COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Mar

26

2021

‘Pricing out the poor’

COVID-19

NITA BHALLA KENYA will let private hospitals charge for COVID-19 vaccinations and will not set a price limit on their cost - a measure charities warned would "price out the poor" and create greater inequalities in access. The East African nation of more than 50 million people has so far received one million vaccine doses through the World Health Organization's COVAX facility, and plans to procure another 11 million for the public sector in the coming months. Patrick Amoth, acting director general at the Health Ministry, said on Thursday private hospitals would be permitted to import coronavirus vaccines, subject to…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 traps more girls in sex work

COVID-19

JORDAN MAYENIKINI WHEN Naomie's mother asked the teenager to join her as a sex worker in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo last September, she knew it was a matter of survival for the family. The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic - from rising food prices to a curfew resulting in fewer clients for her mother -left the 15-year-old with no choice but to take to the streets. "I am fatherless, and I have an eight-year-old brother," Naomie - whose name has been changed to protect her identity - said one evening this month in the Tshangu district…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Head of SA’s coronavirus committee steps down

COVID-19

THE chairman of South Africa's Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 (MAC), Professor Salim Abdool Karim, stepped down yesterday, the health ministry said, following a meeting of the body to mark the first anniversary of its formation. Professor Marian Jacobs, previously co-chair of the advisory body, will take up the role temporarily, the ministry said. South Africa has been the hardest hit nation on the continent by COVID-19, with the highest number of confirmed cases at over 1.5 million, with more than 50,000 related deaths. The rollout of vaccines has been slow, with only 207,000 people, mainly frontline health workers, inoculated…

Mar

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe president gets COVID-19 dose

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some opposition politicians received China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls yesterday as part of efforts to encourage citizens to get inoculated. Zimbabwe has registered vaccines from China, India and Russia for emergency use but none so far from Western manufacturers. In a country where suspicion and scepticism often trump facts, Mnangagwa's vaccination at a public event, together with opposition leaders, was meant to assure citizens that the vaccines were safe. The southern African nation had planned to administer the Sinopharm vaccine to 53,000 health workers and selected security forces when…

Mar

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Sudan to receive Chinese vaccines

COVID-19

SUDAN will receive its first shipment of 250,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, according to state news agency SUNA. Sudan became the first country in the Middle East and North Africa region to receive vaccine doses through the COVAX facility this month when 828,000 doses of the shot produced by AstraZeneca arrived in the East African country.

Jul

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus fans flames of love in Nigeria’s online dating scene

COVID-19

NNEKA CHILE and ANGELA UKOMADU OREULUWA Akinnawo is in his element. Lagos's bars and restaurants are shut and Nigerians are struggling to socialise. The pandemic is his perfect time to find a soul mate online. "The dating thing during this restriction works perfectly for me because I'm really an indoors person," said Akinnawo, a 25-year-old digital marketer. Sparked by coronavirus, Akinnawo and others like him are part of a boom in internet dating tailored for Nigerian professionals. In Lagos, pre-outbreak courtship often revolved around social functions, as well as couples meeting through church or their mosque's social networks. Vybe, an…

Jul

17

2020

By The African Mirror

South African cabinet minister recovers from COVID-19

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH Africa’s Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has recovered from COVID-19, the government has announced. In a statement, the Government Communication and Information Systems said Mapisa-Nqakula and her husband, Charles, the national security advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa, have both fully recovered after testing positive and their symptoms have cleared. Charles Nqakula “The Minister and Mr Nqakula tested positive recently and are currently still in self-isolation. We are glad that all their symptoms have cleared and we are looking forward to them finishing their 14 days of mandatory self-quarantine period. Both the Minister and…

Jul

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian maids ‘dumped’ in the streets in Lebanon as COVID hits

COVID-19

ETHIOPIAN mother Alemtsehay Nasir went to Lebanon dreaming that her maid's job would let her earn money to make a better life for her young son. But she was fired when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and her employers dumped her on the streets. The 32-year-old was left on the curb outside the Ethiopian consulate in a suburb of Beirut, one of hundreds of women abandoned by employers without the means to get home after the pandemic hit, on top of a financial crisis that has devastated the Lebanese economy. Lebanese labour laws offer little protection for migrant workers. The best…

Jul

16

2020

By The African Mirror

S.Africa COVID-19 cases set to reach 300,000 despite early lockdown

COVID-19

TIM COCKS SOUTH Africa's cases of COVID-19 were set to reach 300,000 on Wednesday, the most in Africa and in the top 10 in the world, despite a swiftly imposed lockdown aimed at preventing infections spiralling as they did in the West. Africa's most industrialised nation has 298,292 cases at the last count, and with positive tests now increasing at a rate of more than 10,000 a day, it is all but certain to vault over the 300,000 mark when the ministry releases nightly figures on Wednesday. At the end of March, President Cyril Ramaphosa took aggressive, early action, shutting…

Jul

16

2020

By The African Mirror

Beautiful send off for SA political stalwart

COVID-19

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Desmond Tutu has led friend, comrades and family in paying warm and glowing tributes to anti-apartheid stalwart Tom Manthata, who has been laid to rest. Tutu told mourners at the funeral that Manthata was a wonderful person who was committed to the liberation of South Africans. He said Manthata was gentle but strong. “ Tom was a wonderful, wonderful person. You would think that he could not say boo to a goose until you found out how deeply committed he was to the liberation of our people, shown by the fact that he and others…