South African Radio Awards winners announced

The winners of the South African Radio Awards were announced on Friday, 30 July.

The awards were held virtually and were hosted by comedian Loyiso Madinga and 80 winners were celebrated across 30 categories.

The prestigious Station of the Year awards went to Jacaranda FM in the commercial radio station section while Lotus FM took it in the public broadcast service, Hot 91.9FM in the community section and Tuks FM 107.2 in the campus radio section.

According to the organisers of the awards, this is the first year Lotus FM has won the Station of the Year award, claiming five wins across various PBS categories.

Similarly, five wins across the commercial categories saw Jacaranda FM win its second station of the year award.

Tuks FM 107.2 celebrated its seventh station of the year award in the campus category, while Hot 91.9FM took home for a fifth consecutive year.

Taryn Westoby, head of Arena Events which manages the awards, congratulated the winners.

Speaking to Daily Sun, she said: “This year has been a year marked by tremendous upheaval because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and where innovation and a can-do attitude has been a prerequisite for success. It’s been incredible to see how radio has brought communities together and kept them engaged.”

The ongoing support and participation by radio stations in The Radio Awards has been overwhelming, and we congratulate all the winners and finalists who have played such an important part in keeping the nation informed and entertained with high-quality broadcasting,” she said.

According the creators of the awards, the Station of the Year winners were determined by the number of times they appeared as a finalist across all general categories of awards, for the broadcast period of 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Each of the finalists submitted a further motivation which spoke to the station’s innovation, audience growth, community outreach, general achievements, as well as their “x-factor”.

This motivation was then scored by the awards’ advisory panel. This score accounted for the first half of a station’s final score, and the second half of the final score was determined by a station’s success in the other categories.

In the two listeners’ choice categories, the My Station Most Votes Award went to Pretoria FM, which received the most online votes from the listening public. Pretoria FM previously received the award in 2015.

The My Station Loyal Listeners Award went to Hot 91.9 FM for receiving the most public votes as a ratio against its RAMS figures. This is the third My Station Loyal Listeners award for Hot 91.9 FM, following wins in 2018 and 2020.

Effective Training Materials to Pass Microsoft AZ-303 Certification Exam

No matter in which sphere you work, your skills define a lot in your life. For example, the position you are applying for, your career growth, colleagues’ attitude, salary increase, to mention a few. Anyway, learning something new always help you grow and this refers to the professional life as well.

Since IT is constantly developing and new technologies are evolving, so passing the certification exams is a must. This also refers to Microsoft Azure. Passing the Microsoft AZ-303 exam equips you with new skills, that’s for sure. And taking the second exam (AZ-304) afterwards grants you the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. Being a certified Azure Solution Architect means that you can effortlessly meet the business requirements and translate them into reliable, scalable, and secure cloud solutions.

So, if you are still interested in passing the AZ-303 exam, go on reading.

Verified Preparation Materials for the Microsoft AZ-303 Exam

Official materials are what you need to prepare and pass the AZ-303 exam. On the vendor’s official website you will find both free and paid prep options. Therefore, depending on your training preferences, you can choose between the following alternatives:

Course AZ-303T00-A: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
This is a paid instructor-led training class that is offered on the exam’s webpage. It targets IT professionals who have expertise in implementing and designing solutions with the help of Microsoft Azure features. Also, the target audience for this course is formed of specialists who have hands-on skills in networking, business continuity, virtualization, data platform, governance, or budgeting solutions. In other words, they should also be proficient in Azure administration and working with DevOps and Azure development processes.

As a result, during this training, the attendees will learn how to understand the business requirements and translate them into scalable and secure solutions. In addition, this course includes numerous labs that will help the candidates train the skills in developing data platforms, identity, and application infrastructure elements in practice.

Course AZ-030T00: Microsoft Azure technologies for AWS architects
This is the second instructor-led training available on the Microsoft site. It targets AWS Cloud Architects who have experience in implementing and designing different solutions that run on AWS environments. Additionally, this training class is suitable for professionals who want to learn how to design for Microsoft Azure features.

Therefore, this course will teach you everything about storage, automation, networking, virtualization, or data security. You will also master how to implement application infrastructure elements and data platform tools to meet the business and stakeholders’ requirements. In addition, while going through this training, you will learn how to effectively implement various AWS tools and features in a real business scenario.

Supplementary preparation tools
If you prefer to work independently, without mentoring, for this reason, Microsoft offers a set of 9 learning paths. You can find this free training program on the AZ-303 exam page as well, and start practicing whenever you like. As a result, by completing so many modules with numerous exercises, you’ll cover all the topics of the exam in your own pace.

Conclusion

Now, you will completely agree that only with the help of the verified training resources, you can get a passing grade on the Microsoft AZ-303 exam. And your starting point should be the vendor’s site. There, you can find different training options that will help you consolidate your skills on the topics tested.

And, do not forget that the quality of your preparation will affect the final result. Everything is in your hands!

Health Dept: Men over the age of 50 not coming out in numbers for COVID jab

The government is urging more who are 60 years and older to come forward for a covid COVID-19 vaccination.

Officials have set a target to administer a minimum of 290,000 vaccinations per day in the coming week.

Health Department Deputy-Director General, Nicholas Crisp said the target ultimately is to vaccinate more than 300,000 people daily.

“We are not managing to reach that many men, specifically over the age of 50, the men are not turning out in their numbers for vaccination. We would really like to encourage men to come forward for vaccination.”

Crisp said they were working on a programme that would see undocumented residents receiving a vaccine.

“To the record of that individual back to the individual in case something should go wrong or if you need a record of the vaccination and to account for the vaccines – and without some kind of identity that is obviously a challenge.”

UK urges pregnant women to get vaccinated given COVID-19 variant risks

British health authorities have urged more pregnant women to get coronavirus jabs after a national study found the Delta variant appeared to increase their risk of severe symptoms.

England’s top midwife on Friday urged pregnant women to get the jab as new data showed an increase in severe illness among pregnant women hospitalized with virus symptoms.

Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, chief midwifery officer for England, wrote to GPs and midwives urging them to encourage expectant mothers to get a jab.

She said she was calling on pregnant women to “protect themselves and their babies”.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives have also recommended vaccination of pregnant women.

Public Health England has said it recommends pregnant women get Moderna and Pfizer vaccines because they have been given to over 130,000 pregnant women in the United States.

A paper based on national data compiled by the UK Obstetric Surveillance System, published online on July 25, found that the proportion of pregnant women admitted to hospital with moderate to severe infection rose “significantly” after the Delta variant became dominant in May.

The paper by University of Oxford researchers found that pregnant women hospitalized during the Delta wave were more likely to get pneumonia, with a third requiring respiratory support.

“It is very concerning that admissions of pregnant women to the hospital with Covid-19 are increasing and that pregnant women appear to be more severely affected by the Delta variant of the disease,” said the study’s chief investigator Marian Knight, professor of maternal and child population health at the University of Oxford.

None of more than 3,000 pregnant women admitted to hospital with virus symptoms since February was fully vaccinated, the study said.

The study did not look at pregnant women with mild infections who were treated outside the hospital.

The UK has recommended vaccination of pregnant women since April but takeup has been very low compared to the general population, the paper said, blaming misinformation fuelled by changing advice early in the vaccine rollout.

“The findings of this study strongly highlight the urgent need for an international approach to tackle this misinformation and improve uptake of the vaccine during pregnancy,” it said.

A survey by the RCOG in May found that 58 percent of pregnant women offered the vaccine had declined it, with most saying they feared harming the baby or were waiting for more information on safety.