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"We are planning for a worst case scenario," Western Cape health department head Dr Keith Cloete has said, referring to a third wave of Covid-19 infections.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
Eighty-eight new cases of COVID-19 were reported yesterday by the Ministry of Health.
The article Ministry reports 88 new COVID cases appeared first on Stabroek News.
The Egyptian Drug Authority issued an official license of the Sinopharm Chinese developed coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in Egypt.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic that started in China in December last year has disrupted life across the world. Measures like travel restrictions, border closures and stay-at-home orders have been implemented to prevent the spread of the virus.
The new normal that has included working from home and wearing face masks in public has also seen the public use words like social distancing and quarantine more frequently.
In this article, using the A-Z alphabet format, we list words that have become part of our daily vocabulary as we learn to live with the virus.
Asymptomatic: refers to someone who has the disease but does not show any symptoms.
Other words here are antibodies and Artemisia, used to make the Madagascar’s self-proclaimed herbal covid treatment.
Ban: Several countries used bans to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from what they deemed high-risk areas. These included travel bans and extended to bans on social gatherings and movement at certain hours.
Contact-tracing: the process of identifying and testing people who have been exposed to a contagious disease like the coronavirus. This is done to prevent onward transmission.
Other words here include curfew which was imposed in many countries as they declared states of emergency.
Distancing: social or physical distancing is a key preventive measure that has been adopted in many countries. It simply refers to keeping a safe distance between oneself and other people. Avoiding crowded areas is also a component of this strategy.
Other words here include drive-through testing and droplet transmission.
Essential services: These referred to tasks that are needed to ensure an individual or community’s health, safety and survival for example getting food or medicine. During lockdowns imposed by several governments, the tag was also extended to functions required to facilitate government continuity and secure welfare of the people.
Other terms here are epicenter, endemic and epidemic among others.
Flatten the curve: This refers to slowing the rate of infection (reduce peak number of cases), so that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed i.e hospitals treat fewer people over time.
Garlic: Garlic was one of many natural remedies that were touted as having ability to prevent, treat or cure the coronavirus. There is however no scientific proof to back these claims.
A claim that 5G caused the coronavirus has also been repeatedly debunked.
Herd immunity: refers to a scenario where enough people in a community have become immune to a disease, either through exposure or via a vaccine. A few countries like Sweden adopted this approach.
Other words are hand hygiene, hydroxychloroquine and home (stay home).
Incubation: this is the period between when a person gets infected with a disease and when they start showing symptoms. The Covid-19 incubation period of 2-14 days guided key decisions like lengths of quarantines.
Other terms here include ICU beds, index cases, isolation, infodemic, and immunity.
Job loss: measures taken to prevent the sprea
A digital billboard in Times Square showing the number of deaths related to President Donald Trump’s slow coronavirus response, reached a grave milestone on Wednesday, as it ticked over to an estimated 50,000 preventable deaths.
The Death Clock measures “the cost in human lives of President Trump and his team’s reckless handling of the coronavirus pandemic,” Jarecki told Yahoo.
As U.S. coronavirus deaths reached 85,00 Wednesday, the death clock showed more than 57,000 deaths could’ve been prevented.
“Just as the names of fallen soldiers are etched on memorials to remind us of the cost of war, quantifying the lives lost to the president’s delayed coronavirus response would serve a vital public function,” he added.
In addition to almost 100,000 deaths, the coronavirus pandemic has killed ten years of job growth in one month and put many minorities and low-income Americans at risk of losing their lives.
Climate threats are currently high across much of Africa, with floods, droughts and the biggest locust outbreak in generations.
Increased restrictions on movement due to COVID-19 may intensify the effects and put people at even more risk.
Major desert locust outbreaks across East Africa are threatening food security in at least eight countries and are projected to continue spreading.
Sudden onset climate change disasters such as extreme temperatures, landslides, droughts, wildfires, floods or hurricanes are the top drivers of internal migration.
In sudden onset climate disasters, people mostly flee to the nearest safe location or where there's aid.
Eastleigh and Kawangware areas in Nairobi are now recording reduced Covid-19 transmission rates, Health Director General Patrick Amoth has said.
Dr Amoth on Wednesday said that the mitigation measures put in place in the two areas have been fruitful, however they continue to monitor them closely.
\"The mitigation measures in these areas have borne fruit, thereby reducing transmission rates.
The mitigation measures in these areas have borne fruit, thereby reducing transmission rates.
#AskTheDG https://t.co/OhflbRIyUF
The two areas had previously been labelled as Covid-19 hotspots by the Ministry of Health, due to the high numbers of infection that were registered on a daily basis.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil's north-east, a harsh place of arid land, cyclical drought, and crushing poverty, is emerging as the next crisis zone in the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As the virus surges in Brazil — which now has the second-highest number of cases in the world after the United States — the country's poorest region has been hit hard, both by the disease and the painful measures taken to contain it.
The nine states of the north-east have the second-highest number of cases and deaths in Brazil, after the wealthy south-east, where the outbreak began.
The north-east is sometimes called the “Cradle of Brazil,” because it is where the Portuguese founded their first colonial capital, Salvador.
When the virus arrived in Brazil and Bolsonaro downplayed it as a “little flu”, the north-east took matters into its own hands.
Rwanda on Tuesday, May 19 confirmed 11 new cases of coronavirus and six recoveries.
The latest results were drawn from 1,217 sample tests, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health.
In total, the country has so far conducted 52,335 sample tests of COVID-19 since the outbreak in March.
The cabinet on Monday, May 18, further eased the nationwide novel coronavirus lockdown but largely maintained existing measures to control the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, citizens are still urged to abide by COVID-19 precautionary measures such as regular washing of hands and self-distancing in addition to wearing face masks when in public or multi-family compounds.
According to a new study published earlier this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nationwide demonstrations don’t appear to be linked to spikes in coronavirus cases.
“Our findings suggest that any direct decrease in social distancing among the subset of the population participating in the protests is more than offset by increasing social distancing behavior among others who may choose to shelter-at-home and circumvent public places while the protests are underway,” the report reads.
“Cities which had protests saw an increase in social distancing behavior for the overall population relative to cities that did not,” the report notes.
Basically, during the massive protests, enough people stayed home to avoid running into the massive demonstrations that it could have actually helped limit the spread of the virus.
For example, in Texas, one of the first states to completely disregard the health of its residents in favor of economic gains, Gov. Greg Abbott said people under 30 have made up a majority of new coronavirus cases in several counties.
Youths protesting a coronavirus curfew have clashed with security forces overnight in the Senegalese capital, burning tyres and erecting barricades as police fired tear gas in Dakar's Ngor district.
(NNPA)—Under the direction and management of President Donald Trump and his coronavirus pandemic task force, there has been mass death.
Instead of President Trump’s weekly briefing solidifying and bringing the country together to fight a common enemy, the nation is more divided and broken.
President Trump’s briefings have become a comedy show, where officials tell lies, there’s no coordinated national plan, and made up facts.
As a result of President Trump’s statements, major companies had put out statements to customers to not follow the president’s instructions or advice.
The failure is national, and our president sees the coronavirus pandemic in personal and political terms.
LIVE | All the latest coronavirus and lockdown updates
By the time the virus hit Africa, where cases have risen relatively slowly, images of overwhelmed hospitals and stories of health workers strapped for protective gear had been streaming in for weeks.
Mehul Shah from Ultra Red Technologies, a 3D printing company in Nairobi, said he and his partner Neeval Shah quickly realised they could be \"first responders\" in producing locally-made equipment.
Mehul Shah, the director of Ultra Red Technologies, works on ear protectors for a 3D printed face shield, to be used for protection of the entire face area from splashes, sprays and spatter of bodily fluids as a preventive measure against the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Another busy area of innovation has been the production of ventilators, which have been in short supply even in rich countries as Covid-19 patients needing oxygen have swamped hospitals.
In Kenya, engineering students in collaboration with the medical department at the Kenyatta University, produced a low-cost ventilator at a tenth of the price of an imported machine - estimated at $10 000.
Major African stats: May 9 as of 7:00 GMT:
\t
\t\tConfirmed cases = 57,844
\t\tNumber of deaths = 2,154
\t\tRecoveries = 19,133
\t\tInfected countries = 53
\t\tVirus-free countries = 1 (Lesotho)
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa II
\t\tAfrica could risk case, death explosion – WHO warns
\t\tComoros records first case
SUGGESTED READING: rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa I
Africa risks explosion of cases, deaths
\tThe coronavirus could “smolder” in Africa for years and take a high death toll across the continent, the World Health Organization has warned.
More than 52,000 confirmed infections and 2,074 virus-related deaths have been reported by African countries, according to figures released Friday (May 8) by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The South African president is also current chairperson of the African Union, AU; he is leading Africa’s most impacted country and the continent’s effort to get international support to fight the pandemic.
Africa dangerously behind in global race for virus gear
\tAs Africa braces for a surge in coronavirus cases, its countries are dangerously behind in the global race for scarce medical equipment.
AP
\tSome major developments to read about below are as follows:
\t\tUS support for Kenya, South Africa; Africa’s equipment crunch
\t\tAfrica case increase worries experts
\t\tMauritania virus-free
\t\tTanzania MP infected
\t\tZimbabwe quarantines UK returnees
\t\tMadagascar announces COVID-19 treatment
\t\tAfrica will suffer Trump’s WHO move
\t\tBurundi voters locked out
\t\tTanzania’s three-days of prayer
\t\tMalawi imposes lockdown as president’s court hearing starts
\t\tUganda speaker unveils COVID-19 combating spray
\t\tUS joins Africa in fight against Chinese racism
\t\tAU appoints four-member international liaison team
\t\tTwo prominent deaths
\t\tAU protests Chinese mistreatment of Africans
April 23: Africa’s 43% jump in virus cases in 1 week worries experts
\tAfrica registered a 43% jump in reported COVID-19 cases in the last week, highlighting a warning from the World Health Organization that the continent of 1.3 billion could become the next epicenter of the global outbreak.
So far, a number of countries have begun easing their lockdowns, and, according to WHO's initial analysis, the impact on doubling time - the number of days for case numbers to double in a given country - appears to be varying depending on the timing and duration of the confinement measures.
Thirteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa have implemented lockdowns along with other public health and social measures nationwide, while ten more instigated partial lockdowns in hotspots.
Moeti called for solidarity and a strong focus against the prevention of the virus through social distancing and Kumar Singh Jagutpal, Minister of Health and Wellness in Mauritius, shared how his country has fared against the spread of the virus.
Mkhize emphasised the importance of social distancing and masks and welcomed the support of Cuban doctors who were brought into the country to assist local health were brought in to strengthen our ground teams and we have increased the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds,\" Mkhize said.
Aceng praised Uganda's leadership in responding to the pandemic at the speed it did with President Yoweri Museveni having addressed the nation 15 times, issuing 36 guidelines on the prevention of contracting the virus and the introduction of a national lockdown.
Home sales in Prince George's County are up even amid the coronavirus pandemic.
guest column:Emmanuel Zvada Just as business leaders thought they could start thinking about a new normal, a different kind of reality began to set in. In the past year, we have seen companies face serious disruptions but the second wave caught everyone unaware again as many had relaxed. The second wave of coronavirus pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on leaders in business and nations. Crises normally bring out the best and worst leaders as the true character of a leader or employer is reviewed during a crisis. COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb, and in many parts of Zimbabwe, records for new cases are set daily. While the second wave of the pandemic is here in earnest, it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of normalcy. The second wave of coronavirus is a defining moment for true leaders to emerge and manage the situation. A leader’s response to a crisis is much more than speeches. Business leaders across every industry are getting a dosage of crisis management again so that they navigate through the coronavirus pandemic. To companies that had already put systems and processes in place for work from home, there will be no challenge but to those that had relaxed, it’s a headache again as the whole month of shutdown will be an unproductive month. Leaders must demonstrate a well-oiled business continuity machine and the ability to continuously adapt and respond to new challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has sent employers into a frenzy as they try to stay abreast of new developments and do everything, they can to protect their employees and their business. Calm, principled, and decisive leaders continue to be an essential ingredient for navigating a situation that affects everyone, directly or indirectly. Good leaders need to not only formulate return-to-work plans and adjust work processes for the short-term recovery of operations but also discern what longer-term impacts this pandemic will have overall. To be sure, another lockdown amid a second wave could further damage an already fragile global economy. Positive, effective leadership helps us navigate crises and forge ahead in moments of uncertainty like the time we are in. Leaders should act on three essentials which are clarifying purpose, supporting stakeholders, and bolstering emotional and organisational resilience. Responsible business leaders have an important role to play for effective navigation of organisations during this second wave for no one knows when it will end. Continuous communication is key If leaders are not prepared to manage remote teams or if these teams don’t have good communication and collaboration habits in place, the effects of this virus could disrupt team connectivity, morale, and accountability — not to mention results. Good leaders should relentlessly communicate so that the followers do not operate in darkness. This will also avoid rumours especially during a crisis. People are obviously nervous about the implications of the virus, and it is essential to keep them engaged, informed, and safe. If you do not provide in
A suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 should also receive a malaria test in areas where malaria is endemic.
So, what, and how do we now deal with two similar diseases COVID-19, caused by a virus, and Malaria, caused by a parasite principally in the interior of the country; and as reported of the case in Lethem, among those who travel to and from the interior and can spread COVID-19?
That person could help ensure a rapid response to patients with malaria prevention and management in areas affected by malaria and possibly COVID-19.
Additionally, there should be an estimated number of tests and treatment needed, Chloroquine and Primaquine for confirmed P. vivax malaria cases and of Coartem (Artemether-Lumefantrine) and Primaquine for treatment of P. falciparum.
The recommendation from WHO and CDC is that priority for a COVID-19 test be given to older adults and people of any age group who have serious underlying medical conditions, inter alia, persons on treatment for cancer; those with chronic lung conditions; severe asthma; diabetes, chronic kidney and liver disease etc.
International support is hindered by measures to contain the virus
Current peace processes supported by the international community in countries affected by conflict and Covid-19 are designed in ways that involve multiple stakeholders within and outside countries affected by violent conflicts.
National and local capacities for peace are constrained
While peacebuilding processes may be suspended, conflicts have not been suspended.
Local actors that are embedded in communities impacted by conflict can continue to work on sustaining peace processes even when professional peace-builders are unable to gain access to these communities in the face of lockdowns and restricted movements.
Instead of suspending their work, local peacebuilders should be recruited by national and international actors to engage local conflict actors on issues relating to the pandemic.
It is important to work with local actors to communicate the right messages that will stop the spread of the pandemic to rural areas affected by violent conflicts.
