Kenya subsidises coronavirus tests for hotel workers
Kenyan hotel owners will have to pay $20 (£16) for a Covid-19 test for each of their employees before they can be allowed to reopen, the ministry of health has said. This is a subsidised rate for a test that costs around $100 at private...
South Africa begins easing coronavirus restrictions
South Africa will from Friday start easing some of its coronavirus restrictions after five weeks of lockdown Some businesses will be allowed to reopen, restaurants can deliver food and families will be allowed to leave home to exercise. But the government will deploy more troops...
Nigeria lockdown sees rise in domestic violence
Domestic and sexual violence experts in Nigeria say they have seen an increase in the number of people asking them for help. It comes as the United Nations warns of a shadow pandemic with rising reports of physical and verbal abuse in homes around the...
Liberian government ‘screens lab technicians’ phones’
Health authorities in Liberia have reportedly invited the National Security Agency “to screen” the phones of laboratory technicians because of coronavirus test results leaking to the public, the independent Monrovia’s OK-FM has reported. Quoting technicians, the station reported that the action became necessary when news...
Sierra Leone jail set ablaze after coronavirus riot
There has been an attempted prison break in Sierra Leone after a recently arrived inmate developed symptoms of coronavirus. A warden was killed and several others injured in the riot at Pademba Road prison in the capital, Freetown. The jail was set ablaze. Pademba Road...
Nigeria to reopen government offices and banks
The Nigerian government has announced the reopening of government offices and banks starting on Monday. The presidential task force for coronavirus said the reopening is part of the phased easing of lockdown in the capital, Abuja, the commercial city of Lagos and Ogun state. The...
Pompeo chides South Africa for taking Cuban doctors
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised South Africa for accepting more than 200 Cuban medics to help battle coronavirus. Mr Pompeo accused Cuba of profiting from the pandemic, the AFP news agency reports. “We’ve noticed how the regime in Havana has taken...
Prime minister of Guinea-Bissau tests positive
Nuno Gomes Nabiam, the prime minister of Guinea-Bissau, and three of his cabinet have tested positive for coronavirus. They were quarantined in a hotel in the capital Bissau after the results were confirmed on Tuesday, the health ministry said in a statement. The west African...
Cuban doctors ruffle feathers in South Africa
The arrival of more than 200 Cuban medics in South Africa to help battle coronavirus has received mixed reactions, with some of the sharpest criticism coming from the South African Medical Association (Sama). The organisation, which represents about 16,000 health workers, says it welcomes extra...
Hundreds of Moroccan inmates test positive for virus
Some 313 coronavirus cases have been reported in Moroccan jails following mass testing for Covid-19. The authorities say Ouarzazate prison in central Morocco recorded 303 cases, while 10 other cases were in Oudaya prison in Marrakesh and Ksar Kebir prison in the north-west. Most of...
Uganda president blasts MPs over coronavirus funds
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has blasted MPs for allocating themselves a total of 10bn Ugandan shillings ($2.6m; £2m) to enable each of them to raise awareness about coronavirus. The president said it was “morally reprehensible” to allocate funding to themselves instead of district committees created...
What is behind Nigeria’s unexplained deaths in Kano?
The Nigerian president has expressed deep concern over a high number of unexplained deaths in the northern state of Kano, amid fears they could be caused by Covid-19. President Muhammadu Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and...
Lebanon to relax some coronavirus restrictions from Monday
Lebanon is relaxing some of its coronavirus restrictions, known as the “general mobilization,” by increasing the opening hours for some commercial and industrial enterprises in the country starting Monday. The decree, issued by the Minister of Interior, Mohammed Fahmi, has amended the opening and closing...
Coronavirus: Cuban doctors go to South Africa
More than 200 doctors from Cuba are due to arrive in South Africa to help fight coronavirus. The medics left on a plane that first carried a donation of South African medical supplies to the Caribbean island, its embassy in Pretoria said. They are among...
What life after lockdown could look like — and it is intense
What will the new normal look like when the lockdown finally ends? If it’s anything like Taiwan, it will be a lot less social and a lot more authoritarian. Taiwan was one of the few places in the world that didn’t go into lockdown and...
Over 200,000 now dead worldwide from COVID-19
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed over 200,000 people worldwide. More than 2.89 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and...
He is one of the first in the US injected with a possible Covid-19 vaccine
Despite all his medical knowledge, 31-year-old medical student and Ph. D. candidate Sean Doyle couldn’t know for certain all the risks of the injection he had just received in his right shoulder at Emory University Hospital. Yes, of course he was told of the potential...
Here’s who is joining the World Health Organization’s new vaccine efforts
Leaders from around the world joined the World Health Organization, after it announced the launch of a new effort to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what they’re saying: Melinda Gates, speaking for the Bill and...
Trump speaks to African leaders on Covid-19 response
US President Donald Trump held telephone conversations with two African leaders about their responses to the coronavirus pandemic Mr Trump spoke with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya on Thursday. He offered assistance to South Africa to support its efforts...
Coronavirus: South Africa to ease lockdown restrictions
South Africa’s president has announced an easing of some lockdown restrictions beginning next month, citing economic concerns. But President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that most people should remain at home, public gatherings remain banned, and the country’s borders will stay closed. From 1 May, some businesses...
Algeria lifts lockdown on coronavirus epicentre
Algeria has ended a full lockdown on the northern Blida province, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, and replaced it with a curfew during the holy month of Ramadhan. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad said the curfew will begin at 14:00 local time...
Egypt reduces curfew hours for Ramadhan
Egypt’s prime minister has announced that night-time curfew hours will be shortened during the holy month of Ramadhan. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the curfew will begin at 21:00 local time (19:00GMT), an hour later than the previous time, starting Friday. More businesses will be...
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: The Ethiopian at the heart of the coronavirus fight
What a challenge to be the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the time of the coronavirus. The entire planet hanging on your every word, addressing daily press conferences at the headquarters in Geneva to detail an ever increasing number of cases in...
‘Don’t give Tanzanians false hopes’ about coronavirus
Tanzanian opposition leader Zitto Kabwe has warned the government against giving false hopes as coronavirus cases in the country rise significantly. Mr Kabwe said citizens needed to be told of the true picture about the pandemic. The country confirmed 30 new cases on Wednesday, pushing...
Fears of front-line Egyptian doctor in UK on visa
An Egyptian doctor on the front line of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has spoken emotionally to BBC Radio London about his fears that his family could be kicked out of the country if he becomes ill and dies from coronavirus in the course...
Coronavirus: Nigeria reports 91 new cases
Nigeria has recorded 91 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the country’s total number to 873. The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control said 74 new cases were recorded in the commercial capital, Lagos, which remains the epicentre of transmission with more than 500 cases. The capital,...
Kenya quarantine escapees arrested in bar
Police in Kenya have arrested two people who escaped from a coronavirus quarantine centre in the capital, Nairobi. They were among dozens of others who were filmed jumping over a wall of the quarantine centre, drawing public condemnation. The two were arrested while drinking at...
Lagos sees food delivery boom amid lockdown
Home delivery of groceries and food is providing a needed lifeline to many residents in Nigeria’s main commercial city, Lagos, who are staying and working at home because of a coronavirus lockdown. Women who provide food delivery services to homes across the city have seen...
Kenya hunts those filmed fleeing coronavirus quarantine centre
Kenyans filmed escaping from a coronavirus quarantine centre will be hunted down and sent back there, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said. “We know you and we will find you,” he said, adding that the escapees were putting the lives of others at risk. The warning...
Lagos hospital shuts down over Covid-19 fears
A major private hospital in Nigeria’s commercial capital has suspended operations because of exposure to coronavirus. St Nicholas Hospital said in a statement that it would stop offering services for two weeks. The hospital’s clinical director said the premises would be disinfected and closed during...