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by Michelle FITZPATRICK FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Covid-19 vaccine makers BioNTech and Pfizer on Wednesday said they had found a South African partner to produce their jab on the African continent for the first time. The move comes amid growing criticism of vaccine inequality that has seen poor countries fall behind richer ones in the race to protect people from the coronavirus. Under the agreement, Cape Town-based Biovac will complete the last step in the […]
by Malick KONATE BAMAKO, Mali ( AFP) — Mali’s interim president Colonel Assimi Goita was “safe and sound”, his office said, after an assassination attempt by two men, one wielding a knife, during prayers at a mosque in Bamako on Tuesday. An AFP journalist who witnessed the attack said the assailants lunged at Goita, who was quickly whisked away by security. The journalist also said he saw blood at the scene, though it was not […]
by Susan NJANJI Agence France Presse JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Stores and warehouses in South Africa were hit by looters Tuesday for a fifth day running despite the troops President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed to try to quell unrest that has claimed 72 lives. As pillaging erupted in the economic capital of Johannesburg and the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s main opposition accused radicals of stoking the unrest. The armed forces were sending […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Coronavirus is surging in Africa with a record average number of new cases according to an AFP tally based on official sources on Tuesday at 1815 GMT. It said 6,009,854 cases have been officially counted in Africa’s 54 nations and territories since the virus was first discovered in December 2019 in China. The number of new cases is growing at more than 41,400 per day — a 13 percent increase over […]
KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — The Delta variant of coronavirus is driving the pandemic forward in Africa at record speeds, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday. Infection numbers have increased in Africa for six weeks running, rising by a quarter week-on-week to almost 202,000 in the week that ended Sunday, it said. The continent’s weekly record currently stands at 224,000 new cases. Deaths rose by 15 percent across 38 African countries to nearly […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa, the worst virus-hit country in the continent, on Monday crossed the threshold of 60,000 coronavirus deaths, health officials announced, a day after a stricter lockdown was enforced. “A further 138 covid-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 60,038 to date,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases tweeted on Monday. At least 512 new hospital admissions were reported on Monday, pushing the total number of hospitalized […]
PRETORIA, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday reimposed restrictions for two weeks to combat a surge in the highly contagious coronavirus Delta variant. The worst-hit country on the continent “is facing a massive resurgence of infection,” the president said in a televised address to the nation. “Our health facilities are stretched to the limit… ICU beds are in short supply,” he said as he placed the country on alert level […]
by Catherine SCHENCK SOWETO, South Africa (AFP) — A 19-coach train pulled into the Dube station of South Africa’s emblematic Soweto township early in the morning to bring desperately-needed and virtually free medical services to poor residents. Equipped with instruments and gear for optometry, dentistry, general medicine, psychology and a pharmacy — the Phelophepa clinic-on-rails criss-crosses the country for nine months a year. Law student Retshepile Mosena, 18, was among the hundreds that thronged the […]
NZEREKOE, Guinea (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Saturday officially announced the end of Guinea’s second Ebola outbreak which was declared in February and claimed 12 lives. At 16 confirmed cases and seven probable infections according to WHO figures, the limited size of the latest flare-up has been credited to experience from the 2013-16 epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Just 12 people died this time […]
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Oscar-winning actor Angelina Jolie on Sunday visited a refugee camp in Burkina Faso sheltering thousands of Malians who have fled jihadist violence in the region. Jolie visited the camp at Goudebou, in the northeast of the landlocked west African country, as part of her role as an ambassador for the UN refugee organisation, the UNHCR. Jolie arrived by helicopter accompanied by Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry for a ceremony […]
by Laurent Lozano DAKAR, Senegal (AFP) — Guinea will announce an end to its Ebola epidemic this weekend, the health minister said Thursday, hailing the rapid response to the second outbreak of the disease in the country. Speaking during a webinar hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Health Minister Remy Lamah said the viral epidemic will be declared over on Saturday — barring the discovery of new cases. “The availability of epidemic treatment centres […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Nearly 90 percent of African countries will miss a target of vaccinating a tenth of their population by September unless they urgently receive more than 200 million jabs, the WHO warned Thursday. “Only seven African countries (out of 54) are likely to reach the target,” the World Health Organization’s director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said in an online briefing. At least 225 million jabs are urgently required if the majority […]
