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.

Ok, I Agree
May
20
2021
By The African Mirror
Egypt extends COVID-19 measures

Egypt extends COVID-19 measures

COVID-19
EGYPT will extend measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, including early closing hours for shops, until the end of May, the cabinet said yesterday. Since May 6, stores, malls and restaurants have had to close by 9 p.m., straddling the last days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid celebrations. Public parks and beaches, which were closed during Eid, will be allowed to reopen with appropriate precautions, the cabinet said in a statement. The number of new cases has been steadily rising in Egypt in recent weeks and officials have warned of infections spreading further as…
Read More
May
19
2021
By The African Mirror
EXCLUSIVE – G20 snubs COVID patent waiver, waters down pledge on WHO’s funding -draft

EXCLUSIVE – G20 snubs COVID patent waiver, waters down pledge on WHO’s funding -draft

COVID-19
FRANCESCO GUARASCIO LEADERS of the world's largest economies back "voluntary licensing" of COVID-19 vaccine patents, the draft conclusions of a summit show, watering down a U.S. push for waivers and earlier commitments to supply more funds to the World Health Organization. The draft document, seen by Reuters, lists commitments of G20 nations and other countries and is to be adopted on Friday at a Global Health Summit in Rome, one of this year's major events to coordinate global actions against the pandemic. The draft, which is still subject to changes, is the result of a compromise among experts from G20…
Read More
May
19
2021
By The African Mirror
India’s halt to vaccine exports ‘very problematic’ for Africa

India’s halt to vaccine exports ‘very problematic’ for Africa

COVID-19
GUILIA PARAVICINI AN extended halt to exports of COVID-19 vaccines from India, where authorities are battling a wave of domestic infections, risks derailing vaccination efforts already underway in Africa, one of the continent's top health officials said yesterday. India stopped vaccine exports a month ago and, according to a Reuters report earlier on Tuesday, is now unlikely to resume major exports before October, dealing a major setback to the global COVAX initiative on which many poor countries rely. Africa has lagged far behind other regions due to supply issues and meagre financial resources but had planned to vaccinate 30-35% of…
Read More
May
19
2021
By The African Mirror
COVID is a global humanitarian emergency – act like it

COVID is a global humanitarian emergency – act like it

COVID-19
DR AYOADE ALAKIJA THE world has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health crisis, but it’s time we shift gears and recognise it for the global humanitarian emergency that it is.  The events in India have shown there is no room for complacency. When you have a fire, you call the firefighters, and in this interconnected global community, the humanitarian agencies are our firefighters. The worldwide COVID pandemic is not nearly over – even as some countries reopen. I think sadly for us on the African continent, the pandemic is only just beginning.   The extremely limited diagnostics…
Read More
May
18
2021
By The African Mirror
‘It’s going to change our country’: South Africa starts vaccinating over-60s

‘It’s going to change our country’: South Africa starts vaccinating over-60s

COVID-19
AKHONA MATSHOBA and SHAFIEK TASSIEM HOPE and excitement gripped the Munsieville care home in the South African mining city of Krugersdorp yesterday when people over the age of 60 were called to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for the first time. "It's going to change our country for the better," Caroline Nicholls, 64, a judge, told Reuters while waiting to get her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. "I am very excited to finally be here today," said Ellen Segope, 65, a pensioner who lives nearby. In Cape Town, celebrated anti-apartheid activist and cleric Desmond Tutu was among those vaccinated. South…
Read More
May
18
2021
By The African Mirror
World has entered stage of “vaccine apartheid” – WHO head

World has entered stage of “vaccine apartheid” – WHO head

COVID-19
THE world has reached a situation of "vaccine apartheid", World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday and was no longer just at risk of that status. "The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing," he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event. Earlier, he called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to make shots available to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility sooner than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions.
Read More
May
18
2021
By The African Mirror
Backers of WTO vaccine waiver ask opponents to join talks

Backers of WTO vaccine waiver ask opponents to join talks

COVID-19
EMMA FARGE  SUPPORTERS of a proposal to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization are set to call on opponents to join the negotiations, stressing the gravity of the pandemic, according to a draft document. Talks at the WTO on temporarily waiving IP rights have been deadlocked for months. But U.S. President Joe Biden's decision earlier this month to back talks for a waiver has raised hopes that the few remaining wealthy-country opponents could also switch camps. The EU has since backed a U.S. proposal to discuss waiving patent protections, although Switzerland said it left many…
Read More
May
18
2021
By The African Mirror
G7 urged to donate ’emergency’ supplies to vaccine-sharing scheme

G7 urged to donate ’emergency’ supplies to vaccine-sharing scheme

COVID-19
EMMA FARGE  THE head of UNICEF has asked G7 countries to donate supplies to the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme as an emergency measure to address a severe shortfall caused by disruption to Indian vaccine exports. India has curbed exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by its Serum Institute, which had been pledged to COVAX, to be used by the country as it battles a massive second wave of infections. U.N. agency UNICEF, which is in charge of supplying coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, estimates the supply shortfall at 140 million doses by the end of May and about 190 million by the…
Read More
May
18
2021
By The African Mirror
Tanzanian experts say COVID-19 vaccines safe, recommend joining COVAX

Tanzanian experts say COVID-19 vaccines safe, recommend joining COVAX

COVID-19
EXPERTS appointed by Tanzania's new president have declared COVID-19 vaccines to be effective and recommended joining the COVAX facility that shares the inoculations, in the latest sign suggesting official scepticism about the pandemic is waning. The recommendations by a coronavirus committee formed in April by President Samia Suluhu Hassan were given by the chair of the group at a press conference at State House in Dar es Salaam on Monday. In its other recommendations, the experts proposed the government publish accurate statistics on the disease and urged that any alternative medicines pass scientific standards. It was not immediately clear what…
Read More
May
17
2021
By The African Mirror
South Africa targets 5 million elderly people in phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccine rollout

South Africa targets 5 million elderly people in phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccine rollout

COVID-19
SOUTH Africa will launch phase two of its vaccine rollout today with the aim of inoculating five million citizens aged over 60 by the end of June, the health minister said yesterday. "This is provided that the supply of vaccines flows as anticipated. By the end of June we expect to have received 4.5 million doses of Pfizer and 2 million doses from Johnson & Johnson," the minister, Zweli Mkhize, said during a webinar.
Read More
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Instagram
WhatsApp
Threads