The Covid Report

Donating blood is a simple act that can save lives- people may need blood when they have surgery, cancer treatment, or transfusions for blood loss from injuries or accidents, but only 3% of age-eligible people donate blood each year, resulting in a constant demand for donated blood.

The South African National Blood Service''s Kamantha joins us to give more insight on this topic.

In today's episode we are joined by Dr Angelique Coetzee who is a private practitioner and chairperson of the South African Medical Association.

She gives us insight into the new covid-19 variant as well as how this will affect the country as we move into lockdown level 1.

South Africa’s vaccination programme is in a race against time, with the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections expected to hit the country in December 2021 and into January 2022, says the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA).

In today's episode we are joined by Dr Kgongwana who will be assuming the role of the Gauteng department of health spokesperson

Merck revealed in early October on a promising new pharmacological treatment that might be administered as a tablet in the days following the onset of COVID-19 symptoms to prevent severe disease. This development, which many are applauding as a game-changer, is already changing the debate. The tablet is called molnupiravir and will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease.

To further discuss this we are joined by Dr Lize Hellstrom who is one of MERCKs principal investigators in the phase 3 clinical trials.

In this episode of the Covid Report we discuss how the pandemic has affected women and their abilty to access sexual and reproductive health services.

To give more insight on this we are joined by Psycologist, Palesa Radebe. Along with much more insightful information, she shares that women need to be aware of what is happening around them and have transparent relationships with their sexual partners.