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The South African government’s downpayments to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer for COVID-19 vaccines are not refundable under any circumstances, its health minister said on Wednesday, describing the condition as onerous.

South Africa has signed an agreement to buy 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech dual-shot COVID-19 vaccine, a senior government official said on Tuesday, boosting plans to ramp up vaccinations from this month

The town in northern Mozambique that was attacked by Islamic State-linked insurgents in late March is now secure after the military killed a “significant number” of militants and cleared one final area, an army spokesman said.

South Africa has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to secure 11 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and will ease restrictions due to a decline in new cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

South Africa’s health minister said on Tuesday that government advisers had grouped COVID-19 vaccines into three groups and those considered for “immediate use” were the Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Pfizer and Moderna shots.

One of the South African government’s top advisers on COVID-19 vaccines said on Friday that the Pfizer shot was “still a very good vaccine”, despite a study showing the dominant local virus variant may reduce its protective antibodies.

The African Union’s vaccine task team said on Friday that Russia had offered it 300 million doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and that the offer included a financing package for countries wanting to secure the shots.

Scientists will meet on Thursday to advise South Africa’s government on its next steps after a study suggested the dominant local coronavirus variant may reduce protective antibodies from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by two-thirds.

South Africa launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive on Wednesday, battling to tame a more infectious variant of the coronavirus with a roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson shot for the first time outside a clinical trial.

South Africa plans to share the 1 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses it received from the Serum Institute of India with other African countries via the African Union (AU), a senior health official said on Tuesday

South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma did not show up on Monday at an inquiry into corruption during his time in office, despite the country’s top court ordering him to appear.

South Africa will put on hold use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot in its vaccination programme, after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild-to-moderate infection caused by the country’s dominant coronavirus variant.

South Africa is trying to get COVID-19 vaccines as soon as February, but the timing will depend on bilateral negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday.

France will put restrictions on people traveling abroad to find ski resorts not subject to COVID-19 shutdowns this Christmas, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association of the world’s airlines, says aviation industry in Africa will lose $2 billion in 2020 while global losses is expected to drop deeper at $118.5 billion in 2020.

Three days after polls closed, the United States and the world still do not have final results from the presidential election, although Democrat Joe Biden was on the brink of unseating Donald Trump.

Pope Francis has given the Vatican secretariat of state three months to transfer all of its financial holdings to another Vatican office following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments that are now the subject of a corruption investigation.

The 2020 edition of the Thessaloniki international Film Festival (November 5-15) is moving fully online after previously being set to run as a hybrid event.

Democratic hopeful Joe Biden on Sunday urged lawmakers to wait until after November’s election to tackle a Supreme Court vacancy that President Donald Trump has pledged to fill quickly, as the nomination becomes a new flashpoint in the battle for the White House.

Brazil’s government sent its support to Neymar Tuesday after he was red-carded for a fight in a Ligue 1 match in France, condemning the “racism” that triggered the brawl.

Twitter said early Friday that a tweet from President Trump suggesting that protesters in Minneapolis could be shot violated the company’s rules against glorifying violence, in a move that threatens to escalate tensions between Trump and his favourite social media megaphone over its content policies.

Two games in the top two tiers of Belarusian football have been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.