Coronavirus - The African Mirror

Aug

27

2020

Kenya extends coronavirus curfew as cases rise outside capital

GEORGE OBULUTSA and AYENAT MERSIE KENYA’S president has extended a nationwide curfew for another 30 days, saying coronavirus cases were rising in areas outside the capital. In a televised address, Uhuru Kenyatta also ordered bars and nightclubs shut for another 30 days - but increased the number of people allowed to attend weddings, funerals and other events. He said infections were slowing in Nairobi and the port and tourism hub of Mombasa. "This crisis has however began to percolate to the counties. The new frontier of this invisible enemy is increasingly shifting to the counties and to our rural areas,"…

Aug

23

2020

By The African Mirror

Climate fund for poor nations vows to drive green COVID recovery

COVID-19

MEGAN ROWLING THE Green Climate Fund has promised developing nations it will ramp up efforts to help them tackle climate challenges as they strive to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, approving $879 million in backing for 15 new projects around the world. At a four-day virtual board meeting ending late Friday, the fund added Afghanistan and Sudan to a list of more than 100 countries receiving a total of $6.2 billion to reduce planet-heating emissions and enhance climate resilience. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under U.N. climate talks in 2010 to help developing nations tackle global warming,…

Aug

21

2020

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s wet markets thrive despite coronavirus pandemic

COVID-19

ANGELA UKOMADU and LIBBY GEORGE JUST a few months after Epe Fish Market was under lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, vendors at the site in the southern Nigerian state of Lagos are back buying, selling and trading animals. A vendor descales an endangered pangolin with a machete. Nearby, grasscutter rodents are skinned. Most of the sellers wear masks. Experts say COVID-19, which has killed around 1,000 people in Nigeria, jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a wet market in China. But few in Epe were worried. "We are not afraid of it because the coronavirus…

Aug

21

2020

By The African Mirror

Africa beginning to “bend the curve” of coronavirus – Africa CDC

COVID-19

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA and GEORGE OBULUTSA AFRICA is beginning to slowly "bend the curve" of COVID-19 infections as measures like mask-wearing and social distancing slow down the spread of the pandemic on the continent, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak was slow in Africa in the early stages of the pandemic, the rate of infection gradually accelerated especially in South Africa, which now accounts for more than half of its caseload of more than 1.1 million. On average, there were signs of a decline in new infections across Africa over…

Aug

21

2020

By The African Mirror

Nigeria considers using private firms for coronavirus tests after foreign flights resume

COVID-19

ALEXIS AKWAGYIRAM NIGERIA is considering partnerships between state governments and private firms to ramp up testing and tracing of coronavirus cases after international flights resume this month, the head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said. Nigeria will reopen its airports for international flights from August 29. They have been closed since March 23 to all but essential overseas flights to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa's most populous country. State governments are responsible for testing and tracing but the influx of travellers will increase the pressure on already stretched authorities in Nigeria, which has had 50,488…

Aug

17

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus: the pandemic is changing our brains – here are the remedies

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

BARBARA JACQUELYN SAHAKIAN, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Cambridge CHRISTELLE LANGLEY, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Cambridge DENIZ VATANSEVER, Junior Principal Investigator, Fudan University WHETHER you have contracted COVID-19 or not, your brain is likely to have changed over the past few months. The virus itself can cause a number of neurological problems, along with anxiety and depression. The isolation and worry caused by the pandemic can similarly alter our brain chemistry and cause mood disorders. In our new paper, published in Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, we have investigated how to best overcome the brain changes linked to the…

Aug

11

2020

By The African Mirror

As coronavirus steals jobs, urban Kenyans look to their rural families

COVID-19

CAROLINE WAMBUI IN the last three months, teacher Faith Njeri has been a regular customer at a courier service office in Nairobi, collecting parcels sent from her village three hours drive north of the capital. When the coronavirus pandemic closed the private school where she taught, "I was left jobless," she said. Efforts to feed her family by washing clothes failed "as people avoided any intrusions in their homes for fear of getting infected with the virus." With three hungry children and no alternatives, she called her parents in her home village, asking them to send food to keep the…

Aug

09

2020

By The African Mirror

Algeria eases more coronavirus restrictions, including travel curbs and curfew

COVID-19

ALGERIA will further ease its coronavirus lockdown, including shortening an overnight curfew and lifting some travel curbs, the government has announced. In addition, large mosques will be allowed to reopen, along with beaches, entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants and cafes. The North African country has recorded 34,155 coronavirus infections, with 1,282 deaths. The new measures include lifting a travel ban on 29 provinces from Aug. 9 until the end of the month. During that period, a curfew will be shortened and will run from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. from the current 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., the government said. Mosques…

Aug

08

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus reveals ‘green apartheid’ in S.African cities

AFRICITIES

KIM HARRISBERG IT took the new coronavirus to reveal a green apartheid lurking in South Africa's cities as parks shut, lockdown kept millions home and only the lucky few had a garden for sanctuary. Satellite imagery shows this inequality blighted almost every South African city, with poorer, mainly Black residents living with less greenery and left with fewer options to stay safe from the deadly virus through social distancing. "Every human should have a right to green space," said Zander Venter, a spatial ecologist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and lead author of the Green Apartheid study published…

Aug

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Glencore scraps $2.6 billion dividend after first-half loss

BUSINESS

ZANDI SHABALALA and JULIA PAYNE GLENCORE became the first major mining company to scrap its dividend, saying on Thursday the economic outlook was too uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic and that it would prioritise cutting debt instead. The mining and commodities trading company said its net debt jumped 12% in the first six months of the year to $19.7 billion and that it was booking a $3.2 billion charge, mainly due to the broader economic fallout on its businesses from the pandemic. While its trading division's record $2 billion first-half operating profit helped boost overall adjusted earnings, the hefty…