China will host the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday in what analysts see as a chance for Beijing to promote its governance and development model at a time of global instability.Chinese President Xi Jinping will join with the leaders of Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa via video link to discuss issues of mutual concern as part of the summit themed around ushering in a “new era” for global development. Ahead of the summit in Beijing, Chinese state media have praised the BRICS – an

The World Trade Organization (WTO) chief voiced cautious optimism Sunday as global trade ministers gathered to tackle food security threatened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, overfishing and equitable access to COVID vaccines.Speaking ahead of the WTO's first ministerial meeting in nearly five years, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that "the road will be bumpy and rocky."But she told journalists she was "cautiously optimistic" that the more than 100 attending m

The World Trade Organization (WTO) chief hailed Wednesday a breakthrough between the European Union (EU), the United States (US), India and South Africa on waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the compromise was a big step forward in a bid to end the logjam at the global trade body.However, she cautioned that some of the details on waiving WTO rules on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) still needed to be fleshed out – a

Scientists in South Africa have made a copy of the Moderna COVID vaccine, a move which they say could help boost vaccination rates across Africa.The continent currently has the lowest uptake of COVID shots in the world.The company behind the new vaccine - Afrigen Biologics - says it hopes to start clinical trials in November.Moderna previously said it would not enforce the patents on its vaccine, allowing scientists in Cape Town to make their own version of it.

The European Union medicines watchdog said Thursday the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may cause milder disease, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against a re-run of vaccine hoarding by rich nations as the new strain spreads.The tentative judgement from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) comes after the WHO said this week there was some evidence that Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, the currently dominant variant.The EMA echoed the finding but said more investigation

Future pandemics could be more lethal than the current COVID crisis, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has warned.Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, delivering the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, said there needed to be more funding for pandemic preparedness to prevent the advances made from being lost.She also warned vaccines could be less effective against the Omicron variant.Dame Sarah added that people should be cautious until more was known about it.She said: "This will not

A preliminary study by South African scientists published Thursday suggests the Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared to the Delta or Beta strains.The findings, based on data collected by the country's health system, provides the first epidemiological evidence about Omicron's ability to evade immunity from prior infection.The paper was uploaded on a medical preprint server and has not yet been peer-reviewed.There were 35,670 suspected reinfections

The Omicron coronavirus variant was present in Europe before the first cases were reported in South Africa, new data from the Netherlands showed Tuesday, as Latin America reported its first two cases in Brazil.In the week since the new virus strain was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions – most targeting southern African nations.But the WHO warned Tuesday – as Canada expanded its restrict

Scientists in South Africa have begun crucial work to assess how well COVID vaccines hold up against the Omicron variant that has been detected in more than a dozen countries since it was formally reported last week.The variant carries dozens of mutations that are expected to change how the virus behaves, including its ability to cause infection and how well it can hide from immune defences primed by vaccines or previous infection with an older variant.Antibodies protect against viruses by gu

Several European nations on Saturday announced their first cases of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, as governments worldwide began pulling down the shutters to contain the new Omicron variant.Britain, Germany and Italy confirmed their first cases of the new COVID-19 strain, while Dutch authorities quarantined 61 passengers from South Africa who tested positive for COVID-19.South Africa complained it was being punished with air travel bans for having first detected the strain, whic