Coronavirus updates As it happens

Dec 7, 2020

China's Covid-19 vaccine maker gets $500M boost to speed up rollout

Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech has secured half a billion dollars in extra funding to produce its Covid-19 vaccine, as the country races to roll out a jab for general use.

Beijing has largely brought the virus under control, with only 281 active cases still receiving treatment, according to official figures.

JUSTIN TALLIS AFP

Dec 6, 2020

Britain's Queen Elizabeth to get coronavirus vaccine 'in weeks'

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine "within weeks", after UK regulators granted emergency approval and the world's first roll-out begins next week, reports late Saturday said.

The monarch, 94, and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip are in line to get the jab early due to their age and will not receive preferential treatment, the Mail on Sunday reported.

Adrian DENNIS AFP/File

Dec 6, 2020

Ghana's Covid-19 death toll now 325

Two more persons have succumbed to covid-19.

This brings the total death toll to 325.

Dec 6, 2020

Covid-19 hits England cricket tour of South Africa

Two members of England cricket's touring party in South Africa have returned unconfirmed positive tests for Covid-19, forcing Sunday's first one-day international to be cancelled and placing the rest of the tour in jeopardy.

The match in Paarl was to have opened the one-day series after Friday's scheduled first match in Cape Town was scrapped just before play was to begin after a South African player tested positive for coronavirus.

Match abandoned. By Rodger BOSCH (AFP)

Dec 5, 2020

Italy faces more rules over Christmas in its fight against coronavirus

Italians are preparing themselves for a very different Christmas due to newly announced restrictions to combat the coronavirus. But a recent survey has revealed that the public is largely in favour of the limitations being adopted to personal freedom – if it is in aid of protecting public safety.

Nearly 60 percent of those who participated in the Cencis survey accepted that the government should decide “when and under what conditions they can leave their houses, what they can or cannot do, who they can see and where” to protect the health of the Italian population.

AP - Filippo Ciappi

Dec 5, 2020

Poor, vulnerable demand pipe water to fight COVID pandemic

Tamale, Dec 05- Some poor, vulnerable, and marginalised persons have appealed to the government to extend pipe-borne water to their communities to enable them to stay clean and healthy, as well as protected in the event of any pandemic in the future.

They said access to pipe-borne water would also empower them to religiously adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols especially hand washing.

Dec 4, 2020

GEPA supports Industrial Arts and Craft in Sunyani with COVID-19 items

In an effort to consolidate the gains made in the fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, the Ghana Exports Promotion Authority (GEPA) has presented assorted items to Industrial Arts and Craft groups in Sunyani to help control the spread of the virus at their workplaces.

The items were made up of veronica buckets, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, paper towels, dustbins, nose masks, and soaps among others.

Dec 4, 2020

French opposition to Covid-19 vaccine grows as government unveils campaign

More than 50 percent of French people do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19 when the jab becomes available, according to several surveys, which show a reticence on the rise. It comes as France is set to roll out its nationwide vaccination campaign on 1 January.

One of the polls, conducted by Ifop for the weekly Journal du Dimanche on 28 November found that 59 percent of French people do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19 once it becomes available in the coming weeks and months.

FRANCOIS LO PRESTI AFP

Dec 4, 2020

Ep7: Ghana’s election campaigning, Covid-19 vaccine in Africa, Liberia’s controversial referendum & rogue MPs in Tanzania

Africa Calling podcast looks at some of the week's top stories from the African continent, including reports from the field and analysis with regional experts. This week we're talking about the end of election campaigning in Ghana, and finding out about the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines across the African continent. We also hear about a controversial constitutional referendum in Liberia; how opposition MPs in Tanzania have gone rogue, efforts to eliminate HIV-AIDS in São Tomé, rising child abuse in Mozambique during the Covid-19, and the Cameroonian winner of a French literary prize.

Ghana

Voters prepare to go to the polls on 7 December in presidential and parliamentary elections, with incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo up against former President John Mahama, two long-standing rivals. As campaigning draws to a close, the two political heavyweights trade barbs over policy including free education, agriculture, small-scale mining and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ghana's economy has been hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns and both candidates have vowed to implement measures to kickstart job creation and protect the most vulnerable from the economic fallout. Correspondent Zubaida Mabuno Ismail reports from the Ashanti and Eastern regions as the campaign draws to a close.

Dec 4, 2020

Funding, climate and fear trouble Africa's Covid vaccine plans

The struggle to get Covid vaccine to the world's population has often been likened to a race -- in which case, Africa finds itself hobbled by an array of financial, technical and cultural problems.

Of these, funding is predictably Hurdle No. 1 for Africa, home to some of the world's poorest countries.

Jab: A volunteer takes part in coronavirus vaccine trial in Soweto, South Africa, in January. By SIPHIWE SIBEKO (POOL/AFP/File)

Dec 4, 2020

France announces free Covid-19 vaccination programme starting in January

Vaccinations against Covid-19 in France will be free, the French prime minister said Thursday. The three-stage innoculation programme will begin in January for 1 million elderly in retirement homes, February for 14 million high-risk people and spring for the rest of the population.

Prime minister Jean Castex said that thanks to orders already made at a European level, "France will have a potential of 200 million doses, which would allow 100 million people to be vaccinated" because the course requires two injections a few weeks apart.

AP - Frederick Florin

Dec 3, 2020

UNODC donates PPEs to Ghanaian law enforcement agencies to fight crime in this COVID-19 period

The United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) with funding from the Government of Germany, donated personal protective equipment (PPE) in a brief handing-over ceremony to two (2) Ghanaian Law Enforcement Agencies at the forecourt of the UN Building, Cantonment, Accra.

In a welcome note, Mr. Bernard Henebeng Asamoah, National Programme Coordinator of UNODC, indicated that this marks the first phase of donation of PPE to Law Enforcement agencies. The UNODC had to rearrange its funding and programme to cater for these law enforcement agencies with PPEs while they fight crime and embark on frontline duties during the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Dec 3, 2020

Obuasi East records four new cases of Covid-19

Madam Delphine Gborgblorvor, the Obuasi East District Director of Health Services, has called on the residents in the area to continue to strictly adhere to all the covid-19 preventive protocols.

She said the district had recorded four new cases of covid-19 and it was important for the people to take the safety protocols seriously to prevent a spike in the district.

Dec 3, 2020

Covid-positive eSwatini Prime Minister taken to South Africa for treatment

Eswatini Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini has been transferred to neighbouring South Africa for medical treatment after contracting Covid-19, according to government officials.

"To guide and fast track the recovery, a decision has been taken that he be transferred to a South African hospital this afternoon," said Deputy Prime Minister Masuku in a statement on Wednesday.

Dec 3, 2020

How will Africa deploy Covid-19 vaccines by mid-2021 to cover 60% of population?

Africa faces some major challenges acquiring and deploying Covid-19 vaccinations across the continent, notably acquiring vaccines, as countries race to immunise their populations. Some fear that an insufficient vaccination programme could leave the continent isolated and cut off from the world.

“Fighting a pandemic is like fighting any kind of war, like in the military, you don't build up your army in the middle of the war, you prepare your army to be ready,” Abdoulaye Diop, chief of staff for the African Union Commission, told a briefing this week.

Dec 3, 2020

French former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing dies of Covid at 94

French former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a leading advocate of European integration who led his country into a new era, has died of Covid-19, according to an announcement from his family. He was 94 years of age.

Giscard, who had been in hospital several times in recent months for heart problems, died late Wednesday "surrounded by his family" at his home in the Loire region.

AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

Dec 2, 2020

Community-led approaches are pivotal to respond to HIV, SRHR and Covid-19

Solidarity and accountability are the hallmarks of tackling public health problems, as well as health emergencies. We need integrated interventions that focus on people (and not just the disease), and address the needs of the individuals collectively, urged Eamonn Murphy, Regional Director, UNAIDS, Asia and the Pacific.

Murphy was delivering the plenary address of twelfth virtual session of the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSHR10), which is being held online this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dec 2, 2020

French households prepare subdued Christmas during Covid-19 epidemic, poll shows

France's government plans to lift confinement and travel restrictions in time for the year-end holidays if the Covid-19 epidemic continues to subside, but most French families have already planned low-key holidays this year, according poll results published Tuesday.

Only about half of French people will see their elderly relatives, with two thirds planning to celebrate Christmas with their immediate family, according to a poll by Ifop institute detailed in newspaper Le Parisien on Tuesday.

REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Dec 2, 2020

Interpol warns international authorities about threat of fake Covid-19 vaccines

Interpol on Wednesday warned authorities worldwide of the threat from organised crime groups during upcoming Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, including fake vaccines and the theft of supplies.

Distribution of three new coronavirus vaccines is set to begin soon and many people will be desperate to protect themselves as quickly as possible, offering ready targets for criminals.

Dec 2, 2020

UK approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 jab, plans to start vaccinating starting next week

Britain's independent medicines regulator said on Wednesday no "corners have been cut" in its recommendation to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for general use.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had used overlapping trials and "rolling reviews" since June to reach the determination in record time.

OLI SCARFF AFP