WeeklySA_AdminGLOBAL COVID UPDATE (May 3 2023)
– 765,222,932 confirmed cases
– 6,921,614 deaths
UPHEAVAL: Virus still killing – thousands currently fighting for their lives under intensive care – many more battling its debilitating effects…
By Monk Nkomo
The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged millions of people into poverty, caused severe economic upheaval, shuttering businesses and exposing the searing inequalities of our world with the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest hit.
Briefing the media on Friday where he also declared the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), also said they had received reports that seven million people had perished since the outbreak of the deadly disease in 2020. The toll could be as high as 20 million.
Covid-19, he said, had been more than a health crisis. In the three years since its outbreak, Covid-19 had turned the world upside down. It had severely disrupted health systems with millions of people missing out on essential health services including lifesaving vaccinations for children.
‘’ Covid-19 has exposed and exacerbated political fault lines, within and between nations. It has eroded trust between people, governments and institutions, fuelled by a torrent of mis- and disinformation. It has caused severe economic upheaval, erasing trillions from GDP, disrupting travel and trade , shuttering businesses and plunging millions into poverty’’, said Ghebreyesus.
The pandemic had caused borders to close, restricted movements , closed down schools and millions of people experienced loneliness , isolation, anxiety and depression.
The WHO Director-General also announced that last week, Covid-19 claimed a life every three minutes – ‘’ and that is just the deaths we know about’’. Thousands of people around the world were currently fighting for their lives in intensive care units. Millions continued to live with the debilitating effects of post- Covid-19 condition.
Covid-19 had left – and continued to leave – deep scars on people worldwide. Those scars must serve as a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emerge with devastating consequences.
Ghebreyesus said the WHO and its Emergency Committee had arrived at this determination due to the incredible skill and selfless dedication of health and care workers; the innovation of vaccine researchers and developers and tough decisions that governments had to make in the face of changing evidence .
Ghebreyesus also noted the sacrifices that all the people had made as individuals, families and communities to keep themselves safe. ‘’ As a global community , the suffering we have endured, the painful lessons we have learned, the investments we have made and the capacities we have built must not go to waste.
We owe it to those we have lost to leverage those investments, to build on those capacities, to learn those lessons and to transform that suffering into meaningful and lasting change.’’
The world now had the tools and the technologies to prepare for future pandemics better, to detect them earlier, to respond to them faster and to mitigate their impact.
’’ The worst thing any country could do now is to use news of Covid-19 no longer being a global health emergency as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about.
This virus is here to stay. It is killing and it is still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths,’’ Ghebreyesus said.
Declaring the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency following advice from the Emergency Committee, did not mean the disease was over as a worldwide health threat. For more than a year now, the pandemic had been on a downward trend, with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing and the pressure on health systems easing. This was now the time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing Covid-19 alongside other infectious diseases.
Ghebreyesus lamented that although the world had the tools and technologies to prepare better for pandemics, this did not happen due to lack of global coordination, equity and solidarity. Those tools were not used as effectively as they could have been and this led to failure to save scores of lives.
‘’ We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never make those mistakes again.’’
The WHO last week published the fourth edition of the Global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for Covid-19 which outlines critical actions for countries in five core areas including collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to countermeasures and emergency coordination.
‘’ Covid has changed our world and it has changed us. That is the way it should be. If we all go back to how things were before Covid-19, we will have failed to learn our lessons and we will have failed future generations.
This experience must change us all for the better. It must make us more determined to fulfil the vision that nations had when they founded WHO in 1948 : the highest possible standard of health for all people,’’ said Ghebreyesus.
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Briefs
TAX RAID NETS R14m. ILLEGAL BOOZE AND MACHINERY
Members of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) conducted a raid on an unauthorised warehouse in Vryburg, North-West yesterday.
The two authorities confiscated millions of rands worth of illegally manufactured alcohol and bitcoin mining equipment.
The bitcoin mining equipment is valued at around R10 million while the alcohol is estimated at R3.8 million.
The warehouse was well -equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to enable those involved to carry out their criminal activities. One foreign national was arrested. An investigation is underway and more arrests are expected.
SARS Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, praised the ongoing cooperation between SARS and SAPS in apprehending those who are bent on perpetrating criminality.
He said the raid formed part of SARS’ decision to act more vigilantly against unregistered taxpayers conducting business and to protect legitimate businesses.
The taxman has set its sights on ensuring strict compliance and has taken a concerted effort to crackdown on crypto assets. – www.fullview.co.za
PLANS UNDERWAY TO SAVE POST OFFICE
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mondli Gungubele, has told Parliament that government is working tirelessly to save the South African Post Office (SAPO), which was placed under provisional liquidation.
Replying to questions in the National Assembly, Gungubele said: “We want to assure you that we have been working tirelessly with the entity to explore various options to find an optimal approach within the legal prescripts and confines of the provisional liquidation to save the entity and ensure business continuity” Gungubele.
The Minister’s pronouncements follow a Pretoria high court granted an order for the appointment of provisional liquidators for the Post Office in March.
“We will – in the next coming week – table an approach to Cabinet for approval to ensure business continuity.
We want to reiterate that government’s main objective is to ensure that this entity is repositioned, modernised, and continues to serve the millions of South Africans it has been serving over the past 200 years,” Gungubele said.
Over the years, the Post Office has faced myriad challenges, which have threatened the sustainability of the entity.
“We are appointing a new board. What is existing now is the interim measure of a board until a new board is appointed,” Gungubele replied. – www.fullview.co.za
COUPLE ACCUSED OF MURDER APPEARS
A Soshanguve couple, Sibusiso Mahlangu (33) and Lerato Mahlangu (32), appeared in the Soshanguve Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The couple is facing charges of premeditated murder, defeating the administration of justice and fraud. It is alleged that on January 2 2022, the couple killed a man and burnt the body of the deceased at their house in Block HH, Soshanguve.
Thereafter, it is further alleged that the wife, Lerato, obtained a fraudulent death certificate from the Department of Home Affairs, claiming that her husband, Sibusiso, died in the fire and later claimed life policies.
The couple was arrested for this matter on April 20, after the husband was found in possession of a stolen car in Hammanskraal. Upon his arrest and processing, it was discovered that he was registered as deceased, and will be appearing on May 29, for the Hammanskraal incident at Hammanskraal Magistrates’ Court. However, for the murder case, the matter was postponed to May 18, for a formal bail application. – WSAM Reporter
Published on the 97th Edition
