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The CS averred that the movement of the military is nothing new nor extraordinary.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
[Nation] The High Court has reversed President Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to transfer the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation to the Ministry of Defence.
(CALMATTERS) - In the face of a “surge on top of a surge,” Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today the strictest measure in months for a regional stay-at-home order tied to the number of intensive care beds as hospitals near their capacity in the face of a statewide coronavirus surge. The governor’s order calls for tougher […]
According to the DA, the UIF funds were then rapidly disbursed to friends and business associates over the course of five days.
Black Women's Equal Pay Day fell on August, 13, 2020. This means that Black women had to work an additional seven and a half months this year—in addition to the […]
The post Black Women, COVID-19 And Equal Pay appeared first on Essence.
While Covid-19 is the most talked about virus, TB and diabetes are silent killers that remain the leading causes of natural deaths in South Africa.
Mkhize added the hype about Covid-19 should not fool anyone into thinking other diseases, which are prevalent in South Africa, have subsided.
According to non-profit think tank Copenhagen Consensus Centre, about 450 000 people developed TB in South Africa annually, with 270 000 of those also living with HIV.
He said: \"By the time we get to the end of the year you will find that the number of people who died from Covid-19 will be less than the number of people who died from other diseases.\"
\"That is the point I was making earlier that we will not lose focus on the need to attend to HIV, antiretroviral treatment, TB treatment, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and mental health -all these are very important to us.\"
A year after Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter invested in Partake Foods, a Black-owned vegan cookie company, the healthy snack brand has landed another superstar investor.
“We are so excited to welcome our new investors,” said Denise Woodard, Partake’s CEO and founder, in a statement.
I am excited to partner with Partake, and help to grow and support their business,” said H.E.R.
Partake Foods (file)
Woodard, the daughter of African American and Korean parents, founded Partake Foods in 2016 after her daughter had a frightening allergic reaction to a corn and peanut snack.
In addition to taking Partake to the next level, the investment made Woodard the first Black woman to ever raise over $1 million for a food startup company.
Denise Woodard, her daughter, and her husband (file)
According to a press release, Partake will use the additional capital to support expansion.
Boston city councilors are pushing to ban facial recognition, a surveillance software that disproportionately misidentifies people of color and may violate civil rights and basic privacies.
“The department, for the record, does not currently have the technology for facial recognition,” said Police Commissioner William G. Gross.
Although the BPD has no desire to generally surveil Boston’s residents, said Gross, the department notes a distinction between facial surveillance systems and facial recognition technology.
He added that facial recognition technology with well-established guidelines and under strict review would be helpful to the city.
Facial surveillance technology also raises concerns over monitoring students in schools.
[Ghanaian Times] Ghana's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is expected to exceed one billion dollars, Mr Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana's Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has said.
Ramaphosa addressed the nation on 3 December and warned that Sarah Baartman District and the Garden Route could face additional restrictions.
Rwandan lawmakers have endorsed plans to give more powers to the president to create and disband public institutions and state-owned companies as the country seeks to improve efficiency and minimise waste.
While currently, parliament determines establishment and dissolution of public institutions, Article 4 of a draft law, establishing provisions governing public institutions, says establishment and dissolution of a public institution will be determined by a presidential order.
The Auditor-General noted that some institutions — particularly public utilities including Rwanda Energy Group (REG) and the Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasac) — have habitually mismanaged state resources.
MPs who voted for the Bill say they were compelled by the \"abnormally long procedures\" required to establish public institutions, yet important strategies like the like National Strategy for Transformation require “accelerated implementation by public institutions.”
Frank Habineza, the Green Party MP who voted against the Bill, said that “it is not right to concentrate all powers in one arm of government.
A curfew has once again been extended - this time in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape after it was declared a hotspot.
Sullivan said he wanted that classroom to send a message about learning: “Even though I was the substitute until the end of the year, we wanted it to look a certain kind of way because we had expectations for all of the students,” he said.
And despite the early end to the school year, Sullivan and his team still must handle retirements and hiring in time for the first day of classes in August.
Although he was thin, Sullivan played football and was a receiver during his first two years of high school.
That one male teacher in the school gets to do a little of everything,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan later worked with Drew at Center Street Middle School and on the leadership team in the school system office.
Watch BET UK on Sky 173, Virgin 184 Freesat 140
[ANGOP] Luanda -The National Assembly will review on Tuesday the impact of the State of Emergency that was in force in Angola from 27 March to 25 May this year.
Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services [MDHHS], Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, and MDHHS Director Robert Gordon provided an update on COVID-19, which includes extending the three-week pause to 12 days [until Dec. 20] after reports of hospitals being overwhelmed and COVID-19 infection rates still not improving. “A … Continued
The post ‘Our Progress is Fragile:’ MDHHS Extends Three-Week Pause to 12 More Days appeared first on The Michigan Chronicle.
Students of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, will be able to access medical care islandwide at private and public institutions come September 2020, following the passing of an extended health-card policy led by the students’ guild.
Prior to the policy change, students were only able to obtain medical services and prescription drugs at the UWI Health Centre or at public hospitals in Jamaica.
All registered students become eligible for the university’s mandatory health insurance plan and are issued health cards at the start of each academic year, once their miscellaneous fees have been paid.
Guild President Christina Williams told The Gleaner that over the years, hundreds of students, including her, opted not to collect their health cards because of the limited access it provides.
The policy change will reflect a $450 increase in the health insurance fee paid by students for the upcoming academic year.
Anthony Anderson and his mother, Doris Anderson, have partnered with Northwestern Mutual to help spread the word about the virtues of financial planning.
By Yasin Muhammad Although I haven't grown up in a Christian household, the spirit of Christmas had always been attractive to me, at least the toys gifts, and fun on the holidays. I knew it represented the day Jesus was born but I didn’t know […]
The post Christmas Spirit in Bushwick appeared first on The New York Beacon.
BY VENERANDA LANGA JUSTICE minister Ziyambi Ziyambi yesterday told Parliament that a law that Zanu PFs proposed Patriotic Act to instil patriotism among citizens had been delayed by COVID-19 which resulted in short staffing at his ministry. Ziyambi was responding to a question by Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi who had asked him to explain the Act would be promulgated. Togarepi said the law was urgent. The law is widely viewed as targeted at the opposition. If enacted, its objectives include penalising Zimbabweans that speak ill about the country at international forums. It also targets Zimbabweans who go outside the country calling for sanctions. Zanu PF also wants such people to be classified as terrorists. “Most progressive countries protect their territorial integrity to ensure that their citizens do not go about selling out their country to other nations. Ziyambi added: “I have entrusted my officers to do research on this law. We were actually slowed down by the COVID-19 outbreak which resulted in us being short staffed. However, before the end of the year you must see something happening about this Bill.”
As the country's attention turns from flattening the curve through a lockdown to the preparedness of health systems, the latest statistics released by the Gauteng government show 58 people are currently hospitalised in public and private facilities across the province.
A total of 303 patients have been admitted to public and private hospitals in Gauteng since the outbreak of Covid-19, with 231 in-patients being discharged.
According to Makhura, there were approximately 8 301 beds in both the public and private sectors.
To date, it has 1 262 adult general beds in the private sector and 287 in the public sector.
In addition, there are 150 paediatric beds in the private sector and 35 in public institutions, while there are 169 intensive care and high care unit beds in private hospitals and 302 in public, bringing the total beds in Johannesburg to 2 205.
The emergence of new outbreaks in several parts of South Africa has raised fears of a resurgence of the coronavirus, which could be encouraged by the expected gatherings during the festive season.
Authorities in the African country officially most affected by Covid-19 have been struggling to control the number of outbreaks since an increase was reported in November in the neighboring Eastern and Western (Southern) Cape provinces.
Nationally, the daily number of new cases has surpassed 3,000, a 50% jump from an average of 2,000 earlier in November.
More than half of this increase came from infections in the Eastern Cape and about 25% from the Western Cape Province.
\"The small outbreaks we are seeing right now (...) are temporary. Something must be done,\" Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said last week.
The rate of coronavirus transmission in South Africa had dropped sharply after peaking in July, with fewer than three cases detected daily per 100,000 people between late August and early November.
But the lull was short-lived, and authorities are now trying to combat a possible resurgence of the epidemic.
\"We are not in the second wave but in these two provinces (...) we are in full resurgence,\" commented the government adviser in charge of the fight against the coronavirus, Salim Abdool Karim.
If these new epidemic outbreaks are not contained, it is \"only a matter of time\" for the whole country to be affected, he warned.
In the Eastern Cape's largest city, Port Elizabeth, hospitals are already struggling with the rebound of the epidemic, although local authorities say the situation is under control.
'Chronic shortages'
Still reeling from the shock of the first wave, the health services requested assistance from the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in three public facilities.
\"The hospitals are really overwhelmed with a large number of patients, some even say more than in July,\" said an MSF official for the province, Dr. Colin Pfaff.
\"The facilities are understaffed,\" he added, criticizing \"chronic shortages\" and citing contamination among medical staff.
Private facilities are also affected.
\"Our hospitals in the Eastern Cape are incredibly full at the moment,\" Richard Friedland, head of South Africa's largest private medical network, Netcare, told AFP last week.
\"We still have the capacity to treat new cases\" with the installation of additional beds, he assured nevertheless.
While the provincial government assures that hospitals are neither \"full\" nor \"overwhelmed\", the South African Physicians Association accused the Department of Health this week of not providing adequate support to \"overwhelmed\" staff.
South Africa has recorded 792,000 cases, including more than 21,600 deaths, for a population of nearly 58 million people.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ruled out a new lockdown at this stage.
The stringent infections which came into effect at the end of March have seriously affected the economy of the most industrialized country on the continent, causing 2.2 million people to lo
“A request has been made to the Government to continue with this facility until the end of 2020 so that sites can continue to practise social distancing, but more importantly, keep workers safe and employed,” said Gloria Henry, president of the GSAJ, formerly the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica.
The temporary closure of all non-essential BPO operations across the island for 14 days will expire on June 4, but with companies realising significant savings in operational costs, some are considering broadening the work-at-home service.
Daryl Vaz, who heads the BPO caucus of the Government’s Economic Recovery Task Force, has approved several new protocols to ensure that all operators implement preventative measures against the transmission of COVID-19.
“As much as 89 of the country’s 91 BPOs have been inspected, and the number of satisfactory ones, so far, is 57,” Vaz told a recent COVID-19 press conference at Jamaica House, adding that those numbers should increase gradually as inspections were ongoing.
“Jamaica is a natural fit for business process and knowledge process and global-services operations, and we will intensify our efforts in this regard, which will include improvements to our legal and regulatory framework and expanding our investment portfolio in the infrastructure to support the BPO industry,” Holness said.
THE European Union (EU) is supporting University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Ministry of Health and Wellness to develop a national deceased organ transplant programme to address the steadily increasing prevalence of renal failure and end-stage renal disease in the region.
Trump administration extends green card ban, adds restrictions on some work visas
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\t\tOn Monday, the Trump administration said that it was extending the ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and adding many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations.
This follows the 60-day ban on green cards issued abroad in April, which was set to expire Monday.
The ban on new visas applies to H-1B visas, which are widely used by major American and Indian technology company workers and their families, H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, J-1 visas for cultural exchanges and L-1 visas for managers and other key employees of multinational corporations.
There will be exemptions for food processing workers, which make up about 15% of H-2B visas, the official said.
The temporary ban would amount to a major restructuring of legal immigration if made permanent.
Several leaders from the Meru region Friday condemned the decision by the Senate to remove Tharaka-Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki from the position of deputy Speaker.
The MPs from Meru, Embu and Tharaka-Nithi counties accused the Jubilee Party leadership of sidelining the Mt Kenya East region.
Mr Josphat Gichunge (Tigania East), John Mutunga (Tigania West), Mugambi Rindikiri (Buuri), Moses Kirima (Imenti Central), Gitonga Murugara (Tharaka), Patrick Munene (Chuka-Igambang’ombe), Tharaka-Nithi Woman Representative Beatrice Nkatha and Meru Senator Mithika Linturi spoke out in support of Prof Kindiki.
Mr Linturi also lambasted Majority Leader Irungu Kang’ata over a letter demanding that he “must attend the special sitting and vote in line with the party position.”
Earlier, however, other leaders, including Njuri Ncheke elders, had chosen a reconciliatory tone, pleading with President Kenyatta to forgive Prof Kindiki and intervene to stop the ouster.
People living with HIV and AIDS are having difficulties in accessing second line drugs from public institutions and are being forced to buy them from pharmacies at US$25 for one-month's supply.
Mr Stanley Takaona of the Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist Union Community Trust (ZHAUCT) said some members of his organisation were turned away from Wilkins Hospital and given prescriptions to source the drugs from pharmacies.
Mr Takaona said second and third line drug regimens were expensive and turning away patients on ART was akin to passing a death sentence on them.
\"Patients cannot afford the high cost of drugs in these Covid-19 times where supplies from pharmacies cost US$25.
Mr Takaona said under normal circumstances, ART patients on the second line drug regime received drug supplies of up to three months.
