COVID-19

COVID-19

Interactive Data Dashboards

Track the HIV & TB response

Live indicators, province breakdowns and downloadable data.

  • Opinion: What the law says about medical xenophobia in South Africa

    The South African Constitution says the most basic forms of healthcare should be made accessible to all who reside in the country but this is often not the lived experience of many foreign nationals. Kholofelo Mphahlele unpacks some of the realities foreign nationals face at public health facilities and what the law provides for protecting…

    ·

  • Two years into the COVID disaster, where do we stand?

    COVID began to hit South Africa badly in May 2020. Now, we are very likely beyond the worst with fewer people dying but COVID remains very infectious and rather deadly, writes Nathan Geffen and Marcus Low. 

    ·

  • COVID-19 has been hard on kids, more support is needed

    A rise in teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence coupled with the loss and uncertainty related to COVID-19 are all stressors fuelling the mental health burden the pandemic will leave on children, especially girls. If not adequately addressed, argues Kholofelo Mphahlele, the mental health consequences for a generation of children and young people could far surpass…

    ·

  • SA company gearing up to make API

    While various medicines are produced in South Africa, the active pharmaceutical ingredients going into these medicines are mostly still imported. Catherine Tomlinson reports on a local company that is trying to change that – starting with active pharmaceutical ingredients for tuberculosis and COVID-19 medicines.

    ·

  • Surgery catch-up hamstrung by shortage of ICU nurses

    Hospitals in South Africa have been put under immense strain over the past two years as beds were filled with COVID-19 patients and elective surgeries had to be put on hold. To make things worse, pre-existing shortages of intensive care trained nurses and other critical staff were exacerbated by healthcare workers themselves contracting SARS-CoV-2 and…

    ·

  • Omicron in children: What we have learnt so far

    Early in South Africa’s fourth COVID-19 wave, dominated by the Omicron variant, concerns were raised on what appeared to be an increase in hospitalisations among children. A few months on, Elri Voigt asks local experts what we have learnt about the Omicron variant in children.

    ·

  • Experts unpack cabinet’s easing of COVID-19 restrictions

    This week, South Africa’s COVID-19 regulations were amended to state that people who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 who do not have symptoms do not have to self-isolate. People who have tested positive and who do have COVID-19 symptoms have to isolate for seven days unless a longer period is recommended by a medical practitioner.…

    ·

  • Free State pushing to get TB patients back into care

    As was the case in the rest of the country, the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to the tuberculosis (TB) response in the Free State. Refilwe Mochoari gathered the available numbers and asked the province’s health department about their plans to get the TB response back on track.

    ·

  • Top 10 health issues to watch in 2022

    COVID-19 will continue to dominate headlines in 2022, but from National Health Insurance to the availability of a new HIV prevention injection, it will also be an important year for other areas of health service delivery and for health system governance and reforms. Here is Spotlight’s pick of the top ten issues to keep an…

    ·

  • Questions over implementation of SA’s new infection control plan

    Whether it is in the queue outside a community healthcare clinic, in a GP’s waiting room, or in the ICU at a private sector hospital, infections acquired at healthcare facilities pose a threat to people’s health. Nthusang Lefafa looks at government’s recently relaunched infection prevention and control plans and some obstacles to its implementation.

    ·