Health
New virus variant casts pall, shocks experts in South Africa
Published
3 years agoon

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — The overcast, drizzly skies match the somber mood at the Tshwane University of Technology, a hot spot in South Africa’s latest surge of COVID-19 cases, apparently driven by the new omicron variant that is leading countries around the world to impose new restrictions.
After several students tested positive, the university postponed some exams, and officials in the larger metropolitan area of Tshwane, which includes the capital of Pretoria, are pushing vaccinations, especially among younger adults who have been slow to get the shots.
At TUT, as the university is known, few students wanted to speak about the new variant that has cast a pall. Many were not vaccinated — only 22% of 18- to 34-year-olds in South Africa are — and some seemed to be rethinking that, though notably the university’s vaccination center was closed for the weekend.
Manqoba Zitha, a student who has gotten the shot, said he will be pushing fellow classmates to do the same.
“I’m trying to encourage them so that they can vaccinate, so they can stay away from coronavirus because it’s there, it’s killing people, and now numbers are rising,” said Zitha. “Now when we are watching TV we can see that people are getting coronavirus. So they must vaccinate!”
Nearly two years into the pandemic, the world is racing to contain the latest variant, first identified in southern Africa but popping up around the globe. Countries are imposing restrictions or bans on travelers from several countries — much to the South African government’s dismay — and re-imposing measures like mask mandates that some hoped were a thing of the past.
The World Health Organization named the new version of the virus “omicron” and classified it as a highly transmissible variant of concern, though its actual risks are not yet understood. Early evidence suggests it poses an increased risk that people who have already had COVID-19 could catch it again, the WHO said. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.
Still, some experts are hopeful that vaccines will be at least somewhat effective at preventing serious illness and death — and continue to encourage people to get inoculated.
Gauteng province — home to Pretoria and South Africa’s largest city of Johannesburg — is the center of the new surge. So far, cases there appear to be mild, according to doctors, and hospital admissions have not spiked.
But experts warn the early round of infections has been among the young and the situation may become more serious if the new surge affects older, unvaccinated South Africans. In all, 41% of those aged 18 and over are vaccinated — but young people have been particularly slow to step forward.
At least three South African universities — the University of Cape Town, Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Free State in Bloemfontein — have announced that vaccinations will be mandatory for students starting next year. Some experts think further measures will be needed.
“I do think that the decision that South Africa is going to have to make is probably around mandatory vaccination,” said Mosa Moshabela, professor of public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
Demand for the vaccine has been so sluggish that the government recently requested slower deliveries to allow it time to use up its current stock of 19 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson shots.
A new surge was long anticipated and even a new variant, but the speed with which omicron hit came as a “shock” to South Africa’s health experts.
While numbers of confirmed cases are still relatively low, they have been increasing at a high rate. The new spike started after some student parties in Pretoria. Numbers quickly jumped from a few hundred cases a day to thousands. South Africa announced 3,220 new cases Saturday, of which 82% are in Gauteng, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. That’s still well below the peak of the last wave, when more than 25,000 were confirmed in a day.
As many as 90% of the new cases in Gauteng province are caused by omicron, Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, said in a tweet, citing the results of diagnostic tests.
“We did expect that we may see a new or a different variant gaining momentum in the fourth wave … but we did not really expect to see a variant with the kind of multiplicity of mutations. And that is capable of becoming highly transmissible and escape or evade immunity at the same time,” said Moshabela, the expert from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “This was really the shock that we had.”
Although the current cases are concentrated in Pretoria and Johannesburg, tests show that omicron is already in all of South Africa’s nine provinces.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met over the weekend with health officials and is scheduled to address the nation on Sunday night about the increased cases.
Back at TUT, Nhlanhla Africa Maphosa, a 25-year-old management student, is still trying to digest the news and what it will mean for his studies.
“It was just last week when they checked stats then they realize that so many students were affected by COVID-19 at the main campus,” Maphosa said. “We’re not that sure of the stats. … But what we can say is that a high level or a high percentage of students has got COVID-19.”
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Health
Buccaneers to Honor Cancer Survivors at Sunday’s Crucial Catch Game, Donating $40K to Research
Published
7 months agoon
September 24, 2024By
Willie David
TAMPA, Fla. (FNN SPORTS) – On Sunday, September 29, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium in a 1 p.m. ET kickoff. The game will be the Buccaneers’ Crucial Catch event, supporting the NFL’s campaign to fight cancer and emphasizing the importance of early detection.
The Buccaneers will continue their tradition of giving back, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Foundation set to donate $40,000 to cancer research, raising their total contributions to over $550,000 in the last 13 years. Funds will benefit key cancer organizations including AdventHealth West Florida Foundation, Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation, and more.
Throughout the game, fans, players, and partners will “Raise the Flags” for loved ones affected by cancer. Fans will receive a custom mini-poster to show their support. At halftime, cancer survivors Bianca Muniz and Elana Gilbert will take the stage for an emotional performance honoring those impacted by cancer.
Official Crucial Catch merchandise will be available, with all proceeds supporting the American Cancer Society’s mission to provide screenings to underserved communities.
Health
AdventHealth awards $1.4 million to 6 nonprofits addressing urgent workforce needs in Central Florida
Published
7 months agoon
September 18, 2024By
Willie David
ORLANDO, Fla. — AdventHealth is distributing nearly $1.4 million over the next three years to the 2024 recipients of its Community Impact Grants, giving six Central Florida nonprofits the chance to bolster their missions and help bring prosperity and wholeness to the community by training the workforce of tomorrow.
This year’s Community Impact Grants are focused on one of Central Florida’s top community health concerns, addressing critical workforce development needs in the health care, construction, hospitality and tourism industries, by funding programs that will provide job training, internship and apprenticeship opportunities and education assistance. Workforce development was selected as the priority for this year’s grants based on input from residents in the triannual Community Health Needs Assessment, building on investments made in 2023 that focused on mental health.
“At AdventHealth, we talk a lot about whole-person care, and we also realize that a person’s health is determined by so much more than just the health care setting,” said JB Boonstra, executive director of Community Advocacy for AdventHealth. “We know that employment is one of the most significant social determinants of health and a key part of that is earning a living wage. This year’s spotlight on workforce development speaks directly to that.”
The median income for a household in the Orlando area is about $43,000, the Department of Labor reports — not even close to the wage needed to live in Florida for a family of four, which is about $66,300, according to the United Way’s ALICE report.
“Almost half the people who go to work every day don’t make enough money to pay the bills, and one of the biggest challenges we see here in Central Florida in terms of workforce development is access to career opportunities,” said Marc Stanakis, president and CEO of Jobs Partnership, one of this year’s grant recipients. “For a lot of people in our community, they just don’t know what’s available or what types of jobs they can pursue that would allow them to get on a career path toward economic mobility. For organizations like ours, it’s really exciting to see the change that happens by simply opening the door of opportunity for someone.”
The 2024 grant recipients:
- CareerSource Central Florida’s Community Health Champions program aims to create a career pipeline into the health care industry. Whatever roadblocks residents are facing, including language barriers, transportation challenges or unreliable Internet access for applying to jobs, CareerSource Central Florida offers a variety of vocational training and internship opportunities to overcome them. CSCF is upskilling health care workers who are culturally competent, empathetic and equipped to connect with the diverse populations they serve, making health care more accessible and impactful. Training goes beyond job skills, focusing on understanding and addressing the unique needs of community members.
- The Sharing Center’s ProjectRISE, which, in addition to the organization’s food pantry, homeless resource center and thrift store, aims to address poverty and assist residents in accessing higher-paying jobs. Funding for ProjectRISE will allow 360 residents to enroll in a four-week comprehensive workforce development program focused on building emotional intelligence, soft skills and job-acquisition skills.
- employU’s vocational rehabilitation program serves residents with mental and physical disabilities as part of the organization’s mission to create inclusive workplaces. Acting as a one-stop shop for career development and employment resources, employU provides employment training, paid work experience, job placement and job retention support. The organization will use the grant to fund new initiatives to help individuals access community resources and prepare for employment through workshops on financial literacy, social media safety and workplace readiness. It will also fund a program manager position to reach more residents and ultimately help them achieve financial independence.
- Home Builders Institute BuildStrong Academy of Orlando is a tuition-free program delivering industry-recognized skills to train a new generation of home builders looking to break into the construction industry. The Academy offers career-focused education through hands-on learning, classroom instruction and real-life experience. Students train with skilled trades instructors who guide them through HBI’s nationally and industry recognized Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training curriculum and receive job placement assistance upon graduation, helping build a pipeline of residential and commercial construction workers.
- iBuild Central Florida’s Pre-Apprenticeship Program is an innovative approach in attracting more people to jobs in the telecommunications construction industry, which is currently facing mass shortages nationwide. Based at Osceola Technical College, the program targets students enrolled in English language-acquisition and GED classes, 80% of whom live below the federal poverty line.
- Jobs Partnership’s Stepping Up program equips residents who are unemployed or working low-wage jobs, combining soft skills training, career navigation and vocational training scholarships. Since its founding in 1999, the organization has served more than 3,300 people, empowering them to change their professional trajectories and developing a career pipeline into the health care industry. Last year, 79% of participants got a new job or started vocational training after completing the program.
Among the organizations that received grants, two are focused on bolstering the construction workforce. Central Florida’s lack of construction workers has contributed to a lack of affordable and attainable housing, with median home prices reaching $440,000, according to the Orlando Regional Realtors Association. And as the state wrangles with a shortfall of nearly 436,000 rental units, renters — who make up a third of the region’s population — have also watched rents skyrocket, hitting $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom unit.
“Virtually every industry is experiencing labor shortages, but the construction industry is significantly undersupplied,” said Emily Price, senior vice president of development and partnerships engagement for the Home Builders Institute. “The construction industry needs approximately 732,000 new workers each year to meet demand.”
Recognizing that employment and access to housing go hand in hand, Crystal Davidson, vice president of iBuild Central Florida, said creating a pipeline into the construction industry addresses multiple challenges. “They’ll be in a career field in the construction industry where they won’t want for a job for at least the next 25 years,” Davidson said, “because there is such a skills trade shortage across the United States, but especially in Florida.”
For more than 115 years, AdventHealth has called Central Florida home, and as a not-for-profit organization, has the privileged duty to invest financial resources into the community. In 2023 alone, AdventHealth contributed nearly $1.3 billion in community investments in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and South Lake counties, allowing more residents to access the medical care they need and deserve and supporting local nonprofit organizations.
“Investing in our community is a responsibility that AdventHealth treats very seriously and passionately, because we’ve seen the transformation that happens with these dollars,” said Tricia Edris, chief innovation and partnerships officer for AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division. “AdventHealth is proud to bring these six organizations together to now tackle issues around workforce development. It’s too big a problem for just one of us to solve. We must come together as a community.”
Health
Officials Celebrate Milestone at AdventHealth Minneola Topping-Out Ceremony
Published
8 months agoon
September 6, 2024
MINNEOLA, Fla. (FNN) – AdventHealth Minneola marked a major construction milestone today as leaders, physicians, elected officials, and community members gathered for the hospital’s topping-out ceremony. The new facility has reached its full height of four stories, with attendees signing a commemorative structural beam.
“AdventHealth is honored to be Minneola’s partner in health. I’m thrilled to bring this world-class healthcare facility to South Lake County,” said Kay Barnett, CEO of AdventHealth Minneola.
Located on Hancock Road near Florida’s Turnpike, the 204,000-square-foot hospital will feature an emergency department, operating suites, heart catheterization labs, 80 private inpatient rooms, and more. It is expected to bring around 500 jobs to the community.
“Providing care close to home is central to our mission,” said Dr. Miles Bennett, Chief Medical Officer for AdventHealth Winter Garden and Clermont.
The facility is set to open in late 2025.
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