Zambia allocated 8.7 mln COVID-19 vaccines from African Union


Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and expects them to start arriving in the second week of February, its health minister said.

Morocco's Health Ministry on Wednesday approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb said.

The African Union (AU) is yet to decide whether it will hold its 2021 heads of state and government summit physically or virtually with the majority of the leaders supporting a meeting in Addis Ababa.

Chaos and frustration in Zimbabwe's capital city Harare as major police roadblocks prevent movement on the first day on the retuned hard lockdown.

The Botswana government has adjusted its national lockdown regulations and extended both the times and the duration of the curfew.

Schools in Kenya re-open for full-time learning for all learners on Monday after a nine-month closure to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Some Zimbabweans have reacted with shock following the announcement that the country would be placed under a full lockdown in an effort to curb a surge in COVID-19 infections.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has expressed concern about what he says is corruption on the Zimbabwe side of the Beitbridge Border Post regarding the issuing of COVID 19 certificates.

Zimbabwe extended a nationwide curfew, banned gatherings and ordered non-essential businesses closed for a month on Saturday in an effort to curb a surge in coronavirus infections.

Zimbabwe has returned to a full lockdown. That country's health minister, Constatino Chiwenga, has confirmed the news to SABC News.

The world risks a "moral catastrophe" if COVID-19 vaccinations are delayed in Africa while wealthier regions inoculate their entire populations, the head of the continent's disease control body has said.

Zimbabwe has postponed the re-opening of schools planned for next week, the government said on Wednesday, due to a surge in coronavirus infections and a tropical storm sweeping through the region.

Uganda opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, and his campaign team were arrested in Kalangala in the country's central region on Wednesday, he said in a post on Twitter.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune returned to Algeria on Tuesday after two months in a German hospital being treated for COVID-19 during a period of political and economic crisis.

From wildfires in California and locust attacks in Ethiopia to job losses caused by pandemic lockdowns in Italy and Myanmar, climate change and COVID-19 disrupted food production and tipped millions more people into hunger in 2020.

Uganda suspended campaigning for January's presidential poll in the capital and 10 populous districts on Saturday, citing coronavirus risks, but critics said the real reason was the opposition's popularity in those districts. The East African country is scheduled to hold a presidential election on January 14.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Africa has increased by 10% since last week. More than 2.5 million infections have been recorded on the continent.

Kenyan doctors working in public hospitals ended a nationwide strike on Thursday with ministers saying concerns about inadequate protective equipment during the pandemic, delayed pay and a lack of insurance had been addressed.

The director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says another new variant of the coronavirus seems to have emerged in Nigeria.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appealed to African countries to strengthen measures to curb the thrashing coronavirus pandemic, as the confirmed cases across the region top 2.5 million.

The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention briefs the media on the coronavirus pandemic.

Malawi has announced that it will close its borders for 14 days and restrict public gatherings to 100 people. This follows a new surge in cases of the coronavirus.

As coronavirus cases across Africa continue to surge, some parts of the continent are now experiencing a second wave of the virus.

Africa needs about $9 billion to finance enough COVID-19 vaccines to halt the pandemic on the continent, but a bigger problem is accessing that supply amid the global race for doses, an African Export-Import Bank official said on Wednesday.

The Kenyan parliament has voted to end tax cuts put in place in April 2020 to cushion citizens from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deep in Tana River County, in southeastern Kenya, a group of pupils formed a circle around their teacher, jotting down notes as they listened to a Swahili diction lesson coming from the solar-powered radio sitting in their teacher’s lap.

Even before COVID-19 struck, the women stitching clothes at Ethiopia's Hawassa industrial park were among the world's worst-paid garment workers - many making less than $30 per month.

Nigeria is advising its sub-regions to limit public gatherings, close bars and nightclubs over the next five weeks amid a spike in new COVID-19 cases, a government coronavirus task force said on Monday.

The public health crisis in Kenya is expected to worsen from today when doctors join nurses and clinical officers in a nationwide strike.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has warned the country’s citizens that they risk losing all the early gains the country had made in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic if they continued disregarding the containment measures put in place by his administration.