Inside Covid-19: Doubts over Russian vaccine but others make progress; Evidence lockdowns don’t work in Africa. Ep 71

In Episode 71 of Inside Covid-19, after Tuesday’s excitement around Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, doubts grow because of the apparent haste with which it was created – we’ve got context on that story, and vaccines generally. Plus fresh evidence that lockdowns just don’t work in an African context and some ugly consequences from the UK’s mismanagement of the pandemic. – Alec Hogg

In today’s Covid-19 headlines:

• South Africa’s daily new infections hit a nine week low on Tuesday with the reported 2,511 cases the smallest since June 10^th and further confirmation of that the pandemic peaked three weeks ago. The number of active cases, at 129,000, are back at the level of a month ago and around 43,000 below the peak of late July. Deaths, too, are now on a distinct declining trend with Tuesday’s 130 mortalities down by a third on levels reported earlier in the month. The trend has also seen South Africa falling in the global lists, from 4^th to 7^th in active cases, and from 5^th to 13^th in new cases and 10^th in daily deaths. Globally, however, infections continue to rise with a jump in India and a resurgence in the USA, which now accounts of 37% of the total, pushing the world’s active cases to 6.3m. In total, more than 16.5m people have been infected with the virus, 750,000 of whom have died and 13.5m recovered. India, at 61,000, Brazil and the USA, both over 50,000, are far ahead of other countries in new daily infections.
• Lots happening on the vaccine front. After Tuesday’s news from Russia that it has perfected a Covid-19 antidote that even its president’s daughter has signed up for, lots of progress from elsewhere. In the US, pharma group Moderna signed a $1.5bn deal with the US government to provide 100 million doses of its experimental vaccine. And at home, president of the SA Medical Research Council Prof Glenda Gray has confirmed that two more vaccines developed by multinationals will be trialed here from next month – one from Johnson & Johnson, the other Novavax. Earlier in the week Prof Gray was screened and vaccinated at UCT as part of the Oxford University trial which is also running in the UK and Brazil.