By Halligan Agade Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica and Karsten Warholm of Norway have been named the World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021, a ceremony held virtually on Wednesday. Thompson-Herah produced one of the finest sprint seasons in history this year, retaining her Olympic 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo…
By AP South Africa’s new cases of COVID-19 nearly doubled in a day, authorities reported Wednesday, signaling a dramatic surge in the country where scientists detected the omicron variant last week. New confirmed cases rose to 8,561 Wednesday from 4,373 a day earlier, according to official statistics. Scientists in South Africa said they are bracing for…
By David Ochieng Mbewa The latest round of English Premier League matches saw some African players in action and put on an excellent display for their respective clubs. With two more games of the latest round to go, we picked some of the standout performers so far. Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah continued his fine form for…
By XINHUA Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Wednesday new HIV/AIDS infections dropped by 38.2 percent from 110,000 in 2010 to 68,000 in 2020. In his address to mark the World AIDS Day in Mbeya region, Majaliwa said HIV/AIDS-related deaths in the east African nation fell by half from 64,000 deaths in 2010 to 32,000…
By XINHUA All travelers entering Zimbabwe, including returning residents, will have to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Tuesday. Mnangagwa, who made the announcement in a televised address on state TV, said Zimbabwe was facing an “added risk” which compounds the burden we already face “All returning residents and visitors have to…
By Reuters The Omicron coronavirus variant could be the most likely candidate to displace the highly contagious Delta variant, the director of South Africa’s communicable disease institute said on Tuesday. The discovery of Omicron has caused global alarm, with countries limiting travel from southern Africa for fear it could spread quickly even in vaccinated populations and…
By XINHUA Uganda’s annual headline inflation rate for the year ending November 2021 increased to 2.6 percent from 1.9 percent in October. Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) said the difference is attributed to the increase in the prices of commodities. Core inflation for the period under review increased to 2.6 percent from 2.1 percent in October….
By Reuters Nigeria confirmed its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant among two travelers who arrived from South Africa last week, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Wednesday. The NCDC also said retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travelers to Nigeria had identified the variant among a sample collected in October….
By Reuters The heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus variant is likely to spread internationally and poses a very high risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. No Omicron-linked deaths had yet been reported, though further research was needed to assess its potential to resist…
By Reuters The COVID-19 Omicron variant was detected in the Netherlands before two flights arrived from South Africa last week carrying the virus, Dutch health officials said on Tuesday. At least 14 people on flights from Johannesburg and Capetown arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on November 26 carrying the new variant, the National Institute for Public…
