Health

Health authorities in Rwanda have announced that the country will begin giving third doses to the elderly and those who have underlying conditions starting on Tuesday. The health ministry says the implementation will be done in phases and will begin in the capital, Kigali. People between 30 and 50 are …

The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned travel bans enacted against his country and its neighbours over the new coronavirus variant Omicron and called for their lifting. The president said he was “deeply disappointed” by the action, which he described as unjustified, and called for the bans to be …

The South African health minister Joe Phaahla has expressed his disappointment at the decision of some countries to suspend all flights from the country as a new variant of the coronavirus has been detected. Mr Phaahla on Friday says the introduction of travel restrictions by a number of countries against …

British authorities have suspended all flights from South Africa and five other countries in the region in response to the discovery of a highly transmissible new coronavirus variant. From midday GMT on Friday, direct flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be suspended until further notice. …

The government of Kenya has said it intends to introduce a directive next month to prevent citizens who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 from receiving government services. Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said unvaccinated people would be banned from public transport, local airlines and train services. Kenyans will also require …

The Gates Foundation will offer $4 million to address the looming shortage of syringes for Covid-19 vaccination in Africa. This comes amid warning from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the shortage of crucial commodities such as syringes was slowing the rollout of Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the continent. Kenyan …

Police in Mozambique say they have detained two health workers for their alleged involvement in the forgery, issuing and sale of Covid-19 vaccine cards. The two, a government general medical practitioner and an intern, had been assigned to the Bagamoyo health centre in the capital, Maputo. Police seized the forged …

Eight new cases of the Ebola virus have been recorded in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports on Wednesday. Of the eight cases, there have been six fatalities, the WHO’s regional office for Africa said on its Twitter account. Some 573 …

According to the executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency, HIV infections could have a peak in the western and central regions of Africa due to the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in health services. “We are seeing across countries, a decrease in people receiving prevention, a decrease in …

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the death of more than 5 million people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of 2019. This assessment, which takes into account the deaths recorded by the national health authorities, only represents a part of …