A man has been taken into custody for the murder of a KwaZulu-Natal woman who was suffocated with clothing and burnt as her daughter looked on.

On Saturday night, 40-year-old Delisile Ngongoma was alleged accosted by two people who entered her house in Jolivet.

According to provincial police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala, Highflats detectives embarked on an operation on Saturday night searching for the perpetrators.

“The team proceeded to Jolivet where a 32-year-old suspect was arrested for murder. He appeared in the Phungashe Periodical Court on Monday.

The deceased’s daughter, who witnessed the incident, immediately alerted neighbours. The lifeless body of the victim was found partially burnt on the upper body.

“A case of murder was opened at the Highflats [police station] for further investigation. The search is still ongoing regarding the remaining suspect.”

KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Khombinkosi Jula praised the team for the speedy arrest.

Around the world, doctors, researchers and scientists have been working towards developing a vaccine for the new coronavirus and a group of American scientists have embarked on their first trial

around the world, American scientists have some heartening news: An experimental Covid-19 vaccine will be given to the first volunteers in a US trial on Monday.

Funded by the US National Institutes of Health and conducted at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, a team of scientists plans to administer varying doses of a vaccine developed by the NIH and Moderna Inc. to 45 young, healthy volunteers, the Associated Press reported.

The vaccine does not contain any virus since this preliminary trial is designed to test only for troublesome side effects, the wire service said.

A distant goal

Despite the promising first step, public health officials stressed that a widely available vaccine is still a distant goal.

Even if initial safety tests go well, “you’re talking about a year to a year and a half” before any vaccine could be ready for widespread use, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the AP reported.

And that’s if everything moves forward without any glitches.

“Delays can happen at any point in vaccine development. One step has gone at a very fast pace for one company, and that’s great news,” Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology with the Harvard School of Public Health, said of the Moderna trial when it was first announced in February. “We’ll see over the next few weeks and months if other companies and developers replicate that kind of speed.”

Different types of vaccines

Around the world, dozens of teams are developing different types of vaccines as coronavirus moves across the globe. As of Monday, more than 168 000 cases and 6 600 deaths have been reported worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Inovio Pharmaceuticals plans to start safety tests of its vaccine candidate next month in a few dozen volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania and a testing center in Kansas City, Mo., followed by a similar study in China and South Korea, the AP reported.

Doctors have also been trying different treatments for Covid-19, using HIV drugs and a new antiviral called Remdesivir that was developed to treat Ebola. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has already used the antiviral in a small number of Americans who were infected while aboard a cruise ship in Japan in February.

Lipsitch noted that a number of vaccines developed for other infectious diseases – such as Zika, MERS and SARS – wound up on the shelf because those viruses dissipated over time.

“I don’t think that’s going to be the problem with this one,” Lipsitch said. “I think we’re going to have ongoing transmission [of Covid-19] for a long time.”

Luckily, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, for most people. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Cosatu and the nation’s main business lobby are pushing the government to find a way to utilise an unemployment fund with assets of about R180 billion to fight the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions and Business Unity South Africa, or Busa, told the government at a meeting on Monday that it must find ways to use the Unemployment Insurance Fund to finance temporary layoffs and other methods of supporting companies whose finances have been hit, representatives of both organisations said.

While South Africa has had only 62 confirmed cases of the virus, the number is expected to grow and the government has imposed travel bans, school closures and other restrictions to slow its spread. The rand and stock prices have plunged.

The outbreak comes at a time when South Africa is already in recession and its state-owned companies, including the crucial national power utility, are deep in debt. That gives the country little fiscal room to bail out struggling industries.

“Much more needs to be done,” said Matthew Parks, Cosatu’s parliamentary coordinator. In addition to the UIF, other state organizations such as the Industrial Development Corp. and the Development Bank of Southern Africa should assist, he said.

Reprioritize Spending
Using the UIF in the fight against the virus could leave thousands of workers, who faced unemployment even before the disease became a pandemic, without any safety net. South African companies this year announced plans to cut more than 10,000 jobs by the start of March.

Parks also suggested that the Public Investment Corporation, the R2.13 trillion fund manager that oversees the pensions of state workers and the UIF, should be tapped. Private banks should consider loan holidays for struggling consumers, he said.

All employed South Africans and employers pay into the UIF, and regulations would need to be altered to allow it to be used in the manner suggested, the organisations said. The government’s contingency reserve, about R5 billion, can also be used, said Martin Kingston, vice chairman of Busa.

Business representatives argued for the government to re-prioritize its spending away from non-essential state companies, such as the bankrupt national airline, said people familiar with the talks. The state should focus on health-care and supporting crucial institutions such as power company Eskom and state rail and ports company Transnet, they said.

More meetings are planned soon and action from the government is expected, they said. Monday’s meeting was attended by a number of cabinet ministers.

A doctor and laboratory specialists at the Infectious Disease Unit of Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi get ready to visit a ward for quarantined people on March 15 2020.
Image: Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

Kenyan nurses in the coronavirus isolation ward at Mbagathi Hospital are protesting about a perceived lack of health and safety measures as the country starts to battle the spread of the disease.

According to Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary-general Seth Panyako, the go-slow is a reaction to nurses being the most vulnerable health practitioners in hospitals, yet they do not have adequate protective gear and have not received training on how to safely mitigate the crisis.

BBC reported that the ward has 22 patients who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The prestigious Met Gala has become the latest global event to be postponed indefinitely amid the spread of coronavirus.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national state of disaster on Sunday, putting in place several restrictions on travel, schools and large gatherings to deal with the outbreak.

Several local events have been cancelled or postponed to stop the spread.America has been taking similar measures and Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, announced on Monday that the prestigious Met Gala has been postponed indefinitely.

It is usually held on the first Monday in May.

Anna dropped the bombshell in a statement on Vogue’s website.

“Like everyone else, I have been experiencing this Covid-19 crisis as a series of hurtling developments, where one never knows quite what each new day will bring.

“Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time and the opening night gala will not take place on the date scheduled,” she said.

The news has sent shock waves across the fashion world and celebville, and social media was soon flooded with comments about the postponement.

Reactions ranged from shock and sadness to plans for an online replacement for the event.