With an eerie orange glow, the normally pristine snows of some ski resorts in Spain have taken on an apocalyptic tone as an enormous cloud of Saharan dust from North Africa blows across Europe. The dust storm is driven by winds from Storm Celia, which is affecting the Spanish-held Canary…
Exactly two years after the first COVID-19 was confirmed on the African continent, the outlook for 2022 remains positive in terms of getting the pandemic under control, according to the World Health Organization. “The African continent has gotten smarter, faster and better at responding to each new surge in cases…
The Ethiopian government has filed a formal complaint with the World Health Organization, calling for an investigation of WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus because “he has not lived up to the integrity and professional expectations required from his office.” A formal letter has been sent detailing the complaints against…
Yet another strain of the COVID-19 virus has emerged in France, after the case was discovered in a person returning from travel in the West African nation of Cameroon. The new strain has now been identified in 12 people who may have had contact with the person, who lives in…
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa will donate more than 2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to its African neighbors, in a show of unity worth more than US$18 million. “This donation embodies South Africa’s solidarity with our brothers and sisters on the continent…
Health officials on the African continent are seeing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, with an 83% surge seen during the past week. The surge is driven by both the Delta and the Omicron variants, according to World Health Organization (WHO) experts who provided an update Tuesday. They warn that…
Nigeria has been added to the UK “travel ban” list because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and a rise in cases linked to the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The decision prompted a new wave of frustration among Africans, with the Nigerian high commissioner in London, Sarafa Tunji…
Kenya has shown great improvement in managing HIV/AIDS, largely due to an 83% increase since 2013 in the number of affected citizens who can access antiretroviral drugs, said President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday. New infections dropped nearly 70% between 2013 and 2021, but infections continue to impact people between the…
President Xi Jinping of China has pledged to deliver another 1 billion COVID vaccine doses to the African continent, an announcement he made during his speech to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Dakar. Xi said 600 million doses of China’s vaccines will be donated while the other…
Authorities in Botswana held a Sunday night press conference to discuss the latest information about the B.1.1.529 coronavirus variant first identified there. In the meantime, southern Africans are asking: Where did this variant actually come from? That’s because Botswana’s government said Friday that the four B.1.1.529 cases reported last week…
Botswana confirmed on Thursday that a new COVID-19 variant, one that’s causing great concern in southern Africa and beyond, was detected in four people described as travelers. Botswana’s Presidential COVID-19 Task Force said the four cases of the B.1.1.529 variant were recorded on Monday. All four cases happened in people…
BioNTech is moving forward with plans to build vaccine manufacturing facilities on the African continent, with an announcement Tuesday that Rwanda has been chosen for the first site. Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the health minister for Rwanda, said the first facility will be built at the Kigali Special Economic Zone (KSEZ),…
Just one in every seven cases of COVID-19 infection on the African continent is diagnosed correctly, a trend that the World Health Organization hopes to reverse by applying a “ring strategy” approach to the outbreak in affected communities. The new approach is based on models used successfully to curb the…
A young child has died after contracting the Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the first such case since the last outbreak of the virus in the country was declared over in May. The Congolese Ministry of Health says the child died on Wednesday. Ebola was then confirmed…
World Health Organization leaders responded with shock and sorrow after an independent panel released an investigative report that found widespread sexual abuse committed by workers during the 2020 Ebola outbreak in the country’s east. Malick Coulibaly, a panel member, said the commission interviewed dozens of women who were offered work…