Coronavirus updates As it happens (2020-09-27)
Oct 1, 2020
Covid-19: Locked Down Areas Recorded 47.1% Increase In Crime Rate – Statistical Service
The coronavirus pandemic has since March had a devastating impact on households, businesses, and the local economies in Ghana, and the world at large.
With almost every sector experiencing change of a sort, the pandemic gave way to more negative effects than positive.
Sep 30, 2020
Covid crisis drove poverty to highest level since WWII: French charity
The French charity Secours Populaire has rung alarm bells with their new report which shows a huge increase in the number of people requiring fooda aid during the Covid-19 lockdown in levels not seen since the Second World War.
Secours Populaire said that one out of two people who came for food handouts during the two-month lockdown, from March to May, were new faces.
Sep 30, 2020
COVID-19: 78% Of Communities Did Not Benefit Gov't’s Free Water – Statistical Service
It has emerged that 78 percent of communities in Ghana sampled did not benefit from Government's free water initiative.
According to the COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker by the Ghana Statistical Service and the UNDP, these localities relied on alternative sources of water and were not served by the Ghana Water Company Limited.
Sep 30, 2020
Trump vs Biden: Policy lacking as Covid, taxes and insults take centre stage
It was messy and there was a lot of shouting, but President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden managed to touch on some of the crucial issues facing American voters during their 90-minute debate, including the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare and the economy.
Political observers expected the Republican incumbent to come out swinging, but it was the 77-year-old former vice president who ended up landing some of the toughest insults of the night, calling Trump a "clown" and a "liar."
'Will you shut up?'
Sep 30, 2020
‘Covid-19 Not Totally Defeated’ — Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has warned that Covid-19 still poses great threat to human lives and should not be underestimated.
According to him, even though the rate of new infections in the country has reduced significantly, the disease has not been totally eradicated.
Sep 30, 2020
French fitness clubs launch legal action against 'unfair' Covid closures
Sports and fitness club owners across France have signed a petition and launched legal action against the government's decision to close establishments this week in major cities to stop the spread of Covid-19. They say the move will jeopardise thousands of jobs, and have a negative effect on citizens' mental well-being.
More than 100 signatories of an open letter have slammed the "nonsensical and arbitrary" nature of the government's decision to close sports clubs in major French cities as of Monday, in areas considered to be 'reinforced alert' zones due to the high number of coronavirus cases.
Sep 30, 2020
Covid sinks Dinard film festival, but France promises to keep cinema afloat
The 31st edition of the Dinard British Film Festival should have opened this week in the north-west of France, but the event has been cancelled because of a sudden spike in local Covid-19 cases. The French government has announced a sizeable financial rescue package to help the cinema industry weather the storm.
The annual British Film Festival was cancelled by the mayor of Dinard, Arnaud Salmon, on 16 September, because of fears related to the spread of Covid-19.
Sep 29, 2020
French government seeks to appease bar owners' fury over Covid-19 closures
France's government announced relief measures on Tuesday for bars, cafés and restaurants forced to reduce hours or close due to new Covid-19 restrictions. Angry owners denounced measures they described as incoherent and ineffective.
On Monday evening, bars and cafés in Paris and 11 other French cities classified as “high risk” were obliged to close at 10pm due to new Covid-19 restrictions that were to last at least two weeks.
Sep 29, 2020
Half a million sharks may be killed to produce global Covid-19 vaccine
Conservationists in the United States are warning the race to a coronavirus vaccine may see the slaughter of half a million sharks, causing irreversible damage to our oceans' ecosystems.
This is because squalene, a natural oil made in the liver of sharks, is an ingredient in several of the candidate vaccines in clinical trials.
Sep 29, 2020
India’s coronavirus case tally passes 6 million, nearly 100,000 dead
India's coronavirus tally has crossed the 6 million mark after 82,170 new cases were reported across the country, giving the sub-continent the world's fastest infection rate. The number of Indian deaths from the disease is approaching 100,000.
With the latest million infections coming in 11 days and the number of deaths from the disease at over 95,540, new infections in India are currently being reported faster than anywhere else in the world.