By Grace Kuria Global COVID-19 cases have on Sunday surpassed the 120 million mark, with 120,148,640 people having contracted coronavirus. 96,674,388 people have however recovered from the disease, with 2,661,323 unfortunately losing their lives to coronavirus. The latest statistics by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) show Africa’s cases are at 4,017,016. More than…
By Reuters Richer members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) blocked a push by over 80 developing countries on Wednesday to waive patent rights in an effort to boost the production of COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations. South Africa and India renewed their bid to waive the rules of the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property…
By XINHUA The COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa is now present in Namibia, an official confirmed on Wednesday. Ben Nangombe, executive director of Namibia’s Health Ministry, made the remarks in an update of the genomic sequencing results for COVID-19 variants in Namibia. According to Nangombe, the samples sent for tests on genomic sequencing were collected…
By Reuters The United Nations’ children’s fund on Wednesday urged countries to contribute more money to help poor countries access coronavirus vaccines, saying around $1 billion was needed. UNICEF, the world’s single largest vaccine buyer, is part of the World Health Organization-backed COVAX programme to supply COVID-19 shots to emerging economies. “We have been asking the…
By XINHUA Namibia is upbeat about reviving its ailing tourism industry which lost more than about 220 million U.S. dollars in a year due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic following the advent of a vaccine, a senior government official said on Wednesday. Romeo Muyunda, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism chief public relations officer, told…
By Jerry Omondi Uganda launched its mass COVID-19 vaccination program on Wednesday, joining a host of countries in Africa to initiate the inoculations. Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng received her jab in front of media cameras at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, confirming that the East African country would be administering the AstraZeneca vaccines. The minister…
By Reuters Zimbabwe has authorized the emergency use of four COVID-19 vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinovac, the minister of information said on Tuesday. The southern African nation last month rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program after receiving a donation of 200,000 doses of shots from China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). Last week, India…
By AFP South Africa’s economy recorded its first annual contraction in 11 years in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic but rebounded in the last two quarters, official data showed Tuesday. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 7.0 percent in 2020 compared with a 0.2-percent expansion a year earlier, statistics agency StatSA said in a…
By David Ochieng Mbewa Botswana on Tuesday received a batch of 30,000 COVID-19 vaccines from India at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in the capital, Gaborone. The Covishield vaccines are a donation from India, according to Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, who was on hand at the airport to receive the consignment. Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine,…
By XINHUA The Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) and Rwanda Correctional Services on Tuesday began inoculating elderly inmates and those with underlying diseases against COVID-19. The vaccination started at Nyarugenge prison in the capital city of Kigali, where 2,077 inmates are set to be inoculated, and the authorities plan to extend the vaccination to all inmates aged…
