It was not what fishermen usually mean by a good catch. Last month a worker at a fish factory in Tema, a port city in Ghana, infected 533 people with the virus behind covid-19. President Nana Akufo-Addo linked the “super-spreader” to about 10% of the country’s 5,408 cases.
Eighty-three thousand to 190 000 people in Africa could die of COVID-19 and 29 million to 44 million could get infected in the first year of the pandemic if containment measures fail, a new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa finds. The research, which is based on prediction modelling, looks at 47 countries in the WHO African Region with a total population of one billion.
COVID-19 is an existential crisis. It is severely testing Africa's social, economic and political resilience. In a post-COVID-19 world, the continent's leaders will have to rethink many prior assumptions and find new balances for individual and collective behaviour.
It is impossible to know precisely how many such medicines are in the system. Delese Mimi Darko, chief executive of Ghana’s Food and Drug Authority (FDA), says this is an ongoing problem, especially as people smuggle drugs across the country’s borders. She too worries that Ghana, with more than 1,500 reported Covid-19 cases, will see an increase in falsified and substandard medicines due to the pandemic. Already the FDA has seized substandard hand-sanitisers.
Across the world, governments are gearing up to respond to the socio-economic shock of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Early actions in countries hit hard by the pandemic range from large economic stimulus packages and the lowering of interest rates to social safety nets for millions of their citizens.
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus sweeps across the globe, African countries are bracing themselves for grave consequences. The projections released on April 17 include a worst-case scenario of a billion cases and 3.3 million deaths.
Casablanca’s temporary field hospital became ready to receive and treat COVID-19 patients on Monday, April 20, only two weeks after the launch of its construction. The hospital, located at a 16,000 square meter site at the International Fair of Casablanca and with a capacity of over 700 beds, is the largest of its kind in Morocco and in Africa.
The International Labour Organization, has identified 742 different social protection measures enacted by 144 countries since February 1st, from special grants to unemployment benefits, income and job protection to food and nutrition, pensions to healthcare.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced concrete measures to boost global fight against COVID-19 including providing international aid and making the country's COVID-19 vaccine a global public good when available.
A financing facility worth a total US$125 million will be used to develop a greenfield general hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, and another in Zenata, Casablanca, in Morocco. Additionally, an existing 225-bed hospital in Cairo, Egypt will be expanded. Both countries, like some others in the region, lack sufficient high-quality healthcare to support fast-growing populations.
Vezeeta, the leading healthcare startup of the Middle East & North Africa has expanded to East Africa with the launch of its doctor booking platform in Kenya. The Cairo-born company that is now headquartered in Dubai announced the Kenya launch in a LinkedIn post today.
LIFEPharma has signed a 10-year contract with Canada’s Apotex Inc, the country’s largest producer of generic drugs. The deal is worth AED 200 million, making it one of the largest pharma deals in the MENA region.
When dealing with the COVID-19 crisis many people struggle to find the best sources of information. As a contribution to the business community, Infomineo has put together a repository of the best sources of information which we will keep updating during the COVID-19 crisis.
COVID-19 significant impact on businesses is as serious as its implications on people's health. Understand the impact of the crisis on the South African economy through : epidemiological Info, impact on expected GDP Growth & Trade, HC system capacity, main Macro Indicators, and more ...
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