Could vitamin A help? Researchers at the University of East Anglia and James Paget University Hospital are launching a new project to see whether Vitamin A could help people regain their sense of smell after viral infections including COVID-19. Smell loss is a common symptom of COVID-19, but even before …
Read More »Soroti authorities suspend prayers over surging Covid-19 cases
Soroti, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Soroti district Covid-19 taskforce has suspended all church-related activities in Asuret sub county for a month following the increasing cases of Covid-19. Asuret sub county registered 173 cases of Covid-19 between September 22 and October 1, 2021. This is almost a quarter of the …
Read More »Covax misses its 2021 target
What’s gone wrong in the fight against vaccine nationalism and hoarding of vaccines by rich countries? | RORY HORNER | The latest supply forecast for Covax – the programme for sharing COVID-19 vaccines around the world – suggests that accelerating vaccination in low-income countries looks unlikely. Covax estimates it will …
Read More »Byanyima unpacks the knock-on effects of COVID-19 on HIV/AIDS
The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened global inequities. The world’s poor have borne the brunt of national lockdowns and will struggle to recover and poorer countries have been unable to rollout comprehensive vaccination campaigns because of a grossly unequal distribution of vaccines. On top of this COVID-19 has also derailed progress …
Read More »Loopholes in Entebbe testing identified, MOH to look at manifests
Entebbe, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Diana Atwine says that the ministry will compare data of arriving passengers tested at the government laboratory with the passenger manifests provided by airlines to look out for people who skip the mandatory COVID-19 testing …
Read More »Elegu border records sharp rise in Covid-19 cases
Amuru, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Elegu port health in Amuru district has recorded a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases among travelers being tested at the Uganda South Sudan border. Last month, out of the 2,594 samples tested by the health team, 92 people mostly travelers and …
Read More »Can Ugandans tax burden get any worse?
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | How does it matter that the tax on an individual’s contributions to the National Social Security Fund is deferred to the time of withdrawal of the benefits, as had earlier been proposed by the NSSF? The media reports that the government plans to tax the …
Read More »MPs query HIV extension services to DRC, as Arua registers new cases
Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of the Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS have queried the extension of services by Arua district to clients in DR Congo as more new cases are registered at home. According to statistics, Arua district has over 2,300 registered HIV clients, three quarters are women while …
Read More »Angola declares COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for adults
Luanda, Angola | Xinhua | Angola on Thursday made it mandatory for citizens 18 years or older to take the COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 15. “All citizens over 18 years of age are required to go to the vaccination posts,” Adao de Almeida, state minister and chief of staff of …
Read More »MPs demand public holiday for Covid-19 vaccination
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament want a public holiday declared so as to scale up vaccination of learners in order to achieve the vaccination target required to reopen schools. The MPs on the Parliamentary forum on children noted that the prolonged lockdown on schools has exacerbated cases of …
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