19 manufacturing plant in the region of Casablanca, the country’s economic capital. Slated to begin production in July 2022, SENSYO Pharmatech would cover the production and administration of Covid-19 vaccines as well as other vaccines. The plant would have “three industrial lines whose combined production capacity will…
-
Fact Check: Can Viagra Be Used As A Cure For Covid-19?
Back in November 2021, a UK based nurse was admitted to Intensive Care after contracting the coronavirus. According to the Sun, 37-year-old Monica Almeida was placed on a ventilator after her condition deteriorated. However, Almeida recounts that Viagra was administered during treatment which opened up her airways and saved her life. Almeida eventually left the…
-
US Researchers Offer Solution To Vaccine Inequality
Two years into the coronavirus pandemic and several variants later, the world is still struggling to vaccinate more than half of its population. Public health experts record that over 10 billion covid-19 vaccine doses have been produced since mid-2020, but more than 70 percent of the vaccines produced were consumed by wealthy nations. For instance,…
-
Uganda To Destroy Donated Doses Of Covid-19 Vaccines
The Ugandan government has announced that up to 400,000 doses of the covid-19 vaccine donated for mass vaccination exercise in the Acholi sub-region of the country would be destroyed. Earlier in November, the government secured over 500,000 doses of Moderna vaccines with the aim of meeting its target of vaccinating 22 million Ugandans above age…