COVID-19 - The African Mirror

Sep

29

2020

Most countries failing to address women’s needs during pandemic – UN

COVID-19

LISA OHLEN ONLY one in eight countries worldwide have brought in measures to specifically protect women from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a database of government responses to COVID-19 launched by two U.N. agencies on Monday. The crisis offers a chance to reshape societies for a fairer future, but many nations are failing to protect women and girls from pandemic-linked risks such as a surge in domestic abuse, said U.N. Women and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). "The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting women hard - as victims of domestic violence locked down with their abusers, as unpaid…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE and KATE KELLAND SOME 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum of $5 each, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced. The wider availability of quick, reliable and inexpensive testing will help 133 countries to track infections and contain the spread, closing the gap with wealthy ones, it said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor had agreed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to "make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available…

Sep

29

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenya extends COVID curfew for 2 months but reduces hours

COVID-19

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYA’S President Uhuru Kenyatta has extended for two months a nationwide curfew intended to curb the coronavirus but relaxed the starting time by two hours until 11 p.m. Kenyatta, who said the COVID-19 infections curve had been flattened, also lifted a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars. The restrictions will be reviewed again in 60 days, he said. He also said the finance minister would extend tax relief measures unveiled in April until January 2021. Kenya has had 38,115 cases of the virus and 691 deaths since its first case on March 13. The…

Sep

28

2020

By The African Mirror

After battling TB and COVID-19, a South African doctor reaches breaking point

COVID-19

KIM HARRISBERG ZOLELWA Sifumba described the daily injection she got to treat tuberculosis as feeling like hot lava being pumped slowly into her body, leaving the young South African doctor with crippling joint pain and incessant nausea. She thought her 18-month fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was a career low-point until - five years on - she fell ill with COVID-19 and acute anxiety while working on the pandemic frontlines with scant protective equipment and support. "I'm tired of almost dying all the time," said Sifumba, 29, who blogs and campaigns on doctors' health issues, speaking from the Durban psychiatric hospital…

Sep

28

2020

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 and HIV: so far it seems the outcome is not what was feared

COVID-19

BURTRAM C. FIELDING, Professor and Director: Research Development, University of the Western Cape BASED on official figures – which may be somewhat under-reported – COVID-19 has not been as devastating in South Africa as initially feared. Back in March and April this year case numbers on the continent were still modest. But predictions and projections were sombre. There seemed to be consensus that African countries had weak public health systems and few testing facilities, and containment and social distancing were going to be problematic in poor communities. More specifically, local and international organisations pointed to the fact that these areas…

Sep

27

2020

By The African Mirror

“It weighs you down,” Congo COVID-19 survivor recounts

COVID-19

YAFFA Fatoumata hoped that the fever and the sore throat she was suffering were just signs of a passing flu. However, when the symptoms persisted, the26-year-old legal assistant in Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Communication decided to get tested for COVID-19. Two days after the test, her results turned out positive for the virus. “I was very stressed because it’s a disease that’s still not really understood,” he says. “I also felt guilty that I had exposed my family.” Since local authorities confirmed Congo’s first case of COVID-19 on 14 March, the country has registered over 5000 cases and…

Sep

27

2020

By The African Mirror

Overcoming COVID-19 at 99 years-old in Guinea

COVID-19

WHEN Bagama Guehara walked out of Donka Hospital in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on July 7 this year, leaning on a walking stick for support, she was met with rapturous applause from the medical staff and fellow patients. At 99, Guehara is the oldest person to have tested positive for COVID-19 in Guinea since the country’s first positive case was detected on March 13. Guinea has since recorded 10 344 infections and 65 deaths. The highest case fatality rate has been in patients over 60 years old, which made Guehara’s recovery all the more significant. “My family were very worried because…

Sep

26

2020

By The African Mirror

Global COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million before vaccine in wide use -WHO

COVID-19

THE global death toll from COVID-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic, according to an official at the World Health Organization. "Unless we do it all, (2 million deaths) ... is not only imaginable, but sadly very likely," Mike Ryan, head of the U.N. agency's emergencies programme, told a briefing. The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered in China is nearing one million "We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of…

Sep

25

2020

By The African Mirror

China’s BGI wins 1.5 million coronavirus test kit order from Ethiopia

COVID-19

ETHIOPIA has agreed to purchase 1.5 million coronavirus testing kits that will be manufactured at a factory in the African country that has been newly built by China's BGI Group, China's state media agency Xinhua has announced. The BGI factory, the first coronavirus test production facility in Ethiopia that opened earlier this month, is designed to be able to make 6-8 million tests in a year and can expand the annual capacity to up to 10 million in accordance with local demand, Xinhua reported. BGI, which makes genome sequencing and medical devices, is hoping to use its footprint in Ethiopia…

Sep

25

2020

By The African Mirror

Top adviser steps aside from FDA COVID-19 vaccine reviews over potential conflict

COVID-19

DAN LEVINE and MARISA TAYLOR A physician who heads the influential U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee recused herself from the panel's review of COVID-19 vaccines because of her role overseeing a clinical trial for Moderna Inc's candidate, her spokeswoman told Reuters. Hana El Sahly, associate professor of virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Hana El Sahly, associate professor of virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, last year became chairwoman of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee - the panel of outside experts that will make recommendations…