The Ghana Football Association is demanding for a staggering $12 million from the government for “re-branding and development” after the Coronavirus pandemic.
The FA has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Youth and Sports requesting for a share of the Coronavirus stimulus package.
The proposed $12 million is meant for ” re-branding and development” of local football post Coronavirus.
The Kurt Okraku-led GFA reiterated the fact that it has struggled to find a sponsor for the league from corporate bodies.
The association, also believe, there are a lot of things needed to be done in rebranding football hence the demand for the above-mentioned amount.
The Ghana Premier League is currently on suspension due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has brought the world to a stand still.
After a good four hours of countries pledging their support for the World Health Organization, the US took just three minutes to launch a scathing attack on the UN’s health agency.“We must be frank… There was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many livesâ€, was one of the brutal opening lines from US Health Secretary Alex Azar. It didn’t get any prettier…
He didn’t specifically name China, but talked about “at least one member state’s apparent attempt” to “conceal this outbreak”, and said the WHO “must become far more transparent and far more accountableâ€.
About 80 groups around the world are researching vaccines and some are now entering clinical trials.
Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the virus first emerged. But some have cautioned that there may never be one.
The Accra Regional Police Command has shot and killed two suspected car snatchers believed to be part of a notorious gang operating within Accra.
One member of the gang, identified as Kwame Yeboah, was arrested after sustaining gunshot wounds on the right leg during the shoot out with the police.
He is currently receiving treatment at the Police Hospital.
Hint
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Frederick Adu Anim, said at about 2 a.m. on May 8, 2020, the command received information that a white Kia Morning, with registration number GE-2269-20, had been snatched from its owner at gunpoint at Ablekuma Bokorbokor, near Awoshie.
The suspects had apparently hired the services of the driver of the vehicle from Baah Yard to Ablekuma CP, but attacked and snatched the vehicle from him before he could reach the destination.
A team of police personnel that was dispatched after receiving the information intercepted the suspects in the stolen vehicle at Busia Junction, Odorkor.
However, a hot chase ensued when the suspects sped off upon seeing the police.
In the course of the drama, the suspects started shooting at the police who also returned fire.
In the process, Yeboah was injured in the right leg, while his two accomplices escaped.
Swoop
Later, Mr Adu Anim said, police intelligence revealed that the two who escaped were hiding at Dansoman Exhibition.
The suspects again engaged the police in a shoot out at their hideout but came out worse with injuries.
The police team took the suspects to the Police Hospital for treatment but they were pronounced dead shortly on arrival at the hospital.
Their bodies have since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue pending autopsy.
Vehicle retrieved
Mr Adu Anim said the police retrieved a locally manufactured pistol with two BB live cartridges and the Kia Morning from the suspects.
He said so far, the police had retrieved eight vehicles during an operation being embarked upon by the command.
The vehicles retrieved included two Toyota Corolla, two Toyota Yaris, a Daewoo Matrix, two Kia Morning and a Kia Picanto.
Mr Adu Anim appealed to victims of car snatching crimes to contact the Accra Regional Police Command to identify and collect their vehicles.
US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) threatening to pull US funding permanently over Covid-19.
The letter outlines a 30-day deadline for the body to commit to “substantive improvements” or risk losing millions and US membership altogether.
Addressed to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, it criticises stages of the body’s response since December.
Earlier in the day, Mr Trump called the UN’s health body a “puppet of China”.
The president, who faces re-election this year and has himself been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account.
The US has more than 1.5 million of the world’s 4.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with more than 90,000 deaths.
Mr Trump’s ultimatum also comes at a time of pressure for the WHO.
On Monday Dr Tedros backed a review of the agency’s handling of the pandemic. He said an independent evaluation would take place “at the earliest appropriate moment”.
What does the letter say?
Mr Trump published the letter on Twitter on Monday night, following a day of heavy US criticism of the health agency.
US Health Secretary Alex Azar earlier spoke at the UN’s World Health Assembly and accused the WHO of letting Covid-19 spin “out of control” at the cost of “many lives”.
In his letter to Dr Tedros, the US president accuses the WHO of having an “alarming lack of independence” from China.
Among his assertions, Mr Trump accuses the agency of having “consistently ignored” what he describes as “credible reports” of the virus spreading in Wuhan at the start of December or even earlier.
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the La Stool and three others against Agric Cattle and Lakeside Estate over some 49,420.53 acres of land situated at La Tsui Anaa.
The La Stool wanted possession of the land which was declared the rightful possession of Agric Cattle and Lakeside Estate by the Court of Appeal.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, dismissed the appeal on the basis that the original suit at the High Court, which culminated in the appeal, was a nullity because it was initiated by the La Traditional Council which had no capacity.
Nullity
It was the decision of the apex court that although the plaintiffs took steps to amend the writ and replaced the La Traditional Council with the La Stool, the fact that La Traditional Council had no capacity to sue rendered the entire legal action from the High Court to the Court of Appeal a nullity.
“When did Traditional Councils become owners of stool lands? The La Traditional had no capacity to sue.
Writ
Now since the original writ was a nullity, all the subsequent amendments taken in the writ were also a nullity.The writ was the foundation upon which the entire action was built, thus when it is nullified, the super-structure of the action, which are the proceedings and the judgements founded on the invalid writ, must totally collapse,†the apex court ruled.
The decision was written by Justice Samuel Marful-Sau. The other members on the panel were Justices Yaw Appau, Gabriel Pwamang and Professor Nii Ashie Kotey.
Background
On May 16, 2008, the La Traditional Council filed a suit at the Accra High Court claiming possession of the 49,420.53 acres of land which had been acquired by Agric Cattle and Lakeside Estate Limited.
In January 2009, lawyers for the plaintiff amended the writ and replaced La Traditional Council with the La Divisional Council.
The writ went through several amendments and at the end the plaintiffs had become Nii Obodai IV, La Mankralo, on behalf of the La Stool, SFA Limited and Fodas Estates Limited.
The defendants were Agric Cattle, Santeo Mantse (Atta Quarshie), Kantamanso Mantse (Nii Otoo Laryea), Nungua Mantse (Nii Odaifio Welentsi II) and Lakeside Estate Limited.
Decisions
In its judgement, the High Court declared 2,911.53 acres of the disputed land as the rightful possession of the defendants and the remaining 46,509 acres as the rightful possession of the La Stool.
Dissatisfied, the defendants filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
On March 28, 2018, the Court of Appeal upheld the appeal and reversed the decision of the High Court, declaring the whole land for the defendants.
It was that appeal that was also appealed at the Supreme Court by the La Stool and the other plaintiffs.
The three-year-old boy who was allegedly brutalised by his father for damaging his phone and urinating on his bed was yesterday discharged from the Manhyia District Hospital where he was admitted for treatment.
The mother, Ms Barbara Obeng, told the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview that the boy was responding to treatment and was much better than when he was sent there.
“We have just been discharged and are preparing to leave the hospital,†she said, at about 12.30 p.m. yesterday.
She said the wounds on his back were healing but added, “we will have to be going back to the hospital for the dressing of the wounds.â€
Scan
Ms Obeng said a scan on the swelling on the forehead of the boy indicated that there was a collection of blood which had since been drained.
The boy was found with scars at his back and swelling on his forehead.
Earlier this month, the police at the Manhyia Division arrested a 26-year-old national service person, Ebenezer Osei Bonsu, for assaulting and causing harm to his three-year-old son.
The harm was noticed when Barbara, with the help of the police, rescued the boy from the custody of the father at Buokrom in Kumasi where he had gone to celebrate his birthday.
He was later arraigned before the Kumasi Circuit Court on May 14, 2020, where he pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing harm and assault.
The court presided over by Ms Patricia Amponsah, admitted him to bail in the sum of GH¢50,000 with three sureties to be justified.
The case was adjourned to May 21, 2020, for hearing.
Italy and Spain are among a number of European countries further easing their coronavirus lockdown restrictions on Monday.
Most businesses in Italy, including bars and hairdressers, are reopening after more than two months of nationwide lockdown measures.
Spain meanwhile has slightly eased restrictions on some of its least affected islands.
The measures follow consistent drops in the number of daily recorded deaths.
On Sunday, Italy recorded the fewest daily deaths since it entered lockdown in March.
It said 145 people had died with the virus in the previous 24 hours. This marked a significant drop from its highest daily death toll, which was more than 900 on 27 March.
In Spain, the daily death toll fell below 100 for the first time since it imposed its lockdown restrictions.
But officials are warning that complacency over the virus could lead to a second wave of infections.
Torrential rains in southern Chad since April have left nearly 6,000 people homeless, the UN said Monday.
A joint evaluation mission of the UN agencies, non-profit groups and national authorities visited the affected provinces of Maingama and Moyen-Chari from April 27 to 29, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
“The delegation reported that 5,920 people (1,184 households) out of 9,486 returnees on the site have been affected, including 61 wounded and one death,” the statement added.
More than 62% houses have been totally or partially destroyed, forcing many families to find shelter with a relative or neighbor.
Of the more than 2,000 people now homeless, most are women and children.
“The delegation stressed the need for immediate action as the rainy season is approaching. This risks placing the site and its inhabitants in even more dire living conditions. Already under pressure from increased needs related to COVID-19,” OCHA urged.
Climate change has being markedly felt in Somalia, Chad and the Sahel region, according to remarks by Head of the UN Environment Liaison Office Samba Harouna Thiam in September of last year.
Rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change have lowered crop yields. It is poor communities that often face greater exposure to climate hazards, because they have fewer resources to cope.
A Tanzanian opposition party, ACT, has accused the president of “broadcasting a select few statistics” to falsely claim that there’s been a big drop in the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals.
President John Magufuli told an applauding church congregation on Sunday that there had been a “sharp decline”, adding, “God has answered your prayers.”
That was despite a report days before by the US embassy in Tanzania saying many hospitals had been “overwhelmed”.
On Monday, the ACT said in a statement it “will not simply assume that the president is right in saying we are winning the battle against coronavirus, just because he says so”.
It wants the government to release “the full set of data” on infection and death rates, and adds that the last such report was made more than a fortnight ago.
“Transparency is essential. President Magufuli must commit to this core principle of governance. He owes it to the people of Tanzania,” the statement adds.
Dozens have been killed in flooding in Somalia that has affected nearly 1 million people and displaced over 400 thousand from their homes, according to the United Nations.
People struggled to wade through floodwater in the central Somalian city of Beledweyne after the Shabelle river burst its banks on Sunday and 1,200 people have been left marooned as roads are cut off.
The deluge left much of Beledweyne drenched and officials feared the flooding may spark the outbreak of diseases.
Hassan Elmi is a Beledweyne resident. He said, “the flooding here has affected the entire city. Yesterday the water marker was lower but this morning it is up again. Things have changed and as you can see people are very worried about their safety. The government is helping some people, but those who are too weak or old need more help because they cannot wade through these flooded streets because the water is moving too fast.â€
At least 24 have died so far.
The flooding was caused by heavy rain, which also drenched the highlands of neighbouring Ethiopia.
Thomas Thabane has announced he will step down as prime minister of Lesotho following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife.
He did not say when he would leave office but his party said a new premier would be sworn in on Tuesday.
The 80-year-old’s current wife, with whom he was living at the time of the murder, was charged in connection with the killing in February.
The pair have denied any involvement.
“I decided to personally come and inform you that I am stepping down as prime minister of Lesotho,” AFP news agency says he told supporters in his Abia home constituency on the outskirts of the capital Maseru.
At the beginning of the year police named him as a suspect in the killing of Lipolelo Thabane. He hasn’t been formally charged because his case has been referred to the high court to consider his argument that as prime minister, he should enjoy immunity from prosecution.
Lesotho has been plagued by political instability this year – he lost his majority in parliament last week when the coalition backing him fell apart and a new government is expected to be installed on Friday.
The never-ending turf war between dancehall artiste’s Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy escalated at last years’ Vodafone Ghana Music Awards after Stonebwoy pulled a gun on stage while receiving the Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year Award.
The confusion started when Shatta Wale and his militants rushed onto the stage when Stonebwoy was about to receive his award. Afraid of what could happen, Stonebwoy quickly pulled out a gun.
The show was temporarily put on hold amidst the pandemonium in the Dome and some of the patrons started leaving the auditorium when the chaos started.
A pastor in Nigeria’s southern city of Calabar has been arrested for breaching lockdown rules by conducting a wedding in his church.
In a video, guests can be seen fleeing as officials entered the building.
The pastor, from the Apostolic Church, was arrested on Saturday by members of Cross River state’s Covid-19 taskforce who were on patrol. They got suspicious after seeing an unusual number of vehicles parked in front of the church.
“We were patrolling to see the compliance level when we noticed cars parked and it had me wondering where the cars had come from,” Potrait Peterson, the leader of the patrol team told BBC Pidgin.
He said when his team entered the church, they found more than 300 people gathered, in violation of social distancing guidelines in the state.
The state is one of only two in Nigeria yet to record any case of coronavirus and authorities had banned public gatherings of more than five people. The state was also one of the first in Nigeria to make face masks mandatory in public.
The video of the raid shows the guests fleeing and leaving the bemused wedding couple before the groom led his bride down the aisle to the exit.
The Sokoto State office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has arrested two Chinese nationals Meng Kun and Xu Koi for allegedly attempting to bribe the head of EFCC zonal office, Mr. Abdullahi Lawal with N 100 Million.
The suspects were arrested in Sokoto with the cash as evidence.
The commission said the bribe was offered its Sokoto zonal head to compromise investigations into the operations of China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd, a company the two arrested persons work for.
The Chinese owned company, China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd, is under investigations following two contracts awarded by the Zamfara state government to the company to construct township roads in Gummi, Bukkuyun, Anka and Nassarawa in Zamfara State and the construction of 168 solar powered boreholes in the 14 local government areas of the state.
The EFCC said the investigation is as a result of intelligence gathered on alleged conspiracy, embezzlement and money laundering against the Zamfara State.
The construction company had reportedly received payments of over N 41 billion “but diverted about N 16 billion which the commission has traced to some bureau de change operatorsâ€.
Worried by the professional conduct and consistency of the investigations, China Zhonghao Nig. Ltd reached out to Abdullahi Lawal and offered him N 100 Million bribe to “bury the matterâ€, the EFCC statement said.
The first installment of a total of N 100 million was paid by the two arrested representatives of the company in cash contained in 4 table water boxes.
“In a grand design to trap the corrupt officials, Lawal played along and on Monday, two representatives of the company, Meng Wei Kun and Xu Kuoi, offered him cash totaling N 50 million in their office along Airport Road, Sokoto.
This adds to the tall list of Chinese corruption in Africa and brings to light the extent of the canker in many African countries by some Chinese investors.
Instances of Chinese business involved in corruption and other forms of illegality in Africa is not a new phenomenon as many African countries with poor, weak and corrupt systems create a safe haven for such wickedness to go on.
Ghana, Nigeria, Congo and many other mineral-rich African countries continue to battle the influx of Chinese illegal mining activities obviously perpetuated with high success with the connivance of indigenes.
On 28th April 2020, Nigeria police in Zamfara arrested some Chinese nationals for engaging in illegal mining activities. They were later transferred to Abuja for prosecution. The News media in Africa is awash with similar illegalities perpetuated by Chinese nationals in different African countries.
The action taken by the EFCC zonal office in Sokoto state and the conduct of its Zonal head, Mr. Abudullai Lawal in particular is not only commendable but also heroic and patriotic.
Many on the continent are praising officials in Sokoto state for standing up to such high temptation and enforcing the law but how many officials in Africa are willing to this?
African governments must sit up and demand respect for anti-corruption laws by enforcing the laws without fear or favor of nationality or status as investors.
Ghanaian musician Barima Sidney says he has no regrets campaigning for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2016.
The musician speaking to Togo Borga on GH Entertainment on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm said the party has done their best since it took over the affairs of state.
To him, the party has fulfilled majority of its flagship campaign policies.
He commended the government for the establishment of the Creative Arts Council with the potential of transforming the creative arts industry.
When asked if he would campaign for the NPP this year he answered saying it was too early to consider that but he does not have regrets campaigning for them in 2016.
The free SHS program he said is a laudable initiative providing an opportunity for the poor to access secondary education.
He also disclosed to the host he made enough campaigning for the NPP and invested the money into fruitful ventures.
Meanwhile, Barima Sidney says he is currently managing a pineapple farm.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Savannah Region has given the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government 48 hours to reinstate the publicly declared hospitals President Akufo-Addo promised to build in the Region or face their wrath.
A statement issued today 19th May, 2020 and signed by the NDC Communication Officer for the Savannah Region Mr Malik Basintale said the NDC in the region have taken notice of yet another denial of their share of the national cake from a very crucial sector such as the health sector even when President Akufo-Addo bamboozled the Region into believing they were part of the beneficiaries on the 26th April, 2020 in his address to the nation.
He said the Region will not continue to be subjected to such hatred and insensitivity by President Akufo-Addo even after claiming “Our brother from Kyebi is better than our Bole-Bamboi brotherâ€.
The NDC said President Akufo-Addo have soon forgotten the existence of the Savannah region adding “we will have to blow the trumpets of the region loud enough for a forceful recognitionâ€.
Malik Basintale said while they are trying their possible best to console indigenes who have been left in great shock by the consistent attitude of President Akufo-Addo in denying the Region projects anytime it is being shared around on paper, they find this not surprising as the Savannah region have been put in a state of “Project freeze†since the inception of the Akufo-Addo led government on the 7th of January, 2017.
He said it is not surprising, that they consistently hear members of the NPP shouting on top of their voices their so-called achievement of creating the Savannah region yet cannot point out to a single project, job or empowerment they have created in the region to the benefit of the people that qualifies the territory as a region.
“The Savannah region has continuously been cheated, ignored and betrayed by the Akufo-Addo led government but this current deliberate denial of constructing district hospitals in our region and completing what had been started by your predecessor H.E John Mahama after facing the whole world to mention that we were included in the beneficiaries, is the highest level of grand deception, fraud, disregard and gross disrespect to the Customs, Chiefs and elders of our landâ€; Malik Basintale said.
The NDC Communication Officer said what is more worrying is the fact that, out of 16 regions making the nation Ghana, it is only the Savannah region that has been neglected, thrown out and dumped like a piece of tissue paper as 15 other regions have been properly represented on the allocation paper. “How could this be Mr. President? How could you be this insensitive to us?
Is it a crime to have an opposition flagbearer emanating from our region or it is simply a hidden agenda of disenfranchising our region in everything you do due to our natural love for President Mahama?†he noted.
He added: “Why will you mention us in your address to the world, Use the Savannah region inclusive to seek a loan and later turn your back on us denying us just three(3) district hospitals we were promisedâ€.
Malik Basintale in his statement said the John Mahama NDC Government in just the health sector alone provided for the Savannah region with more than 96 CHIPS compounds, district health facilities, health colleges some at various stages of completion among others and yet did not put a stop to projects that were yet to come as other regions were equally benefiting from his national cake. “What has changed Mr. Akufo-Addo? Why will you change your mind on just (3) three health facilities promised our region?†he asked.
Meanwhile an NPP kin pin in the Savannah Region who is the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Dr Braimah Clifford has said there are two districts in Savannah without district hospitals and they cannot be left out. He disclosed that the list has been corrected and a release will come out today (19th May, 2020).
Another NPP Activist from the Bole- Bamboi Constituency of the Savannah Region Abudulai Harisu Boresa has also alleged that the list is a sabotage by the Civil Servants at the Ministry of Health.
Abudulai Harisu wrote; “Remember that same sabotage was meted out to government recently when the whole roads projects for Volta region was taken out or omitted by the same civil servants, which took the Finance Minister back to Parliament to correct itâ€.
He said the NPP respect, value and regard Savannah region million times.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been addressing concerns about the portions of food relief provided to help people deal with fallout from the coronavirus lockdown.
In theory, every household in need should have got 6kg of the staple maize meal (or posho as it is known in Uganda) per person and 3kg of beans per person.
The food is meant for the urban poor who’ve lost jobs and income because of the lockdown, reports the BBC’s Patience Atuhaire in the capital, Kampala
A film on the president’s Twitter account shows him cutting and weighing out cooked posho.
He announces to an audience of officials that 250g is enough for one person each day.
In later tweets, the president said that the relief food should give you “enough calories to enable you to considerably survive for quite some time” adding that it “should not be consumed wastefully”.
But how much time? Is the question.
By the president’s figures, 6kg of posho will last one person 24 days.
The problem is that the lockdown has now gone on for nearly 50 days.
As a result, there have been complaints that the relief is not reaching everyone and it is not enough.
Ugandan Minister Peter Ogwang has tweeted that 1.3 million Ugandans have now received the aid and more is being distributed.
Mr Museveni is expected to announce this week whether or not the lockdown will be extended.
The ministry of health says the country has 248 confirmed cases of coronavirus and no deaths.
A Kenyan nurse has been quarantined after travelling from the capital, Nairobi, to Nakuru town in the Rift Valley region to visit her boyfriend under the pretext of going to offer essential services.
The government has restricted travel in and out of Nairobi except for cargo trucks to curb the spread of Coronavirus. Health workers are among essential service providers allowed to travel out of the capital and to operate past curfew hours.
Neighbours alerted police of the nurse’s presence, local broadcaster Citizen TV reports.
Police visited the house in the company of health officials who said the nurse’s temperature was higher than normal and took her for 14-days mandatory quarantine.
The nurse reportedly identified herself to police manning roadblocks and told them she was going to offer essential services.
Here is a video shared by Citizen TV on the nurse’s arrest :
Founder and owner of the Rufftown Records label, Ricky Nana Agyeman was also known in showbiz as Bullet says Fantana and dancehall king, Shatta Wale are in no way related.
According to him, the Shatta Wale-Fanatana relationship was only created for showbiz reasons and nothing more.
He was speaking in an interview on Ayekoo After Drive with DJ Adviser on Happy 98.9 FM. “Just as showbiz has its stories, so was the Fantana- Shatta Wale relationship a showbiz one. They are not cousins in the least.â€
He noted that just like the many showbiz stories, Wendy Shay did not introduce Fantana to the Rufftown Records label as speculated initially.
Bullet, however, refuted all claims that the Fantana, Wendy Shay beef was a publicity stunt. “The problem between Fantana and Wendy Shay is not because we want to promote a new song. It is not a showbiz story but the reality.â€
These revelations come on the back of the recent beef between Fanatana and Wendy Shay.
The former has accused the latter of bullying her and has even stated that she cannot continue working with the label.
Entertainment Pundit, Arnold Asamoah Baidoo has given Accra FM Presenter, Nana Romeo a pat on the back for ‘sacking’ musician Kidi from the studios during a scheduled live programme.
Nana Romeo scolded Kidi after the musician who was supposed to turn up on the programme to promote his ‘Blue’ EP rather came in late.
The Presenter expressed his resentments over the attitude portrayed by Kidi and questioned whether or not he values his programme. He was unhappy because, according to him, it was not the first time he had arranged for Kidi to come on the show and the musician had disappointed him.
Kidi in turn rendered an apology to listeners of Accra FM and stepped out of the studio without the opportunity to promote his EP.
The Presenter’s actions have stirred controversies as sympathizers and lovers of Kidi’s music have thrown shots at him for reprehending their beloved singer.
Commenting on the issue on Peace FM’s ‘Entertainment Review’, Arnold Baidoo said the Presenter did nothing wrong but was ensuring that the ”Enjoyment” singer becomes time-conscious and repeats not his attitude.
According to him, the musician downplayed the relevance of the Presenter and his programme by showing up late twice, and therefore Kidi deserved the whip from the Presenter.
The Pre-Tertiary Educational Teacher Unions in Ghana are advocating for schools to remain closed even if the ban on social gathering is lifted.
The unions in a letter addressed to the Director-General of Ghana Education Service, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa said they [unions] “would not ascribe to the re-opening of the schools, should the President of the Republic decide not to extend the 31st May 2020 deadline and order the re-opening of the schools.â€
According to them, “the spread [of the virus in Ghana is still very exponential, given the fact that our [Ghanaian] schools could still be incubation centres of the pandemic, and given the unlimited social interactions and movements which take place there.â€
In their view, it would be difficult for the measures put in place to prevent the virus be adhered to in our schools.
“The class sizes and dormitory population are still large, thus not making the observation of social distancing possible.â€
They said “considering the age and exuberance of our students one cannot be sure that they [students] will adhere strictly to the COVID-19 protocol hence the fear that the disease may spread in the schools.â€
A Community Police Assistant has died after a fallen tree fell on top of him on Sunday, according to the police in the Ahafo Ano Division of the Ashanti Region.
The deceased has been named as Owusu Arhin, 35, who until his death was stationed at the Mankranso Police post.
A 55-year-old chainsaw operator, Isaac Gyan, is being detained and questioned over the incident which occurred at about 12 noon in the Ahiamankwa Forest near Kunsu Wioso in the Ahafo Ano South District.
The suspect was using a chainsaw to cut up the tree when the enormous trunk fell on top of the victim, the police said.
Emergency services rushed to save the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His body has since been deposited at the Mankranso Plus Lab Mortuary “for further actionâ€, the police said in a report sighted by Dailymailgh.com.
A similar incident had earlier occured on Saturday at Motiakrom in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality of the Central Region.
The deceased, Eric Ntam, was seeking shelter under a tree during a downpour when the trunk eventually fell on him, witnesses say.
The chiefs and people of Beposo in the Sekyere Central District, have appealed to the Ghana Water Company (GWC) to restore water supply to the community.
Water supply to the community, which is the district capital, has been erratic for some time now due to the inability of the GWC Bolster Station at Asante Mampong, to pump adequate water to the area.
Currently, the inhabitants get water supply once every month and this even lasts for a few minutes, making it difficult for the majority of them to get water for their daily activities.
The residents told the Ghana News Agency that, the situation was terrible especially during the outbreak of the coronavirus and the need to wash their hands regularly as part of measures to prevent further spread of the virus in the country.
The Ghana News Agency investigations at the GWC Bolster Station at Asante Mampong indicated that the pumping machines are now very weak and that had forced the company to ration water supply to the various catchment areas.
A source at the Bolster station told the GNA that, the problem had come about as a result of technical problems facing the electricity transformer at the station.
He said the station required a new transformer to help improve water supply in the area.
The Deputy Director General of the National Sports Authority and a former Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for the Yendi Constituency, Mr. Majeed Bawah, has endorsed the candidature of Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama for Yendi.
In a statement widely circulated in the media, Mr. Majeed Bawah, who in 2005 contested the National Youth Organiser position of the NPP but was beaten by Mr. John Boadu, gave reasons for declaring open support for the Candidature of Alhaji Farouk.
He noted that Farouk Aliu Mahama has consolidated the support base of the party in the Yendi Constituency since he joined the race and should he be voted for by the delegates, he would continue his massive development-oriented programmes alongside the consolidation drive of the NPP in the Yendi Constituency.
Aside consolidating the party, Mr. Majeed Bawah also explained that Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama has done extremely well in reconnecting the people of Yendi to the NPP once again and he sees it as a very positive move.
The former Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for Yendi in 2008 also disclosed that Farouk Aliu Mahama was the only candidate amongst the other Aspiring Parliamentary Candidates who can reach out and attract extra votes from non NPP members for the party.
Mr. Majeed Bawah, who describes himself as a critical stakeholder in the local politics of Yendi, has therefore appealed to the delegates in the impending Parliamentary primaries of Yendi to vote massively for Farouk Aliu Mahama.
This endorsement by Majeed Bawah has been described by Team Farouk as a very important endorsement for which they are both grateful and humbled.
The Teshie Concerned Citizens Association (TCCA) has commended the Minister of Roads and Highways Mr Kwesi Amoako Atta for the proactive response to its concerns over the construction of illegal structures along the waterways and reserved road.
On April 29, the group petitioned the Minister to stop the illegal construction taking place at the Teshie Bush road along the Kpeshie River which is reserved as water and roadway.
The Minister after the receipt of the petition constituted a committee to assess the developments at the Teshie Bush road.
The committee was constituted of Mr. Philip Lartey, Director in charge of Public-Private Partnership, Ministry of Roads and Highways, Mr Francis Ahlidza, Deputy Director, Monitoring & Evaluation, Ministry of Roads and Highways, and Ms Anthea Phanos, Assistant Director of Administration Ministry of Roads and Highways.
The others were Mr Alex Asamoah, Department of Urban Roads, Mr Benjamin Adomah, Department of Urban Roads, Martin Essilfie, Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly, LEKMa office to look into the matter.
The team was led by the Chairman of TCCA, Mr Seth Tagoe, to tour the area on Thursday, May 14 to examine the ongoing illegal projects and other developmental issues within the Teshie Camp, Bush Road, Demo, and Rasta area.
In a statement Mr Seth Tagoe, Chairman, Teshie Concerned Citizens Association, said the illegal construction on the waterways was of serious concern to residents and several efforts to stop the various construction has proven futile.
The statement said last attempt to stop the illegal construction was in 2009 by the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA), the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service, which pulled down all structures along the waterways because they were posing severe flooding dangers to residents in the area.
It said although the demolition exercise was met with strong protest by the occupants of the site, but the resilient forces proceeded and pulled down those structures to save the river, the community and the people within the catchment area.
The statement said “After one-decade lull and without protecting or fencing the site, some recalcitrant opportunists have started building openly without a permit …,†the statement said.
The statement drew attention to the death of a female medical doctor in the area last year, when she was carried away in her car by strong currents of rushing floodwaters, which eventually killed her and the unborn child.
“We have confidence in the Minister that he is committed to address our issues immediately especially since the rain is coming soon and flooding is inevitable and also to prevent a planned demonstration by the residents,†it added.
One thing that is clear as the country continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic is the impunity with which some restrictions are flouted by some members of the public.
The emergence of the coronavirus, code named Covid-19, has forced many governments to introduce some restrictions in order to contain the spread of the disease.
Ghana, on its part, has introduced a range of measures including mandatory quarantine and isolation of those who have contracted the virus.
Many of the measures have been imposed under a new law; the Imposition of Restrictions Act (IRA) which says that “The imposition of restrictions under section (1) shall be reasonably justifiable in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution.â€
Following the enactment of the law, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on March 15, 2020, introduced emergency measures across the country in order to contain the spread of the virus.
But as it is evident on the ground, some of these measures are being flouted by the very people that the laws have been made to protect. This has become a major concern to many Ghanaians as the defiance is likely to lead to further spread of the disease.
Fortunately, however, the law enforcement agencies have been making some arrests across the country and we are told that at least 236 people have, so far, been convicted for breaching Covid-19 directives.
It is good and laudable the efforts being made by the security agencies to arrest and secure convictions for those who flout the directives. We are aware that most offenders are convicted to fines and those who are unable to pay may be sent to serve jail terms.
But this is where our concern is.
Our prisons are already choked and to continue to cage those who flout Covid-19 restrictions will mean that the prisons may not be able to accommodate new inmates.
It is therefore welcoming news that Cabinet is considering community sentencing policy that will make it possible for people who flout laws to be convicted to community service instead of jail terms.
As the Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah put it at the Covid-19 briefing in Accra yesterday, community sentencing, as it stands now, is not a sentence option for defying various restrictions to contain the virus because the country does not have a clearly defined policy on same but added that it was under consideration at Cabinet level.
“Cabinet is considering a community sentence policy because [as it stands now] in Ghana, we do not have a proper community sentencing policy. Cabinet is considering one,†the Information Minister disclosed.
This is a laudable policy which must be supported by all and expedited to address the overcrowding in our prisons.
The Ghanaian Times is of the view that not all offences, be it during this period or after, should be punished by handing down offenders with custodial sentences.
We are of the firm belief that should this policy pass through all the legislative processes and implemented, the overcrowding in our prisons which stood at over 55 per cent as at September 2019, can be exponentially reduced.
Some former Ministers, as well as Members of Parliament, who served the country under the J.A. Kufuor administration, are demanding salary arrears of GHC29.7m from the Government of Ghana.
The Forum for Former Members of Parliament (FFMP) in their letter to Frema Osei Opare, the Chief of Staff demanded that in consonance with the principle of fairness and equity, “it is only appropriate to humbly request of you to consider the payment of arrears of salaries/emoluments to Members of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic (i.e. 2005 to 2009)”.
According to the FFMP, they are entitled to a twenty per cent annual salary increment as provided in the Chinery Hesse Committee’s Report.
The FFMP noted, “Payment of such entitlement will rectify the current anomalous scenario whereby 2001 [2005] Members of Parliament received a higher pay than the 2005 [2009] Members of Parliament.â€
The Forum gave an example of a similar payment to MPs of the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic which was approved by the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in a letter dated August 9, 2018, and was duly paid after the Auditor-General had certified it.
The list of MPs demanding salary arrears includes the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo whose grand total arrears is GHC152, 336.05. Former President J.A. Kufuor is also demanding GHC226,251.98 as grand total.
Some current Ministers of State among those making the demands include Joe Ghartey, Gloria Akuffo, Albert Kan-Dapaa, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
Please find below the full list of former MPs demanding salary arrears.
Find the letter of Forum for Former Members of Parliament to Chief of Staff
A small study that tested dozens showed eight participants developed antibodies against coronavirus.
The early results from Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial show participants developed antibodies against the virus.
Study subjects who received Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to develop the vaccine.
If future studies go well, the company’s vaccine could be available to the public as early as January, Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told CNN.
“This is absolutely good news and news that we think many have been waiting for for quite some time,” Zaks said.
These early data come from the Phase 1 clinical trial, which typically studies a small number of people and focuses on whether a vaccine is safe and elicits an immune response.
The results of the study, which was led by the National Institutes Health, have not been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.
Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of eight developers worldwide doing human clinical trials with a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. Two others, Pfizer and Inovio, are also in the United States, one is at the University of Oxford in Britain, and four are in China.
Moderna has vaccinated dozens of study participants and measured antibodies in eight of them. All eight developed neutralizing antibodies to the virus at levels reaching or exceeding the levels seen in people who’ve naturally recovered from Covid-19, according to the company.
Neutralizing antibodies bind to the virus, disabling it from attacking human cells.
“We’ve demonstrated that these antibodies, this immune response, can actually block the virus,” Zaks said. “I think this is a very important first step in our journey towards having a vaccine.”
A vaccine specialist who is not involved in Moderna’s work said the company’s results are “great.”
“It shows that not only did the antibody bind to the virus, but it prevented the virus from infecting the cells,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the NIH panel that’s setting a framework for vaccine studies in the US.
While the vaccine had promising results in the lab, it’s not known if it will protect people in the real world. The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared the company to begin Phase 2 trials, which typically involve several hundred of people, and Moderna plans to start large-scale clinical trials, known as Phase 3 trials, in July, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.
Offit said before the pandemic, vaccine developers would typically test out their product in thousands of people before moving on to Phase 3, but that Moderna is “extremely unlikely” to have vaccinated that many by July, since they’ve only vaccinated dozens so far.
He said it makes sense to Moderna to move into Phase 3 without vaccinating that many people, given that Covid-19 is killing thousands of people each day.
“This is a different time,” Offit said.
In January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said it would take about 12 to 18 months to get a vaccine on the market. Zaks said he agreed with that estimate for Moderna’s vaccine, putting a delivery date somewhere between January and June of next year.
In the Moderna study, three participants developed fever and other flu-like symptoms when they received the vaccine at a dose of 250 micrograms. Moderna anticipates the Phase 3 study on dosage will be between 25 and 100 micrograms.
So far, the Moderna study subjects who were vaccinated even at 25 and 100 micrograms achieved antibody levels similar to or even higher than people who naturally became infected with coronavirus.
But it’s not clear whether natural infection confers immunity to re-infection, and so similarly it’s not clear whether vaccination confers immunity.
“That’s a good question, and the truth is, we don’t know that yet,” Zaks said. “We are going to have to conduct formal efficacy trials where you vaccinate many, many people, and then you monitor them in the ensuing months to make sure they don’t get sick.”
Chelsea and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was arrested on suspicion of rape in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police and an ambulance were called to an address in London at 03:53 BST to a report of an unwell woman.
When emergency services attended, a women reported that she was raped. She was taken to hospital.
Hudson-Odoi, 19, was arrested at the scene and has since been released from custody.
He has been bailed to return on a date in mid-June as enquiries continue.
Chelsea have declined to comment.
Hudson-Odoi, who has three England caps and in September signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea, was the first Premier League player to test positive for coronavirus.
He made a full recovery and, like other Chelsea players, is waiting to return to training before any proposed restart to the season.
Some reports have suggested the woman involved visited Hudson-Odoi from another address.
Lockdown rules specify that only one person from each household may meet as long as they remain outdoors and keep two metres apart.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) after examining the Public university Bill, 2020 have submitted a 25 paged memorandum for the consideration of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education.
The memorandum is to ensure that the governance, administration and accountability structures of public universities are appropriately harmonised without tampering with the autonomy and education freedoms of the Public Universities.
“Therefore, UTAG took into consideration the best practices as captured in the existing Acts and Statutes, and inputs from the ten (10) Branches of UTAG in arriving at this memorandum.â€
Earlier, stakeholders in the education sector strongly pushed against the bill saying it could potentially grant the Ministry of Education overreaching powers to interfere in activities of universities across the country.
And that would take away academic freedom and the autonomy of public universities under the guise of harmonising activities.
But, the Head of Public Relations of the Ministry of Education, Mr Ekow Vincent Assafuah explained that the draft bill was particularly necessary, as some of the laws governing the public universities were outmoded.
He encouraged stakeholders to put their concerns on paper, rather than just making comments on social media and traditional media.
In that vein the UTAG has submitted the memorandum hoping it will be “given the importance it deserves.â€
The Surgical Theater of the Ho Teaching Hospital has been closed down for disinfection after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
According to a staff of the hospital, who spoke to Citi News on condition of anonymity the affected person developed symptoms after returning from sick leave.
The staff further said workers are living in fear as the carrier of the virus has not been identified.
Also, it expressed concerns over the seeming inaction from the management of the Ho teaching Hospital on the situation.
Meanwhile, on consulting the Public Relations Department of the Ho Teaching hospital, it responded that it was yet to abreast itself with the development.
The Volta Region has 34 confirmed cases, 32 active cases, zero recoveries and zero deaths as at 14:40 GMT on May 18, 2020.
Volta Region records first COVID-19 death
The Volta Region on Friday also recorded its first COVID-19 death at the local Treatment Centre in Ho.
The deceased, a 60-year-old woman who returned from Accra two weeks ago, visited the Ho Teaching Hospital with difficulty in breathing, fever and reduced level of consciousness.
She was noticed to have been progressively getting weak prior to her presentation at the Teaching Hospital and passed on after five days on admission at the Regional COVID -19 Centre on May 14, 2020 at 1815 hours.
A source at the hospital told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the deceased was a known diabetic who had suffered a Cerebro-Vascular Accident (CVA) a few years ago.
The sexagenarian, the source said, also had a pacemaker in situ for an unspecified cardiac condition.
It said she had been previously reviewed at the National Cardio-Thoracic Centre where she was told the pacemaker was no longer effective.
It said a preliminary diagnosis of severe pneumonia, Diabetes Mellitus type-2 and CVA with residual weakness was made to rule out COVID-19 but results received from the University of Health and Allied Sciences Laboratory for COVID-19 in three hours confirmed the deceased as positive for the disease.
“The patient was clinically managed in conformity with the established clinical protocols for the various disease conditions, psychosocial support given to the family of the confirmed case and all contacts and appropriate burial procedures currently underwayâ€.
The source said 39 staff including ten doctors, 28 nurses and an elderly were immediately quarantined as a precautionary measure after varying levels of exposure while contact identification, listing, tracing and testing was ongoing.
It said the Emergency Unit of the Ho Teaching Hospital was evacuated and shut down for 24 hours for fumigation.
Ghana COVID-19 cases
Ghana as at May 18, 2020, has 5,735 confirmed cases, 3,952 active cases, 1,754 recoveries, and 29 deaths.
National Security operatives have arrested a man for inciting the public and propagating misinformation after he was seen in a viral video asking the public to “get angry at and rise against President Akufo-Addo,†for allowing telecommunication companies to lay cables for 5G technology.
Video of Bless Amedeve, aka Don Dada, a security guard, linking the coronavirus disease to an alleged rollout of 5G technology along with calls on people to kill any police officer who stops them, went viral last month.
He has been placed in custody of the National Security after being remanded to reappear on May 22, 2020, following his arrest last Friday.
Bless, who now feels remorseful, had said in the video that the coronavirus was a hoax and deception by the President to lay cables for the 5G technology.
According to him, the President, in connivance with the telecom companies, is determined to foist the 5G technology on Ghanaians, claiming that the technology is the source of deaths reported across the globe, and not Covid-19.
For him, it was “disgusting†for the President to lockdown some parts of the country under the pretext of containing the virus when he knew the 5G was the source of the problem, charging people to “rise against President Akufo-Addo and kill any police officer who accosts you.â€
Scientists have described such theories linking coronavirus to the 5G technology as “a physical and biological impossibility,†yet many people appear to have bought into it.
The National Security said the arrested man was being questioned in a joint investigation, pending his reappearance in court.
Residents of Ohia-Tokrom in the Eastern region have been thrown into a state of shock after a 38-year-old woman was murdered by her husband for allegedly preparing a different meal from what he expected for dinner.
The deceased, Gladys Oforiwaa Kumi cooked rice porridge for dinner for her husband though he failed to give housekeeping money.
Uncle of the deceased, Nana Abunyaa in an interview said the suspect returned from the farm to enjoy his food only to be served rice porridge.
The suspect, popularly called J.K then took a knife and stabbed his wife many times resulting in her death.
The suspect is currently in police custody assisting with the investigation.
National Coordinator for Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) Albert Kofi Arhin has disclosed that no individual or an institution can manipulate results in favour of any political party in Ghana.
Mr Arhin asserts that Ghana has a watertight electoral system that would not allow anyone to rig elections for any political party.
The former Director of Operations at the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) expressed these when speaking on the Yensempa morning show on Onua FM on Monday, May 18.
He stressed that the electoral process from the stage of compiling a register is keenly monitored by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other international bodies hence the inability to rig by any party.
Mr Arhin has, therefore, urged the political parties to focus on training their internal electoral officers or polling agents to be abreast with the electoral laws instead of questioning and disparaging the very mandate of the EC.
He told host Nana Yaw Opare that his experience at the Commission challenges the impression and assertions that elections could be rigged.
“My work and experience at the Commission attest that elections cannot be rigged and the electoral system is open to all political parties and stakeholders, making it difficult for election results to be manipulated or changed.â€
The process is not done surreptitiously, he stated, and therefore it is up to the political parties to be vigilant and intensely monitor electoral processes right from the beginning to the D-Day.
He expressed fret over the consistent misunderstanding between parties and the EC, stressing that decisions made at Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting are not imperative in directing the EC in delivering its mandate.
He explained the IPAC is a platform where the Commission engages political parties and other stakeholders but no political party can compel the EC in implementing decision made whatsoever.
He noted that the EC does not take advice from any person but prayed it considers issues raised by political parties which are the key stakeholders to make its work easy and satisfactory, and ultimately to ensure peace.
Albert Arhin thus entreated all political parties to smoke the peace pipe with the EC in all IPAC meetings and understand the operations of the Commission to promote peace before, during and after the December 7 elections.
Over 200 persons may no longer have easy access to healthcare as residents of Ankwa Dobro, a community in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipality of Eastern Region, will soon see their only health centre raised down by the Ghana Highway Authority.
The facility which was donated, together with its ancillary equipment, to the community about seven years ago by the Blueskies fruit juice processing company limited has been marked among many other structures on the Ofankor-Nsawam stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway to be demolished.
The Ghana Highway Authority last week Thursday commenced a mass demolition of buildings along both sides of the Ofankor-Nsawam stretch of the Accra-Kumasi highway to pave way for the start of the construction of an additional carriageway.
The demolition exercise met stiff opposition from property owners, tenants, and landlords whose companies and places of abode are affected with the reason that the GHA did not give them enough notice to prepare adequately to relocate.
According to authorities at the Ankwa Dobro CHPS Compound, the short notice did not auger well since currently, the facility does not have any land to relocate to set up on.
“We were given a verbal information to quit or to relocate from where we are right now, then later they followed up with a letter for us to move. They gave us a date of 19th April to move. So right now we are also asking and soliciting the assistance of other corporate bodies to help us get a place to move,†Mrs. Georgina Agangida, the Midwifery Officer at the CHPS compound told Ghanaweb.
Mrs. Agangida explained that the demolition of the facility without a ready alternative place to relocate to will have adverse impact on the entire Ankwa Dobro community and the health service delivery as residents would not be compelled to go farther to Nsawam government Hospital or a nearby private clinic to access healthcare.
“We serve about eight (additional) communities and the services we render are OPD, CWC, Ante-natal, post-natal, deliveries and family planning. We also do voluntary testing and counselling on HIV and STIs. We are a health insurance accredited facility so we serve more than 200 client in a month.
“If government or our traditional leaders or the custodian of the land will give us a permanent place, that will be better for now,†Mrs. Agangida appealed.
Facilities such as fuel stations, schools, hotels, shops and clinics among many other structures are being raised down even though they have necessary permits from the GHA.
What the residents are shocked about is why the institution doing the demolition was the same government institution that gave them the permits after collecting huge sums of money from them knowing the land had been earmarked for road construction.
A letter found by Ghanaweb and signed by the Acting Chief Executive of the GHA, N.D. Brown, gave the notification that a demolition was going to take place on all properties extended into the road reservation (45m from the existing road centre line) acquired by government of Ghana (GOG) by Executive Instrument (E.I. 17) dated September 16, 2005.
The letter ordered the resident and owners to remove their properties within the road reservation acquired by the government in the E.I. 17 before 19th April, 2020 to pave way for the Accra-Kumasi dualisation road project to commence.
The letter further stated, “Note that compensation has long been paid to those who were in occupation of the acquired road corridor right after the publication of the E.I. 17.â€
An Accra circuit court has jailed a 21-year-old head porter 17 years in hard labour for attempted robbery and causing harm to a fire officer.
Daniel Amevor, the convict, appeared before court for attempting to rob a Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) personnel of his mobile phone and money at knifepoint.
The court presided by Afia Owusuaa Appiah found Amevor guilty for attempted robbery and causing unlawful harm and sentenced him to 17 years in hard labour for robbery and five years for causing harm. The sentences are to run concurrently.
The Head of Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times in Accra.
She said the victim was accosted by the convict and an accomplice, Abodie, now on the run, to surrender his mobile phone and money, in front of the GNFS Training School, in Accra.
DSP Tenge stated that in the process Amevor slashed the victim, who screamed, which alerted other colleagues, who came to his rescue.
She said the convict and the accomplice took to their heels, but the GNHS personnel arrested Amevor and handed him over to the police, while the victim was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
In another development, DSP Tenge said nine Nigerians and 10 Ghanaians appeared before an Accra circuit court last Friday, for breaching the imposition of restriction have been granted bail to a sum of GH?30,000 with two sureties.
As part of the bail condition, the court has ordered the Nigerians to deposit their passport with the courts.
Chief Inspector Martin Acheampong told the court that on May 12, 2020, the Baatsona Divisional Police Command arrested the accused at a party at Cambodia near Baastona Spintex road, a suburb of Accra, in violation of the restriction imposed on social gathering.
Twelve COVID-19 patients in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region, who were discharged after a month at a quarantine treatment center, have been celebrated by residents of the Apegusu community as heroes for overcoming the deadly virus.
The community is also celebrating news that the 355 contact tracing tests have all been declared negative.
It was all joy at Apegusu, a community in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region, when 3 out of the 12 Covid-19 patients who were discharged after a month in a quarantine center, were presented to the community. The 3 were part of 5 Ghanaians and 7 Indians, all workers of an Indian Company, who tested positive of the virus in the District a month ago.
NPP parliamentary candidate for the Asuogyaman Constituency, Paul Ansah organised the party for the survivors . The Mankrado of Apegusu, Nana Akwei Dedey II, warned against stigmatizing the 3 survivors who are residents of the community, and rather see the virus as the enemy
The 3 survivors were presented with 2 crates of eggs, cooking oil, bags of rice and an undisclosed amount of money by the NPP parliamentary candidate for the Asuogyaman Constituency Paul Asare Ansah, as a token to show their support to them. He urged residents to be vigilant and ensure persons who enters into the District are screened
Expressing their heartfelt gratitude to the chiefs and people of the area, Juliana Ntiamoah, spokesperson for the COVID-19 survivors, advised Ghanaians to be extra cautious in their daily activities since the virus is real.
Meanwhile all 355 contact tracing tests conducted in the district have all turned negative. District Health Director, Abdul Aziz Abdullah, sensitized residents to adhere to the various measures put in place by government to curtail the spread of the virus.
Everyone over age of five in the UK with symptoms can now be tested for coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced.
He was speaking in Parliament after the loss of taste or smell was added to the list of Covid-19 symptoms, alongside a fever and a new persistent cough.
Mr Hancock said the government was “expanding eligibility for testing further than ever before”, and 100,678 tests had been conducted on Sunday.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
Spain’s Socialist-led government plans to launch a monthly basic income scheme for the most vulnerable households hit by the coronavirus crisis.
The plan is expected to be approved next Tuesday and will aim to reach at least 100,000 households initially.
Each adult under the scheme will get a monthly payment of at least €462 (£410; $500). That may be topped up by other benefits, depending on need.
Finland has trialled basic income and Italy has a scheme tied to re-skilling.
However, neither the Finnish experiment – now ended – nor Italy’s “citizens’ income” scheme, introduced last year, made much impact on the unemployment rate.
The Spanish scheme will prioritise families, including single-parent households.
The plan is to scale it up later to reach about a million homes.
Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escrivá said it would act as “a permanent safety net for the most vulnerable”.
The scheme will cost the government between €3bn and €3.5bn annually, he said.
Spain is among the European countries hit hardest by the pandemic, but on Sunday its daily death toll fell below 100 for the first time in two months.
Italy’s income scheme requires recipients – people with very low income and savings – to retrain, as Italy’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the EU. It was 8.4% in March, and the economic paralysis under lockdown is expected to push it higher.
Leonardo DiCaprio has joined a campaign to support Africa’s oldest nature reserve after it came under a deadly attack last month.
Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a popular tourist attraction and is known for its endangered mountain gorilla population.
In April, 12 rangers at the park were killed in an ambush by a suspected Rwandan rebel group.
DiCaprio has now contributed to a new fund which aims to support the park.
Earth Alliance, a group co-founded by the actor, has donated part of the initial $2m (£1.65m) funding, although it is not clear exactly how much.
“I had the great honour of meeting and supporting Virunga’s courageous team in their fight against illegal oil drilling in 2013,” DiCaprio said in a statement to BBC News.
The actor was an executive producer on the documentary Virunga, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2014.
“Virunga urgently needs funds to protect the endangered mountain gorilla population, to provide support to the rangers and the families of rangers who have fallen in the line of duty, and to help deliver essential disease prevention efforts,” he said.
“It’s critical that we rally together during this time of incredible crisis.”
The park, a Unesco World Heritage site, is one of the most biologically diverse in the world, and his home to several hundred species of birds, reptiles and mammals.
On Monday, the park launched the Virunga Fund, made up of donations from groups including Earth Alliance, which was co-founded by DiCaprio, Emerson Collective and Global Wildlife Conservation. The European Commission have also contributed.
Virunga Park said it was facing a “series of unprecedented threats”. In addition to the recent attack on rangers, the coronavirus outbreak has forced it to close to tourists, resulting in a significant loss of revenue.
Scientists have also said Covid-19 poses an “existential threat” to the gorillas themselves.
The World Wide Fund For Nature has warned that mountain gorillas are at risk of catching coronavirus because they share 98% of their DNA with humans.
A month after Virunga stopped all tourism activities, 12 park rangers, a driver and four members of the local community were killed in a violent attack by around 60 militiamen.
The group ambushed a convoy of civilians that was being protected by the rangers. A statement from the park at the time described it as an attack on the local civilian population, adding that the rangers were not the target.
Kidnappers have previously been known to target tourists in the park. In 2018 attackers killed park ranger Rachel Masika Baraka during the brief kidnapping of two British tourists and their driver.
‘Twin threats’
National Virunga Park director Emmanuel De Merode said he had “never been more worried” about the future of the park in light of the outbreaks of Ebola and Covid-19.
“Virunga’s rangers are racing against the clock to protect both the local communities that surround the park and the endangered mountain gorilla population from these twin threats,” he said.
The park said money raised would provide urgent support for staff on the ground to deliver critical disease prevention efforts, law enforcement, and protect endangered species.
DiCaprio has become well known for his activism in recent years, particularly on environmental issues.
In 2016 he appeared in Before The Flood, a documentary that saw him meet scientists and world leaders to discuss the dangers of climate change.
Last month he helped launch America’s Food Fund, a fundraising initiative that aims to ensure all US citizens have access to a reliable supply of food.
The 45-year-old became one of the world’s best-known actors in the late 1990s after appearing in Titanic and Romeo + Juliet.
He has since starred in The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. He won the Oscar for best actor in 2016 for The Revenant.
American Idol’s 18th winner, Just Sam, celebrated alone on Sunday after taking part in the finale under lockdown in Los Angeles.
Samantha Diaz, 21, from Harlem, New York, was told she’d won the public vote by host Ryan Seacrest, who was broadcasting from his garage.
She heard the news while clutching an iPad that was connected to a call with her grandmother, who brought her up.
“Can I thank America now?” asked the singer. “My dreams have come true.”
American Idol has soldiered on through the coronavirus pandemic, with the flashy neon sets and pyrotechnics replaced by gardens, garages and bedrooms.
Just Sam relocated from New York to LA for the live stages of the singing contest. When the show started filming remotely due to the pandemic, she faced a tough choice – either return to Harlem or remain alone in quarantine in LA.
In the end, she chose the latter for her grandmother’s safety.
“I get to stay in California so that my grandmother could be OK and so I don’t risk getting her sick,” she said on the show. “I don’t have much, just my two suitcases that I had packed about two months ago.”
From the subway to stardom
Over the weeks, Just Sam captured viewers’ hearts with her emotional back story, vivacious personality and soul-stirring vocals.
Formerly a subway singer in New York, she broke down in tears while auditioning for the show in Washington DC last year, before stunning the judges with a stirring performance of Andra Day’s Rise Up.
The singer had a tough upbringing. With her mother in jail, she spent time in foster care before being adopted at the age of six by her Liberian grandmother, Elizabeth.
“She made sure we were fed, she made sure we had a roof over our head, she made sure we had clothes on our backs,” she told American Idol.
She took on her stage name at high school after being bullied over her appearance.
“In high school, they didn’t know which category to put me in,” she said in one episode. “I wasn’t a girl, not a boy, but both. And I’m like, ‘Just Sam – it sounds perfect. I think I’m going to use that as my stage name forever.’”
In the final, she faced stiff competition from Arthur Gunn, a Nepalese-American singer whose gritty rock vocals made him one of the favourites to win.
But Sam’s powerful rendition of Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You), by the first ever Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, and an emotional reprise of Day’s Rise Up earned her the public vote.
Rise Up will be released as her first single on Monday.
“My grandmother has been saying that she doesn’t believe that people like us can have their dreams come true,” she said during the show. “This is proof to her!”
The contestants and judges (Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie) were each sent a makeshift rig consisting of three iPhones, a tripod and a ring light to film their segments.
The production team, also in their own homes, advised on camera angles and backdrops, and the resulting footage was edited remotely.
For the finale, contestants were also provided with a confetti cannon, with each of the final five pre-recording one song and performing the other live.
“We put the show together earlier in the week because there are so many factors to it,” Seacrest told People magazine. “It’s technically not possible to do it all live obviously.
“Every once in a while we have to be careful not to step on each other while we’re talking because there’s that delay that we’ve all experienced talking to our families at home on different Zooms and things like that.”
Elsewhere in Sunday’s show, Perry performed her new single Daisies, while Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo delivered a medley of Aretha Franklin hits.
The finale ended with a performance of the 1985 charity anthem We Are The World, led by co-writer Lionel Richie and his fellow judges.
Just Sam also joined the chorus, alongside an all-star group of Idol alumni – including Jordin Sparks, Fantasia, Katharine McPhee, Ruben Studdard and Scotty McCreery – whose faces were virtually projected onto some of America’s most famous landmarks.
Speaking to Billboard, executive producer Trish Kinane, said some of the changes forced upon the team this season would influence next year’s show.
“We’re starting to think about auditions in a serious way now,” Kinane said. “All our big, open calls where you have thousands of people, I guess we’re not going to be able to do that.”
Filming contestants at home could become a more regular feature.
“When we’ve been announcing the results to contestants these past few weeks, they’re at home in a familiar environment with their family and the emotion… has been extraordinary and you don’t get that in the big studio,” she said.
“We’re certainly going to be looking at the emotion that these moments have produced, and how do we capture that again?
“We’ve been forced into it, but I think it’s revealed something rather stripped-back and back to the origins of what Idol was.”
The planet is paying a heavy price for countries ignoring the recommendations of the World Health Organization to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, UN chief Antonio Guterres told a virtual meeting of the WHO’s World Health Assembly on Monday.
“Different countries have followed different, sometimes contradictory strategies and we are all paying a heavy price,” the secretary-general told the WHO gathering.
Speaking after Guterres, the head of the WHO said he would initiate an independent evaluation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic at the “earliest appropriate moment” and vowed transparency and accountability.
“We all have lessons to learn from the pandemic. Every country and every organisation must examine its response and learn from its experience. WHO is committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the assembly.
Tedros thanked early high-level speakers for their “strong support for WHO at this critical time” and said that the review must encompass responsibility of “all actors in good faith”.
“The risk remains high and we have a long road to travel,” Tedros said. Preliminary serological tests in some countries showed that at most 20% of populations had contracted the disease and “in most places less than 10 per cent”, he said.
f May we received another letter from the Center for Plant Medicine Research that they have done preliminary evaluation of our products and has given some recommendations.
“Since then we have not heard anything from the health ministry. We are holding on, thinking that it is time we are brought on board.â€
He added: “10 out of the 33 products that we brought to the centre for research, their evaluation proved that 10 had already gone through FDA system already.
“And has been certified to be immune system boosters. And so based on FDA certifications and they also looking into the product they found also that the 10 products have supportive treatment for relief of some symptoms of COVID-19.â€
Ghana has recorded 5,735 cases as at May 16 with 1,754 recoveries and 29 deaths. Health authorities say a 1,000 more people are expected to recover in the coming days.
Coronavirus has Americans picking up two new summer accessories: a mask and an alcoholic to-go drink.
After weeks of sheltering in place, many Americans are looking for ways to cut loose.
With bars and restaurants closed to the public in most states, and summer weather approaching, that means that many are heading outdoors to relax and socialise.
And for some, that means having a drink – sometimes in spite of the law.
Veteran drinks writer Amanda Schuster says that in her neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York, “it seems like everyone’s over” prohibitions on public drinking.
“It’s as if people have the attitude that ‘no one’s going to arrest us for this when they have other things to do,’” Ms Schuster, who is the editor-in-chief for online magazine Alcohol Professor, told the BBC.
This laissez-faire approach is something Americans used to have to go abroad to experience.
While an 18-year-old can walk into a London pub and order a pint, the national minimum age to purchase alcohol in the US has been 21 since 1984, when Congress passed the Minimum Drinking Age Act, in part over concerns about drink-driving fatalities.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
In many countries in Europe like Germany, it is perfectly fine to go for a stroll with a beer or bring wine to a picnic. But in the US, carrying open alcohol in public is largely forbidden, except in a handful of municipalities.
A notable exception in the US is New Orleans, Louisiana, a city that proudly boasts its relaxed open container laws, giving it the feel of a European town.
“We are considered fairly puritanical when compared to other countries in regard to liquor laws,” Ms Schuster says.
When the 21st Amendment repealed national prohibition in 1933, states were given the ultimate power to decide who could manufacture, sell and drink alcohol. That means that most states exercise tight control over who can sell alcohol, when, and where.
But as the realities of the coronavirus pandemic transform many aspects of American social life, many states are relaxing their rules.
Within days of enacting shelter-in-place ordinances and closing non-essential businesses, many states rescinded laws that previously restricted restaurants from selling alcohol to-go.
Others loosened rules around online liquor sales, or made it easier for customers to buy directly from breweries and wineries.
In most jurisdictions, the sale of alcohol was deemed “essential”, with the exception of the US state of Pennsylvania, which closed all state-run liquor stores.
“It’s about creating revenue and helping these poor businesses,” said Ms Schuster.
In addition to helping bars and restaurants stay afloat, states benefit from keeping their citizens buying booze. Taxes on alcohol serve as a large source of revenue for many states.
And as the lockdown drags on, and coronavirus stress continues, the data shows that alcohol sales show no signs of dropping.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
The week that New York announced the shelter-in-place, Nielsen reported alcohol sales had gone up significantly since the same time the previous year.
And last week, they reported that the US saw the largest growth of alcohol sales since the pandemic shutdowns started in March.
It’s a trend that is common in times of disaster, says Dr George Koob, the Director of the National Abuse of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
“We know historically that during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina there was an upswing in alcohol consumption,” he told the BBC.
With more people drinking and to-go alcohol laws being loosened to protect businesses, many local governments have issued warnings that allowing to-go alcohol sales at restaurants and bars does not change open container laws.
Alexandria, Virginia’s government website states:
“Although the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority has temporarily allowed licensed restaurants and bars to sell beer, wine and mixed drinks for carryout and delivery, the Alexandria City Code still prohibits carrying open containers of alcohol in public.”
But in certain areas, there’s some indication that police aren’t focusing on people drinking in public.
Just over an hour north, Baltimore, Maryland has said it will dismiss pending criminal charges for people arrested for many non-violent crimes, including breaking open container laws.
The Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that this in an effort to curb the number of people in jails that are proving to be a potential “breeding ground” of the virus.
Dr Koob says it’s still too soon to tell how the new to-go cup policies will change alcohol behaviour, but the NIAAA is in the process of tracking it.
However, he pointed out that with alcohol sales increasing and more people drinking, the loss of inhibition could lead to more people drinking outside.
“Alcohol’s effect on the body is disinhibition. Some of these individuals who are drinking a little more because of the isolation and the stress are disinhibited so they might think it’s okay to go outside for a walk and take their beverage with them.”
Whether or not alcohol to-go laws will remain the norm in the US after coronavirus passes remains to be seen, but Ms Schuster thinks it will be hard “to put the genie back in the bottle”.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
She may be right.
On 28 April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that the state would be extending the temporary rule that allowed restaurants to serve alcohol to-go to continue past 1 May, when it was initially set to expire.
And he implied that this rule may be here to stay.
“From what I hear from Texans, we may just let this keep on going forever,” Governor Abbott tweeted.
Thank you for your comments.
I ordered a burrito at my local cafe and got a beer to go. Sipped it on my 1/2 mile bike ride home. Andrew Finchamp, Chino, California
Writing from Williamsport, PA (yes: Little League Country): to-go cocktails and drive-up six-packs are common. Two recent daytime keg parties observed in our sleepy quiet neighborhood township of Loyalsock. Both featured an open garage with visible taps, a yard full of partying Pennsylvanians, and large pick-up trucks parked along the street. We go for walks quite often and see stuff. I must admit I usually carry a cold beer along, and some peanuts for the squirrels. These are difficult times, my friends, and a nice buzz doesn’t hurt. Jeff Vetock, Williamsport, Pennsylvania
In my neighborhood, have seen more and more people going on walks with bottles of beers and glasses of wine. You could expect to see it maybe once when the weather is nice – but even now with poor weather you see it more and more. Even at the local fishing pier, where having an open beverage before would often result in glares or warnings from officials, is now a sea of open containers while people aren’t working and trying to enjoy the outdoors. Rob Eckert, Detroit, Michigan
Yes, I have definitely seen an increase in outdoor drinking in the metro Vancouver regional parks. The local police do not seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. Outdoor open drinks are NOT legal here in B.C., but people really do seem to be shunning the laws and carrying on with it. Colin Nellis, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
For the first time ever I have been able to buy liquor, beer in this case online from a local micro brewery. Also we have been given the okay to have an alcoholic drink with our neighbours in our front gardens. A first, but coming from Europe, about time. Not all is bad with the pandemic. Catie Oates, North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada
In New York state, bars and restaurants will even deliver cocktails to your home right now. And every time we get takeout from one of our great local restaurants, we make sure to grab a few pints for the road, something unthinkable eight weeks ago. No one cares suddenly and there’s no true harm in it. I suspect the new economy in America will be far more tolerant of such things. Robert Holahan, Binghamton, New York
In Fort Lauderdale the bars have opened the pavement outside their premises to clientele. This has led to a street party atmosphere and in some cases the social distancing has been non-existent. Overall the customers are enjoying the freedom of drinking outside. Mi Gael Dutton, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
While this is a Florida beach resort city, and it was already legal to walk the streets with an open container, I would say that it is even more relaxed, and restaurants which are still selling only take-away food are also selling take-away package liquors as well. So you can get your coconut shrimp basket with a rum runner in a to-go cup. This is legal ON FOOT, but it runs afoul of the states open container laws in a vehicle. Nobody is paying any attention to that at this time. Bob Gassert, Madeira Beach, Florida
Millions of workers are doing their day jobs from makeshift set-ups in their living rooms and kitchens, while those in England who can’t work from home are now encouraged to go back in if they can do so safely.
But how exposed to coronavirus might you be in your job? And how does that compare to others?
Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, based on a US survey, puts into context the risk of exposure to disease, as well as the amount of close human contact workers had before social distancing and other safety measures were introduced.
While most jobs require people to work relatively closely to others – somewhere in the range between arm’s length and a shared office environment – there are very few that typically involve exposure to disease more than once a year.
It’s important to note that the data on both exposure to disease at work and how close people are to others is based on interviews that took place with US workers before the pandemic broke out and social distancing recommendations were introduced.
Some jobs may find it easier to adjust than others and there may be slightly different working practices and conditions in the US for certain occupations. The results can be expected to be broadly the same in most developed countries.
Almost all the jobs that have a high exposure to both disease and other people are healthcare professions, while those who scored low on both measures include artists, lawyers and those in more typical office jobs like marketing, HR and financial advisers.
Cleaners, prison officers and undertakers are among those who have relatively high exposure to disease without so much close interaction with other people.
But the people who might be most at risk to a new infectious disease like Covid-19, are those who have lots of close contact with people, but aren’t used to being exposed to disease.
Bar staff, hairdressers and actors fall into this category, as well as taxi drivers and bricklayers.
Other figures released by the ONS this week showed that deaths in the healthcare sector in the UK are no higher on average than those in the wider community, although social care workers were dying at higher rates. Given that these healthcare occupations are so exposed to both disease and other people, why have there not been more deaths?
This could be because workers in these jobs are more likely to be using personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gloves, says Ben Humberstone, deputy director for health analysis at the ONS. They also follow regular hygiene measures like washing hands.
One of the jobs which had many more coronavirus deaths than the average was taxi drivers. That’s a job which scores highly in terms of closeness to other people, particularly among those jobs which are still actually possible to do at the moment. Bar staff, hairdressers and fitness instructors all score higher, but with bars, gyms and hair salons shut, most of these people will be isolating.
As taxi drivers are less exposed to disease in normal times, there may not be an existing culture of regular hand-washing and wearing PPE. Some firms are trialling partition screens and distributing gloves and masks to protect their drivers and customers.
Methodology
The data in the look-up comes from this release by the ONS.
The figures on proximity to others and exposure to disease come from a survey carried out by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) in which they asked respondents in the US to place themselves on a 1-5 scale for the following two questions.
1. How physically close to other people are you when you perform your current job?
2. How often does your current job require you to be exposed to diseases or infection?
For exposure to disease, a score of one means they are never exposed, while a score of five means they are exposed daily. It’s referring to any disease, not coronavirus specifically.
For the physical closeness question, one means the respondent works more than 100ft away from the nearest other person, while five means they need to touch or be near to touching other people at work. The survey was carried out before social distancing measures were introduced and workers in certain jobs will of course find it easier to adjust than others.
The responses for people in the same jobs were averaged together and extrapolated to form a score of 100. We’ve looked at these scores out of of 100 and given each job a ranking.
If any two jobs had the same score we’ve given them a tied ranking.
Global health leaders are pushing for an independent review of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic at the UN’s World Health Assembly.
Monday’s virtual meeting brings together envoys from 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO is facing questions on how it dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has defended his country’s actions during the outbreak, spoke during Monday’s opening ceremony.
He said China had acted “with openness and transparency” and insisted that any investigation should happen after the pandemic was brought under control.
In other opening remarks, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed a proposed resolution calling for a review of the WHO’s handling of the pandemic and said it would initiate it “at the earliest opportunity”.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the WHO must be given more legal powers to ensure that countries report outbreaks and share data.
“A novel infectious disease could emerge at any time and we must be able to respond more quickly and effectively,” he said.
The two-day assembly – an annual meeting that reviews the work of the UN’s health agency – comes amid recriminations between the US and China over the virus.
The US has already stopped its funding for the agency and is promoting its own vaccine programme.
More than 4.5 million people have been infected and more than 300,000 have died since the virus emerged in China in December.
What is the assembly discussing?
The European Union, alongside countries including the UK, Australia and New Zealand, is pushing for an inquiry into how the pandemic has been handled and what lessons can be learned.
EU spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said several key questions needed to be answered as part of any review.
“How did this pandemic spread? What is the epidemiology behind it? All this is absolutely crucial for us going forward to avoid another pandemic of this kind,” she said.
However, she added that now was not the time for “any sort of blame game”.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionWHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has faced criticism for the agency’s handling of the pandemic
A draft resolution calling for a review, to be put to a vote on Tuesday, requires a two-thirds majority to pass and already has support from 116 of the 194 member states, according to Reuters.
Last month, an EU report accused China of spreading disinformation about the crisis.
The bloc’s External Action Service said Russia, and to a lesser extent China, had promoted “conspiracy narratives”.
War of words looms between US and China
Analysis by Tulip Mazumdar, BBC global health correspondent
The annual World Health Assembly is an important, but usually quite dry, event. Not this year.
The Covid-19 pandemic is taking centre stage and the event is likely to host a strong war of words between China and the US about how this health emergency has unfolded – with the WHO stuck in the middle of a bigger geopolitical fight between the superpowers.
The EU-led call for an investigation into the international response – and to find the animal source of Covid-19 – has been deliberately worded without mentioning China, where the virus first emerged.
Also expect calls for an independent WHO team to be allowed into China to investigate the origins of the virus. So far international teams have only been allowed in alongside Chinese authorities. The US and others including Australia will no doubt call for this, China is highly unlikely to agree.
What has the WHO said?
WHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris said that the World Health Assembly was “always the time for a lot of scrutiny [of the WHO].”
But, she added, the organisation would remain “laser-focused” on working to lead the overall response, and on the science and solutions for this pandemic.
The WHO is supposed to represent the interests of all member states equally but has found itself at the centre of a political battle between China and the US.
US President Donald Trump, who faces re-election this year and has been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account.
The row culminated last month with the US – the WHO’s largest single donor – pulling funding to the agency.
The assembly is also expected to hear calls to give the WHO more powers to allow inspectors to go into countries at the start of outbreaks, and carry out independent investigations.
The WHO did send a team of scientists into China in January and February, but it was a joint mission alongside Chinese officials.
What has China’s response been?
China has already rejected calls for an independent international investigation into Covid-19.
Last month, senior Chinese diplomat Chen Wen told the BBC that such demands were politically motivated and that an investigation would only divert attention and resources away from fighting the virus.
The outbreak first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and was widely reported to have originated in a food market.
Since then, however, some senior US politicians have suggested that the source was a research facility in Wuhan that had been carrying out research on bat coronaviruses. China has dismissed the idea.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this month that there was “a significant amount of evidence” that the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan. However, in a TV interview with Breitbart on Saturday he appeared to step back, saying “we know it began in Wuhan, but we don’t know from where or from whom”.
The draft resolution mentions identifying “the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts”.
Italy and Spain are among a number of European countries further easing their coronavirus lockdown restrictions on Monday.
Most businesses in Italy, including bars and hairdressers, are reopening after more than two months of nationwide lockdown measures.
Spain meanwhile has slightly eased restrictions on some of its least affected islands.
The measures follow consistent drops in the number of daily recorded deaths.
On Sunday, Italy recorded the fewest daily deaths since it entered lockdown in March.
It said 145 people had died with the virus in the previous 24 hours. This marked a significant drop from its highest daily death toll, which was more than 900 on 27 March.
In Spain, the daily death toll fell below 100 for the first time since it imposed its lockdown restrictions.
But officials are warning that complacency over the virus could lead to a second wave of infections.
What’s happening on Monday?
Restaurants, bars, cafes, hairdressers and shops have been allowed to reopen in Italy, providing social distancing is enforced.
Almost 32,000 people in Italy have died in the pandemic, and the economy is expected to shrink by nearly 10% this year.
Catholic churches are resuming Mass, but there is strict social distancing and worshippers must wear face masks. Other faiths are also being allowed to hold religious services.
But health officials have warned of the continued dangers of large social gatherings.
Pope Francis held a private Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, which has been disinfected ahead of its reopening to tourists.
The Mass honoured the late Pope John Paul II, 100 years after his birth in Poland.
There was sorrow but relief too at morning mass in Milan’s Santa Maria del Rosario: the first time that people could return to churches in 10 weeks.
They came for comfort and to pray for Italy’s recovery. And they abided by strict measures: pews were disinfected before the service; worshippers sat apart; and the priest wore gloves to place the communion wafer in people’s hands, not their mouths.
“It was strange to feel the body of Christ on these gloves,” said Fr Marco Borghi, “but it’s so important for people to be able to get closer to God again at this time”.
From restaurants and bars to museums and libraries, to hair salons and beauty parlours, Italy is reopening and emerging from the world’s longest national lockdown.
There’s a sense of optimism in the streets but also, still, astonishment at what has happened, particularly here in Italy’s richest, most advanced region: over 15,000 people killed in Lombardy, almost half of all the Italian deaths.
And the economic pain is intense. One in three businesses here say they won’t be reopening today.
In Spain, some areas are also seeing restrictions ease.
The country has a four-phase system for reopening, which authorities are applying at different speeds in different regions.
Most of Spain moved into phase one last week. Up to 10 people are allowed to meet together, provided they wear masks and socially distance, while bars and restaurants can open outdoor seating at half capacity. Cinemas, museums and theatres are also opening at reduced capacity.
Some Spanish islands that have not been badly affected by the outbreak moved into phase two on Monday – allowing shopping malls to reopen and gatherings of up to 15 people.
Barcelona, Madrid and parts of the north-west however remain in phase 0. Most restrictions will remain in place, but some small shops will be allowed to reopen on Monday and funerals can be held for groups of up to 10 inside and 15 outside. This has been dubbed “phase 0.5” – an intermediate step in these regions.
The country is now “very close” to stopping the transmission of the virus, the head of the emergency health centre, Fernando Simon, said on Sunday.
But he warned that the risk of a second wave of cases was “still very big”.
Elsewhere in Europe:
Belgium is to begin reopening primary and secondary schools under strict conditions on Monday, with museums and zoos also opening their doors – albeit only to those who book online, to limit numbers
The famous Acropolis reopened in Greece, and secondary school pupils are returning to class
Restaurants, cafes and pastry shops restart business at reduced capacity in Portugal
Poland’s beauty salons and hairdressers reopen, as well as restaurants and cafes
