STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and JOHN MILLER THE World Health Organization (WHO) has set up an independent panel to review its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response by governments worldwide. The announcement follows strong criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which accused the WHO of being "China-centric", and U.S. formal notification on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the U.N. agency in a year's time. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched…

NITA BHALLA KENYA's president on Monday ordered an investigation into rising reports of violence against women and girls - including rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage - as a result of coronavirus restrictions. Lockdowns to curb the spread of the new coronavirus have fuelled an upsurge in gender-based violence across the world, with women and girls more isolated and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, say women's rights campaigners. There are no official statistics on the number of cases of violence against women and girls in Kenya, but calls to helplines have surged more than 10-fold since…

AFRICAN countries urgently need to scale up coronavirus testing and the use of face masks, a regional disease control body has said, as the epidemic gains traction across the continent with confirmed cases topping half a million. John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said new cases were up 24% in Africa in the past week. "The pandemic is gaining full momentum," he told a virtual news conference from Addis Ababa. "We must adopt an aggressive and bold approach: #maskonallfaces, ramp up Test, Trace, and Treat, strengthen community response. This will save lives and…

JEFFREY MPHAHLELE, Vice President for Research, South African Medical Research Council SOUTH Africa recently announced the start of the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial. The vaccine is also being tested in the UK and Brazil. Ina Skosana spoke to the vice-president for research at the South African Medical Research Council, Professor Jeffrey Mphahlele, to find out more. How big is the trial and who’s involved? The trial is a joint effort between different stakeholders. The main player is the University of the Witwatersrand, under the leadership of Professor Shabir Madhi. The South African Medical Research Council is co-funding the…

STAFF REPORTER COVID-19 has started to wreak havoc in the top political ranks in South Africa. The virus has affected senior politicians in the ANC and the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance. Both the ANC and the DA have lost senior members to the pandemic. For the ANC, its first high profile COVID-19 casualty is Gordon Kegakilwe, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Sanitation. The second victim is Ricardo Mthembu, the spokesperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, who passed away in hospital after a battle with COVID-19.  The DA’s Mayor of Langeberg, in the Western Cape, Henry Jansen…

BENOIT NYEMBA HEALTH workers responding to the coronavirus outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital have cut their services to a minimum in protest against unpaid bonuses. In a letter to the prime minister, an association of health workers demanded four months of bonuses, increased pay and government support for family members of colleagues who died from COVID-19. The partial strike, which began on Friday, is taking place in the capital Kinshasa, where the vast majority of Congo's 7,660 confirmed cases have been recorded, and two neighbouring provinces. "The whole operation is on strike, and there's just minimum service," said…