Some good news for South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout
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South Africa finally received good news regarding its vaccination rollout, with the first batch of 325,260 Pfizer vaccines arriving in the country overnight.
A similar amount of weekly vaccine doses is expected to arrive through May for a total of 1.3 million doses by the end of the month. Thereafter, the supply is expected to increase notably to more than 636,000 per week in June.
The arrival of the Pfizer vaccines follows the restarting of phase 1 of the country’s rollout, which focuses on the vaccination of healthcare workers as part of the Sisonke implementation study. The rollout resumed on Wednesday (28 April).
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Purchasing Managers Index
The Absa PMI declined slightly to 56.2 index points in April from 57.4 in March.
It is likely that production was negatively impacted by load shedding during the month, says an economist.
The manufacturing sector in South Africa grew at a slightly lower pace in April than in March, according to the latest Absa Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released on Monday.
Following three consecutive months of improvement, the seasonally adjusted Absa PMI declined slightly to 56.2 index points in April from 57.4 in March. Despite the modest pullback, the index is now about 2.5 points above the average recorded in the first quarter of the year and about 26 points above the April 2020 reading recorded during the strictest phase of South Africa s lockdown.
Absa PMI declines in April following three months of improvement zimbabwestar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from zimbabwestar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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It was a relief for Norbert Rehder, a Cape Town-based freelance tour guide for 32 years, to take a group of tourists around Stellenbosch, in the Cape Winelands. It was his first tour in a year.
Rehder is one of thousands of tour guides across the country who have been shut out of work since March 2020.
A group of tourists moving about the streets of Stellenbosch is reminiscent of when the tourist town buzzed with international visitors in guesthouses and galleries and on wine farms.
Rehder landed this particular tour – a group from Taiwan and Germany – thanks to his ability to converse in German. Not all tour guides have been as lucky.