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Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela leads the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra). Image: Saphra.

‘Call me Tumi’: Meet the young woman who heads SA’s medicines regulator

Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela leads the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) — a public entity few people knew about until the Covid-19 pandemic hit

Discovery sticks to its guns on mandatory vaccination policy

The financial services group says the basis for the continued policy is to provide the safest possible working environment for all employees

Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. (Paul Botes)

No Covid-19 apocalypse in Africa, as WHO expects a steep drop in fatalities

Countries on the continent responded effectively to the virus despite the dire predictions of some in the West

Inequality kills: How race, money and power affect who survives Covid-19

The data from 440 000 Covid-19 patients show that black people in South Africa were far more likely to die than their white counterparts

(David Harrison/M&G)

How one policy change could curb two airborne epidemics in South Africa

South Africa must make dramatic shifts in its Covid-19 prevention strategies to include new evidence that Sars-CoV-2 spreads mainly through the air

Since mid-July, the number of vaccines administered has consistently hit more than 200 000 jabs a day. By 31 August more than 12-million jabs had been administered. (Photo by LUCA SOLA / AFP)

What we know about the C.1.2 Covid variant, so far

Experts studying the new variant, C.1.2, are surprised by its substantial mutations but are confident current vaccines will be effective against it

Experts surprised by C.1.2 mutations but say it might not be different from other variants. (Photo by Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)

No need to panic over new Covid-19 variant C.1.2

Experts studying the new variant are surprised by its substantial and unexpected mutations but are confident that current vaccines will be effective against it

To the rescue: In Barcelona, a man wearing face mask walks by a work by Italian street artist TvBoy named The Three Vaccines, depicting the graces dressed in AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer labels, which consciously references Raphael’s classic painting The Three Graces. (Josep Lago/AFP)

Vaccine hesitant? An expert answers questions people have

Safety, side-effects and the jargon-filled scientific information explained for those who have concerns about getting vaccinated

Proactive: Teachers and support staff queue for the Covid-19 vaccination at Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein in the face of the more transmittable Delta variant. (Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images/Volksblad)

Covid-19 crash course: Everything you need to know about viruses, variants and vaccines

Covid-19 variants are new versions of the virus that are smarter at surviving. But before we can understand what these changed forms mean for vaccines, we first need to go back…

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Covid-19 Vaccine Injury No-fault Compensation Scheme will outlive the national state of disaster. (Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Getting Covid-19 after being vaccinated can happen – but it’s rare. Here’s what we know so far

Vaccines help to reduce the spread of Covid-19, but they are not without shortcomings. Here’s what they can and can’t do

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The 30-day rule: Why you have to wait for a vaccine if you’ve recently had Covid

Scientists know that people who have had Covid still benefit from getting vaccinated with at least one shot of the vaccine. But can you get vaccinated while you have Covid?

What are the various Covid-19 vaccines being used in SA and how well do they work?

The vaccines being used to fight the pandemic take at least two weeks after inoculation to become effective — and nonpharmaceutical interventions remain crucial

The US and South African medicines regulators have faced legal challenges regarding information used to review and approve Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. (Guillem Sartorio/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Rise of the variants: What you need to know about the Delta variant in SA

SA’s lockdown regulations are tightening to better curb the spread of Covid-19, amid concerns that the Delta variant could drive a surge of infections

Superhero or supervillian? That’s the wrong question, writes Phillip Machanick. The right question is: How it is that philanthropist Bill Gates can
have so much influence over world health? Photo: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images

No vaccine superheroes or supervillains: Fix the system

Is Gates a superhero or a supervillain? That’s the wrong question. The right question is: How it is that one person can have so much influence over world health?

Sister Merinda Ludick was one of the first people in the country to receive the vaccine on 17 February. The wider vaccine roll-out is scheduled to begin in the middle of May. (Photo by Gallo Images/Die Burger/Lulama Zenzile)

Covid vaccine: Six things you need to know about the jabs

SA is on the verge of rolling out Covid-19 vaccines, but can we vaccinate children and pregnant women, and which jabs work against the 501Y.V2 variant?

There is a sanitation crisis In numerous informal settlements around South Africa. Photo: Sewage waste. Delwyn Verasamy/M&G

Testing sewage: The Covid canary in our wastewater

Local scientists are using wastewater-based epidemiology to trace the SARS-CoV-2 virus in South Africa’s sewage system, which could act as an early warning system for outbreaks…

City of Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato along with other officials held a media briefing at their COVID-19 lockdown facility in Strandfontein followed by a tour of the large marquee tents. The media presence incited many of the people in the tents that was quickly stopped after media was urged to move along. The City of Cape Town’s Covid-19 lockdown encampment in Strandfontein for up to 4000 homeless people from around the greater city area. (David Harrison/M&G)

Covid-19 stigma: Revealing the pre-existing fault lines in our society

South Africans have an uncaring stigmatising and marginalising culture and it keeps people on the fringes of society with diminished opportunities in life