Coronavirus updates As it happens (2020-04-30)

Apr 30, 2020

COVID-19: Otiko Djaba Encourages Muslims To Say More Prayers for Ghana

The Executive Director of the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba has sent warm wishes to all Muslim brothers and sisters undergoing the month-long fasting and prayers.

She requested them to spend more time to pray for Ghana and the rest of the World to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apr 30, 2020

COVID-19 Fight: Akufo-Addo Lauds The Role Of Academia

President Akufo-Addo says government is impressed with the contributions of academia in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

He acknowledged that the research and timely advice to the government by academia is helping in decision making.

Apr 30, 2020

Coronavirus and Lockdown has unfortunately increased gender based voilence- CEGRAD Director

The Director, Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) of the University of Cape Coast Dr. Mrs. Georgina Oduro has said that coronavirus and its subsequent Lockdown has unfortunately increased gender-based violence at home instead of encouraging unity and family togetherness. She explained that CEGRADD is a centre that does research and use the findings to do advocacy within the University community and also across the country. He said that coronavirus is a pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization and because of this "I have stopped watching international news because the death toll are scary". She continued that in her fair view, we ought to have closed our borders a little early than we did but the major problem is the stigmatization of people who have infected by the virus. "Prince Charles, the monarch in waiting was infected with the virus and as such the stigmatization isn't necessary and that can debar people from voluntarily opting to test for Covid-19" Dr. Oduro added.

She said looking Covid-19 and the workforce situation, Dr. Oduro said women are more in the service sector as compared to men, and during this pandemic, women are at more risk than men who normally are in the manufacturing and industry sectors of our economy. Because of Lockdown which necessitated the closure of schools, all kids are at home and the caring role of women have increased she added.

Apr 30, 2020

UN: COVID-19 Could Lead To 7m Unintended Pregnancies

Millions of women will lose access to contraception, face unexpected pregnancies and suffer gender-based violence as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a grim report from the UNFPA, the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency.

Overtaxed health systems, closed facilities and disrupted supply chains will curtail access to reproductive care for women and girls, particularly in low-income nations, according to the UNFPA.

Apr 30, 2020

MPs Deny Taking GHS120,000 Coronavirus Cash

The leadership of Parliament has denied news that each MP has been given GHS120,000 to fight COVID-19 in their constituencies.

Both the majority and minority sides of the house want the general public to ignore the “fabricated” stories.

Apr 30, 2020

Covid-19: Western Region Enforces Face Mask Wearing

Wearing of face masks in public has been made compulsory within the Western Region as part of measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease in the country.

A statement issued by the Western Regional Security Council (REGSEC) on Tuesday and signed by the Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, said the directive took immediate effect.

Apr 30, 2020

Deneuve, Dujardin, Sy slam French culture minister over Covid-19 in action

Some of France's best known artists have written an open letter to President Macron condemning Culture Minister Franck Riester for his failure to do more amid the Covid-19 crisis which has forced many in the sector out of work.

Catherine Deneuve, Jean Dujardin and Omar Sy are among those who signed the letter, published in Le Monde newspaper on Thursday, which is extremely critical of Riester.

AFP PHOTO Robyn BECK

Apr 30, 2020

Chinese firm 'ready to mass produce' experimental coronavirus vaccine

A Chinese pharmaceutical company carrying out human trials for a coronavirus vaccine says it's ready to start producing its product on a mass scale.

Sinovac Biotech – the first company in the world to market a vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu – has claimed great progress in its research and says it's now in a position to start producing 100 million vaccines a year.

REUTERS - Dado Ruvic

Apr 30, 2020

Indian firm to produce Covid-19 vaccine under clinical trial in Britain

The Serum Institute of India has plans this year to produce up to 60 million doses of a potential vaccine against the new coronavirus that is under clinical trial in Britain.

Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week, and is a leader in the global race to develop an antidote to the novel coronavirus.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Apr 30, 2020

Zoo animals in Indonesia face starvation as a result of Covid-19 closures

Thousands of animals are facing starvation at Indonesia's zoos as the global pandemic pushes shuttered facilities toward collapse. Sixty cash-strapped parks, housing 70,000 animals, across Indonesia have been closed since mid-March. Most say they will be out of food by the middle of May.

"Most zoos relied on ticket sales so when they closed everything collapsed," said Indonesian Zoo Association spokesman Sulhan Syafi'i.

AFP - TIMUR MATAHARI

Apr 30, 2020

Johnson: Comprehensive plan to restart economy safely

By BBC News

Boris Johnson says he can confirm "for the first time we are past the peak of this disease and on the downward slope".

The PM says the UK will beat the disease by "growing resolve and ingenuity", including by working on a vaccine.

He promises that next week the government will release a "comprehensive plan... on how we can get the economy moving, how we can get children back to school and how we can travel to work and make life in the workplace safer".

He says the plan will be based on "how we can continue to suppress disease and at same time restart the economy".

Johnson says it will be "guided by science" and he will attempt to "build maximum political consensus".

He adds: "We have come through the peak. We have come under what could have been vast huge Alpine tunnel and now we see the sunlight in the pasture ahead of us.

"It is vital we do not now lose control and run into second and bigger mountain."

Apr 30, 2020

BREAKING UK death toll reaches 26,711

By BBC News

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologises for "not being part of the trio for so long".

He thanks everyone for "doing such a good job in my absence" and thanks the NHS, both for his care when he was suffering with coronavirus and for his "much happier visit" for the birth of his son yesterday.

The PM says the total number of deaths in the UK has now reached 26,711.

"We grieve for them and with them, but as we grieve we are strengthened in our resolve to defeat the virus," he says.

Johnson: UK is 'past the peak'

Boris Johnson says the UK is "past the peak" of coronavirus.

Apr 30, 2020

Italy confirms 285 deaths

Italy confirms 285 more coronavirus-related deaths.

The country's overall death toll is now 27,967.

Apr 30, 2020

African Countries Start Easing COVID-19 Confinement Measures

Brazzaville, 30 April 2020 – When COVID-19 emerged as a global health threat, African countries were quick to enact public health measures to slow the spread of the virus. Now as some countries begin to ease lockdowns, it is important to maintain strong surveillance, case finding, and testing among other control measures to halt the pandemic.

“National and regional lockdowns have helped to slow down the spread of COVID, but it remains a considerable public health threat,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Lockdowns are being eased in some parts of Africa, but we cannot just revert back to how things were before the outbreak. If governments abruptly end these measures, we risk losing the gains countries have made so far against COVID-19.”

Apr 30, 2020

Adhere To Strict COVID-19 Preventive Measures—MCEs Urge Ghanaians

Mr. Richard Amponsah the District Chief Executive for Achiase and Dean of Eastern Regional DCEs has told the public to adhere to the directives and strategies outlined to combat coronavirus by the President of the Republic.

He said the coronavirus has caused destructions to many countries including Ghana and that since the outbreak of the pandemic, the government under the leadership of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo has put a number of measures in place to curtail it.

Apr 30, 2020

Covid-19: Ghana Records 212 Recoveries

Some 24 more patients who were being treated for Coronavirus (Covid-19) in various health centers across have been declared recovered.

This new addition brings to 212, the total number of recoveries in Ghana as of April, 30.

Apr 30, 2020

US claims major breakthrough after positive trial of coronavirus drug remdesivir

A clinical trial of more than a thousand people has shown that patients taking remdesivir recovered 31 percent faster than those on a placebo, fueling hopes of a standard treatment for Covid-19.

"The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recover," Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) told reporters on Wednesday hours after early positive results from a trial of the antiviral drug.

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Apr 30, 2020

'Historic shock' as Covid-19 crisis slashes worldwide demand for fossil fuels

The Covid-19 pandemic is expected to lop 6 percent off the world's global energy demand this year – the steepest decline in seven decades – in what's been called an “historic shock to the entire energy world”.

In a report out Thursday, global watchdog the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the unprecedented drop amounted to losing the entire energy demand of India – the world's third largest energy consumer. In fact, the impact on fossil fuels is on track to be seven times greater than the slump caused by the global financial crisis in 2008.

AFP/File

Apr 30, 2020

Covid-19: Tamale Teaching Hospital Begins Testing Today

The Public Health and Reference Laboratory (PHRL) located within the premises of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in the Northern Region has begun testing for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The testing for the COVID-19 started today, Thursday, April 30, 2020, with a total of about 350 samples collected through contact tracing from some districts in the Northern region.

Apr 30, 2020

COVID-19 "What Happened To Military Brutalities; We Need To Hear Something" – Lawyer Sosu To Gov’t

Human rights lawyer Francis-Xavier Sosu has criticised the Akufo-Addo-led government for failing to account to the people of Ghana the progress made on its efforts to seek justice for victims of police and military brutalities recorded during the three-week partial lockdown in the Greater Accra, Kumasi and Kasoa areas.

The deployment of joint police and military teams to enforce the COVID-19 restrictive measures recorded some excesses, including the murder of a civilian at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region by a soldier who was enforcing lockdown directives.