Kenya stop flights to and from India
KENYA’S health ministry has announced that it was suspending flights to and from India after midnight on Saturday, amid the coronavirus surge in that country.
Apr
29
2021
Apr
28
2021
AU special envoy succumbs to COVID-19
ABDERRAHMANE Benkhalfa, one of Africa’s leading politicians and a special envoy of the African Union has succumbed to COVID-19. Benkhalfa succumbed to COVID-19 on 23 April 2021 in a military hospital in Algiers. He was 71. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the immediate past chairperson of the AU, has expressed deep sadness at the passing of Benkhalfa, a financial expert and former Algerian Minister of Finance. During Ramaphosa’s year-long term as Chairperson of the African Union (AU), the President appointed Benkhalfa as one of five AU COVID-19 Special Envoys to mobilise international financial and other support for the African continental…
Apr
28
2021
Botswana president in self-quarantine
BOTSWANA's president will miss a Southern African regional meeting he had been due to chair to discuss recent attacks on Mozambique after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, prompting him to self-quarantine, his office has said. Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will be attending a summit of a division of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), where they will receive a report on how they can help Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province following Islamic State-linked attacks there. Botswana is the current chair of that division, which is tasked with promoting peace and security in the region. Vice President Slumber…
Apr
28
2021
Kenyan tour guides take COVID-19 vaccine in hopes of tourism revival
AROUND 250 tour guides from Kenya's famed national parks lined up in downtown Nairobi yesterday to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, as part of a government effort to revive the tourism sector that has been battered by the pandemic. The vaccination drive comes ahead of the annual wildebeest migration across the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The migration typically draws several hundred thousand international visitors but last year drew a far smaller number of local tourists. Kenya's tourism sector lost close to $1 billion in revenue between January and October of last year, when the number of foreign visitors plunged by two…
Apr
28
2021
Congo to lose 1.3-million shots
HEALTH authorities are reallocating around 75% of Democratic Republic of Congo's 1.7 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to other African countries to make sure they're used before they expire, a UNICEF representative has said. Congo received the doses from the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility on March 2, but delayed the rollout after several European countries suspended the use of the AstraZeneca shot in response to reports of rare blood clots. The country began its vaccination campaign on April 19, but had administered doses to just 1,265 people out of its population of over 85 million as of Saturday, according to the…