social distancing - The African Mirror

Sep

17

2021

How will the COVID pandemic end?

AFTER over 18 months of this pandemic, with the social distancing, mask-wearing and on-off lockdowns, what we all want to know more than anything else is when it will all be over and how it will end. While nothing is certain, we have a lot of evidence on which to build some realistic expectations about how the pandemic will progress over the next year or so. PAUL HUNTER, Professor of Medicine, University of East Anglia COVID-19 may not be the first time a coronavirus has caused a dreadful global pandemic. It’s been hypothesised that the “Russian flu”, which emerged in…

Nov

04

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s blind students struggle with social distancing as schools re-open

COVID-19

KENYAN students Purity Nduku and Blessing Cheroo, who go to a boarding school for blind and partially blind children near Nairobi, often walk holding hands. That way "you are sure you have the support and if something happens, your friend will help," Nduku says. Visually impaired pupils hold on to each other for confidence as they walk after attending a lesson, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Thika school for the blind in Thika town of Kiambu county in Kenya October 29, 2020. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi However, this simple yet vital tool of holding hands makes it…

Sep

24

2020

By The African Mirror

Egyptian orchestra for visually-impaired women resumes concerts amid coronavirus

COVID-19

EGYPT’S Al Nour Wal Amal (light and hope) chamber orchestra, a music group of visually-impaired women, has faced many challenges over the decades, yet none was like this year's pandemic. After months without playing, the orchestra members resumed rehearsals three weeks ago and held their first concert since the start of the global health crisis on Sunday at the Manasterly Palace in Cairo. The orchestra, made up entirely of visually-impaired women apart from their conductor, played for a small group, wearing masks and exercising social distancing. In March, Egypt imposed several restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus including banning…

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

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…