Coronavirus - The African Mirror

Jan

2021

Love, tech and online abuse of women

WHEN Priya's boyfriend posted a nude photo of her online, he told her it would give her a confidence boost by making her an object of desire for other men. Instead she felt powerless knowing that someone she loved had shared an intimate photo without her consent. "He said all these people dream of having you but only I get to have you," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Mumbai, not wanting to reveal her real name. Priya's story is all too common. There has been a global rise in online harassment of women and girls in the past…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX-COVID variants, found in UK and South Africa, travel the world

COVID-19

BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said a variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, is spreading rapidly in Britain. A separate variant, first found in South Africa, is also causing concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is not enough information to determine whether the new variants could undermine vaccines being rolled out internationally. The following countries are among those that have reported variants of the novel coronavirus, first identified in China a year ago, among their populations. * SWITZERLAND has documented five cases of the variant from Britain and two cases of…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Africa crosses 2.5 million COVID-19 cases

NEWS

ANURAG MAAN THE total number of coronavirus cases in Africa has crossed 2.5 million, according to a Reuters tally, as a second wave of infections hits the continent. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Mauritania, Ghana and Ivory Coast have seen a sharp rise in cases and are reporting near-record levels of infection, according to a Reuters tally. [nL1N2IQ3KC Quick measures including travel restrictions and border closures enabled countries in Africa to limit the spread when first cases were reported in March. But the economic impact of the measures prompted governments to ease them. As people relax…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Algeria’s first appearance since COVID-19 hospitalisation

COVID-19

ALGERIAN President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has made his first appearance since he was flown to a hospital in Germany 47 days ago after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, saying he is recovering and will be back home soon. Tebboune, 75, who appeared in a video on Twitter and a broadcast on state television, said he is expected to make a complete recovery within three weeks at the latest. "I'm recovering...I will recover my physical capacities in a week, two weeks or three weeks," he said. "We will soon be in the country to continue building a new Algeria". - Thomson…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Why is COVID-19 pushing up extreme poverty and can it be reversed?

COVID-19

SONIA ELKS COVID-19 could push a billion people - almost one in nine of the earth's inhabitants - into extreme poverty by 2030. The alarming statistic laid out in a United Nations report this week is the latest warning of the generational impact the pandemic is having on the world's most vulnerable. How did the coronavirus unleash an economic storm risking so many livelihoods and what can be done to shield those most at risk? What is extreme poverty? Anyone living on less than $1.90 per day is defined as being in extreme poverty by the World Bank, which says…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX – Latest on worldwide spread of the coronavirus

COVID-19

U.S. leaders urgently called on Americans to wear masks and threatened even more drastic stay-at-home orders after deaths from the coronavirus set a single-day record, with two people dying every minute, while worldwide deaths crossed 1.5- million. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread of COVID-19. * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news. EUROPE * More than half of Spaniards are not willing to get COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as they are available, a survey showed as the government announced a target of 15 million to 20 million…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus claims 1.5 million lives globally with 10,000 dying each day

COVID-19

SHAINA AHLUWALIA and SANGAMESWARAN S OVER 1.5-million people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 with one death reported every nine seconds on a weekly average, as vaccinations are set to begin in December in a handful of developed nations. Half a million deaths occurred in just the last two months, indicating that the severity of the pandemic is far from over. Nearly 65-million people globally have been infected by the disease and the worst affected country, United States, is currently battling a third wave of coronavirus infections. In the last week alone, more than 10,000 people in the world…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

How COVID upended life as we knew it in a matter of weeks

COVID-19

ALEXANDRA HUDSON ON January 1, 2020, as the world welcomed a new decade, Chinese authorities in Wuhan shut down a seafood market in the central city of 11 million, suspecting that an outbreak of a new "viral pneumonia" affecting 27 people might be linked to the site. Early lab tests in China pointed to a new coronavirus. By January 20 it had spread to three countries. For most people, it was a minor health scare unfolding half a world away. Nearly a year later it has changed lives fundamentally. Almost everyone has been affected, be it through illness, losing loved…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Thousands attend funeral of Sudan’s last democratically elected PM

COVID-19

THOUSANDS of Sudanese packed into the city of Omdurman for the funeral of Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan's last democratically elected prime minister, who died from the coronavirus at the age of 84. Mourners in traditional white garments, mostly wearing masks, wept and waved national flags ahead of prayers for the two-time prime minister, who was a central figure in Sudan's political and spiritual life for more than half a century. "Today the icon of tolerance in Sudan has passed away, a symbol of civilian jihad in Sudan, a warrior knight," one mourner, Abd al-Rahman al-Zein, told Sudanese TV through tears. Stewards…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

With scant power or freezers, Pfizer vaccine brings little cheer to coronavirus-hit India

WORLD

ANNIE BANERJI DESPITE hopes raised by Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, it will take huge efforts for India to defeat the coronavirus, with its 1.3 billion population and the world's second-highest caseload. Pfizer Inc's Monday announcement that initial trials showed their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective sparked cheer across the world, scarred by a pandemic has killed 1.2 million people and infected 50.7 million. But the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at temperatures matching an Antarctic winter - a logistical nightmare for India with heatwaves exceeding 50 degrees Celsius (122°F), few ultra-cold freezers, patchy power and a largely…