COVID-19 Updates

Beijing, China | XINHUA | China is exporting COVID-19 vaccines to 27 countries and providing free vaccine aid to 53 countries in need, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday. Wang told a press briefing that vaccine aid from China has arrived in Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  Many COVID-19 survivors lose interest in the things they used to like, clinicians have revealed. As of February 22, 2021, Uganda had registered 14,478 COVID-19 recoveries countrywide. However, doctors say that 70 percent of the survivors lost interest in life, a condition referred to as …

Geneva, Switzerland | THE INDEPENDENT | World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has reached out to COVID-19 skeptic, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, promising to support the country’s health system. “COVID-19 is a serious disease that can cause severe illness and even death. National authorities everywhere must do all they can …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of health says it will administer the AstraZeneca vaccine eight weeks apart despite studies showing that administering the vaccine 12 weeks apart leads to higher efficacy of the vaccines. According to a study published in the medical journal, the Lancet that took place …

Pretoria, South Africa | Xinhua | A total of 570 police officers have succumbed to COVID-19 in South Africa while over 27,000 were infected, said Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday. Cele made the remarks in Pretoria while releasing the crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2020-2021 financial year. …

EU funding will, among others, contribute to ensuring the cold chains, roll-out registration programmes, training of medical and support staff as well as logistics.  Brussels, Belgium | THE INDEPENDENT | The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced today $121 million (€100 million) in humanitarian assistance to support the …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Nursery schools and other Early Childhood Development Centers (ECDs) will not be closed permanently. Their reopening however is dependent on the arrival of the much-awaited COVID-19 vaccines and their rollout. This pronouncement comes amidst fears that the Ministry of Education had banned nursery schools, and …

📌 Donations to COVAX for free #COVID19 vaccines ▶ US $4 billion ▶ EU $1.2 billion ▶ Germany $1.2 billion ▶ UK $734 million 📌 Uganda’s rollout plan – Phase 1 ✳ Health workers 150,000 people ✳ Security 250,000 ✳ Teachers 550,000 ✳ Over 50s 3.348 million ✳ Below 50s with underlying conditions 500,000 Joe Biden’s …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking nearly USD 2 billion to fund its 2021 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19 response which, was launched on Thursday in Geneva.  The 2021 plan will have six objectives: suppressing transmission, reducing exposure, countering misinformation and disinformation, …

  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Xinhua | The East Africa Community (EAC) economies have proven to be relatively resilient in terms of the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic despite greater need for economic diversification, according to a newly launched United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) report. The newly launched …