How was Italy devastated by Covid-19?
Two decades of eroded national health expenditure and privatisation played a role in the country’s struggle with the virus. Now, citizens demand answers in the face of a second wave of infections.
COVID-19
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Threat to early childhood development sector
A number of early childhood development centres have been forced to close because of Covid-19, resulting in a bleak present and future for the many children who depend on them.
Photo Essay | A thousand-kilometre bicycle journey
After losing his job during Europe’s first lockdown, an Italian living in London desperate to visit his family pedalled across the continent, documenting the isolation of his travels.
Eastern Cape health woes expose government failures
Covid-19 has highlighted what South Africans already knew about the Eastern Cape’s health system: it’s dysfunctional and on the verge of collapse, and a remedy is needed urgently.
Workers at the mercy of bosses and the government
Some employees received their full salaries during lockdown whereas others got no pay. Is the ability to survive during a crisis dependent on having a sympathetic boss and state?
The Eastern Cape is South Africa’s land of hunger
Jobless people in the country’s most impoverished province join the growing social grant queues before dawn on empty stomachs, having run out of food for the month.
SA Rugby’s Covid-19 dilemma
Rugby hasn’t escaped the pandemic and the problems it has brought upon life and every organised activity that people enjoy.
Eastern Cape faces a subdued festive season
The festive season won’t be the same in the Eastern Cape this year, with fewer travelling after losing their livelihoods during the lockdown and physical distancing at traditional ceremonies on the cards.
Pollution adds to Covid-19 deaths, say scientists
Experts have linked around 15% of Covid-19 deaths worldwide directly to comorbidities caused by exposure to high levels of air pollution. This figure is higher, at 18%, in South Africa.
Italians demand state aid in second lockdown
Citizens fear restrictive measures without adequate financial support will leave them more impoverished as the government attempts to contain a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
Domestic workers devastated by mass job cuts
By the end of June, more than 250 000 domestic workers had lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. Some of them share their stories.
Wheeling and dealing for a Covid-19 vaccine
A Covid-19 jab could cost hundreds of rands. Or not. It’s anyone’s guess. Could another pandemic almost a century ago hold clues for handling the coronavirus today?
Sport in Africa after Covid-19
The coronavirus has brought every sphere of life to its knees and sport is no exception. Experts offer ways for sport on the continent to come out of the pandemic stronger than before.
Sunetra Gupta and the Covid-19 culture war
Oxford epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta has challenged second-wave Covid-19 lockdowns from a humanitarian position. But her argument has become entangled in a libertarian lobbying campaign.
New social grants are more than money
Converting grants introduced during the Covid-19 lockdown into permanent ones is not only about securing the bare conditions for life, the prospects for even a limited progressive state are at stake.
Migrant street traders worse off after lockdown
In Durban, migrant street traders struggling to recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic face municipal red tape and hostile policing.
Eastern Cape pupils face consequences of Covid-19
Young people are anxious about missed schoolwork and exposure to the coronavirus on public transport, while teachers struggle to teach in masks and a principal worries about his matric pass rate.
South Africa’s continuing economic pandemic
Grant top-ups and the new social relief of stress grant must be extended beyond October as crucial indicators show that the country’s economic prospects remain grim.
Hunger, or the social logic of climate breakdown
India’s eastern province of West Bengal is facing food insecurity in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone and Covid-19. Sadly, the state’s inhabitants have been here before.
Covid-19 stole more than the graduation ceremony
Coronavirus lockdown regulations have denied graduates not only the chance to get into a gown and hat but also the chance to celebrate their success with loved ones and inspire future generations.
Breathless between Covid-19 and pollution
Residents in South Durban fear they will more easily succumb to the virus because of being chronically exposed to deadly fumes emitted by the surrounding oil and gas refineries.