Coronavirus updates As it happens (2020-04-15)
Apr 16, 2020
Covid-19: Maltiti Foundation Donates Sanitizers To Nima Residents
A Non-Governmental Organization, Maltiti Foundation donated boxes of locally made alcoholic based hand sanitizers to the people of Nima in Accra.
The initiative according to the founder, Madam Hajj Fawzie is to equip the less privileged against the spread of the deadly COVID-19 fight.
Apr 16, 2020
I’ll Build Stronger MoH Teams To Fight COVID-19 – Okoe Boye
A Deputy Minister of Health-designate, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye says he will focus on improving the efficiency of the various teams under the Ministry to kick out COVID-19 if approved.
President Akufo-Addo nominated Bernard Okoe Boye as a Deputy Minister of Health-designate on April 6, 2020.
Apr 16, 2020
Covid-19: Papa Owusu Ankomah Condition Stable – Ghana’s Mission In UK
Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Papa Owusu Ankomah is in “stable condition” after contracting the deadly virus.
This is captured in a statement issued by the Ghana High Commission in London.
Apr 16, 2020
Germany Lifting Some Restrictions, Death Toll Tops 131,000
Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to lift some restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first major European nation to take on the delicate task of reopening without triggering a new wave of infections.
As US President Donald Trump came under increasing fire for ordering a freeze on American funding for the World Health Organization, the Group of 20 (G20) announced a one-year debt moratorium for the world's poorest nations.
Apr 15, 2020
Global backlash after Trump orders funding freeze on WHO
Criticism was heaped on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he ordered a freeze on funding for the World Health Organization, with friends and foes of the United States calling for solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus and its crushing economic impact.
The pandemic is entering a new and uncertain phase as governments debate how to reboot commerce without triggering new waves of infections of a virus that has killed more than 125,000 people.
Apr 15, 2020
China denies criticising France's coronavirus response
China has downplayed a diplomatic spat between Paris and Beijing over a Chinese embassy report implying that France abandoned elderly patients infected with the coronavirus, leaving them to die.
Beijing dismissed the incident as a "malentendu", with a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry saying Beijing had never given any negative criticism of France's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and had no intention of doing so.
Apr 15, 2020
G20 suspends debt repayments for poorest nations fighting Covid-19
The world's richest countries have agreed to freeze poor nations' debt obligations, shortly after nearly 20 European and African leaders made a joint appeal for a massive international effort to boost Africa's coronavirus response. “Only a global victory that fully includes Africa can bring this pandemic to an end," they said.
Finance ministers of the G20 group of major economies, which includes the US, China, India and others, said they will immediately put on hold poorer countries' obligations to service debt they owe.
Apr 15, 2020
In the time of Covid-19, African leaders must put their people's health first
A group of 88 African intellectuals has come together to sign an open letter to African leaders, calling for them to re-think health as an essential public need in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
Among those who penned the initiative were Lionel Zevounou, a Paris Nanterre law professor, political scientist Amy Niang from Wits University, South Africa, and Senegalese development economist Ndongo Samba Sylla, who drummed up the support of like-minded colleagues, including in the Arab-speaking and Lusophone parts of the continent.
Apr 15, 2020
French government boosts Covid-19 emergency fund to 110 billion euros
The French government has expanded its coronavirus rescue package to include bonuses for health workers, funds for poor families and additional aid for the unemployed to assist them through the Covid-19 lockdown that was extended by President Emmanuel Macron by four weeks.
Two days after President Macron extended confinement until 11 May, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government had agreed to boost a 45-billion-euro fund to support the economy through the epidemic to 110 billion euros.
Apr 15, 2020
Global cases reach two million
By BBC News
Another day and another grim statistic, as the number of confirmed cases across the world reaches two million.
That's according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking infections and deaths around the world.
More than 600,000 cases have been recorded in the US alone, while 128,000 people have died globally.
The true number of infections is likely to be much higher, as levels of testing varies by country.
It's less than two weeks since the world reach a million confirmed cases.