CAPE TOWN, South Africa is hosting the first COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant on the continent where jabs will be produced from start to finish.

The name of the company to do that is Nants-SA facility located in Cape Town.

The plant is “an initiative by the US-based, South African-born biotech billionaire Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong.”

It aims to start producing the vaccines within a year and to make a billion doses annually by 2025.

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa joined the billionaire at the launch of the facility. Ramphosa stressed that the facility is a gamechanger relative to Africa’s vaccine sufficiency.

South Africa has other vaccine manufacturing companies but they are largely assembly points unlike the Nants-SA facility.

Source: Nam News Network

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Covid-19: Lions contract virus from handlers in South African zoo – Report

PRETORIA, A South African zoo is reporting that lions and pumas may have contracted COVID-19 from their handlers.

This is according to a study by researchers at the University of Pretoria who are warning of risk of new variants if the virus “establishes itself in other animal reservoirs” and is retransmitted to humans.

The study was done after the animals fell ill with symptoms that were similar to coronavirus in human beings – including breathing difficulties, runny noses and a dry cough.

Covid tests on the animals turned out positive, the research noted, with data suggesting that they contracted the virus from staff handling them.

South Africa is currently Africa’s most impacted relative to COVID-19 caseload.

Source: Nam News Network