COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Jun

21

2021

Ramaphosa accuses Big Pharma of ‘selfish, unjust’ vaccine policy

COVID-19

TIM COCKS THE "selfish, unjust" refusal of pharmaceutical companies and allied Western governments to entertain emergency patent waivers on COVID-19 vaccines was endangering the entire world, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has said. In unusually impassioned remarks, Ramaphosa lambasted a resistance to calls by India and South Africa for temporary patent waivers to ramp up production. "It is selfish, it is unjust, it is wholly unfair," Ramaphosa, proponent of the waiver, told the opening virtual session of the Qatar Economic Forum, a day after South Africa registered 13,000 new cases in a third COVID-19 wave. "We are facing an emergency…

May

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzanian president’s COVID-19 u-turn

COVID-19

TANZANIA’S new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has stressed the importance of face masks in fighting COVID-19, ditching one of the most controversial policies of her late coronavirus-sceptic predecessor. Hassan took office in March after the death of John Magufuli, who had urged Tanzanians to shun masks and denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy, to the frustration of the World Health Organization. Last month, she formed a committee to research whether Tanzania, which under Magufuli stopped reporting coronavirus data, should follow the course that the rest of the world has taken against the pandemic. Wearing a face mask and flanked by…

Jun

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Africa to make own COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19

THE World Health Organization (WHO) is setting up a technology transfer hub for producing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, which could start manufacturing doses in 9 to 12 months. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement aimed at boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where cases and deaths had increased by almost 40% over the past week. "Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa," Tedros told a news conference. "The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics…

Jun

22

2021

By The African Mirror

US to share millions of vaccines

COVID-19

JEFF MASON THE White House has laid out a plan to share 55 million U.S. COVID-19 vaccine doses globally, with roughly 75% of the doses allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program. The plan fulfils President Joe Biden's commitment to share 80 million U.S.-made vaccines with countries around the world. The president sketched out his priorities for the first 25 million doses from that pledge earlier this month. "As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic at home and work to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the…

May

09

2021

By The African Mirror

Pope backs vaccines rights waiver

COVID-19

POPE Francis yesterday came out in support of waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, backing a proposal by U.S. President Joe Biden that has been rebuffed by some European nations, including Germany. In a speech to a global fundraising concert to promote fair access to vaccines, the pope said the world was infected with the "virus of individualism". "A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents, for example, an internationalism of vaccines," he said in the pre-recorded video message. "Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or of intellectual market or intellectual property…

May

09

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO approves Sinopharm

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE World Health Organization (WHO) has approved for emergency use a COVID-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm, bolstering Beijing's push for a bigger role in inoculating the world. The vaccine, one of two main Chinese coronavirus vaccines that have been given to hundreds of millions of people in China and elsewhere, is the first developed by a non-Western country to win WHO backing. It is also the first time the WHO has given emergency use approval to a Chinese vaccine for any infectious disease. Earlier this week, separate WHO experts had expressed concern about the quality of…

May

09

2021

By The African Mirror

New tougher rules in Egypt

COVID-19

EGYPT will require all visitors arriving from "countries where variants of the virus have appeared" to take a rapid COVID-19 test upon arrival, its health ministry said in a statement. The statement did not specify the countries from which passengers would take the 15-minute DNA test, called ID NOW. Egypt's new coronavirus cases have been steadily rising in recent weeks. On Saturday it reported 1,125 new cases and 65 deaths, although experts say that reflects only a fraction of total cases. In a statement on Saturday, Egypt's tourism ministry clarified that restaurants and coffee shops attached to hotels were exempt…

Jun

21

2021

By The African Mirror

Uganda team member tests positive for coronavirus on arrival in Japan

COVID-19

ONE of Uganda's Tokyo 2020 Olympic squad tested positive for the new coronavirus on arrival in Japan this weekend, the first time an infection has been confirmed in an overseas team, NHK reported. Nine athletes and coaches arrived at Narita airport, near Tokyo, at around 6 p.m., with one of them testing positive during a screening at the airport, the national broadcaster said. That individual is now staying at a government-designated facility, while the others travelled on to their host city in Osaka, where they will hold their training camp, NHK said. All of Uganda's team members had received two…

Jun

21

2021

By The African Mirror

UAE to suspend entry from three countries, Dubai updates travel protocols

COVID-19

THE 0 (UAE) will, from today, suspend travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Namibia from entering the country on national and foreign flights, state news agency WAM has reported, citing a statement by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). The GCAA said the restrictions would also include transit passengers, with the exception of transit flights travelling to the UAE and bound for those countries. Cargo flights between those countries and the UAE will continue, as usual, the statement added. It said the restrictions were being introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19. The GCAA added that exemptions to its decision…

May

08

2021

By The African Mirror

WTO vaccine waiver could take months to negotiate, faces opposition – experts

COVID-19

DAVID LAWDER WORLD Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines could take months - provided they can overcome significant opposition from some member countries, trade experts say. The talks also are likely to focus on a waiver that is significantly narrower in scope and shorter in duration than the one initially proposed by India and South Africa last October. Prior to U.S. President Joe Biden's decision on Wednesday to back talks for a vaccine waiver, the two countries confirmed their intention to draft a new proposal after seven months of opposition. WTO Director…