The Helen Joseph Hospital has recorded an increase in mental healthcare patients, with some patients coming from outside of the hospital’s feeder area.
This was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, responding to a question in the legislature.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Gauteng Health Department said that as at January 2022, Helen Joseph had treated 876 patients at the Emergency Department compared to 80 in January 2021.
The department explained that at Ward 2 and 3, 1 395 people were treated by January 2022, compared to 620 in 2021, and the outpatient department had treated 520 patients by January 2022, compared to 244 by January 2021.
MEC Mokgethi said that the increase in admissions can be attributed to poor socio-economic circumstances aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, large scale use of illegal substances, and unwillingness of some families to take back members with mental health illness upon discharge.
She added that the temporary closure of sections of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) has also contributed to the increase in patients.
The MEC said various measures are being introduced at hospital to ensure the provision of care for the growing number of mental health patients.
“These include the increase of bed capacity as well as repurposing a temporary structure to house more patients. The hospital is also liaising with other psychiatric wards in other facilities to transfer patients whenever there is capacity,” Mokgethi said.
The MEC has pleaded with families who refuse to take back their loved ones with mental health illnesses to work with government and welcome their family members with care upon discharge from health facilities.
She noted that more needs to be done at various health facilities, however, the provincial government is making efforts to ensure that all facilities are up to standard.
Meanwhile, last week Mokgethi visited the newly opened psychiatric ward at Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital in Soweto.
“We are making efforts to ensure that psychiatric wards across our health facilities meet the standards and regulations of the Mental Health Care Act. The wellness of mental health patients is our top priority, thus the installing of 24-hour security cameras to monitor and ensure patient safety,” the MEC said.
South Africa has recorded 1 436 new COVID-19 cases, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 686 556.
The increase represents a 5.5% positivity rate.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the majority of new cases are from Gauteng (35%), followed by the Western Cape (23%).
KwaZulu-Natal accounted for 18%, the Eastern Cape 6%, North West 5%, Free State and Mpumalanga 4% each, Limpopo 3% and the Northern Cape accounted for 2% of new cases.
The Department of Health has reported 16 deaths and of these, zero occurred in the past 24 – 48 hours. This brings the total fatalities to 99 625 to date.
A reported 23 285 855 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.
In the public sector, 10 634 753 tests were conducted, while in private sector, 12 651 102 tests were conducted.
The cumulative number of cases by province are as follows: Gauteng 505, KwaZulu-Natal 257, North West 71, Free State 58 , Limpopo 41, Mpumalanga 58, Eastern Cape 81, Western Cape 334 and Northern Cape 31.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, says the upsurge in the number of people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) demonstrates the need to expand access to post-school education and training (PSET) opportunities.
“This requires PSET institutions to offer a diversity of programmes not only to take account of the needs of the youth who completed schooling, but also for those who did not complete their schooling, in an integrated and articulated manner,” Nzimande said.
Speaking at the Community Education and Training (CET) Summit underway at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Nzimande said expanding access and diversifying a highly articulated education and training provision, as well as improving its quality and responsiveness to the world of work, are the main policy objectives of the PSET system.
“The attainment of these objectives remains a challenge, as South Africa continues to face an ever-increasing number of people who are not in NEET,” Nzimande said.
Held under the theme, ‘Mass Skills Programme Provision’, the two-day hybrid summit is aimed at assessing progress made in attaining the vision drawn out in the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training.
The summit also aims to prioritise actions and activities to strengthen and stabilise the CET college system, and position them to become key institutions for the provision of skills programmes in South Africa.
CET is an emerging sector within the PSET system. The foundation of the sector evolved from the former Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET), which focused predominantly on basic literacy and numeracy for adults.
The transitioning of the sector gave birth to nine CET colleges, one per province, with 1 791 learning sites clustered under them.
Nzimande said it should remain a concern for all that over 3.4 million young South Africans, aged 15-24, are disengaged from education and work.
“The youth unemployment rate, measuring jobseekers between 15 and 24 years old, hit a new record high of 66.5%. Two million of them have not finished Grade 12, while some of them are working in the extensive informal economy.
“However, our CET sector caters for all youth and adults, irrespective of age… We ought to reposition the CET sector to play its unique role in the provision of the necessary skills required for our economic development, and to take the majority of our people out of poverty and indignity,” Nzimande said.
Government, the Minister said, is seized with using its own resources and internal capabilities to deal with the school-to-work transition by investing a significant portion of its budget to support youth with learnerships and internships, and other government funded programmes that help to create mass employment.
Nzimande warned that failure to integrate many people into the labour market threatens social cohesion. He said in the South Africa context, this remains of particular concern because of the “over-representation of black South Africans in the NEET population”.
“Our White Paper for Post-School Education and Training called for the establishment of CET colleges as the third tier of institutions in the PSET system. The sector, if well organised, has the potential to address some of these challenges experienced by the people who are not in employment, education or training,” Nzimande said.
Global Technology Leaders Join Delphix in Founding Nonprofit to Advance Sustainability
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, a think tank of global technology leaders and Delphix, the industry leader for DevOps test data management, announced the formation of SustainableIT.org, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing global sustainability through technology leadership.
“Sustainability is the megatrend of the century,” said Jedidiah Yueh, Founding Director of SustainableIT.org and Delphix Founder and CEO. “For too long, sustainability has been a problem for someone else to solve. Today, we’re joining forces with technology leaders from the world’s largest organizations to make sustainability our collective problem to solve.”
Over the next decade technology systems will dramatically increase energy consumption and related environmental and carbon impact. And digital transformation programs are increasingly putting consumer data privacy at risk, a major governance concern.
Yet most organizations independently define their approach to sustainability, with no standard metrics or reporting for the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, societal, and governance.
SustainableIT.org will unite IT leaders and experts from around the world to define best practices and standard metrics for all three pillars of sustainability in order to drive transparency and progress toward a sustainable future.
“IT leaders and teams want to have more of an impact on sustainability initiatives. Launching SustainableIT.org represents an important moment in time for empowering IT to fulfill its promise—not just innovating for the business and our customers but to help save the world,” said Brian Kirkland, Choice Hotels CIO.
SustainableIT.org is a nonprofit governed by global technology leaders with the support of partners and the technical advisor, Delphix. The founding board of directors includes:
As part of its mandate, SustainableIT.org will define sustainable transformation programs by industry, author best practices and frameworks, set standards and certifications, provide education and training, and raise awareness for environmental and societal programs that make our organizations and the world sustainable for generations to come.
“At Delphix, sustainability is core to our business and value. Our DevOps Data Platform reduces the environmental impact of application environments by 10x, and we govern and protect consumer data privacy for many of the world’s biggest brands,” said Yueh. “But we can do more. SustainableIT.org is our chance to galvanize the world’s largest organizations to take clear and transparent actions that lead to a sustainable world.”
About SustainableIT.org
SustainableIT.org is a nonprofit organization focused on advancing global sustainability through technology leadership. Our mission is to define sustainable transformation programs by industry, author best practices and frameworks, set standards and certifications, provide education and training, and raise awareness for environmental and societal programs that make our organizations and the world sustainable for generations to come. Follow us on LinkedIn.
About Delphix
Delphix is the industry leader for DevOps test data management.
Businesses need to transform application delivery but struggle to balance speed with data security and compliance. Our DevOps Data Platform automates data security, while rapidly deploying test data to accelerate application releases. With Delphix, customers modernize applications, adopt multi-cloud, achieve CI/CD, and recover from downtime events such as ransomware up to 2x faster.
Leading companies, including Choice Hotels, Banco Carrefour, and Fannie Mae, use Delphix to accelerate digital transformation and enable zero trust data management. Visit us at www.delphix.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Contact:
Orlando de Bruce
VP of Corporate Marketing & Brand [email protected]
Aspen will manufacture and provide the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine under its own brand name per the terms of agreement
Ensuring equitable, global access to COVID-19 vaccines has been a pillar of Johnson & Johnson’s response since the earliest days of the pandemic
The production of COVID-19 vaccines on multiple continents is critical to supporting an equitable response, controlling the pandemic, and improving long-term health security
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., March 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) (the Company) today announced the completion of a landmark agreement between Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and manufacturer Aspen SA Operations (Pty) Ltd, based in South Africa, to enable the first COVID-19 vaccine to be manufactured and made available by an African company for people living in Africa, with the goal of increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates across the continent.
Expanding global vaccination coverage is critically important to controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing the risk of emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Currently, only about 12 percent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated, which is well below the World Health Organization’s target of 70 percent population coverage for all countries.
Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been guided by the conviction that unless everyone is safe, no one is safe, which is why we worked to develop and deliver a vaccine that can protect the health of everyone, everywhere.
“From the outset of this pandemic we aimed to develop a simple-to-use and accessible vaccine that could be transported around the world through standard vaccine distribution channels,” said Martin Fitchet, M.D., Head of Global Public Health, Johnson & Johnson, Cilag GmbH International. “We initiated clinical trials in all regions of the world to generate evidence across multiple geographies and diverse, at-risk populations and forged a strategic partnership with Aspen in Africa and others to manufacture our vaccine globally. We’re proud to take our long-standing collaboration with Aspen to the next level, to continue to address the COVID-19 threat and lay the groundwork for a healthier, more secure future for people in Africa.”
To date, Johnson & Johnson has shipped more than 200 million vaccine doses to Africa through a combination of our advance purchase agreements with the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust, South Africa and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, on behalf of the COVAX Facility, along with government donations. As one of our contract manufacturers since November 2020, Aspen has been a significant supplier within the Johnson & Johnson global network.
The agreement enables Aspen, using COVID-19 vaccine drug substance supplied by Johnson & Johnson, to produce Aspen-branded finished vaccine and make doses available to the public sector in Africa, including all 55 Member States of the African Union and key multilateral entities supporting Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, inclusive of the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), and the COVAX Facility.
“With the conclusion of this agreement, our vision for Africa’s own vaccine has become a reality,” said Stephen Saad, Aspen Group Chief Executive. “This has been achieved through tremendous teamwork and collaboration between Johnson & Johnson and Aspen. Through this agreement and their earlier actions, Johnson & Johnson has demonstrated its commitment to our continent. Initially by choosing Aspen, located in Africa, as a core manufacturing partner, and then by showing resolve and dedication to a technical transfer process during the most stringent lockdown periods of the COVID outbreak.”
Johnson & Johnson’s Equitable Response to COVID-19 A commitment to global equity has guided the Company’s response since the beginning of the pandemic, starting with the decision to pursue a vaccine that can provide protection with a single dose and be easily stored and distributed with standard refrigeration globally, including in resource-limited, rural or remote settings.
Johnson & Johnson supported the development of its vaccine with a truly global and inclusive clinical research program that studied the vaccine across the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America as we sought to generate evidence across multiple geographies and diverse, at-risk populations, including in resource-limited settings. We complemented this by supporting a large-scale implementation study for our vaccine in South Africa. The “Sisonke” study made the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine available to 500,000 frontline healthcare workers across the country.
In parallel, the Company forged a global supply network that included Aspen and partners in the U.S., Europe and India, and entered into advance purchase agreements with Gavi, on behalf of the COVAX Facility, and AVAT to supply 420 million vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through 2022.
“The urgency and necessity of developing and delivering our COVID-19 vaccine required our R&D teams to find new and exciting ways to use our novel vaccine technology to rapidly progress our science and maximize our impact for humanity,” said Penny Heaton, M.D., Global Therapeutic Area Head, Vaccines, Janssen Research & Development, LLC. “We have proudly contributed to protecting hundreds of millions of people from COVID-19. Our experiences will have major benefits for the future of vaccine development and Johnson & Johnson’s ongoing research and development programs as we continue to bring cutting-edge science to bear on complex health challenges.”
In 2021, Johnson & Johnson provided its vaccine globally at a not-for-profit price, and through its advance purchase agreements and country donations, shipped approximately 70% of its global vaccine supply to LMICs. The Company remains committed to ensuring its vaccine is accessible to people around the world and continues to advocate that governments with available doses follow the example of the U.S., European Union and others and immediately ramp up dose sharing, particularly through the COVAX Facility.
Johnson & Johnson has also pledged its support to the COVAX Humanitarian Buffer through an agreement with the U.S. Government and Gavi. This agreement enables access to our COVID-19 vaccine for the world’s most vulnerable people, such as those living in conflict zones and other humanitarian settings who are at risk of exclusion from traditional vaccination campaigns.
About the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has a robust profile in scientific, clinical and real-world studies, generating strong, persistent activity against SARS-CoV-2 and variants such as Delta and Omicron. The vaccine’s efficacy, both as a single dose and in boosted regimens, combined with its compatibility with standard refrigeration requirements, uniquely positions it for ease of deployment in any setting.
The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO) and has been authorized in many other countries worldwide, including 50 countries in Africa. The vaccine is authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), and has a Conditional Marketing Authorization from the European Commission for use across the European Union (EU).
On February 28, the European Medicines Agency approved an extension of the shelf-life of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to 11 months when refrigerated at temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit). On March 7, Johnson & Johnson confirmed that the U.S. FDA has extended the shelf-life of the Company’s vaccine from six months to nine months when stored at these same temperatures. These decisions are based on data from ongoing stability assessment studies. Johnson & Johnson has also submitted these data regarding the vaccine’s shelf-life to the WHO, and a decision is expected shortly.
About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson At Janssen, we’re creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We’re the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, working tirelessly to make that future a reality for patients everywhere by fighting sickness with science, improving access with ingenuity and healing hopelessness with heart. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: Cardiovascular & Metabolism, Immunology, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Neuroscience, Oncology and Pulmonary Hypertension.
Learn more at www.janssen.com. Follow us at @JanssenUS and @JanssenGlobal. Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Cilag GmbH International are part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
About Johnson & Johnson
At Johnson & Johnson, we believe good health is the foundation of vibrant lives, thriving communities and forward progress. That’s why for more than 130 years, we have aimed to keep people well at every age and every stage of life. Today, as the world’s largest and most broadly-based healthcare company, we are committed to using our reach and size for good. We strive to improve access and affordability, create healthier communities, and put a healthy mind, body and environment within reach of everyone, everywhere. We are blending our heart, science and ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory of health for humanity. Learn more at www.jnj.com. Follow us at @JNJNews.
Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding an agreement with Aspen SA Operations (Pty) Ltd relating to the development, manufacture and distribution of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the potential that the expected benefits and opportunities of the agreement may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected; challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; manufacturing difficulties and delays; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes in behavior and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2022, including in the sections captioned “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” and in Johnson & Johnson’s subsequent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies nor Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.
New Categories Include Achievement in Social Media and Thought Leadership
FAIRFAX, Va., March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Stevie Awards are now accepting nominations for The 19th Annual International Business Awards®, the world’s premier business awards competition, which attracts nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations and territories each year.
All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small – may submit nominations to The International Business Awards. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is 6 April. The final entry deadline is 11 May, but late entries will be accepted through 15 June with payment of a late fee. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.
Juries featuring more than 150 executives around the world will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners. Winners will be announced on 15 August and celebrated at a gala banquet in Europe in October.
The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:
Nominations that won in the 2021 IBAs may be resubmitted for consideration in the 2022 IBAs. If they have been updated with recent achievements, they may be submitted to the same categories in which they won. If they have not been updated, they must be submitted to categories different from those in which they won.
In many of the category groups and categories you may now submit a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, illustrating the nominee’s achievements, instead of the traditional Stevie Awards written essay.
Stevie Award winners in the 2021 IBAs included Ayala Land (Philippines), Cvent (USA), Ernst & Young Global Limited (UK), Etihad Airways Group (UAE), IBM (USA), Halkbank (Turkey), HP Inc. (USA), Google (USA), Nestle India (India), PJ Lhuillier, Inc (Philippines), Rufus & Coco (Australia), Philip Morris International (Switzerland), Polish Railway Lines (Poland), SAP SE (Germany), and many more.
About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.
“From the outset of this pandemic we aimed to develop a simple-to-use and accessible vaccine that could be transported around the world through standard vaccine distribution channels,” said Martin Fitchet, M.D., Head of Global Public Health, Johnson & Johnson, Cilag GmbH International. “We initiated clinical trials in all regions of the world to generate evidence across multiple geographies and diverse, at-risk populations and forged a strategic partnership with Aspen in Africa and others to manufacture our vaccine globally. We’re proud to take our long-standing collaboration with Aspen to the next level, to continue to address the COVID-19 threat and lay the groundwork for a healthier, more secure future for people in Africa.”