South Africa

ADF STAFF In a building near O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, a Labrador retriever named MacGyver shows off his detective skills in a demonstration that takes only seconds. Trained to smell the…

ADF STAFF In confronting future waves of COVID-19, policymakers are faced with a difficult question: How restrictive should lockdowns be? After two years of the pandemic, with immunity levels slowly rising alongside fatigue, the…

ADF STAFF With the worst of Africa’s omicron wave retreating, the continent’s public health experts urge nations to take the opportunity to get ready for the next wave of COVID-19. “We may be tired, but the virus is not tired,” Dr.…

ADF STAFF With many African countries experiencing a lull in COVID-19 infections, public health leaders say now is the time to prepare for a possible next wave that could begin as soon as late April. “The fifth wave is likely to break…

ADF STAFF For the first time in nearly two years, South Africa has experienced two days without any reported deaths from COVID-19 — a sign the pandemic may be easing there. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)…

ADF STAFF One day after the Russian military invaded Ukraine, dozens of people protested outside the Russian embassy in Cape Town, South Africa. With the blue and yellow flag of her country draped across her body, Dzvinka Kachur…

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Africa, the continent’s public health experts found their response hampered by a lack of basic needs — from personal protective equipment to intensive care facilities and medical oxygen supplies.…

ADF STAFF Economists and health experts agree that severe lockdowns are no longer the best way to respond to the spread of COVID-19. Citing South Africa, economists at investment bank BNP Paribas, an international banking group, said…

ADF STAFF The highly transmissible, highly mutated BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19’s omicron strain has become the dominant strain in South Africa and is spreading quickly. “It really is quite incredible how quickly omicron has overtaken…

ADF STAFF Having taken “a brutal toll” on Africa, COVID-19 appears to be shifting out of the pandemic phase and health officials should be able to manage the disease long term, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s)…