A deal for Taiwan to buy 5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech SE is on hold, the island’s health minister said on Wednesday, citing potential Chinese pressure for the delay. According to the Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, officials were on the verge of announcing …
Read More »New WTO boss targets ‘early wins’ in Covid-19 fight
Newly appointed head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says having “early wins and successes” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic will help restore trust in the organisation. She said that the priority was to look at how WTO can help make access to vaccines, therapeutics and …
Read More »South Africa reopens land border to facilitate crossings
South Africa on Monday reopened 20 land border crossings that were closed over a month ago to limit the spread of Covid-19. The land border points with Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, eSwatini, Botswana and Lesotho will now have normal travel. They were closed following congestion by people who sought to enter …
Read More »Rwanda: the vaccination program start with healths workers
In a statetement said on Sunday, the Rwandan health ministry said the country has started immunising its healthcare workers against the cornavirus pandemic. An official in the ministry said immunisation with the Pfizer vaccine started last week in a few hospitals in the capital, Kigali. In a tweet, the ministry …
Read More »Namibian airline ceases operations with immediate effect
Namibia’s national carrier Air Namibia has decided to suspend all operations, cancelling all of its flights and grounding its aircraft with immediate effect. The airline urged all customers to cancel reservations and request refunds. According to the state-owned New Era newspaper, the announcement leaves more than 600 employees without jobs. …
Read More »U.S.-China bickering over COVID continues as WHO’s Wuhan probe ends
China called on the United States on Wednesday to invite the World Health Organization to investigate origins of the COVID-19 outbreak there, as sparring over the pandemic continued after the WHO wrapped up its field work in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Hours after the WHO team revealed preliminary findings …
Read More »Ethiopia intends to close refugee camps in Tigray
Ethiopia plans to close two camps in the northern state of Tigray that have been caught in the fighting between the state’s formers ruling party and the federal government, according to the country’s refugee agency. Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, head of the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs …
Read More »RwandAir begins flights to Bangui, CAR capital
The Rwandan airline company ‘RwandAir’ has launched its new route to the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, amidst rebels closing in on the city. The airline says as part of efforts to “recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”, it will be flying to Bangui twice a week. Rwanda …
Read More »Botswana: youngs develop online consultation app
In order to make it easier for patients to reach doctors online, a group of young professionals in Botswana have come up with an innovative way. This is after coronavirus made one-on-one consultations difficult. Doctors E-Consult is an online doctor-patient consultation room on a mobile or electronic device. Loatile Nkala …
Read More »United Kingdom medics in Eswatini to help fight against the coronavirus pandemic
The United Kingdom has sent an emergency medical team to Eswatini to help the southern African country deal with a surge in coronavirus cases. The kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, has a population of a million and seen around 500 people die from the virus. “Earlier last year the local …
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