Covid-19 outbreak

The Republican opposition candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas died of COVID-19 when he was transferred to France for treatment, his campaign manager said on Monday, the day after the presidential election in which he was the main challenger. Kolelas was considered the main rival against veteran leader Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was expected to win Sunday's vote. The election was boycotted by the main opposition and during an internet shutdown, with critics expressing concern over the openness of the…

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) pushed ahead on Sunday with an election in which President Denis Sassou N'Guesso is generally expected to extend his 36 years in power, while the leading opposition candidate remained in hospital with COVID-19. The watchdog group NetBlocks reported an internet shutdown that began in the Central African country around midnight on election day. After voting, Sassou N'Guesso said the government was aware of opposition candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolela's illness and…

The Republic of Congo pushed ahead on Sunday with an election in which President Denis Sassou N'Guesso is generally expected to extend his 36 years in power, while the leading opposition candidate remained in hospital with COVID-19. The watchdog group NetBlocks reported an internet blackout that began in the Central African country around midnight on election day. After voting, Sassou N'Guesso said the government was aware of the illness of opposition candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolela and had taken…

Morocco ignores the vaccination of undocumented migrants in the country, even though it is one of the first countries to have a vaccination program in Africa. There was no official decision on the matter, even though tens of thousands of legal foreign residents have been vaccinated, according to a statement from an official from the Ministry of Health responsible for the vaccination campaign. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged Morocco's tourism sector and led to reduced industrial exports. The country…

The Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that South Sudan is "a forgotten conflict" in the face of a "humanitarian crisis" exacerbated by the pandemic, while the UN chief warned that 60% of the world's newest nation "is becoming increasingly hungry. " South Sudan has struggled to recover from a five-year war that, according to a study, killed nearly 400,000 people. A coalition government formed last year between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek…

A remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the oldest hotspots in the world. The plague has increased since the end of 2020 in a remote area on the borders of Uganda and Sudan. The plague was first detected in 1926 in the Ituri province, a remote area of ​​the northeastern DRC. The health service in the province says "Congolese hotspot is the oldest in the world." "The spread of the plague has not stopped since it was discovered. It appears and disappears. Now it has returned…

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched a $ 12 million humanitarian appeal late Thursday to improve deteriorating health and safety conditions for women and girls in northeastern Mozambique. In a statement, the UN authority said it was urgent to provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health services to 330,000 women, girls and young people affected by the humanitarian crisis in the province of Cabo Delgado, as well as by the secondary effects of the coronavirus pandemic . An armed…

A new preliminary study - based on a small sample - has suggested that people previously infected with the COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa may have better immunity to other coronavirus mutations, experts said on Wednesday. The results, from a not yet peer-reviewed research by the team of South African researchers who discovered the 501Y.V2 variant, raise hopes that vaccines modeled on the strain can protect against future mutations. Only 4% of a sample of 55 patients who had 501Y.V2 failed…

Nearly 4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the third and largest delivery to date to an African country through the global COVAX initiative, which was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have access to vaccines. The COVAX program sent 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, from Mumbai to Abuja, according to a joint statement from UNICEF, working in collaboration with the World Health…

Ghana received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX on Wednesday, a global scheme to obtain and distribute free vaccinations as the world competes to contain the pandemic. COVAX, launched in April last year to ensure a fairer distribution of coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor countries, said it would deliver 2 billion doses to its members by the end of the year. "We are pleased that Ghana has become the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility," said the…