Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

SA’s new tough anti-COVID measures

SA’s new tough anti-COVID measures

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH Africa has introduced a temporary ban on weekend alcohol off sales, consumption of booze at parks, beaches and extended curfew hours in a bid to deal with the COVID-19 third wave that has resulted in a spike in infections and hospital admissions. The measures are part of the movement of the country to Lockdown Alert Level Three that were unveiled by SA president Cyril Ramaphosa in an address to the nation, following a meeting with the COVID-19 Command Council. Ramaphosa also revealed Gauteng, Free State, North West and Northern Cape provinces are officially in the 3rd…
Read More
Tanzania, once sceptical of COVID-19, announces measures to curb new variants

Tanzania, once sceptical of COVID-19, announces measures to curb new variants

TANZANIA yesterday announced new anti-coronavirus measures, saying it wanted to prevent the importation of new variants, highlighting new President Samia Suluhu Hassan's more active efforts to contain the pandemic. Among the new measures, travellers, both foreigners and Tanzanians, will be required to present negative COVID-19 tests at border points. Her approach to tackling COVID-19 contrasts sharply with her late predecessor John Magufuli who dismissed fears of the infection and promoted remedies such as steam inhalation and herbal concoctions as a cure. "Based on the global epidemiological situation and emergence of new variants of viruses that cause COVID-19, there's an increased…
Read More
Cricket-IPL indefinitely suspended due to COVID-19 crisis in India

Cricket-IPL indefinitely suspended due to COVID-19 crisis in India

AMLAN CHAKRABORTY THE Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament has been indefinitely suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis in the country, the IPL said on Tuesday. The organising Indian cricket board (BCCI) and the IPL governing council took the decision at an emergency meeting. "These are difficult times, especially in India, and while we have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times," the IPL said in a statement. "The BCCI will do everything in its…
Read More
‘Indian variant’ detected in Morocco

‘Indian variant’ detected in Morocco

MOROCCO has detected its first two cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus whose contacts have been isolated to avoid contagion, the health ministry said yesterday. Morocco has banned flights with most countries and kept a night curfew in place to counter the spread of new variants. The North African kingdom has confirmed 511,912 cases of COVID-19 and registered nearly 9,032 deaths. It has rolled out vaccinations more rapidly than its neighbours, inoculating 5.1 million people to date. The variant, B.1.617, has reached at least 17 countries, from Britain and Iran to Switzerland, sparking global concern and spurring several…
Read More
Nigeria to reopen vaccination

Nigeria to reopen vaccination

NIGERIA is expecting a second shipment of nearly 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by early August and plans to resume giving out first doses, which had been halted to save its supply for second doses. Africa's most population has so far given a first dose to only around 2 million of its 200 million people. Fewer than 700,000 having received a second dose. Nigeria has been rationing 3.92 million doses it received through the COVAX global vaccine sharing programme in March, with its future supplies put in doubt by an export ban from India. In April, the government told…
Read More
DRC caps public gatherings

DRC caps public gatherings

THE Democratic Republic of Congo will limit public gatherings to 20 people and close nightclubs as the country grapples with a third wave of COVID-19, President Felix Tshisekedi has announced. Congo has officially registered relatively few cases, but low vaccination rates have left the country vulnerable to more contagious strains, including the highly infectious Delta variant. "For several weeks we have seen a persistent rise in the number of people infected," Tshisekedi said in a televised address. "We need to react with speed, and above all, methodically." Last week, Tshisekedi told reporters that hospitals in the capital Kinshasa had been…
Read More
Nigeria bans travellers from India, Brazil, Turkey over COVID-19 fears

Nigeria bans travellers from India, Brazil, Turkey over COVID-19 fears

NIGERIA will ban travellers coming from India, Brazil and Turkey because of concerns about the rampant spread of coronavirus in those countries, a presidential committee has announced. "Non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited Brazil, India or Turkey within Fourteen (14) days preceding travel to Nigeria, shall be denied entry into Nigeria," Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential steering committee on COVID-19, said in a statement. The ban will take effect from May 4, the statement said. Nigeria announced 43 confirmed new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing its total to 165,153, with 2,063 deaths. Indian hospitals, morgues and crematoriums have…
Read More
My battle with COVID-19: Robert Marawa

My battle with COVID-19: Robert Marawa

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER ROBERT Marawa, one of Africa’s popular broadcasters, has described his harrowing battle with COVID-19 and has pleaded with fellow South Africans not to take the pandemic lightly. Marawa, host of Marawa Sports World, has been absent for two weeks from his broadcasting duties while fighting COVID-19. In a statement, Marawa said he took the unusual step of disclosing a personal matter, his illness, because he believes that his journey with COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of over 57 900  South Africans, could help educate and “perhaps even save someone’s life”. Marawa said what started out as…
Read More
Pandemic and war hit tourism in Lalibela, holy Ethiopian site

Pandemic and war hit tourism in Lalibela, holy Ethiopian site

AS they have done for hundreds of years on the Orthodox Easter weekend, priests wrapped in traditional white robes read the Bible by candlelight on Saturday evening in the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia. The ancient ritual has been a tourist draw in recent years. Tens of thousands of visitors from around Ethiopia and abroad usually come to Lalibela, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site of 12th and 13th-century monolithic churches, to celebrate and witness the most important holiday in the Orthodox calendar. But they were missing this year. Even many local worshippers stayed home, reflecting the…
Read More