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COVID-19 Pandemic In South Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2). On 5 March 2020, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize had confirmed the spread of the virus to South Africa, with the first known patient being a male citizen who tested positive upon his return from Italy. On 15 March 2020, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a national state of disaster, and announced measures such as immediate travel restrictions and the closure of schools from 18 March. On 17 March, the ''National Coronavirus Command Council'' was established, "to lead the nation's plan to contain the spread and mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus". On 23 March, a national lockdown was announced, starting on 27 March 2020. The first local death from the disease was reported on 27 March 2020. On 21 April, a 500 billion rand stimulus was announced in r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever, cough, headache, fatigue, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste. Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms. Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction). Older people are at a higher risk of developing se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stimulus (economics)
In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative easing. A stimulus is sometimes colloquially referred to as "priming the pump" or "pump priming". Concept During a recession, production and employment are far below their sustainable potential due to lack of demand. It is hoped that increasing demand will stimulate growth and that any adverse side effects from stimulus will be mild. Fiscal stimulus refers to increasing government consumption or transfers or lowering taxes, increasing the rate of growth of public debt. Supporters of Keynesian economics assume the stimulus will cause sufficient economic growth to fill that gap partially or completely via the multiplier effect. Monetary stimulus refers to lowering interest rates, quantitative easing, or other ways of increasing the am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emergency Operations Center
An emergency operations center (EOC) is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level during an emergency, and ensuring the continuity of operation of a company, political subdivision or other organization. An EOC is responsible for strategic direction and operational decisions and does not normally directly control field assets, instead leaving tactical decisions to lower commands. The common functions of EOCs is to collect, gather and analyze data; make decisions that protect life and property, maintain continuity of the organization, within the scope of applicable laws; and disseminate those decisions to all concerned agencies and individuals. Location EOCs, originally created as part of United States civil defense, can be found in many nations, at all government levels, as well as in larger corporations that deal with large equip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Health Emergency Of International Concern
A public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) is a formal declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) of "an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response", formulated when a situation arises that is "serious, sudden, unusual, or unexpected", which "carries implications for public health beyond the affected state's national border" and "may require immediate international action".WHO Q&A (19 June 2019). Under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), states have a legal duty to respond promptly to a PHEIC. The declaration is publicized by an IHR Emergency Committee (EC) of international experts, which was developed following the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. Between 2009 and 2022, there were seven PHEIC declarations: the 2009 H1N1 (or swine flu) pandemic, the 2014 polio declaration, the 2013–20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mortality Displacement
In epidemiology, mortality displacement is the occurrence of deaths at an earlier time than they would have otherwise occurred, meaning the deaths are ''displaced'' from the future into the present. The displacement may be described as the result of events such as heat waves, cold spells, epidemics and pandemics (especially influenza pandemics), famine or war, and allows for estimates of the mortality caused by those events. The earlier deaths are called excess deaths (i.e., more deaths than expected), and this time period is followed by a period of mortality deficit (i.e., fewer deaths than expected, because those people have died at a younger age). It is also known as "harvesting". Mortality deficit in a particular time period can be caused by deaths displaced to an earlier time (due to harvesting by an event in the past) or deaths displaced to a future time (due to lives being saved, also called "avoided mortality"). Heat waves During heat waves, for instance, there are of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine
The Moderna COVID19 vaccine ( INN: elasomeran), sold under the brand name Spikevax, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by American company Moderna, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Depending on the jurisdiction, it is authorized for use in people aged six months, twelve years, or eighteen years and older. It provides protection against COVID-19 which is caused by infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is designed to be administered as two or three 0.5 mL doses given by intramuscular injection at an interval of at least 28 days apart. It is an mRNA vaccine composed of nucleoside-modified mRNA (modRNA) encoding a spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which is encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles. It is authorized for use at some level in many countries. In August and September 2022, bivalent versions of the vaccine (Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent) containing ela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timeline Of The COVID-19 Pandemic In South Africa
This article is about the timeline of events during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa which was part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that was first recorded in South Africa on 1 March 2020. Since that date the pandemic has hit the country in four waves. First wave: March 2020 – November 2020 March 2020 On 1 March 2020, the first patient later confirmed with COVID-19 in South Africa, returned with his wife and 8 others from the Milan, Italy, travelling via Dubai, O. R. Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Gauteng and King Shaka International Airport in Durban to Hilton. On 3 March, the patient reported with symptoms to a private general practitioner and isolated himself; the doctor isolated herself as well. On 5 March the Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, announced the first confirmed case, epidemiologists and clinicians from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) were deployed to KwaZulu-Natal in response On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variants Of SARS-CoV-2
There are many variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some are believed, or have been stated, to be of particular importance due to their potential for increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced effectiveness of vaccines against them. These variants contribute to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic. only the Omicron variant is designated as a circulating variant of concern by the World Health Organization. Overview The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 may have resulted from recombination events between a bat SARS-like coronavirus and a pangolin coronavirus through cross-species transmission. The earliest available SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes were collected from patients in December 2019, and Chinese researchers compared these early genomes with bat and pangolin coronavirus strains to estimate the ancestral human coronavirus type; the identified ancestral genome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is connected to Zambia across the short Zambezi River border by the Kazungula Bridge. A country of slightly over 2.3 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. About 11.6 percent of the population lives in the capital and largest city, Gaborone. Formerly one of the world's poorest countries—with a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year in the late 1960s—it has since transformed itself into an upper-middle-income country, with one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Modern-day humans first inhabited the country over 200,000 years ago. The Tswana ethn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant
Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has spread to become the predominant variant in circulation around the world. Following the original BA.1 variant, several subvariants of Omicron have emerged: BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, and BA.5. Since October 2022, two subvariants of BA.5 named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have spread rapidly. Three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine provide protection against severe disease and hospitalisation caused by BA.1 and BA.2. The immunity effects of BA.2 are similar to those of BA.1. For three-dose vaccinated individuals, the BA.4 and BA.5 variants are more infectious than previous subvariants, making it likely, , for a new peak in COVID-19 infections to occur. __TOC__ Classification On 26 November, the WHO's Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution declared PANGO l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health". Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. The WHO was established on 7 April 1948. The first meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the agency's governing body, took place on 24 July of that year. The WHO incorporated the assets, personnel, and duties of the League of Nations' Health Organization and the , including the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Its work began in earnest in 1951 after a significant infusion of financial and technical resources. The WHO's mandate seeks and includes: working worldwide to promote health, keeping the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. It advocates that a billion more people should have: universal health care cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Variant
The Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) was a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. It was estimated to be 40–80% more transmissible than the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 (with most estimates occupying the middle to higher end of this range). It was first detected in November 2020 from a sample taken in September in the United Kingdom, and began to spread quickly by mid-December, around the same time as infections surged. This increase is thought to be at least partly because of one or more mutations in the virus' spike protein. The variant was also notable for having more mutations than normally seen. By January 2021, more than half of all genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 was carried out in the UK. This had given rise to questions as to how many other important variants were circulating around the world undetected. On 2 February 2021, Public Health England reported that they had detected " limited number of B.1.1.7 VOC-202012/01 genomes with E484K mutations", which they dubbed Variant of Conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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