“The crisis has wide-ranging implications”, said the UN Chief, delivering remarks at a meeting with leaders of the African Group of countries on Wednesday. “This is in no way of Africa’s making. But as with the climate crisis, the African continent could end up suffering the greatest impacts.”
Less than five months after the first documented case of the COVID-19 coronavirus, infections exceed 340,000 globally, with nearly 15,000 deaths. This pandemic is devastating societies and economies all over the world, but Africa stands to face particularly severe and long-lasting damage.
As COVID-19 began to grow in major economies, governments and startups in Africa started measures to shift a greater volume of transactions toward digital payments and away from cash — which the World Health Organization flagged as a conduit for the spread of the coronavirus.
The novel coronavirus is now poised to move fast into the developing world “in a very dangerous way”, and into areas that lack the resources to respond, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in a briefing to Member States on 27 March, calling for massive international solidarity necessary to help those countries.
From imposing travel bans to prohibiting mass gatherings and shutting down schools, governments across Africa are increasingly adopting sweeping measures in a bid to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
Egypt approved proposals to conduct clinical trials, in a bid to help develop a treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19), said Yvan Hutin, director for communicable diseases in the World Health Organization’s regional office.
In a joint press statement, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Innovation and Technology said "a domestic treatment drug" is being developed by traditional medicine experts in the country.
Pharmaceutical company Zentiva Group said on Tuesday that it has completed the acquisition of Alvogen’s Central and Eastern European (CEE) business in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and several other countries.
The UAE’s publicly-listed companies began reporting their exposure to NMC Health, the embattled healthcare operator, which is at risk of being placed into administration.As of Sunday, banks in the UAE had declared a combined exposure of about Dh8.04 billion ($2.16bn) in the form of loans to the group and its subsidiaries.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a $10-million equity investment in Razorite Healthcare Africa Fund 1 (RHAF1) to help improve healthcare infrastructure delivery across the continent.
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.
While demonstrating a notable responsiveness, each of these countries has acted swiftly to stem the opportunities for contagion, and has put in place substantial resources to support the national economy.
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