Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has advised that there are new operating hours for the designated COVID-19 testing sites. The opening times for the Branford Taitt Polyclinic, Black Rock, St Michael, are weekdays from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. On weekends and holidays, it will operate from 8 […]
The post Revised times for national COVID-19 testing centres appeared first on Barbados Today.
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.
He also said whereas government will distribute free masks to all Ugandans aged six years and above, others are free to buy their own facemasks.
Dr Aceng recommended that facemasks should preferably be made of cotton fabrics and have filters that they can wash or replace after use.
Dr Julius Lutwama, a virologist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, said one has to change their facemasks at least three times a day, especially those working from public places such as markets, since the mask lets in tiny particles due to moist from saliva.
Dr Aceng said there is a shortage of fabric masks, especially N95, and urged Ugandans to reserve them for health workers.
A person wearing a mask needs to stay two metres away from other people while in public because coronavirus can still go through the eyes and touching other surfaces.
Twenty-six new COVID cases were recorded yesterday with fifteen of them originating from Region Ten, according to the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) dashboard.
The article Twenty-six new COVID cases registered appeared first on Stabroek News.
[New Times] Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) is planning the inclusion of Covid-19 tests in different health insurance schemes, The New Times has learned.
Amid the ongoing global battle against the novel virus, some countries have opted to close borders and enforce lockdown measures to impede the transmission.
Closing borders would mean banning movements of people from one country to another, and this would involve banning transportation of goods, which is improper when it comes to both social and economic growth.
Tanzania, through its Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mtwara ports, provides a gateway to neighbouring countries, which are land-linked.
According to the World Bank, the Dar es Salaam Port alone provides a gateway for 90 per cent of Tanzanian trade and is also the access route to six land-linked countries, including Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
At the same time, the same neighbouring countries use Tanzanian ports especially the main Dar es Salam Port, for exporting agriculture and other products from their countries.
At least four sectors that make up Kamembe town in Rusizi district have been put under total lockdown for two weeks.
In a statement issued Thursday by the Ministry of Local Government, it was clarified that sectors including Nyakarenzo, Mururu, Kamembe and a part of Gihundwe will be in lockdown and will remain out of contact with other parts of Rusizi and the country at large, as efforts continue to isolate cases that could be in communities.
Asked if Rubavu district, which also shares a border with DR Congo, will be put under lockdown, Mpunga said that there is no reason to lock Rubavu down so far.
Speaking on the national radio, Anastase Shyaka, the Minister of Local Government said that the government is cognisant of the fact that majority of residents from this town thrive on trade, especially across the border and will therefore be heavily affected by the lockdown.
The first patients were identified as cross-border business operators, truck drivers who ply the Rusizi-Bukavu route, DR Congo, and one taxi motorcyclist.
(CMC)- Trinidad and Tobago's health authorities, yesterday evening, confirmed its first new case of COVID-19 in almost a month as the country moves to further relax restrictions imposed in March to reduce spread of the disease.
The Ministry of Health said the individual “has a history of recent travel.\"
The new case brings the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Trinidad and Tobago to one and the health authorities have said that close contacts of the positive patient are also under state quarantine and have been tested in accordance with the relevant protocols.
Yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that restrictions in place to combat the spread of the disease are to be further relaxed.
Rowley also hinted at the possibility of allowing intra-regional travel in the coming weeks, but added that it would depend on whether their borders had been opened to the outside world.
The dusk-to-dawn curfew and containment measures put in place by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19 could soon be lifted once President Uhuru Kenyatta’s plan to reopen the country is actualised.
The Nation has learnt that following the President’s directive, committees charged with various aspects of the pandemic response started meeting on Sunday to come up with plans for reopening the country’s economic and social sectors.
According to Health boss Kagwe, if everyone took personal responsibility in the fight against the pandemic, there would be no need for any containment measures, but this has not been the case.
The Ministry of Health had earlier warned that the country should expect more infections as we wait for our peak in September.
According to public health expert Patrick Oyaro, while other countries are opening up their economies, it is not yet opportune for Kenya to do the same.
As cases of new Covid-19 infections soar to 457, the administrators of regional hospitals designated to manage the disease are saying they are overwhelmed by the numbers due to limited space.
Gulu Regional Referral Hospital is one of the health facilities that has been stretched beyond its capacity as the number of cases continue to increase.
Masaka Regional Referral Hospital has 22 cases but their carrying capacity is 21 patients.
Each regional referral hospital, according to an earlier plan by the Ministry of Health, was supposed to create capacity that can manage between 30 to 50 patients.
Lira Regional Referral Hospital is one of the facilities that created space to manage only 22 cases but Dr Stephen Obbo, the hospital administrator, told Daily Monitor yesterday that they already have 21 cases under management.
[Monitor] Kabale Regional Referral Hospital has run out of beds and Vitamin C drugs for Covid-19 patients as the cases soar. The Ministry of Health designated Kabale hospital as the management centre for Covid-19 patients in the Kigezi Sub-region. The hospital currently has 40 patients.
The Ministry of Health says that the postponement of resuming inter-provincial movements and passenger taxi-moto services was triggered by five new Covid-19 cases confirmed in Rusizi district, Western Province on Sunday, May 31.
Explaining the change in an interview on Radio Rwanda on Monday, June 1, Minister of Health Dr Daniel Ngamije said that the change resulted from five new cases confirmed from residents of Rusizi district.
He said: \"We did an assessment and found that the recent new Covid-19 cases include five citizens from Rusizi district.
According to Ngamije, these five new Covid-19 cases include traders, truck-drivers and a motorcyclist who transported goods.
So far, according to the Ministry of Health, Rusizi is the only district where community cases were confirmed recently.
The ministry of health has now shifted its focus to the country's borders that have become high risk areas where coronavirus transmissions are taking place.
Dr Mwangangi said this is due to human interactions on both sides of the country's border and especially the porous borders.
Our porous borders are the ones that have become the latest high risk areas with the transmission of the disease,\" Dr Mwangangi said.
On Wednesday, the ministry of health referred back 25 Tanzanians at the Namanga and Isebania borders after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
The Health CAS also intimated her ministry continued to witness a trend of emerging and increasing positive cases from the border counties.
CLASSROOMS CRAMMED with up to 40 students will be a rare sight at secondary schools across Jamaica come June 8.
Visits to schools across the Corporate Area where preparations are under way to facilitate exam refreshers showed classrooms that would normally seat 35 students now reorganised to accommodate nine.
Schools were ordered closed on March 13 and students have largely been relying on online classes since then.
Classes at Kingston Technical High School will begin with orientation about the new practices and expectations of students and teachers.
“We are using a staggered system and we will begin with the classes with the smallest number of students,”said principal Maulton Campbell, adding that sessions will begin at 9 a.m.
Space is not an issue for the institution, as the school spans two locations connected by an overhead bridge.
Recovery from COVID-19 in Jamaica has increased to 36 per cent of cases.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness, a short while ago, revealed that nine more persons were released from care, moving the number people who have recovered from the disease to 200.
Jamaica has had 550 cases of the disease since March 10, following the confirmation of six new cases in the past 24 hours.
The sixth person is from Kingston and St Andrew, whose case is being investigated.
The number of people who have died from the disease in Jamaica remains at nine.
Western Bureau: The Negril Health Centre in Westmoreland is now added to the list of over 30 adopted health centres within the Ministry of Health and Wellness, under its Adopt-A-Clinic programme, following an official ceremony held at that facility...
Uganda's confirmed Covid-19 rose to 212, as more people who came into contact with truck drivers tested positive.
The country also denied entry to five Tanzanian truck drivers who tested positive at the border.
Previously, truck drivers were allowed to enter the country before getting their results and would be tracked if their tests returned positive.
However, the truck driver now have to wait for their results.
If they test positive, foreign drivers are denied entry while Ugandan drivers are immediately taken for treatment.
Initiative aimed at luring tourists to the oil-rich twin island republic with officials indicating that there were airlines that have expressed interest in flying to the country in the post coronavirus era.
[Independent (Kampala)] Kampala -- Mutukula border authorities have expressed concern over the increasing number of people who sneak into the country illegally in order to avoid paying for the coronavirus (COVID-19) test.
To provide supportive treatment for severe and critical COVID-19 patients, the World Health Organization (WHO), working with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Medical Corps (IMC) has supported the Ministry of Health to upgrade and equip the Dr John Garang Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU).
Over the past few months, the Ministry of Health with support from partners have been implementing a comprehensive preparedness and response activities that aim to improve access to testing and treatment for COVID-19.
The expansion of the IDU is a joint effort of the Ministry of Health, WHO, WFP and IMC to respond to this pandemic due to the increase in the number of confirmed cases.
All severe and critical COVID-19 patients are now cared for at the Dr John Garang Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU) managed by the IMC, which is assisting the Ministry of Health to run the facility.
WHO continue to support the Ministry of Health in enhancing the COVID-19 response through strengthening national and sub-national coordination, surveillance and contact tracing, laboratory testing, procurement of supplies as well as training health workers among other support.
Rwanda has on Wednesday, May 20 reported seven new recoveries and six new cases of COVID-19.
This brought the country's tally of total confirmed cases to 314, of which 216 have been discharged from treatment centers after recovery.
In total, the country has so far conducted 53,317 sample tests of COVID-19 since outbreak in March.
The cabinet on Monday, May 18, further eased the nationwide novel coronavirus lockdown but largely maintained existing measures to control the spread of this pandemic.
Meanwhile, citizens are still urged to abide with COVID-19 precautionary measures such as regular washing of hands and self-distancing and wearing of face masks when in public or multi-family compounds.
The government has extended the cessation of movement into and out of Eastleigh and Old Town areas in Nairobi and Mombasa respectively till June 6, 2020.
\"In order to contain further spread of the virus the National Emergency Response Committee (NERC) on coronavirus announces and directs as follows; an extension of the cessation of movement in and out of Eastleigh in Nairobi and Old Town in Mombasa until June 6, 2020,\" Mr Kagwe said.
The CS said these measures are essential to ensure the two areas are contained to stop further spread of the disease.
The government initially announced the temporary lockdown of the two areas on May 6, 2020 which was meant to last for 15 days.
This is after Eastleigh and Old Town were singled out by the Ministry of Health as Covid-19 hot spots, with leading number of infections.
After months of closure, schools have reopened Thursday in Senegal.
Unicef had deplored in early October that only one country in three from West and Central Africa has managed to reopen its schools for the start of the school year 2020-2021 on schedule.
Most of the students sitting Thursday in groups under the courtyard of an elementary school in Mbao, a suburb of Dakar, were not wearing masks. On the contrary, in a high school in Yoff, a working class neighborhood of the capital, most were wearing masks.
But these same students passed through the doors of the school without any provision to keep them at a distance from each other.
Four million students, from primary to secondary school, were expected to return to classes, but a number of them delayed their return, a common practice even outside of a pandemic.
Schools were closed in March after the first case of Covid-19 in the country. Only 500,000 students in examination classes had returned to school by June.
Since then, the pandemic appears to have been contained at low levels. Senegal reported 15,744 cases and 326 deaths.
Economic activity, which has been severely affected, is slowly resuming its course. But there is also a slackening of daily vigilance.
\"We have defined a health protocol with the Ministry of Health for the compulsory wearing of masks - except in preschool - hand washing, physical distancing,\" Ministry of Education spokesman Mohamed Moustapha Diagne said.
The authorities also assured that masks and gel would be transported for schools to remote localities.
\"We have not yet received a supply of masks and hydro-alcoholic gel,\" an official of the school in Mbao said anonymously.
\"Until last night, some schools in inland localities had not received their equipment in masks and gel,\" said a teacher union official, Abdoulaye Ndoye.
The start of the school year is also undermined by a financial dispute between private schools, which accommodate nearly a third of students, and parents.
Private schools demanded that parents pay for two to three months of schooling between April and June. Some parents reported in the press that they did not owe anything because classes were closed.
\"We recommend discussion between the schools and the families,\" said the ministry spokesman, assuring that the ministry had \"no legal basis to intervene\".
\"Only the state can settle this issue. It must have the political courage to do so,\" replied trade unionist Ndoye.
They made the call on Friday, May 29 during a budget hearing session by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on National Budget and Patrimony in which the Ministry of Health and its affiliated agencies where defending the budgetary allocation to the health sector during the upcoming financial year.
For instance, the Ministry of Health highlighted that the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) is facing a funding gap of Rwf540 million for salaries to its medical personnel.
Earlier, on May 26, officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry expressed concerns that there was no budget for salaries of prospective employees of the newly formed Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (RICA).
\"We had agreed with the Ministry of Finance that we should not employ all workers that RICA needs in the 2020/2021 financial year, but we are concerned that there is even no budget to pay the salary of those it was to start with,\" she said.
Rehema Namutebi, Director General of National Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said that they will hold talks with concerned ministries to consider how to address the identified funding gaps for employees' salaries.
Total confirmed cases = 39
Total recoveries = 39
Total deaths = 0
Active cases = 0
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 15, 2020
\tAnnouncement from Health Ministry – FULL TEXT
\tOne patient has recovered fully after standard tests at the National Laboratory and was released from hospital today.
May 11: Eritrea with one active case
\tThe Ministry of Health announced on Monday another full recovery bringing the tally to 38 out of 39.
April 18, 2020: Eritrea president likens COVID-19 to sudden war
\tEritrean president Isaias Afwerki has delivered his first public address on the coronavirus pandemic since the country recorded index case on March 21.
As of April 18, the Eritrea COVID-19 situation report had 35 confirmed cases, all currently under treatment – meaning the country had not recorded any recovery or death.
April 14, 2020: Eritrea cases reach 34, diaspora contributions pouring in
\tEritrea coronavirus statistics as of April 14 stood at 34, no death and no recoveries have so far been announced meaning all 34 patients were under treatment.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has said that it is possible that the baby who recently died while infected with COVID-19 may have contracted the virus at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH).
The article CMO says infant who died with COVID could have been infected at hospital appeared first on Stabroek News.
Mr Simon Kisabagirye, the principal hospital administrator, said they had planned to rehabilitate the medical ward (ward three) with a new roof but halted the process upon consultation with the municipal council engineers.
Mr Kisabagirye added that the hospital management halted the works, pending consultations from the Ministry of Health and verification by the chief engineer, who is yet to be sent from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
\"We cannot bank our hopes in only the municipal engineers but we have also written to the Ministry seeking their opinion because the regional referral hospital is under the supervision of central government and it's only the chief engineer from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development that can give final condemnation,\" Mr Kisabagirye said.
The Soroti municipal engineer, Mr Alex Oriekot, said: \"I have always had some reservations [about issues of the hospital], I want you to get information from the hospital because I made my recommendations and they have everything.\"
The hospital director, Dr Michael Mwanga, said they would return the money to the consolidated fund if their plan to rehabilitate the medical ward fails.
