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The African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team – established by AU chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa – has secured a provisional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries.
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
BY MOSES MATENGA THE ruling Zanu PF and opposition MDC Alliance yesterday said they were going ahead with preparations for by-elections despite the recent poll ban imposed by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga. In announcing the ban, Chiwenga, who doubles as Health minister, cited COVID-19 fears, but his decision has been widely dismissed with the World Health Organisation last week saying elections could still be safely held as long as authorities enforce certain safety measures. Some voters have challenged the ban in court, with constitutional law experts saying they stood a greater chance of winning the case. At the weekend, both parties were in the trenches holding primary elections in various parts of the country, saying they were confident the ban would be reversed soon. Several constituencies are without representation in Parliament after Thokozani Khupe recalled 32 MDC Alliance MPs accusing them of defecting from her MDC-T party. Zanu PF national commissar Victor Matemadanda said his party was on the ground for any eventuality, insisting that the people needed representation “at all times”. “The ban doesn’t have anything to do with the preparation because COVID-19 will come to an end and elections will be there, but meanwhile, people want service, so we can’t have a time we say politics is on leave in a constituency where there are people,” Matemadanda said. “Therefore, we are preparing until elections are called for so we remain prepared.” Zanu PF held primary elections in Epworth where Kudakwashe Damson emerged victorious. This was the second primary election after Chiwenga’s declaration, with the one held in Kwekwe Central to replace the late National Patriotic Front MP Masango Matambanadzo being aborted due to intra-party violence. The Epworth seat fell vacant following the recall of MDC Alliance MP Ethenrige Kureva by Khupe. The MDC Alliance also held primary elections in Kuwadzana to choose a candidate to replace Miriam Mushayi who passed on in September. Party secretary-general Chalton Hwende said the ban was unconstitutional and by-elections would be held anytime. “We held a primary election for Kuwadzana where we lost Honourable Mushayi. We are not doing primary elections for the recalled MPs because we have maintained that the move was unconstitutional,” Hwende said. Hwende is one of the 32 MPs recalled by the MDC-T. “We have maintained that the ban on by-elections is unconstitutional and Parliament has weighed in and also stated that it is unconstitutional. “We insist the law must be upheld and that is why we are busy preparing and also Zanu PF is preparing because they know that they cannot violate the Constitution. Zanu PF is also holding primary elections and it means they are preparing for elections anytime.” Last month, Chiwenga announced postponement of the by-elections indefinitely before Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda told Parliament on Thursday that Statutory Instrument 225A of 2020 had been deemed unconstitutional by the Parliamentary Legal Committee. He, however, appeared to make a
Last month, President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to temporarily cut U.S. funding to the World Health Organization.
Health experts point out that Trump’s increasing attacks on the World Health Organization for its handling of the coronavirus demonstrate a misunderstanding of the U.N. agency’s role and could ultimately serve to weaken global health.
Devi Sridhar, a professor of global health at the University of Edinburgh, said the letter was likely written for Trump’s political base and meant to deflect blame for the virus’ devastating impact in the U.S., which has the most infections and coronavirus deaths in the world.
Trump’s threat to permanently withdraw funding from the WHO follows a pattern of attacks on world organizations that began long before the coronavirus outbreak.
The president has questioned the value of the U.S. funding sent to the United Nations, has withdrawn from global climate agreements and lambasted the World Trade Organization — claiming all were ripping off the U.S.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has criticized China and global institutions for problems plaguing the U.S., and the coronavirus pandemic is the latest of his attacks.
\"Test, test, test\" has been the mantra for defeating the novel coronavirus, but African countries are finding themselves at the end of a long global queue for the chemical reagents and other commodities necessary for administering diagnostic tests, according to public health experts.
Although mass testing is seen as a key component to slowing transmission, African health authorities are struggling to compete with richer, more powerful countries when it comes to procuring the scarce testing material on the global market, notes a new commentary published in The Lancet scientific journal.
Building self-sufficiency
Many African researchers foresaw this scarcity and the consequent need for African countries to be as self-sufficient as possible when it comes to diagnostic tests.
Given the global shortages - particularly the reagents necessary to run polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which remain almost exclusively the basis for diagnosis - African countries need to take two paths forward, suggests Dr. Misaki Wayengera of Uganda's Makerere University.
But there are only a few diagnostics manufacturing facilities across Africa that have developed RDTs and could work on COVID-19 solutions, acknowledged Dr. Moses Alobo of the African Academy of Sciences, who is leading the effort to coordinate elite researchers across the continent.
China has pledged to supply any vaccine against Coronavirus to African first free of charge.
Five out of 10 potential vaccines undergoing clinical trials have been developed by Chinese scientists, while a sixth is the result of a partnership between a Chinese company and a German biotech firm, according to the World Health Organisation
\tChinese President Xi Jinping spoke to an online coronavirus forum with the leaders of several African nations on Thursday.
“We gathered here with our new and old friends through video to discuss anti-epidemic cooperation and cement China-Africa brotherhood,” said Xi in a speech on Wednesday aired on state media.
Xi added China would push the Group of 20 to slow down debt repayment for African nations and that China’s construction of a new Africa Center of Disease Control headquarters would start “ahead of schedule” this year, despite the pandemic.
State media reported China has sent 30 million testing kits, 10,000 ventilators 80 million masks monthly to Africa, in addition to teams of experts to help nations fight the coronavirus.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has announced that the National COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinating Committee will soon be established.\tThis comes as more pharmaceutical companies have reported success in the efficacy of new vaccines to mitigate...
In these uncertain times, it is important that people work together to ensure that they do all they can to prevent the further spread of the virus.
Luckily, mobile money has been a key element of how people manage their finances in Tanzania and East Africa in general for many years now.
There are numerous benefits to mobile money that Tanzania has enjoyed in recent years.
These benefits have been largely driven by innovative telecoms companies, like Tigo Tanzania, who have worked to create user friendly mobile money services such as Tigo Pesa.
More online solutions together with all our other health measures that are already in place will help minimise the spread of COVID-19 and help keep people safe.
Kenyans have until five o’clock today to give their views to the National Covid-19 Education Response Committee that will advise Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on whether schools should reopen on June 4 or the date be postponed.
This comes as a task force on the reopening of schools chaired by Ms Sarah Ruto continued to receive views from education stakeholders on when traditional learning should resume in school.
Ms Makori made the request to the Senate’s Committee on Education amid reports that some private schools were compelling parents to pay full fees or their children would be expelled for delayed payment of fees.
The 10-member team appointed by Prof Magoha on Tuesday will also explore ways of restoring normality in the school calendar.
Prof Magoha’s decision to exclude teachers’ unions from the committee has rubbed teachers the wrong way, although he has incorporated the leaders of school heads associations.
As government looks mainly to the public purse to foot the bill for the COVID-19 vaccine, the SACP has said there must be no room for corruption in the sourcing of treatment
The government Wednesday launched protocols for home-based isolation and care, anticipating to discharge asymptomatic Covid-19 positive cases.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Rashid Aman said the implementation of the protocols would start “immediately\", meaning that, from Thursday, Covid-19 positive patients who do not have any symptoms will start getting discharged.
He noted that it had become untenable to isolate all Covid-19 cases in hospitals due to the increased number of infections, and the challenge in capacity at health facilities.
Many of those reported positive Wednesday were truck drivers most from various border points, the highest being 18 from the Malaba border point in Busia
Turkana also registered seven cases, all of them truckers, at the Nadapal entry point.
Currently, the total number of positive Covid-19 cases in the country is 3,094 and the total number of samples tested is 102,956.
Described as an onset of high blood pressure during pregnancy, the exact reason for the prevalence of preeclampsia in Uganda is unknown due to the fact that detailed clinical records of all births are lacking.
Also responsible for cases of miscarriage and low birth weight, the condition usually begins after the fifth month of pregnancy in women whose blood pressure had been normal, according to experts.
Dr Ononge said preeclampsia is basically managed in hospital where the blood pressure is controlled.
According to Dr Richard Idro, preeclampsia raises the blood pressure and it starts damaging the kidney and so protein starts leaking into the urine.
\"If the blood pressure rises too high it starts affecting the blood vessels in the brain and the mother can die,\" Dr Idro said.
African leaders have lauded the launch of the continent's first medical supplies platform as the \"jewel in the crown of Pan-African cooperation\".
On Thursday, African Union (AU) chairperson President Cyril Ramaphosa, AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki and the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Dr John Nkengasong held a media briefing, giving an update on the platform.
Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa, who was appointed as the AU special envoy leading global mobilisation of medical test kits and protective equipment for the continent this month, gave a brief presentation of how the Africa medical supplies platform would operate.
Vera Songwe, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said the platform was initially developed to assist with maternal and childcare in a bid to connect mothers to women pharmaceutical producers on the continent as big pharmaceutical companies refuse to deliver to small islands with ports that are seen as too small.
The Africa CDC director said the organisation regularly engaged with African countries seeking data on the spread of the pandemic, and the approach was to emphasise cooperation and the sharing of information in a timely fashion.
[ICG] Nairobi/Brussels -- Somalia's elections are fast approaching but the proper arrangements for monitoring and dispute resolution are not in place. To give authorities time to make procedural reforms, and thus lower the odds of turmoil, politicians should seek consensus behind a delay of one to three months.
OVER FIFTY women have accused charity workers of sex abuse in Congo during the ebola...
The post Charities accused of sexual abuse in DR Congo during Ebola crisis appeared first on Voice Online.
