Insufficient critical-care resources, high comorbidities such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, chronic liver and kidney disease and well as severity of organ dysfunction upon admission suggest that African countries may have the highest global death rate among critically ill Covid-19 patients.

Chairperson of the School of Medicine at UP Professor Robin Green said Africans at higher risk of more severe disease and death when Covid-19 positive.

Green said this suggests that the African population is desperately in need of better ICU resources and medications, but especially prevention through vaccination.

“The current vaccine roll-out in Africa is hopelessly ineffective. We would appeal to all humanitarian and health agencies to make vaccines for Africa a priority,” said Green.

Until now, little had been known about how Covid-19 was affecting critically ill patients in Africa, as there have been no reported clinical outcomes data from Africa or any patient management data in low-resource settings.

To address this evidence gap, the African Covid-19 Critical Care Outcomes Study (ACCCOS) aimed to identify which human and hospital resources, underlying conditions and critical-care interventions might be associated with mortality or survival in adults (aged 18 or older) admitted to intensive-care or high-care units in Africa.

The study – published in The Lancet – focused on 64 hospitals in 10 countries namely: Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria and South Africa.

According to the study, between May and December 2020, about half (or 3 752 of 6 779) of patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 infection referred to critical care were admitted. Of those, 3 140 patients participated in the study.

The study states that all those patient received standard care and were followed up for at least 30 days unless they died or were discharged.

According to the researchers, modelling was used to identify risk factors associated with death.

“After 30 days, almost half (48% – 1 483/3 077) of the critically ill patients had died. The analysis estimates that death rates in these patients were 11% (in best-case scenarios) to 23% (in worst-case scenarios) higher than the global average of 31.5%,” reads the study. Leading to the conclusion that the mortality rate is higher in African countries than reported from studies done in Asia, Europe, North America and South America because of existing illnesses prevalent in people living in Africa.

University of Cape Town’s Professor Bruce Biccard (and research co-leader) said the study is the first to give a comprehensive picture of what is happening to people who are severely ill with Covid-19 in Africa.

Biccard said the findings show that poor access to potential life-saving interventions such as dialysis, proning – turning patients onto their stomachs to improve breathing, and blood oxygen monitoring could be factors in the deaths of these patients.

“These could also partly explain why one in eight patients had therapy withdrawn or limited. Sadly, it indicates that our ability to provide sufficient care is compromised by a shortage of critical-care beds and limited resources within intensive-care units,” said Biccard.

He added that he hopes these findings can help prioritise resources and guide the management of severely ill patients – and ultimately save lives – in resource-limited settings around the world.

Clinical and Academic Head of the Critical Care Department at UP Professor Fathima Paruk said the unique findings such as the high death rate, being male not being associated with a higher risk of death, ICU bed shortages, underuse of resources or a paucity of certain ICU resources, highlight the importance and need for our own data.

She said the findings provide much-needed evidence in terms of guiding clinical management and in terms of the pressing need to ensure the appropriate provision, allocation and use of resources, so that we can save more lives in resource-limited settings.

She added that this high death rate among severely ill Covid-19 patients in Africa further strengthens the case for prevention through vaccination.

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NALEDI SHOTA|

Teachers and parents want the Department of Basic Education (DBE)  to use the month of June to ensure that primary schools and special education needs schools have all the resources required to allow for the full-time return of learners back in class. 

On 26 July all primary school learners and all learners in special education needs schools are expected to return back to class full-time, as opposed to the rotation system that has been in place since last year. This was gazetted by DBE Minister Angie Motshekga last month. 

Speaking to Inside Education on Monday, General Secretary for the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) Matakanye Matakanye said the move for all primary school learners to return to school was, in part, initiated by parents because they saw their children are losing out on a lot of teaching time. 

“We saw that in future they will be referred to as the lost generation. When they go to school once a week and skip the next week, when they return, they have already forgotten what they did last week,” said Matakanye. Adding that because it is not clear when the pandemic will end, children cannot be kept at home forever. 

READ: The Northern Cape sees sharp increases in Covid-19 infections in schools

In the gazette, Motshekga said the head of department must provide all reasonable support to enable the safe return of learners to the traditional timetable. 

Matakanye said the NASGB called on the department of basic education to put all measures in place that will continue to save the children and teachers from Covid-19. 

“We thought that they would have put mobile classes by now to add on the classes that are already there … What we are also thinking is that  they could put shields around the desks , like those from the chemists, a shield that will protect this child against this child. 

“They must not lose any step from now. From now onwards all steps to ensure that our children are protected must be put in place,” he said. 

The gazette had suggested that learners can also be taught outside, where practicable, but even in this case all health and safety measures on Covid-19 must be followed. 

The DBE also said schools need to use all the available space to prevent overcrowding in a classroom. 

READ: “We are at risk. They do not care about us” – Free State Teacher

Before the opening of schools last year in June, following the hard lockdown, the five unions represented in the Education Labour Relations Council including the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, the National Teachers’ Union, the South African Teachers’ Union and the Professional Educators Union released a statement with non-negotiables before schools could be opened.

These included the need for proper infrastructure which includes toilets and classrooms, the provision of sanitizers, masks and soap, personnel available for screening and the reduction of class sizes. 

On Monday Sadtu General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke told Inside Education that the non-negotiables would remain until the pandemic is over. 

“Returning all primary school and special needs education learners to school obviously depended on those things,” he said. 

Already the DBE has flagged some of the issues raised by the teacher unions as what is “likely to compromise” the compliance of schools with health protocols. 

In parliament last week, the department said there were 14 issues that may make schools not ready and these include:  adequate water, sanitation, hygiene packages, screeners and the provision of Covid-19 essentials.

Maluleke said if the non-negotiables were not in place then schools could not open. 

“Teachers must not be overburdened when the state is not providing the necessary resources. Teachers are already at school but the issue is how do you support them to ensure that there is  still social distance, enough sanitizers for everyone and screeners and so forth. So June must be used to assess whether the schools are going to be ready,” he said. 

The DBE told the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education last week that Director-General Mathanzima Mweli will start weekly one-on-one engagements with provinces to see their readiness and also that on a weekly basis , provinces will be expected to report progress they are making to comply with health protocols to minimise the spread of the virus. 

Teachers who spoke to Inside Education said they were worried about having learners back full-time because as it is the health protocols are not being adhered to at school. 

A primary school teacher in KwaZulu-Natal, who asked to remain anonymous because is not permitted to speak to the media, said at her school they only have sanitizer and none of the other protocols are being followed. 

Another teacher from the Eastern Cape said the school only provides sanitizer for learners and teachers have to bring their own. The teacher said last year classes used to be cleaned throughout the day after two periods, for example, but that now was not the case. And also that there were no screeners at the school. 

However, the teachers said they were happy to have the children back at school because they also worried that the rotation system was not working in the learners’ favour. 

READ: Union calls for schools in South Africa to close as Covid-19 third wave hits

Maluleke said the rotation system has exacerbated the inequality in the education system. He said children who attend schools with resources have long gone back to school full-time. 

“We are having a generation catastrophe here in our country. Where the working-class children, in particular poor, have been taught four times a month whereas they are going to have to compete at matric level with somebody who in grade five was taught every day. 

“Inequality is a problem. It is now the time for the government to provide resources to ensure that there is additional personnel to ensure that they provide mobile classes as a way of mitigating this issue of perpetuating inequality that is going on.

“June must be used for that purpose so that by the time the 26 of July comes those particular things are in place and therefore we are able to see an African child receiving education,” said Maluleke.

READ: DBE Portfolio Committee supports return to class full-time for primary and special education learners

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The 2021 Olympic Games are going ahead, and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has a team of 13 – including students and alumni – selected for the South African team that will jet off to Tokyo, Japan, in July.

The University received the news last month when Team South Africa released its selected list of athletes and technical professionals who will represent the country in various sporting codes.

UJ Sport Senior Director Nomsa Mahlangu said the selected students, who will raise the UJ and South African flags high, include Jason van Rooyen, Cheswill Johnson, Kristen Paton and Toni Marks.

Mahlangu said the students will compete in athletics, hockey, long jump, and shotput.

The team members from the university include one staff member and seven alumni.

Mahlangu said it gives the institution immense pleasure to see their UJ student-athletes and staff as well as alumni become included in the selected South African squad that will travel to participate in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.

“At UJ, we pride ourselves in producing talent that contributes to the growth of the South African sports community,” said Mahlangu.

There have been concerns that the Olympic Games may not go ahead, because of fears over the rising Covid-19 infections in the Tokyo.

However, the Olympics Committee said the games would continue while the International Olympic Committee Vice-President John Coates said they had all the plans and measures in place to protect the safety and security of athletes and the people of Japan, even if the city was under a state emergency.

“The advice we have got from the World Health Organisation and all of the scientific advice, is that all the measures we have outlined in the playbook, all those measures are satisfactory to ensure a safe and secure Games in terms of health, and that’s whether there is a state of emergency or not,” said Coates.

He added that Japan has long insisted that there was no question the Games, which should have taken place last summer, would be held and will be safe.

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NYAKALLO TEFU| 

Nine schools in the Northern Cape are expected to reopen their doors on Monday after shutting down due to Covid-19 cases.

The Northern Cape Education Department has seen a major increase to see a rise in Covid-19 for a fourth consecutive week.

The Department last week recorded over 300 new Coronavirus cases which include the infection of learners, teachers, and staff.

“11 schools closed in the Northern Cape due to Covid-19 infections. Of these schools, nine are scheduled to reopen on Monday, 7 June 2021,” said department spokesperson Geoffrey Van Der Merwe.

READ: The Northern Cape sees sharp increases in Covid-19 infections in schools

This as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country continues to increase.

The Department of Health recorded 5074 new cases in the past 24-hours.

The Northern Cape province alone recorded 348 positive Covid-19 cases in the last week.

“These include 52 educators, 276 learners and 20 support staff at schools,” said Van Der Merwe.

Van Der Merwe said parents must ensure that they limit the movement and social interaction of their children in and around communities.

“This is evidence that our schools are mirrors of the rising infection rate in our communities. Parents must ensure that they limit the movement and social interaction of their children in and around their communities,” said Van Der Merwe.

Inside Education reported that teachers over the age of 40 are expected to be vaccinated. The Department of Health said more than 500 000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been secured for the education sector.

READ: Teachers over 40 to be vaccinated from Wednesday

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Teacher unions have confirmed that educators, cleaners and other support staff at public schools in South Africa will be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus starting Wednesday this week.

Unions say at least 500,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been secured for the education sector.

Inside Education saw a letter by the Head of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, addressed to the Head of Education Enock Nzama asking that he makes departmental coordinators available for planning meetings last week.

READ: Teachers set to be vaccinated in the next week

In the letter written on Thursday titled: Vaccination of educators, Tshabalala said the national department of education has confirmed that the J&J vaccines would be made available in the next week and that “most of which should be used for educators”

Media reports state that the doses are still awaiting approval from the food and drug administration.

Following consultations between the Department of Basic Education and various stakeholders, Naptosa Executive Director Basil Manuel said they anticipated that teachers aged 40 and above will start to receive their jabs from Wednesday.

“The efforts to secure a vaccine for education workers, not just teachers, have been successful,” Manuel.

Manuel added the Department of Health will confirm vaccination schedules and allocate sites according to each school district

“We are busy currently with the logistics around rolling that out to all the schools including governing body paid teachers, starting with those over the age of 40 and starting with public schools.”

READ: Teacher unions push to have teachers vaccinated in June

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THE parents of an 8-year-old boy who killed himself after being bullied repeatedly at an Ohio school have reached a tentative $3 million settlement with his school district.

The agreement announced Friday will go to the school board for Cincinnati Public Schools on Monday for approval in the Gabriel Taye case that dates to 2017.

The schools also agreed to actions to prevent a repeat of such bullying with such steps as training and supervising all staff on anti-bullying reforms and to working to identify repeat offenders, victims and locations. There will be two years of oversight of the district’s anti-bullying plan.

A memorial to Gabriel will also be placed at Carson School, the elementary school he attended.

 “In honor of Gabe, his family is using this settlement to protect current and future CPS students,” said the family’s lawyer, Al Gerhardstein. “We will make sure these reforms take root and end bullying throughout the CPS system.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that attorney Aaron Herzig, a partner at the Taft law firm who represented the school district in the case, said a resolution was in everyone’s best interest.

“The defendants strongly believe that neither CPS, its employees, nor the school nurse were responsible for the tragic death of Gabriel Taye,” Herzig said.

“CPS embraces the goal of eliminating bullying within schools, as well as continuing to refine and improve reporting, management, and training processes related to incidents of bullying.”

The wrongful death lawsuit cited repeated examples of Gabriel and others being bullied at his elementary school. His parents contended that school officials knew about the bullying but were “deliberately indifferent,” allowing a “treacherous school environment.”

NBCNEWS

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NALEDI SHOTA|

Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande said that students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will not lose their funding if they change their course or move to another higher education institution, as long as they are still eligible for funding. 

Nzimande was responding to a parliamentary question, this week, by DA MP Tarabella Marchesi who asked, amongst other things,  whether the scheme stops funding students if they change universities.

In a press statement on Wednesday, addressing the same issue, Nzimande said that changing a course does not affect funding. 

“No, Nsfas does not stop funding because students change institutions.  Nsfas  funding stops when the student fails to meet the academic eligibility criteria and the N+ rule,” said Nzimande. 

The N rule is the minimum qualification completion time also known as regulation time specified by the institution for a programme of study funded by NSFAS. 

“ N+1 applies to first-time entering students first registered after December 2017, whilst N+2 applies to students who first registered before January 2018.

“If a student has transferred from any other public university, regardless of whether they were funded at that university, the number of years already registered for the qualification must be counted as part of the minimum qualification completion time,”  he said.

Students who qualify for NSFAS are those who are recipients of the SASSA grant, and whose combined household income is not more than R350 000 per year. And for students who are disable the combined household income must not exceed R600 000 per year for them to qualify for funding by the scheme. 

Recently, the NSFAS board told the portfolio committee on higher education that for this year the scheme had assessed 323 445 Technical and Vocational Education and Training college and 940 226 university students to be eligible for funding. 

The post Nzimande clarifies NSFAS funding criteria appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

Teachers are set to be vaccinated within the next few weeks.

Inside Education has seen a letter by the Head of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, addressed to the Head of Education Enock Nzama asking that he makes departmental coordinators available for planning meetings today. 

Inside Education has confirmed the authenticity of the letter from two independent sources. 

In the letter written on Thursday titled: Vaccination of educators, Tshabalala said the national department of education has confirmed that the J&J vaccines would be made available in the next week and that “ most of which should be used for educators”

“The target group is basic education (all staff members of primary and secondary schools). It is expected that the dedicated vaccination sites for educators will be ready by Wednesday, 9th June 2021, and the vaccination period will be for two week,”  reads the letter.

Inside Education also understands that teacher unions are meeting with the Department of Basic Education today and the agenda is teacher vaccination. 

Inside Education reported on Tuesday that teacher unions had written to the national departments of health and education asking that teachers be prioritised for vaccination this month. 

READ: Teacher unions push to have teachers vaccinated in June

The teacher union leaders that spoke to Inside Education said ideally they wanted their members to be vaccinated before 26 July when all primary school learners and learners in special education needs schools are expected back in class daily. 

Basil Manuel, Naptosa Executive Director said, at the time, teachers must also be regarded as frontline workers because they come  into contact with large groups of people compared to the police, for example. 

While General Secretary of Sadtu, Mugwena Maluleke, also told Inside Education on Tuesday that a delay in vaccinating teachers may lead to education of learners being disrupted. 

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The Department of Basic Education has scrapped mid-year exams for matric pupils.

This was announced by Minister Angie Motshekga during a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education.

Motshekga said the move is to allow Grade 12 pupils more time to cover the curriculum.

“We want to make up for the loss of time and for them to cover the curriculum. They did not go on holiday in March and most of the schools are giving extra classes.

“The June period of exams will be used to cover the curriculum. We also have a team monitoring Covid-19 infections on a daily basis,” Motshekga said.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke said learners have lost a lot of learning time due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown which has put restrictions on how many can attend class at a time.

“Last year’s grade 11 pupils were hit hard by losing so much of the school year in 2020.

“Grade 11, in terms of the phased opening of schools, after those first couple of months in the first term, they didn’t return to school in 2020 until July,” he said.

Adding that the grade 12 class of 2021 was in a much more difficult situation than last year’s class.

Maluleke said grade 12 teachers had to work backward to help their learners catch up with the grade 11 syllabus.  “There is a serious backlog and the situation is very serious,” he added.

The minister said regarding the grade 12 class of 2021, the education authorities will try to keep these learners in school for as long as possible, in order to try to cover the gaps.

“They are grade 11s of 2020 and already the whole curriculum was not covered. They lost close to 60% of school time over the period,” said Motshekga.

Committee chair Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said all public-school learners lost 54% of teaching time.

 She said the committee noted the loss in learning hours that has already occurred in the 2021 school year, due to the academic year starting later.

“The majority of learners not attending five days of schooling per week as they were using a rotational system.

“This together with the loss of learning hours in 2020, does not bode well for our education system. We know and understand that it is not a South African phenomenon but a world-wide challenge, however we remain concerned,” Mbinqo-Gigaba emphasised.

She said this was quite a lot and it would not be easy to recover.

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