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14 August 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied
Max du Preez, Editor: Vrye Weekblad (top left), was the facilitator was the facilitator for Thursday’s UFS Though-Leader webinar that included Prof Salim Abdool Karim, Director: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and Chair: South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 (top right); Prof Glenda Gray, President and CEO: South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) (bottom left); and Prof Felicity Burt from the UFS and NRF-DST South African Research Chair in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens Research (bottom right), participated in Thursday’s Though-Leader webinar.
Although the decline in COVID-19 cases is a promising sign for South Africa, there are concerns about a second surge, and the country should not become complacent.

This was the opinion of the three experts who took part in the first Thought-Leader webinar presented by the University of the Free State (UFS) on Thursday, 13 August. The 2020 UFS Thought-Leader Webinar Series, themed 'Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis', is taking place in collaboration with Vrye Weekblad as part of the Vrystaat Literature Festival’s online initiative, VrySpraak-digitaal.

The panellists included top experts such as Prof Salim Abdool Karim, Director: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and Chair: South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19; Prof Glenda Gray, President and CEO: South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC); and the UFS’ Prof Felicity Burt, NRF-DST South African Research Chair in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens Research.
Prof Karim said the downward decline is consistent and the number of patients presenting at hospitals is also declining.
 
Promising trend of decline
“What we are seeing is a promising trend, and it looks like we are on the decline. A question that I am often asked is: Is the worst over? The answer is not clear-cut. We are concerned about the risk of a second surge. If anything – what really concerns me at this stage is a second surge, as I think about how the pandemic may play out over the next few weeks,” said Prof Karim. 

He also referred to countries such as the US, Spain, New Zealand, Vietnam, and South Korea, which are now facing a second surge. 

“We need to be very careful; this is not the time for complacency. We need to maintain all our efforts. If we look at one of the key drivers, it is the need for our economy to restart. We need to get people back to work,” said Prof Karim. 
According to him, we have to look at COVID-19 not as a sprint, but as a marathon. “As we learn to co-exist with this virus, aim for containment; we need to plan for the long term. Even if we get a vaccine, it is unlikely that we will be able to vaccinate a substantial part of our population before the end of next year.” 

“We need to transition from being scared to a situation where we can control our risk. When we know that we can control the risk and then influence the risk, we influence the risk of everyone around us. Part of the new normal is the strategy of mitigation with prevention, plus preventing outbreaks.”

Schools and vaccine development
Prof Gray spoke about whether schools should be open and the role that children play in transmission, how to avoid the second wave, how to adjust our testing, and the exciting news around vaccine development. 

As a paediatrician and a parent, Prof Gray said she believes schools should open. “Children have a different immune response to COVID-19. They have different immune responses to Coronavirus and they probably have less viral-load copies which makes them have milder diseases. They are lucky to have been spared from symptomatic or severe disease,” said Prof Gray. 

According to her, schools need to be de-risked as much as possible, with children and teachers wearing masks, washing hands, making sure that there is good ventilation in the school and that windows are wide open. 

“We also need to know about the comorbidity and ages of teachers, so that we can keep the sick and older teachers out of direct contact. The younger teachers with no comorbidities should be teaching. 

“We also know from our experiences with health workers that transmissions happen in the tearoom where teachers take off their masks and talk. We need to minimise the transmissions in tearooms and protect teachers and parents who are older and have comorbidities.”  

Prof Gray said from data she has seen, schools play a very small role in the transmission of COVID-19; a lot more (transmissions) happen in the community, by commuting, and overcrowded taxis.

Prof Gray agreed with Prof Karim that we should be concerned about a second wave, and that we need to make sure community transmissions are minimised. 

Regarding a vaccine, Prof Gray said a global race is on to find a vaccine. “The more vaccines the better, we want more vaccines to work. The more vaccines, the more affordable they are, and the more doses are available.”

One health approach

During her presentation, Prof Burt said the current response to outbreaks is largely reactive rather than proactive, and “if we have more of a one-health approach, with forecasting, early detection, and a more rapid response, we could have an impact on public health in the future”. 


News Archive

UFS celebrates Kagiso Trust’s 30 years of commitment to the empowerment of impoverished communities
2015-07-15

From the left are: MEC Tate Makgoe, Free State Department of Education; Busi Tshabalala, Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District Director; Dean Zwo Nevhutalu,  Kagiso Trust Trustee  and UFS Director of Community Engagement, Bishop, Billy Ramahlele.
Photo: ?Thabo Kessah

Future sustainable partnerships in education will survive only if all partners are committed, honest, and transparent.

This is the view expressed by the Free State MEC for Education and UFS Council member, Tate Makgoe, during the panel discussion at the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State celebrating Kagiso Trust’s 30 years of commitment to the empowerment of impoverished communities. The topic was “The future partnership models for education in Africa”.

“Over the years, the partnership between the Free State Department of Education, the UFS, and Kagiso Trust has helped to expose the potential in our mainly rural children in the Qwaqwa area of the Thabo Mofutsanyana district,” said Makgoe.

”When we started in 2009, the matric pass rate in the district was 64%, and this rose to 87% in 2014. In Qwaqwa alone, we have managed to build 51 computer and 26 physical sciences laboratories. It was these laboratories that enabled the Free State to be the best performing province in the Physical Sciences in 2013,” added Makgoe.

“None of these achievements would have been possible if all the partners had not been committed to the course. Partnerships built on honesty and transparency are the best model, which we hope to export to other provinces and, indeed, countries,” Makgoe said.

Representing the UFS on the panel was the Director of Community Engagement, Bishop Billy Ramahlele, who added that collaborations can be successful only if the leadership was exemplary.

“As the university, we have had many collaboration with various government departments, and great strides have been achieved only with the Department of Education under the leadership of MEC Makgoe,” said Ramahlele.

”With the MEC on board, the UFS ended up dedicating its South Campus in Bloemfontein to supporting Free State schools. We now have 70 schools that benefit from live television broadcasts of lessons by some of our outstanding academics. This also enables our best academics to make a valued contribution to empowering our teachers. It also allows the university to maximise scarce resources to attain social cohesion,” he said.

In his remarks, Kagiso Trust Trustee, Dean Zwo Nevhutalu, said that Kagiso Trust was looking forward to continue working with its partners to maximise outcomes through limited resources.

“Kagiso Trust will continue to work with the poor and the marginalised and there is no better partner than the government itself. The government provides basic services, and education is one of them. This allows us to be innovative and not just dump books and equipment at schools because we are forced to by our corporate social investment obligations. Therefore, we challenge the government also to be innovative in building a sustainable future partnership model in education,” he said.

Among the dignitaries attending the panel discussion were Kagiso Trust Chairman, Dr Frank Chikane, and the late Dr Beyers Naude’s family.

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