Africa Secures 400 Million More Covid-19 Vaccine Doses
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THE AFRICAN STORY ADVERTISE WITH US DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND ISSUE NUMBER 754 VOLUME 2 01 FEB - 07 FEB 2020 Botswana’s Debswana diamond exports fell 30% in 2020 page 3 Young diamond jewellery designers called to enter AFRICA Shining Light SECURES Awards 400 MILLION page 4 Zambia’s MORE COVID-19 corruption perception VACCINE worsens on latest DOSES Transparency • WHO rebukes Tanzania over decision to stop International reporting Covid-19 cases index page 5 2 Echo Report Echo Newspaper 01 Feb - 07 Feb 2020 THE AFRICAN STORY News, Finance, Travel and Sport Telephone: (267) 3933 805/6. E-mail: newsdesk@echo. co.bw Advertising Telephone: (267) 3933 805/6 E-mail: [email protected] Sales & Marketing Manager Ruele Ramoeng [email protected] Editor Bright Kholi [email protected] Head of Design Ame Kolobetso [email protected] Distribution & Circulation Mogapi Ketletseng Africa secures 400 million [email protected] Echo is published by YMH Publishing YMH Publishing, more COVID-19 vaccine doses Unit 3, Kgale Court, Plot 128, GIFP, Gaborone Postal address: P O BOX 840, Gaborone, The director of the AU’s disease Separately from the AU’s efforts, disadvantage. foreign plot to spread illness and Botswana Telephone: (267) 3933 805/6. control and prevention body Africa is to receive about 600 Africa has reported 3.5 million steal Africa’s wealth. He urged E-mail: [email protected] John Nkengasong, has said that million vaccine doses this year infections and 88,000 deaths, Tanzanians instead to trust God www.echo.co.bw The African Union (AU) has via the COVAX facility co-led by according to a Reuters tally. That and use alternative remedies managed to secure another 400 the World Health Organization is fewer fatalities than individual such as steam inhalation. DISCLAIMER: million doses of the AstraZeneca (WHO). nations the United States, Brazil, “We in Tanzania managed to Echo Newspaper welcomes concise letters from readers. COVID-19 vaccine. Nkengasong Health authorities hope to India, Mexico and Britain. stay for a year without corona. Letters must carry the said the move is a push to vaccinate about 30-35% of “Africa is at a crossroads and all Even here, no one has put on a full name and address of immunize 60% of the continent’s Africans this year, rising to Africans must double down on mask. Our God is beyond Satan the sender. Letters must population over three years. 60% in two to three years. The preventive measures,” she told and Satan will always fail using conform to the laws of Meanwhile, in an implicit rebuke AU has said vaccines secured an online news conference on different diseases,” he said in a Botswana and to the Press Council of Botswana’s Code to Tanzanian President John by its vaccine task team will Thursday, saying WHO officials speech in his western home area. Of Ethics. Letters will also be Magufuli, who has discouraged be allocated according to were in touch with Tanzanian Nkengasong said the Africa CDC edited for length, libel and mask-wearing and social population. officials. “Science shows that was exploring obtaining more language. distancing, discontinued data Though COVID-19 has not hit vaccines work.” vaccines from China, Russia and publication and called vaccines a Africa as badly as some experts Magufuli’s government has Cuba, and would work with any malign foreign plot, WHO Africa had feared it would, wealth published no coronavirus data partner whose vaccine was safe director Matshidiso Moeti urged disparities, logistical difficulties since May 8, when the country and effective. Tanzania to implement such and “vaccine nationalism” by had 509 cases and 21 deaths. measures, prepare vaccinations developed nations may put the On Wednesday, he said, without (Reuters). and share data. world’s poorest continent at a evidence, that vaccines were a As richer nations race ahead with mass immunisation campaigns, Africa is scrambling to obtain supplies for its 1.3 billion people. Read more Echo Only a handful of African nations stories on our have begun giving doses. Facebook page by Nkengasong, director of the AU’s disease control and prevention scanning the QR body said on Thursday that in code below with addition to 270 million doses your mobile phone previously secured, the bloc would get 400 million shots from the Serum Institute of India (SII) - all AstraZeneca/Oxford University shots. The AstraZeneca vaccine is the cheapest option and one of the best-suited to African health systems as it does not require storage at ultra-low temperatures like the vaccine from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech. Echo Newspaper 01 Feb - 07 Feb 2020 Echo Report 3 Botswana’s Debswana diamond exports fell 30% in 2020 Exports of rough diamonds mined by the Debswana Diamond Company fell 30% in 2020, statistics released by the Bank of Botswana showed Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand and global travel restrictions impacted trading. Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American unit De Beers and the Botswana government, produces almost all of the southern African nation’s diamonds. Lucara’s Karowe mine is the only other operating diamond mine in the country. According to the central bank data, diamond exports from Debswana fell to $2.02 billion in 2020 from $3.05 billion in 2019. Quarterly drops of 63% and 66% were recorded in the second and third quarters respectively. Sales picked up in the fourth quarter, when exports climbed 35% compared to the same period in 2019. In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, Botswana closed its borders for eight months last year, locking out international buyers from centres such as Mumbai, Antwerp and China, who traditionally travel to capital Gaborone ten times a year to view and buy diamonds from A NEW WAY TO diamond exports from SHOP ONLINE. Debswana fell to $2.02 billion in 2020 from Experience the difference. ‘‘$3.05 billion in 2019. Quarterly drops of 63% and 66% were Shop online with your VISA Stanbic Bank Credit recorded in the second and third quarters Card and get 5% Cash Back on your monthly online respectively spend and 15% discount on International Shipments De Beers. Botswana gets about 30% of its from the DHL Africa Eshop app or website. revenues from diamond sales, via its partnership with De Beers. The government forecasts the pandemic will see the economy shrink by 8.9% in 2020, while the budget deficit will more than double. The economy is seen rebounding to growth of 7.7% in Terms & conditions apply. 2021 after the country reopened #ExperienceTheDifference #AddToCart its borders in December. Botswana has so far recorded For more information, please contact Customer Care Center at +267 3987801 more than 19,000 COVID-19 cases, with 134 deaths. Reuters. Stanbic 4 Echo Report Echo Newspaper 01 Feb - 07 Feb 2020 With the Africa Centres of Disease Control and Prevention, WHO helped set up a COVID-19 genomic sequencing laboratory network with laboratories in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. WHO calls on all countries to ship at least 20 samples to sequencing laboratories every month to help map the fast- evolving situation and best target responses at all levels. “In addition to the new variants, COVID-19 fatigue, and the aftermath of year- end gatherings risk powering a perfect storm and driving up Africa’s second wave and overwhelming health facilities,” said Dr Moeti. “Africa is at a crossroads. We must stick to our guns and double down on the tactics we know work so well. That is mask wearing, handwashing and safe social New COVID-19 variants distancing. Countless lives depend on it.” Facing a second wave of infections, African nations must fuelling Africa’s second wave ramp up testing, the isolation of contacts and the treatment of COVID-19 cases and deaths are but 22 countries continue to 24 non-African nations. and Nigeria. Further research is patients, as well as enhancing surging in Africa as new, more see their case numbers surge. “The variant which was first needed to determine whether the proven prevention measures. contagious variants of the virus Deaths rose two-fold in the detected in South Africa has new strain causes more severe “Our shared goal is to get ahead spread to additional countries. same four-week period, with spread quickly beyond Africa and illness. of the virus. Unfortunately, the Over 175 000 new COVID-19 over 15 000 concentrated in 10 so what’s keeping me awake at WHO is working to track journey will be longer, harder cases and more than 6200 deaths mainly southern and northern night right now is that it’s very and tackle new variants by and far more costly in the absence were reported in Africa in the African nations. likely circulating in a number helping countries build and of consistent, all-of-society last week while infections rose by The 501Y.V2 variant, first of African countries,” said Dr boost the complex genomic commitments to blocking 50% on the continent between 29 identified in South Africa, is Matshidiso Moeti, the World surveillance capacities needed infection,” said Dr Moeti. December 2020 and 25 January predominant and powering Health Organization (WHO) to detect and respond to new 2021 when compared with the record case numbers in South Regional Director for Africa. variants, shipping samples to previous four weeks. In the past Africa and the sub-region. It has The variant that was initially sequencing laboratories and (WHO.) week, there has been a small been found in Botswana, Ghana, detected in the United Kingdom providing supplies and technical dip in cases in South Africa, Kenya, Comoros, Zambia and in has been found in The Gambia guidance.