COVID-19 Updates

Many people with mental disorders are not receiving treatment in poor and middle-income countries, causing an unprecedented global crisis Madrid, Spain | Xinhua | Mental health problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be the next pandemic, said a study issued by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) on Monday. …

Wellington, New Zealand | XINHUA |  New Zealand’s successful management of COVID-19 pandemic means quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on April 19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Tuesday. The conditions for starting to open up quarantine free travel with Australia have been met, Ardern told a …

  Washington, US | THE INDEPENDENT | The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal, seeing greater demand for takeaway meals, and ketchup packets to go with french fries in particular. The Wall Street Journal has reported a shortage in the US, with Kraft Heinz, which makes most of the …

Harare, Zimbabwe | XINHUA |  Zimbabwe’s capital Harare has opened more immunization centers during the Easter weekend in a bid to ramp up vaccinations against the pandemic. Twenty-four centers including hospitals, polyclinics and satellite clinics have been designated as vaccination centers in the city of about 1.5 million people, the …

Madrid, Spain | XINHUA |  A boy born last week on the Spanish island of Ibiza has become the first newborn in Spain with COVID-19 antibodies, after his mother received the vaccine in the third trimester of her pregnancy, according to local media reports. A sample from the baby’s umbilical …

Kenya received 1.02 million AstraZeneca COVID vaccines under the COVAX facility Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | The demand for inoculation against the novel coronavirus among Kenyan citizens has spiked in recent times amid prodding by national leaders and jitters occasioned by a third wave marked by rising infections and fatalities. A …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | All staff members at Uganda Cancer Institute will have to get a COVID-19 jab, the management has announced. A tweet by UCI says that all staff members will be required to get the vaccine. “Because the staff of the UCI is constantly interacting with patients, …

Roll-out of these vaccines is unacceptably slow according to Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe Copenhagen, Denmark | Xinhua | As the European region currently fights a resurgence of COVID-19 transmissions, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe on Thursday called upon the governments in the region …

Pfizer-BioNTech says its COVID vaccine 100% effective in teens Berlin, Germany | Xinhua | German biotechnology company BioNTech and U.S. company Pfizer said on Wednesday that their COVID-19 vaccine was 100-percent efficient in children aged between 12 and 15. The BNT162b2 vaccine was “well tolerated” and elicited robust antibody responses that …

Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A 15-year- old girl was among the candidates who wrote her Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) at Arua Prisons Primary School, Arua City. The girl who is a mother of a one-month-old baby gave birth during the lockdown when schools were closed following the outbreak …