covid infections - The African Mirror

Jun

2022

Has COVID affected your sleep? Here’s how viruses can change our sleeping patterns

DURING the early phases of the pandemic, and especially during lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, many people reported disruptions to sleep and their sleeping patterns. As COVID infections have increased, we’re again seeing reports of people experiencing poor sleep during and following COVID infection. Some people report insomnia symptoms, where they struggle to fall or stay asleep, with this commonly being referred to as “coronasomnia” or “COVID insomnia”. Others report feeling constantly fatigued, and seemingly can’t get enough sleep, with this sometimes being referred to as “long COVID”. Author GEMMA PAECH, Conjoint Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine and Public Health, University…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 shuts Ghana’s parliament

COVID-19

GHANA's parliament has suspended most of its activities for three weeks after at least 17 MPs and 151 staff members were infected with the coronavirus, the speaker said yesterday. President Nana Akufo-Addo warned last month that infection rates were skyrocketing and threatened to overwhelm Ghana's health system, part of a second wave of the virus across Africa that has been far more serious than the first. "Having regard to the upsurge in coronavirus cases in the House ... I have, in consultation with leadership, decided that the sitting of the House be suspended for three weeks," Speaker Alban Bagbin told…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

COVID-19: examining theories for Africa’s low death rates

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

KEVIN MARSH, Professor of Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford MOSES ALOBO, Programme Manager for Grand Challenges Africa, African Academy of Sciences AS the threat of a COVID-19 pandemic emerged earlier this year, many felt a sense of apprehension about what would happen when it reached Africa. Concerns over the combination of overstretched and underfunded health systems and the existing load of infectious and non-infectious diseases often led to it being talked about in apocalyptic terms. However, it has not turned out quite that way. On September 29th, the world passed the one million reported deaths mark (the true figure will…