TIG Post

Tag: Coronavirus

  • Ten African innovations to help tackle coronavirus

    As Africa passes more than a million confirmed COVID-19 cases, innovators on the continent have responded to the challenges of the pandemic with a wide range of creative inventions. Here are 10 we’ve picked out.

    1. ‘Doctor Car’ robot

    Students from the Dakar Polytechnic School in Senegal have built a multifunctional robot designed to lower the risk of COVID-19 contamination from patients to caregivers.

    The device is equipped with cameras and is remotely controlled via an app. The designers say it can move around the rooms of quarantined patients to take their temperatures and deliver drugs and food.

    2. Automatic hand-washing machine

    Nine-year-old Kenyan schoolboy Stephen Wamukota invented a wooden hand-washing machine to help curb the spread of Coronavirus.

    The machine allows users to tip a bucket of water to wash their hands by using a foot pedal. This helps users avoid touching surfaces to reduce the risk of infection.

    Stephen was given a presidential award in June.

    3. The Respire-19 portable ventilator

    Amid a shortage of ventilators on COVID-19 wards in Nigeria, 20-year-old engineering student Usman Dalhatu attempted to help meet the shortfall.

    Dalhatu built the portable automatic ventilator to help people with respiratory problems – often a symptom of a severe coronavirus infection. He now plans to build up to 20 ventilators.

    4. 3D mask printing

    Natalie Raphil is the founder of Artificial Intelligence company Robots Can Think South Africa.

    She’s using 3D printers to produce 100 masks a day for use in some of Johannesburg’s major hospitals. South Africa accounts for around half of all reported Coronavirus cases in Africa.

    5. Solar-powered hand-washing sink

    Amid a lockdown in Ghana aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, shoemaker Richard Kwarteng and his brother Jude Osei decided to design a solar-powered hand-washing basin.

    When hands come into contact with a sensor on the device, soapy water is automatically released. An alarm goes off after 25 seconds of hand-washing – within the timescale recommended by the World Health Organization.

    6. Web-based X-ray lung scans

    Engineers in Tunisia have created an online platform that scans lung X-rays to try to determine if a person could be suffering from Coronavirus.

    When an X-ray is uploaded onto the platform, it runs a test to detect signs of a possible coronavirus infection. Researchers at the National Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Tunis say the tool is 90% effective in indicating the probability of infection.

    The platform is still in development, but thousands of lung X-rays have been fed into the system to enable it to recognise the impact of COVID-19 on lungs.

    7. Police robots on lockdown patrol

    Authorities in Tunisia deployed police robots on the streets of the capital Tunis in April to enforce lockdown measures.

    The surveillance robots, called PGuards, spied on people walking on the street and approached them to ask why they were out.

    Offenders then had to show their ID and other documents to the cameras attached to the robots. The four-wheeled devices are equipped with thermal-imaging cameras and light detection and ranging technology.

    8. Wooden money sanitiser

    Kenyan mobile money agent Danson Wanjohi has built a wooden device that sanitises cash notes that are passed through a slot in the machine.

    Wanjohi constructed the mechanism using a motor, a rubber band and gears which enable notes to pass through the machine.

    As the notes pass through the device, they are cleaned with a sanitising solution.

    9. Rapid 65-minute Covid-19 testing kit

    South African tech entrepreneurs Daniel Ndima and Dineo Lioma have created a COVID-19 testing kit which provides results in just 65 minutes.

    Typically, it can take up to three days for COVID-19 tests to produce results.

    The testing kit is known as qPCR, and features a technology used to measure DNA. The testing kit needs to undergo regulatory approval before it can be rolled out.

    10. Socially distanced haircuts

    In Ethiopia, barbers have come up with a way to continue cutting hair for clients while minimising the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

    The barbers stand in a specially constructed booth which acts as a partition separating them from clients, minimising person-to-person contact.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Inaki Williams tests positive for Covid-19

    Spanish-born Ghanaian forward Inaki Williams has tested positive for Covid-19.

    Williams, who is eligible for play for either Spain by birth or Ghana via his parents, announced he had contracted the virus as he took the test ahead of Athletic Bilbao’s pre-season training.

    The 26-year-old admitted he has no symptoms and will undergo the necessary self-isolation measures in a bid to control the spread of the virus.

    “Today, they confirmed that I have tested positive in the PCR test. I am asymptomatic and I feel fine. It is time to be at home in isolation until I overcome the virus. I really want to join the pre-season,” Williams posted on his Twitter account.

    Source: Ghana Soccernet

  • New Zealand records first virus cases in 102 days

    New Zealand has put its largest city back into lockdown after recording four new Covid-19 cases, ending a 102-day streak without a local infection.

    A three-day lockdown was swiftly imposed in Auckland after the cases were confirmed.

    The four new cases are all members of a single family. None had travelled recently.

    The restrictions will come into effect on Wednesday, as authorities scramble to trace contacts of the family.

    Auckland residents will be asked to stay at home, large gatherings will be banned, non-essential businesses will be shut, and some social-distancing restrictions will be reintroduced in the rest of the country.

    New Zealand has fared better than other countries, recording 1,220 confirmed cases and 22 deaths since the virus arrived in late February.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Coronavirus: Arts venues in UK to go red for live events awareness campaign

    Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp said Tuesday it was launching a stand-alone streaming service for its news and business channels that would be available in 20 countries by year’s end.
    Fox, which is a streamlined company formed after it sold much of its film and TV entertainment operations to Disney, said the new subscription service would include on-demand content from Fox News and Fox Business Channel.

    The Fox News International service priced at $6.99 per month will debut in Mexico on August 20 followed by Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom on September 17.

    It will be in 20 countries by the end of the year, according to the company.

    The streaming service will offer content from Fox News, which has been the most-watched cable news channel in recent years and a favorite of President Donald Trump, online without the need for a cable or satellite subscription.

    The service will be available on several platforms include iPhone, Android, Apple TV and Android TV, with Amazon Fire TV and Roku expected later.

    The move comes amid a polarization of news audiences in the United States in recent years, with many conservatives turning to Fox and others to rivals CNN and MSNBC.

    Murdoch, the 89-year-old media mogul, remains chairman of Fox Corp. with his son Lachlan serving as chief executive. The family also separately controls News Corp. which includes the Wall Street Journal and media outlets in Britain and Australia.

    Fox is the latest in a line of media companies to turn to streaming to reach a wider, global audience and viewers without pay TV packages. A similar service is available to US audiences known as Fox Nation.

    The Murdochs concluded a deal last year selling its 21st Century Fox studios and cable channels to Disney while maintaining the Fox broadcast network and news channels.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Coronavirus: Toyota ‘closes Ugandan branch over infections’

    Car maker Toyota has closed its branch in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, after three of its staff tested positive for coronavirus, the Daily Monitor newspaper reports.

    The test results were confirmed by the health ministry, it reports.

    The rest of staff at the branch have been asked to stay at home for a mandatory 14-day quarantine period, a company’s statement is quoted as saying.

    Uganda has so far confirmed 1,297 coronavirus cases and nine deaths, according to a tally by John Hopkins University.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Work from home: Should data costs replace transport allowances?

    The raging novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is changing the way the world works and employers will have to reexamine how they remunerate employees.

    Transport allowance could just be one of the victims of any readjustments in the remuneration packages of workers on the back of a new norm orchestrated by Covid-19.

    In its place could be data allowances, an emerging cost item that employees are having to deal with in other to make the ‘work from home’ craze a reality.

    Transport headache

    Until the emergence of the virus, transporting workers to and from work was one of the top headaches facing employers.

    With increased urbanisation and population growth making it difficult for most workers to reside closer to their work places, getting to work on time and in a good state of mind has been one of the priorities of top-rated employers, if not all those who employ.

    It is such that transport has become a central part of the remuneration packages of employer-employee discussions.

    While some companies resort to transporting their workers to and from work, others prioritise the allocation of fuels to staff with vehicles.

    Similarly, other companies give money under what is generally called transport allowances to staff to cushion them against the hustles of transporting themselves to and from work while other companies combine these three packages under special arrangements and terms.

    Whatever the arrangement, the central objective has always been to aid the worker’s movement to and from the office to help improve delivery and health.

    Covid-19 normal

    But since the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the world has been adjusting to a new normal that promises to permanently impact how people work and the remuneration they get for those works.

    One of them is virtual work. Given the contagious nature of the virus, health experts and authorities advocate that people reduce physical interactions and encourage staying indoors.

    In place of indoors is virtual interaction. Buoyed by the increasing wonders of the Internet and the millions of innovations it is encouraging, people are able to interact with family, friends, colleagues and loved ones while apart as well as execute tasks that they would have ordinarily have been asked to be present while executing.

    As a result, most companies have been promoting virtual work, a craze that is now taking over in organisations and sectors where physical presence is not a necessity to delivery and productivity.

    Thus, in place of transporting oneself to the office or work location, most workers now have the luxury of staying in their homes and still delivering to the satisfaction of their employers.

    This arrangement has loosely been described as working from home and it is fast becoming the smarter way to beat a pandemic whose rage weakens when people associate less.

    Internet costs

    The ‘work from home’ craze has been boosted by the surge in social media applications that make it easier for people to stay connected while miles apart.

    These platforms allow workers to participate in meetings, share and sign off documents and virtually do everything that does not require physical presence to execute.

    Although a good and an innovative way to beat the impact of the pandemic on production, this arrangement requires that employees are equipped with the right tools to be able to deliver.

    Key among those are computers, tablets, mobile phones and Internet sources.

    Thus, in place of transport costs, people who work from homes will have to fund their data costs (in the case of those supplied with office laptops and other electronic devices).

    The commercial nature of the usage means that the costs will represent a credible drain on the salaries of the workers.

    What to do

    One beneficiary of the ‘work from home’ arrangement is Mr Kofi Boadi, a communications consultant who has been working from home since March. He told the Graphic Business that although his transport expenses were consolidated into his salary and data costs were never a headache to him, he now feels that less emphasis should be placed on the former in favour of the latter.

    “Because, I use quite a good chunk of data, about 20 gigabytes (GB), at least for official work.”

    “The average data on one Zoom meeting is about one GB.

    “So if I have 20 meetings in a month, that cost should be borne by the employer,” he said.

    He added that he was aware of colleagues who complained that their data costs had gone up after they were asked to work from home.

    “One used to buy 40GB every month at about GHS100 cedis.”

    “He said he has had to buy data twice in a month now because of the many online meetings,” he added.

    Renegotiations

    Thus, as the intricacies from the pandemic unfold, the human resource management divisions of companies will have to start re-examining the remuneration packages for employees.

    For firms can take up all or part of the data costs of their employees in addition to existing remunerations on transport, that will be super good news.

    However, for those that cannot, recalibrating the package to include or replace transport expenses with data costs will be a must.

    This is necessary not just for the psychological feeling that my employer is paying for my data usage but to ensure that employees do not use lack of data as basis to stay off meetings, delay on delivering tasks or submitting reports, among other bad work ethics.

     

    Source: Graphic.com.gh 

  • Backlash against Malawi’s new coronavirus restrictions

    New COVID-19 measures announced in Malawi over the weekend have met with a backlash, with at least one civil society organisation threatening to take the government to court.

    In the new restrictions, public gatherings of more than 10 people have been banned, except for funerals which can have up to 50 people in attendance.

    Wearing of face masks is mandatory in all public spaces and offenders could be fined up to $13 (£10). Places of worship have been closed. Bars can operate for six hours a day, between 14:00 to 20:00 local time, but only sell takeaways.

    The new measures were prompted by a recent increase in coronavirus cases in the country, the ministry of health said.

    Similar measures announced by the previous administration of President Peter Mutharika – which also included a 21-day lockdown – were blocked by a court pending determination. No verdict has been made on the matter.

    Church leaders have voiced concern over the new government restrictions on public gatherings. The influential Catholic Church said it was never consulted.

    A local civil society organisation, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), has said it will take the government to court for ignoring the court order.

    Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda has since issued a statement promising to engage religious leaders “in further consultation”.

    More than 4,600 Malawians have tested positive for Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, and at least 146 have died.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Brazil’s coronavirus death toll surpasses 100,000

    Brazil on Saturday surpassed 100,000 Coronavirus deaths and three million cases of infection, crossing the grim milestone after President Jair Bolsonaro said he had a “clear conscience” on his response to the outbreak.

    With 100,477 fatalities and 3,012,412 confirmed cases, the South American nation of 212 million people is the second hardest-hit country in the global pandemic, after the United States.

    The health ministry reported 905 new deaths in the past 24 hours, as well as 49,970 fresh cases.

    But the official figures are most likely an undercount, with experts estimating that the total number of infections could be up to six times higher due to insufficient testing.

    Brazil has seen 478 deaths per million people, a figure roughly equivalent to that of the United States (487), but lower than that of Spain (609) or Italy (583).

    Senate speaker Davi Alcolumbre announced four days of mourning in Congress to pay tribute to the country’s 100,000-plus virus victims.

    The Coronavirus outbreak in Brazil is showing no sign of slowing as it enters its sixth month.

    The country’s first confirmed COVID-19 case was identified in Sao Paulo on February 26, with the first death on March 12, also in the city.

    Brazil marked 50,000 deaths a hundred days later, but then doubled that total in just half the time.

    Infections have accelerated in recent weeks in the countryside as well as inland regions and areas where the virus was late arriving, particularly the country’s south and center-west.

    In southeastern states such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, hardest-hit by the virus in absolute numbers, the situation has stabilized, while the virus’ presence has declined in northern regions after reaching catastrophic levels in April and May.

    ‘Arrogance’

    At Copacabana beach in Rio, activists from the NGO Rio de Paz released 1,000 red balloons Saturday while standing between 100 black crosses stuck in the sand, in a tribute to Brazilians who have died of coronavirus.

    Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s leftist nemesis, on Twitter denounced “the arrogance of a president who has chosen to describe this cruel virus as a little flu, defying science and even death, and who bears in his soul the responsibility for all the lives lost.”

    The contagion has cast a harsh light on Brazil’s inequalities, with the virus wreaking particular havoc on the country’s favelas and hitting black populations especially hard.

    The country’s indigenous Amazon populations have also been hard hit, with one of Brazil’s leading chiefs, 71-year-old Aritana Yawalapiti, dying Wednesday of respiratory complications caused by COVID-19.

    Bolsonaro’s government, which has been criticized for managing the epidemic in a chaotic fashion, is on its third health minister since the virus reached the country.

    The right-wing leader, who tested positive for the virus last month but has since recovered, said Thursday he had “a clear conscience” and had done “everything possible to save lives.”

    Bolsonaro also called the governors of states that took containment measures which he opposed for economic reasons “dictators.”

    Brazil resumed its national football championship on Saturday, three months behind schedule.

    Source: france24.com

  • Trump signs executive orders extending financial relief for Americans amid pandemic

    President Donald Trump on Saturday, August 8, 2020, signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the Coronavirus pandemic as polls showed a large majority of voters unhappy with his handling of the crisis.

    The four measures marked a presidential show of strength after Trump’s Republican party and White House team failed to agree with opposition Democrats in Congress on a new stimulus package aimed at stopping vulnerable Americans from falling through the cracks.

    “We’ve had it and we’re going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers,” Trump said at a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was spending the weekend.

    With double digit unemployment, disruption to businesses from social distancing rules, and persistent Coronavirus spread, many Americans had been relying on relief measures approved earlier by Congress, but which mostly expired in July.

    Trump said his decision to circumvent Congress with executive actions would mean relief money getting “rapidly distributed.”

    In reality, his measures are likely to face court challenges because Congress controls federal spending, and in any case they may add up to less money than initially appears.

    For Trump, lagging badly in the polls against his Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the November 3 presidential election, the orders were partly about showing he is in charge.

    He turned the signing ceremony in the ballroom of the golf club into an assault on his opponents and threw in several false claims about his accomplishments in office.

    To cheers from club members invited to watch the event, Trump insulted the Democratic “crazy” leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, denounced Biden as “far left,” and claimed that Democrats want to “steal the election.”

    Biden called Trump’s orders Saturday “a series of half-baked measures.”

    “They are just another cynical ploy designed to deflect responsibility,” Biden said, adding that Americans need a “real leader” who would work to hammer out a deal with lawmakers.

    Haggling in Congress

    One key Trump order promises to get $400 a week added to Americans’ unemployment benefits, while two others offer some protection from evictions and relief for student loans.

    The $400 assistance is below the $600 offered in the expired stimulus package. It may also end up amounting only to $300 extra a week, because Trump said $100 would be provided from state, not federal, budgets – and only if states were willing or able to do so.

    A fourth measure – opposed by many Republicans as well as Democrats – ordered a freeze in payroll taxes. This makes a big headline for Trump but is only a deferral, rather than a cut in the tax.

    “Today’s meager announcements show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families,” Pelosi said on Twitter Saturday. “These policies provide little real help for families.”

    Democrats, Republicans and White House negotiators had worked all last week without coming close to a deal on an overall congressional relief bill for those struggling to make ends meet in the world’s richest economy.

    Democrats pushed for a massive new $3 trillion stimulus package aimed at propping up the economy, repairing the tattered postal system in time for the presidential election and giving the unemployed an extra $600 a week.

    Democrats later announced they could drop the price tag but refused the Republicans’ offer of a $1 trillion package.

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus deaths in Latin America hit global high

    Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed Europe on Friday to become the region hardest-hit by coronavirus deaths, as India passed the sombre step of recording over two million infections. The world’s worst-hit region had reported 213,120 fatalities, 460 more than Europe, according to an AFP tally based on official data registered at 1700 GMT.

    Worldwide there have been more than 19 million cases and over 715,000 deaths from the virus first reported in China at the end of last year.

    The virus has flared up again in areas where it appeared to have been curbed, but it has steadily spread across sprawling territories in India and Africa.

    India’s cases have doubled in three weeks, reaching two million on Friday following a record daily jump of more than 60,000 new infections.

    It was only the third country after the United States and Brazil to surpass two million cases. Official figures show the world’s second most populous country has also recorded 41,500 deaths.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, with tens of millions of migrant workers losing their jobs almost overnight.

    But with the economy in tatters, restrictions have been steadily eased.

    Experts say the true number of cases and deaths are grossly under reported as the cause of death in the country of 1.3 billion people is rarely properly recorded.

    What’s more, the stigmatization of those infected puts off many from getting tested.

    “There’s both the fear of the disease as well as of isolation and quarantine,” Rajib Kumar, who heads the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP.

    However, there are some positive indicators in Africa, where health authorities warned against complacency amidst hopes that the pandemic is peaking in some countries.

    “African countries are doing their best, despite… limitations,” such as weak health systems, Mary Stephen of the World Health Organization Africa office, told AFP on Friday.

    Some countries have seen declines of around 20 percent in cases but there remain fears of a second wave.

    “Because we don’t see many people like we used to see in Italy, like 1,000 people dying (a day), people tend to relax, they think the risk is not so much in Africa,” said Stephen in a phone interview from Brazzaville.

    Mexico passes 50,000 deaths The world is putting its hope that an effective vaccine will be available sooner rather than later.

    Up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be made available for poorer countries by 2021, announced Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

    The vaccines, priced at a maximum $3 per dose, would be produced at the Serum Institute of India.

    In Latin America, which is already the region with the largest number of cases at 5.3 million, deaths continue to soar.

    Over the last week, 44 percent of global deaths from COVID-19 — 18,300 out of 41,500 — happened in the region.

    More than half, some 2.9 million, are in Brazil, which has also recorded 98,500 deaths among its 212 million people.

    Only the United States has been worse hit.

    The second worst-affected country in Latin America, Mexico, passed 50,000 deaths on Thursday.

    In the United States, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools could reopen this fall if they meet certain criteria.

    Schools in several US states have reopened for in-person classes — but some have already been hit by large quarantines of students and staff following fresh outbreaks.

    The US economy regained 1.8 million jobs in July, according to government data, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent.

    But with COVID-19 cases spiking in several states economists raised concerns that the labor market could ake a turn for the worse.

    Cycling worlds at risk International sport continues to be affected by the virus despite many professional events restarting.

    Organizers of the world cycling championships, set for Switzerland next month, warned the event may be called off because of local health rules.

    And two more top 10 women players — Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens — withdrew from the US Open tennis tournament over coronavirus concerns, joining women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Spain’s reigning men’s champion Rafael Nadal.

    Source: Pulse Ghana

  • Global coronavirus cases top 19 million

    Global coronavirus cases exceeded the 19 million mark Thursday, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

    The number of deaths from the virus has reached 713,406, with recoveries topping 11.48 million.

    The US remains the worst-hit country, with over 4.88 million infections, while its death toll exceeds 160,000.

    Brazil, which has the largest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Latin America, has the second-highest number of infections worldwide at over 2.91 million.

    India, Russia, South Africa, and Mexico are also among the hardest-hit countries in the world.

    China, ground zero of the virus, has registered 88,452 cases so far, including 4,680 deaths and 81,593 recoveries.

    The virus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions since late last year.

    Source: www.aa.com.tr

  • Mexico’s coronavirus deaths surpass 50,000

    Mexico’s coronavirus death toll surged past 50,000 on Thursday, the government said, just days after becoming the third-highest in the world. The health ministry announced 819 more deaths in its daily update, taking the total to 50,517 since the Latin American country’s first case was detected in February.

    The overall number of infections registered now stands at 462,690 in the nation of more than 128 million.

    “Unfortunately, because it is always unfortunate even if it was only one, we have 50,517 deaths from COVID-19 in Mexico,” deputy health minister Hugo Lopez Gatell told a news conference.

    Mexico recently overtook Britain to become the third hardest-hit country in terms of virus deaths, after Brazil and the United States.

    Its fatality toll far exceeds the range of between 6,000 and 30,000 that the government of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador projected at the end of February.

    His government, which began easing lockdown measures at the start of June, has faced scrutiny over its handling of the crisis.

    The pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to Mexico’s economy, the second biggest in Latin America.

    Gross domestic product (GDP) plunged 17.3 percent in the second quarter of the year from the previous quarter.

    Source: Pulse Ghana

  • A lottery prize winner got her check from a robot because the pandemic

    Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, claiming your millions in the Canadian lottery just became much more unexpected.

    For the first time in Quebec’s lottery history, a winner was handed a $6 million check from a life-sized robot built by college students, according to lottery officials.

    After 25 years of playing the same lucky numbers, Guylaine Desjardins, a resident of Laurentides, won the July 1 Lotto 6/49 drawing. The new multimillionaire bought the lottery ticket at her workplace using the numbers 1, 12, 27, 30, 34, 49 and bonus number 35.

    It took Desjardins several days to even realize she was holding on to a $6 million winning ticket, according to a news release from Loto-Quebec.
    “Wait, let me go get my glasses!” she told lottery officials, when she realized she won.
    It costs $3 a ticket to play the Canada-wide lottery game that started in 1982. The odds of hitting a jackpot are 1 in nearly 14 million, according to Loto-Quebec.

    As health officals have mandated social distancing to curb the spread of the virus, Desjardins wasn’t able to receive her prize money like the winners before her. Therefore, lottery officials got creative in finding a safe way to present the winner with her winnings.

    In an effort to adhere to public health guidelines, the ceremony held on July 23 was streamed live on Facebook and those in attendance wore masks and maintained a physical distance — all except for the virus immune robot named SARA.

    SARA, an automated robotic assistance system, was built and designed in partnership by students at the University of Quebec’s school of engineering and Centech, a non-profit that supports technology startups. Students from the engineering school’s Walking Machine club controlled the robot at the prize payout ceremony held at the Casino.
    “A great experience and a well-deserved outing for our robot who was alone since the beginning of the quarantine!” the Walking Machine club posted on Facebook.

    The lucky winner plans to use her newfound riches to buy herself a three-wheel motorcycle, spoil her two sons and travel once pandemic safety guidelines are lifted.

    The convenience store, Dépanneur Lacelle, where she worked and purchased her winning ticket will receive a 1% commission of $60,000, according to Loto-Quebec.

    Source: cnn.com

  • Virgin Atlantic files for bankruptcy in the US to secure its rescue deal

    Virgin Atlantic has filed for bankruptcy in the United States as it races to finalize a $1.5 billion plan to rescue it from the aviation industry’s worst crisis.

    The company, which is based in the United Kingdom, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York on Tuesday, which shelters the US assets of foreign companies undergoing restructuring proceedings in their home country.

    The US filing followed a UK court hearing earlier the same day, where Virgin Atlantic obtained approval to call a meeting of creditors on August 25 to vote on the restructuring plan.

    “The process we have asked to be recognized [in the United States] is a solvent restructuring of an English company… under the English Companies Act,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

    Virgin Atlantic last month unveiled a £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) restructuring deal to keep the airline solvent just days before it resumed passenger flights. The plan has the support of shareholders, including Delta Air Lines (DAL), and existing creditors.

    US hedge fund Davidson Kempner is providing £150 million ($188 million) in secured financing as part of the recapitalization plan, which Virgin Atlantic said will come into effect next month. Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is contributing £200 million ($262 million).

    “We remain confident in the plan,” the Virgin Atlantic spokesperson added.
    Virgin Atlantic has already laid off 3,550 staff and closed its base at London’s Gatwick airport, as aviation suffers its worst downturn ever because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Sister company Virgin Australia on Wednesday announced a sweeping restructuring plan under new owner, Bain Capital. The airline is slashing 3,000 jobs, or about a third of its workforce, and discontinuing its low-cost carrier, Tigerair Australia.

    Global air travel isn’t expected to fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic until 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association, which represents 290 airlines. The group blamed the sluggish recovery on several factors, including a lack of consumer confidence, the decline in business travel, and fresh coronavirus spikes in the United States and elsewhere.

    Source: cnn.com

  • France could lose control of virus spread – Science Council

    France could “at any moment” lose control over the spread of the Coronavirus, the government’s COVID-19 scientific council warned Tuesday as official data showed the first rise in intensive care patients since April.

    In an opinion prepared for policy-makers, the council warned “the virus has recently been circulating more actively, with an increased loss of distancing and barrier measures” since France emerged from a strict two-month lockdown in May.

    “The balance is fragile and we can change course at any time to a less controlled scenario like in Spain, for example,” it said.

    And the council warned of a possible “resumption of circulation of the virus at a high level” by autumn 2020, after the August summer holidays.

    In the short term, retaining control is largely in the hands of citizens, it said.

    The message was underscored by President Emmanuel Macron who urged the French public on Tuesday to remain “vigilant” and continue applying anti-infection measures such as keeping a safe distance from others, regular hand-washing, and wearing masks in public spaces.

    Data released by the health department on Monday showed the number of people in intensive care had risen by 13 over the weekend, breaking a downward trend observed since April, when the country was under strict stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the virus.

    Twenty-nine new deaths were reported over the same period, bringing the country’s toll to 30,294.

    At the height of the outbreak in April, more than 7,100 people were at one point receiving intensive care in French hospitals, which had 5,000 intensive care beds available when the crisis hit.

    The country registered thousands of confirmed new infections last week, prompting some cities and regions to impose local restrictions amid reports of people ignoring social distancing and public mask-wearing guidelines.

    ‘Probable second wave’

    The rate of confirmed infections has exceeded 1,000 per day since late July.

    Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday urged France “not to let down its guard” in order to prevent a new national lockdown.

    “We are seeing an increase in the figures for the epidemic which should make us more attentive than ever,” Castex said.

    “I call on every French person to remain very vigilant. The fight against the virus depends of course on the state, local communities, institutions, but also on each of us,” he added.

    The southern city of Toulouse joined the ranks of local authorities Tuesday taking steps to oblige people to wear masks outdoors in certain situations, on top of the national requirement to cover up in shops and other shared spaces indoors.

    The science council said the government’s response to a “probable second wave” of coronavirus infections will have to be different to the first.

    It urged the authorities to put in place “prevention plans” for the France’s largest and most densely-populated metropolitan areas, with localised home-confinement strategies to be tightened or loosened in step with epidemic development.

    Yonathan Freund, an emergency doctor at Paris’s Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, is among experts to caution against over-reacting.

    “The situation in France today does not justify saying there has been a worsening,” he told AFP.

    “If there are 1,000 cases per day, it is because the virus is still in circulation, and it is normal,” he said.

    And epidemiologist Antoine Flahault said the focus of authorities seems to have shifted from preventing another run on hospital beds – an acceptable risk approach – to suppressing virus circulation to the lowest possible level, or a doctrine of “zero risk”.

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus: Gold soars to record high

    Gold is starting the brand new week on an extremely bullish note, with prices surging to record highs early on Monday over continued worries about the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the global economy. At the time of writing, Gold is trading at a little above US$1,971.

    With the number of confirmed cases and death toll continuing to rise across several countries, including the worst affected US, the safe haven appeal of gold is on the rise as traders worry about the economic situation deteriorating even further all around the world.

    Gold prices have also received an additional boost from a weakness in the US dollar, driven by rising uncertainty about the state of the US economy as a result of the pandemic.

    The demand for the yellow metal strengthened as the federal unemployment bonus came to a close last Friday, which is expected to diminish consumer income and spending the US and could cause the Fed to turn even more dovish in the near future.

    Discussions about new stimulus measures in the US are still underway, but the sentiment soured after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sounded less positive about a coronavirus relief bill being finalized anytime soon.

    So far, gold has gained around 30% this year, mainly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic which has struck almost every country worldwide.

    The precious metal prices continue to remain high also because of US-China tensions that have returned to the spotlight and raise worries about delaying economic recovery.

     

    Source: Laud Business

  • UK to roll out millions of 90-minute ‘rapid tests’

    Britain is set to roll out millions of new, 90-minute “rapid tests” for the novel Coronavirus and other viruses common in winter, the country’s health ministry has said.

    Starting next week, hospitals, nursing homes and laboratories will have access to some 5.8 million tests analysing DNA and another 450,000 swab tests.

    Neither requires medical training to administer, meaning they can be performed in non-clinical environments, the ministry said in a statement released on Monday.

    This would be a significant increase on current testing capacity in the country and would aim to limit community spread of the virus before the cold months, when people are more vulnerable to viruses

    “The fact these tests can detect flu, as well as COVID-19, will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said.

    Approximately 5,000 machines that will be used for the analysis of DNA collected in nasal swabs will be distributed to government hospitals from September.

    “We have been able to successfully adapt our in-store consumer DNA testing technology – which identifies genetic risks for chronic conditions related to obesity and type 2 diabetes – and validate it for detecting COVID-19 with gold-standard accuracy,” said Chris Toumazou, CEO and co-founder of DnaNudge, the company the produced the DNA-based tests and associated machines.

    Meanwhile, almost half a million of the new swab tests, called LamPORE, will be available at elder care settings and labs from next week, with millions more to be rolled out later in the year.

    With more than 300,000 cases of infection recorded, the UK has been hit hardest in Europe by the pandemic in terms of the death toll.

    More than 46,000 people have died from COVID-19, according to official figures, the fourth-highest toll in the world.

    Britain’s healthcare system has come under severe strain during peaks in the outbreak.

    Separately, the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS) said it would be offering “COVID-friendly” treatments to cancer patients, including drugs that do not have a big impact on the immune system.

    Source: aljazeera.com

  • COVID-19: WHO warns there might not be a silver bullet solution

    The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that there is a possibility that a “silver bullet” answer to defeating the virus might never happen.

    Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference: “There is no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be”.

    It comes just days after the WHO warned that the pandemic was likely to be “lengthy”.

    A number of trials are taking place around the world to help try and find a vaccine to fight the virus.

    Last month, an Oxford University announced that its vaccine appeared safe and triggered an immune response. More than 10,000 people will take part in the next stage of the trial.

    Source: www.bbc.com

  • Iran cover-up of Coronavirus deaths revealed by data leak

    The number of deaths from coronavirus in Iran is nearly triple what Iran’s government claims, a BBC Persian service investigation has found.

    The government’s own records appear to show almost 42,000 people died with Covid-19 symptoms up to 20 July, versus 14,405 reported by its health ministry.

    The number of people known to be infected is also almost double official figures: 451,024 as opposed to 278,827.

    Iran has been one of the worst-hit countries outside China.

    In recent weeks, it has suffered a second steep rise in the number of cases.

    The first death in Iran from Covid-19 was recorded on 22 January, according to lists and medical records that have been passed to the BBC. This was almost a month before the first official case of coronavirus was reported there.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Taller people face higher risk of catching coronavirus – Survey

    People over six feet tall are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with the coronavirus, the results of a new survey reveal.

    The global team of researchers, including experts from the University of Manchester and Open University, surveyed 2,000 people in the country, as well as the U.S., to determine whether their personal attributes, work and living practices might play a role in transmission, The Telegraph reported.

    The results found that taller people are at a higher risk, which researchers say suggests that the contagion is spreading through the air — because height would not be a factor if the virus was only contractible through droplets, according to the report.

    “The results of this survey in terms of associations between height and diagnosis suggest downward droplet transmission is not the only transmission mechanism and aerosol transmission is possible,” Professor Evan Kontopantelis, of the University of Manchester, told the outlet.

    “This has been suggested by other studies, but our method of confirmation is novel,” he added.

    “Though social distancing is still important because transmission by droplets is still likely to occur, it does suggest that mask-wearing may be just as — if not more — effective in prevention. But also, air purification in interior spaces should be further explored.”

    Droplets are larger than aerosols and are thought to travel relatively short distances and plummet from the air, according to the report. But aerosols, which can build up in poorly ventilated areas, are carried by air currents.

    The study also found that using a shared kitchen or accommodation played a large role — especially in the U.S., where those circumstances made the chances of contracting the bug 3.5 times as high.

    In the U.K., chances were 1.7 times higher.

    Source: Fox News

  • Coronavirus: Home visits banned in parts of northern England

    Separate households have been banned from meeting each other indoors in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire following a spike in coronavirus cases.

    The health secretary said the increase in transmission was “largely due” to people not observing social distancing.

    Labour criticised the government for a lack of clarity over the measures and for announcing them “late at night”.

    More details were published two hours after the initial announcement.

    The new local lockdown rules come nearly four weeks after restrictions were eased across England, allowing people to meet indoors for the first time since late March.

    More than four million residents of Greater Manchester, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees will be affected by the tightening of restrictions.

    The measures, which came into force at midnight, mean different households will not be allowed to meet in homes or private gardens. Individual households will still be able to go to pubs and restaurants but not mix with another household.

    Matt Hancock, the health secretary, also said the same restrictions would apply in Leicester, where a local lockdown has been in place for the last month.

    However, pubs, restaurants and other facilities will be allowed to reopen in the city from Monday, as some of the stricter measures are lifted.

    Mr Hancock, who tweeted the announcement at 21:16 BST on Thursday, said: “The spread is largely due to households meeting and not abiding to social distancing. So from midnight tonight, people from different households will not be allowed to meet each other indoors in these areas.

    “We take this action with a heavy heart, but we can see increasing rates of Covid across Europe and are determined to do whatever is necessary to keep people safe.”

    The government said it would give police forces and councils powers to enforce the new rules – adding some exemptions would be put in place, including for the vulnerable.

    It acknowledged the measures would “come as a blow” to Muslim communities preparing to celebrate Eid this weekend, although places of worship remain open subject to social distancing rules.

    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the move but criticised the way it was handled, saying announcing measures “affecting potentially millions of people late at night on Twitter is a new low for the government’s communications during this crisis”.

    He added: “When the government ended the daily press conferences, they said they would hold them for ‘significant announcements’, including local lockdowns. It’s hard to imagine what could be more significant than this.”

    The latest announcement in detail:

    -People in Greater Manchester, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Leicester cannot mix with other households (apart from those in their support bubbles) in private homes or gardens

    -People in those areas can only go to pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues with other members of their household

    -From Monday in Leicester, restaurants, cafes, bars and hairdressers can open but leisure centres, gyms and pools will remain closed

    -Cinemas and museums will also be able to open in Leicester from Monday and religious ceremonies will be able to take place

    -The borough of Oadby and Wigston on the outskirts of Leicester is taken out of local lockdown

    -Also, gyms and leisure centres will remain closed in Blackburn, but they will be able to reopen in Luton – both towns saw the lifting of restrictions paused last week

    Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester – an area with a population of about 2.8 million – said he agreed with the decision as there had been a “marked change in the picture” with regard to the spread of Covid-19 in the area.

    “We have gone from a falling rate of cases in nearly all of our boroughs last week to a rising rate in nine out of 10 affecting communities across a much wider geography,” he said. “In Rochdale, the one borough where cases have fallen, they are still too high.”

    He said all residents “young and old alike” should “protect each other” by observing the requirements, which will be reviewed weekly.

    This means “the more we stick to them, the quicker they will be removed”, he said.

    Some local Conservative MPs questioned the government’s decision to apply the measures to the whole of Greater Manchester, which includes 10 local authority areas – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

    William Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Stockport, tweeted that Greater Manchester was “not one homogeneous area” and treating all 10 boroughs the same was “not the right approach”.

    His view was supported by Graham Brady, MP for Altrincham and Sale West, who added that the “latest update for Trafford says ‘infections continue to be at a low level’”.

    In Trafford, latest figures show the seven-day infection rate of Covid-19 was 38 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 26 July. The average in England was five.

    Source: BBC

  • WHO reports record daily increase in global coronavirus cases

    The World Health Organisation reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total rising by 292,527.

    The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. Deaths rose by 6,812.

    The four countries have dominated global headlines with large outbreaks.

    The previous WHO record for new cases was 284,196 on July 24. Deaths rose by 9,753 on July 24, the second largest one-day increase ever.

    Deaths have been averaging 5,200 a day in July, up from an average of 4,600 a day in June.

    Nearly 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the last week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally showing a pick-up in the pandemic in every region of the world.

    Cases have been on the rise also in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Bolivia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Uzbekistan and Israel, among others.

    Last week, cases in Latin America for the first time surpassed the combined infections in the United States and Canada, a Reuters tally showed. Infections are surging in Brazil, which is second in the world behind the United States in cases and deaths.

    Globally there are over 17.4 million infections and nearly 675,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

    Source: Reuters

  • South Korean sect leader arrested for hindering virus efforts

    The elderly leader of a secretive South Korean sect at the centre of the country’s early coronavirus outbreak was arrested on Saturday for allegedly hindering the government’s effort to contain the epidemic. Lee Man-hee, 88, is the head of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often condemned as a cult.

    People linked to the church accounted for more than half of the South’s 4,000-plus coronavirus cases in February when the country was enduring one of the worst early outbreaks in the world.

    As of July 19, those connected with the church made up 38 per cent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Lee is accused of giving inaccurate records of church gatherings and false lists of its members to health authorities.

    He was taken into custody early Saturday “after the Suwon District Court granted an arrest warrant at 1:20 am”, a court spokesperson told AFP.

    The judge said there “have been circumstances indicating systematic attempts to destroy evidence” by Lee, Yonhap news agency reported.

    Shincheonji has claimed its members face social stigma and discrimination if their beliefs become publicly known, dissuading some from responding to official inquiries.

    Lee is also accused of embezzling 5.6 billion won ($4.69 million) from church funds and holding religious events at public facilities without approval.

    He apologised back in March for the spread of the disease.

    The South has since been returning largely to normal, appearing to have brought the outbreak under control with an extensive “trace, test and treat” programme.

    Officials in the East Asian nation of 52 million announced 31 new cases Saturday, taking the total to 14,336.

    Source: Pulse Ghana

  • More than 22 million Ghanaians affected by reduction in household income – Survey

    More than 22 million Ghanaians have been affected by a reduction in their household income since March 16, 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were first introduced, a survey by the Ghana Statistical Service has shown.

    The figure represents about 77.4 per cent of households in Ghana experiencing a decrease in their income.

    The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Annim, who presented the findings during a virtual briefing, said households that reported relying on income from a non-farm family business were the hardest hit.

    Between the 3rd and 9th June 2020, more than one million persons, representing 3.4 per cent in the country indicated that suspension of work was the reason for their not working.

    From June 10 to 25, 2020, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) interviewed thousands of households across the country to understand how the novel Coronavirus has impacted their lives and work.

    The Households and Jobs Tracker is an initiative led by GSS, in partnership with UNICEF and the World Bank, with technical support from Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA).

    The nationally-representative sample survey is one of the three COVID-19 impact studies being implemented by the GSS.

    The intention is to follow over 3,000 households from all the 16 regions of Ghana through telephone-based interviews.

    The study is planned for a seven-month period (June to December 2020) to accommodate multiple waves of surveys that would help assess mobility across different dimensions of living conditions as a result of the effects of the Virus and the attendant different interventions by both households and the State.

    The survey consisted of two modules – Module A focused on effects of the COVID-19 on households generally, while Module B assesses the effects of the pandemic on children and family situations.

    Prof. Annim said to cope with the effects of COVID-19, more than half 52.1 per cent of households reduced food consumption with 77.4 per cent of households indicating that they were severely affected by increase in prices of food.

    About nine per cent of the households reported that they had received some form of assistance, especially free food.

    The survey, however, found that, out of the 29.9 per cent of children (6-14 years) who are on the School Feeding Programme, more than half (57 per cent) still received food in the previous four weeks, while schools remained closed.

    “The effect on education remains a major challenge with the closure of schools being considered the main disruption to households,” the report notes.

    “As many as 35 per cent of primary and JHS school children and 28 per cent of SHS children were not engaged in any form of learning while they were at home.

    The biggest challenge faced by children for home learning within this period was the lack of basic tools, such as computers or phones, it said.

    “Access to these tools is affecting a quarter 25.6 per cent of basic school children and one-third 32.7 per cent of SHS children,” it explained.

    “Almost all children 96.6 per cent are likely to return to school once the restrictions are eased and schools reopened”.

    Prof Annim said preparations were already underway for the second round of this survey in August 2020.

    Several thematic reports, including one on the survey methodology that provide more insights on the effect of COVID-19 in areas such as healthcare, education, employment, food security and household coping mechanisms will be released in the coming weeks, he added.

    Source: GNA

  • Youth creativity and ingenuity crucial towards tackling coronavirus pandemic – NYA Boss

    The National Youth Authority (NYA) has launched the 2020 International Youth Day (IYD) celebration, with the aim of tapping into the creativity and ingenuity of the Ghanaian youth towards finding solutions to the country’s socio-economic challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic.

    At a news conference to officially launch the IYD celebration in Accra, Mr Sylvester Tetteh, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NYA, said the youth played significant roles in enriching institutions with their innovative ideas.

    Therefore, the Authority will organise pre-event activities and series of dialogues to engage students, young entrepreneurs and Persons with Disability (PWDs), to tap into their intellectual property and ingenuity towards finding lasting solutions to the country’s socio-economic, cultural and political challenges.

    The global theme for this year’s celebration is: “Youth Engagement for Global Action” with a local sub theme, “Promoting Youth Engagement in Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19: The Need for Youth Innovation and Creativity”.

    The International Youth Day is held annually on August 12 worldwide to recognise the contributions of the youth in national development efforts and to create awareness about their challenges, with the ultimate objective of finding solutions to them.

    It is being organised by the National Youth Authority under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

    The NYA has lined up various pre-event activities and series of dialogues across the 16 regions to solicit the concerns of youth groups.

    The NYA Boss stated that the Authority had categorised the dialogues into four thematic areas including Innovation and Creativity in Delivering Quality Education to the Youth, Business and Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Entertainment and Governance and Elections, which intended to provide holistic development to young people in the country.

    He said, over the years, the NYA had collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to build the capacity of the youth in the country.

    Mr Tetteh therefore encouraged the youth to participate fully in all the activities to enhance youth representation and engagement in national development.

    Mr Ahmed Osumanu Halid, a Communication Consultant of the Youth and Sports Ministry, who represented the Sector Minister, said the National Youth Policy was being reviewed to meet the needs of the youth in the contemporary times.

    He said the youth were the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore the Ministry’s ultimate goal was to find solutions to their challenges including unemployment, access to quality education and economic opportunities.

    “These issues featured prominently in the policies and programmes being pursued by the Ministry in order to find solutions to them,” he stated.

    Mr Osumanu Halid indicated that the government, through the Ministry, was constructing 10 multipurpose resources centres in 10 administrative regions to unearth talents and make them more profitable to the society.

    The media launch attracted the two Deputy Chief Executive Officers of the NYA-Mr Nelson Owusu Ansah, who is in charge of Programmes and Operations and Mrs Akosua Asaa Manu in charge of Finance and Administration, as well as the Directors, a representative from the Board of Directors, members of staff and the media.

    Source: GNA

  • Pelosi warns maskless lawmakers may be thrown out

    The US House of Representatives has ordered all members and staff to wear masks as the nation’s death toll from coronavirus passed 150,000.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned anyone who breaks the new rule face being removed from the chamber.

    She took the decision after Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican often seen around the Capitol without a face covering, tested positive on Wednesday.

    He had been due to travel that day with US President Donald Trump.

    What did the House speaker say?

    Mrs Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on the House floor on Wednesday evening that members would be allowed to remove their masks when addressing the chamber.

    “The chair expects all members and staff to adhere to this requirement as a sign of respect for the health, safety, and wellbeing of others present in the chamber and surrounding areas,” she said.

    What did Louie Gohmert say?

    Mr Gohmert, 66, discovered he was infected when he was routinely tested under White House travel protocol because he had been due to fly with President Trump to Texas on Wednesday.

    The eighth-term lawmaker returned to his office to inform his staff in person of the positive result. He wore a mask during the meeting, according to US media.

    He also gave an interview in which he pondered whether his mask was to blame for infecting him.

    “I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, I might have put some germs – some virus – on to the mask and breathed it in,” he told Texas station KETK.

    He was one of a contingent of around two dozen Republicans often seen on the House floor without masks.

    On Tuesday, Mr Gohmert frequently removed his face covering during a nearly five-hour hearing with Attorney General William Barr.

    A photo on Twitter shows the two men in proximity, neither wearing masks. According to the Department of Justice, Mr Barr will be tested for Covid-19 as a result of the interaction.

    Despite mixed messages early in the pandemic, public health experts now agree that wearing face coverings greatly reduces the spread of Covid-19, and is vital to controlling the infection’s spread.

    Mrs Pelosi said she would view “failure to wear a mask as a serious breach of decorum”, warning the House Sergeant at Arms could kick out anyone who did not wear a mask.

    According to GovTrack.us, 10 members of Congress – three Democrats and seven Republicans – have confirmed they tested positive, or were diagnosed with coronavirus.

    Source: BBC

  • Madonna’s Instagram account flagged for spreading misinformation

    Pop star Madonna has been censured by Instagram after sharing a video about a coronavirus conspiracy theory to her 15 million followers.

    In her post, the singer claimed a vaccine for Covid-19 had already been found, but was being hidden to “let the rich get richer”.

    Instagram blurred out the video with a caption saying: “False Information”.

    It also directed users to a page debunking the claims in the video, noting there is no coronavirus vaccine.

    The video was later deleted from Madonna’s Instagram page, but not before fans protested at her decision to share the post.

    Among them was pop star Annie Lennox, who commented: “This is utter madness!!! I can’t believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery.

    “Hopefully your site has been hacked and you’re just about to explain it,” she added.

    The video in question showed a group called America’s Frontline Doctors speaking outside the US Supreme Court building at an event organised by Tea Party Patriots Action.

    In the clip, Dr Stella Immanuel, a doctor from Houston, said she had successfully treated 350 coronavirus patients “and counting” with hydroxychloroquine.

    Facebook and Twitter had previously removed the video, flagging it as misinformation; while Donald Trump Jr. was banned from tweeting for 12 hours as a penalty for sharing the clip.

    According to Instagram, flagging a post as false makes it harder for users to discover “by filtering it from Explore and Hashtags, and reducing its visibility in Feed and Stories.”

    This is not the first time Madonna has made controversial claims about coronavirus. In March, she posted a video from her bath, describing the virus as “the great equaliser”.

    Two months later, she revealed she had tested positive for antibodies, supposedly granting her immunity from the disease.

    “So tomorrow I’m just going to go on a long drive in a car, roll down the windows and I’m going to breathe in the Covid-19 air,” she told her fans.

    Source: BBC

  • Brazil’s coronavirus death toll surpasses 90,000

    Brazil registered record daily numbers of infections and deaths from the new coronavirus Wednesday, sending its overall death toll surging past 90,000 people.
    Despite the record figures, the government issued a decree reopening the country to foreign visitors arriving by plane, ending a four-month travel ban in hopes of reviving a lockdown-devastated tourism industry.

    Brazil, which has been hit harder than any country except the United States in the pandemic, recorded 69,074 new cases and 1,595 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the figures to a total of more than 2.5 million infections and 90,134 people killed since the start of the pandemic, the health ministry said.

    Technical issues likely contributed to the high daily figures.

    The health ministry had said Tuesday that problems with its online reporting system had delayed figures from Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and the one with the most cases and deaths.

    But in recent weeks the numbers of cases and deaths in the country of 212 million people have been stubbornly high even on normal days.

    A health ministry official put that down to increased testing.

    “The testing program in Brazil has expanded a lot in recent weeks. That’s an extremely important point,” Arnaldo Medeiros, secretary for health vigilance, told a news conference.

    Open to travelers The government meanwhile extended coronavirus-related bans on foreign travelers arriving by land or sea for another 30 days, but said the restrictions “will no longer bar the entry of foreigners arriving by air.”

    Brazil closed its air borders to non-residents on March 30, at a time when the virus was ravaging Europe and Asia and just taking hold in South America.

    Now, Brazil is the hotspot, with no signs its infection curve is close to tapering off.

    The tourism industry has already lost nearly 122 billion reals ($23.6 billion) because of the pandemic, the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC) estimates.

    As a whole, Latin America’s biggest economy is facing a record contraction of 9.1 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    Leaving lockdown too soon? It remains to be seen how many foreigners will want to come.

    Brazil has regularly recorded more than 1,000 deaths a day since early July, and more than 30,000 new cases a day since mid-June.

    President Jair Bolsonaro’s government has struggled to bring the outbreak under control and faces criticism for its handling of the crisis.

    The far-right leader has dismissed the virus as a “little flu” and attacked lockdown measures by state and local authorities to contain it, arguing the economic fallout could be worse than the disease.

    Even after contracting the virus himself earlier this month, forcing him to work from quarantine at the presidential palace for more than two weeks, Bolsonaro has continued to downplay the severity of the pandemic.

    Rather than lockdowns, Bolsonaro is pushing the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as the way to fight the virus.

    Like US President Donald Trump, whom he admires, Bolsonaro touts the drug as a remedy for the virus, despite a slate of scientific studies finding it has no effect against COVID-19 and can cause serious side effects.

    After testing positive for the virus, the Brazilian leader took hydroxychloroquine himself, regularly showing off his box of pills.

    Bolsonaro is currently on his third health minister of the pandemic, an active-duty army general with no prior medical experience.

    The interim minister’s two predecessors, both doctors, left after clashing with Bolsonaro, including over his insistence the health ministry recommend hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19.

    Meanwhile, most states have begun relaxing their stay-at-home measures, encouraged by the fact the number of infections finally appears to have reached a plateau.

    But Brazil’s infection curve has flattened at a very high level of daily cases, and experts warn it is still too soon to exit lockdowns in many places.

    Source: AFP

  • PayPal profit jumps 86% on pandemic-driven online spending shift

    PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) reported an 86% jump in second-quarter profit on Wednesday as the e-commerce payments processor benefited from the shift to online spending amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    Net income increased to $1.53 billion, or $1.29 per share, in the quarter ended June 30, from $823 million, or 69 cents per share, a year earlier.

    The results reflected an unrealized investment gain worth 58 cents a share and included additional loan loss reserves amounting to 7 cents a share, down from the 17-cent reserve addition in the first quarter.

    On an adjusted basis, the company said net income rose to $1.26 billion, or $1.07 per share, from $848 million, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier.

    Source: reuters.com

  • Coronavirus: Government budgeted GH¢40.3m for basic uncooked food items but spent GH¢42.2 million

    Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finnace Minister has told Parliament on Wednesday, July 29, that during the lockdown period the government budgeted GHS40.3 million for basic uncooked food items but spent GH¢42.2 million.

    He also clarified that government used GH¢12 million to feed the vulnerable in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions during the three-week COVID-19 lockdown period. He said that: “It is truly unfortunate that an attempt has been made to politicise the issue of providing food for our brothers and sisters in need during the lockdown”, adding: “It is also unfortunate that the impression has been created that the total amount of GH¢54 million was used for hot meals over the three-week lockdown period.”

    Mr Ofori-Atta explained: “We estimated we would need an amount of approximately GH¢40 million to provide hot meals to the vulnerable at GH¢5 per pack during the lockdown period. However, we spent GH¢12 million on hot meals including the cost of distribution.”

    He noted that the “government budgeted GH¢40.3 million for basic uncooked food items. We spent GH¢42.2 million”.

    “It is this GH¢12 million spent on hot meals and the 42 million spent on uncooked food items that gave a total of GH¢54 million as stated in the mid-year review”.

    “The GH¢12.1 million for hot meals served 150,000 people during the lockdown [period], including the cost of transportation and other operational cost.”

    Source: Laud Business

  • Hong Kong implements tough coronavirus restrictions

    Hong Kong is on the verge of a “large-scale” outbreak that could overwhelm hospitals, its leader warned Wednesday, as authorities implemented their toughest social distancing measures yet. From Wednesday all residents in the densely packed city of 7.5 million must wear masks when they leave their homes while restaurants can only serve take-out meals.

    No more than two people from different households can gather in public with fines of up to $HK5,000 ($625) for those who breach the new emergency rules.

    The latest measures are a bid to stifle a sudden spike in coronavirus cases that have upended the city’s otherwise enviable battle against the deadly disease.

    More than 1,000 infections have been confirmed since early July — more than 40 percent of the total since the virus first hit the city in late January.

    New daily infections have been above 100 for the last six days.

    “We are on the verge of a large-scale community outbreak, which may lead to a collapse of our hospital system and cost lives, especially of the elderly,” chief executive Carrie Lam said in a statement released on Wednesday to coincide with the new measures.

    “In order to protect our loved ones, our healthcare staff and Hong Kong, I appeal to you to follow strictly the social distancing measures and stay at home as far as possible,” she added.

    Hong Kong was one of the first places hit by the coronavirus when it emerged from China at the start of the year.

    It initially had remarkable success in controlling the outbreak — helped in part by a health-conscious public embracing face masks and an efficient track and trace programme, forged in the fires of the deadly SARS virus in 2003.

    By June local transmission had all but ended.

    But the virus later snuck back into the city and began spreading.

    Health officials have been scrambling to uncover the source of the latest outbreak.

    Some have blamed exemptions from the usual 14-day quarantine which the government granted to “essential personnel”, including cross-boundary truckers, air and sea crew and some manufacturing executives.

    The government has since tightened restrictions for some of those groups.

    It has also announced plans to build a temporary 2,000-bed field hospital near the airport, something Chinese authorities have offered to help with.

    The latest lockdown measures are a new body blow for a city that was already mired in recession thanks to the US-China trade war and last year’s months of political unrest.

    Source: AFP

  • Virus sparks bitter rift in France’s champagne industry

    France’s coronavirus crisis has sparked a fierce battle in its hallowed champagne industry over this season’s harvest, with producers and growers at loggerheads over how much bubbly should be put into bottles.
    The main production houses are demanding a sharp reduction in harvest yields as sales plunge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Growers say this would decimate their revenues.

    Traditionally, both sides negotiate how many grapes are harvested by the hundreds of champagne growers each year, many of whom sell to merchants including big-name brands like Veuve Clicquot or Pommery.

    The goal is to limit the risks from poor harvests and drastic price swings that could put many players out of business.

    But merchants say they are already loaded with stocks and with revenues hit hard by the crisis they cannot afford to produce more bottles than they can sell.

    “The growers want 8,500 kilogrammes per hectare [about 7,600 pounds per acre] and the houses want just 6,000 to 7,000 kilos,” said Bernard Beaulieu, a grower in Mutigny, a village amid rolling vineyards south of Reims, the capital of France’s Champagne region.

    With the price per kilo expected to remain relatively strong this year at roughly 6.50 euros, the stakes are high.

    “Not having a deal with harvests just a month away, this hasn’t happened since after World War II,” Beaulieu said.

    The Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC) trade body, however, expects to sell 100 million fewer bottles this year, an unheard-of hit that will slash overall sales to 3.3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) — down 34 percent from 2019.

    And they say over one billion bottles are currently waiting in champagne cellars, representing several years of potential sales.

    The UMC’s director general, David Chatillon, told AFP he would not comment on the dispute before an August 18 meeting of the Champagne Committee, which groups both growers and merchants.

    ‘Roll of the dice’
    Growers are especially furious because this year’s harvest, to begin on August 20, is set to be “exceptionally good, with vines able to yield up to 16,000 kilos per hectare”, Beaulieu said.

    Maxime Toubart, head of the SGV grower’s association, accused merchants of putting livelihoods at risk by trying to take advantage of a crisis to reduce storage costs.

    “Growers are demanding a yield level that covers 2020 shipments while ensuring survival for vineyards,” Toubart said.

    The situation for growers is all the more alarming, he said, since the SGV has not obtained additional payroll tax exemptions from the government to weather the coronavirus slump.

    For Yves Couvreur of the FRVIC federation of independent growers, which groups some 400 vineyards that also produce their own champagne, “9,000 kilos per hectare is the limit, we can’t go any lower than that”.

    To cope with a crisis that could last “two or three years,” he is pushing for a suspension of uniform harvest yields so that the different players could adapt as they see fit.

    “The break-even point isn’t the same for people who sell their grapes, and those who make a living off of their brands,” he said.

    Couvreur also wants more leverage against merchants by allowing growers to let their wines mature in cellars longer, up to 18 or even 24 months instead of 15 currently.

    “Any proposal that prevents a flooding of the market is good,” he said.

    For now, if no deal is reached on yields, the decision will be left with France’s National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO), which governs the country’s wine appellations.

    “And if that happens, it’s a roll of the dice for both sides,” Beaulieu warned.

    Source: AFP

  • Grigor Dimitrov struggles with effects of the coronavirus

    Tennis star Grigor Dimitrov says he’s unsure of competing at the US Open as he detailed the debilitating side-effects of catching COVID-19.

    World No. 19 Dimitrov recorded a positive test in late June shortly after playing at an Adria Tour tournament in Croatia, an event organized by Novak Djokovic that was widely criticized after several players including the world No. 1 tested positive for coronavirus.

    The Bulgarian has since returned to the court, competing at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in France last weekend where he lost to Feliciano Lopez and Richard Gasquet.
    “The virus was hard on me,” Dimitrov told the Tennis Majors website.

    “I stayed home for about a month … I think it’s different for everyone. I was not breathing well. I was tired. I had no taste, no smell. Everything you could possibly think of. So it was no fun.

    “To be honest I’m lucky to be on the court right now. I don’t take each day for granted. I really appreciate being here. It’s so nice that during time off you can come out and play with your competitors.”

    Dimitrov said he has lost three kilos since contracting the virus, but added that the mental toll of isolating on your own can be as challenging as the virus’ physical impact, saying he had been alone for 20 days.

    “A lot of things are going through your head. It doesn’t matter how mentally strong you are, as a person, athlete, or anything. It’s inevitable to have some bad thoughts in your head.

    “I had to deal with that, too. So does everybody else out there. That’s one of my biggest messages: we should not underestimate the power of the mental state that everybody is in. If we take the right precaution and everybody is safe, things will get better quicker.

    “But it’s a strange time. You have to work on your physical (health) but on your mental aspect, as well.”

    The UTS, which is held without fans at the Mouratoglou Academy in France, sees games played in a shortened format with an average match-length of under an hour. Patrick Mouratoglou is Serena Williams’ coach.

    ‘Players are definitely a little bit confused’

    The US Open is scheduled to begin at the end of August, but Dimitrov, who has won eight ATP titles in his career and reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in 2017, said he is unsure whether he will be able to compete in New York.

    “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to recover that quickly in order for me to fly again and have to have to put my body through a really rigorous regime again,” he said of the prospect of playing five-set matches.

    “It’s been about a week or 10 days since I’ve been back on my feet. I want to say it would be ambitious for me to go play, but I’m just really not sure how my body is going to respond.

    “I’m going to keep practicing, keep on seeing where my physicality is going to take me and hopefully have also a good mentality to kind of go through it.

    “I think a lot of players are definitely a little bit confused with what they should do. I think we all can sit down with our teams and sort of discuss the possibility of playing or not.”

    Source: cnn.com

  • Coronavirus: Government to take cost of testing players

    Government is to take up the cost of COVID-19 testing for players of national teams returning to train, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, the Presidential Advisor on Health, has said.

    “We will be doing the mandatory testing for these national teams as FIFA has recommended and European clubs are doing,” he said.

    President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his 14th Address to the nation on measures to contain the COVID-19, asked the Black Maidens and the Black Princesses to resume camping and prepare for their international assignments later this year.

    Dr Nsiah Asare said the decision followed a proposal by the Minister of Sports on the need to consider national teams, which had international assignments, to start training with strict adherence to all safety protocols.

    He said the return matches would be played behind closed doors at venues chosen by the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

    Dr Nsiah Asare said the teams would be camped under tight security as done for second cycle institutions until all return matches were played.

    The Black Maidens have a FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria whiles the Princesses will take on Guinea-Bissau in a 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualifier in September, this year.

    Source: GNA

  • Coronavirus Fight: Volta region markets, lorry parks fumigated and disinfected

    About 78 markets together with lorry parks, public toilets and other public places were on Tuesday disinfected and fumigated in the Volta Region.

    The exercise followed a huge clean-up operation last Monday by Dansworld International Services International Limited (DISL), in collaboration with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, in the markets and public places of the region.

    Speaking at the launch at the Ho Central Market in the Volta regional capital, Ho, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, explained that the exercise, which constituted phase two of the national disinfection and fumigation, was part of control measures by the central government to tackle the new coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) in the country.

    He intimated that the central government through the MLGRD was committed to winning the battle against the COVID-19.

    According to him, Volta Region was equally doing its bid to control the virus.

    Against this backdrop, Dr Yao Letsa appealed to the people in the region to always endeavour to comply with the COVID-19 safety protocols.

    However, he indicated that it was difficult ensuring social/physical distancing, especially in the markets, albeit the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) were doing the best.

    “We are also trying to enforce the wearing of nose masks across the region, all as part of efforts to control the spread of the virus in the Volta Region,” the minister intoned.

    He used the opportunity to lap praises upon the security agencies, comprising the military, police, fire service, prisons and the immigration service, for their supportive roles in the war against COVID-19 in the region.

    For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dansworld International Services Limited, Mr Bernard Danso Ntow, described his outfit’s partnership with Zoomlion as excellent.

    “Our partnership with Zoomlion is the first of its kind and so far its been excellent,” he said.

    According to him, their scope of work which will span three days, involved fumigating, disinfecting and huge clean-up operation in the markets and public places.

    While describing the phase two of the exercise as good, he, however, indicated that they will improve upon it in the second phase.

    Mr Danso Ntow, therefore, advised particularly the market women to observe the COVID-19 preventive protocols.

    “Yes disinfection against the virus is good, but my advice to our market women is that they should continue to observe all the WHO prescribed COVID-19 safety protocols,” he advised.

    The exercise started at 7:30 a.m., at the Ho Central Market with DISL using atomisers, foggers and Knapsack sprayers to disinfect the market, with drones carrying out the fumigation

    Public places that benefited from the exercise included the Assembly Mall, Intercity STC Terminal, Matse Ola Station Sokode Station, all in Ho, among others.

    It would be recalled that the central government through the MLGRD in March, this year, engaged Zoomlion Ghana Limited to disinfect all the markets across the country to help control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Source: Regina Asamoah, Contributor

  • Kenya’s medics say they are not prepared to tackle coronavirus

    Health workers have said they are struggling to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic and are ill-prepared to face the swelling numbers as more medics get infected.

    As the national and county health workers tackle the pandemic, they say they are heading for a crisis without the necessary resources.

    The medics said they have not been properly trained on handling Covid-19, lack the appropriate protective gear and most are now experiencing burnout.

    Various cadres of health professionals are demanding better workplace protections as the country nears in Covid-19 peak yesterday said that the death of a senior public health officer in Wajir County due to lack of oxygen was worrying.

    Mr Abdi Yussuf, who died on Friday, is the eight medic to succumb to the virus, with another 531 medics reported to have contracted COVID-19.

    Clinical officers’ union chairman Peterson Wachira said medics are at high risk of getting the disease because they don’t have adequate protective gear.

    “The death of eight medics from various counties with another 531 infected with Covid-19 has forced use to try and assess the situation and the biggest problem we have is the lack of proper protective gear,” he said.

    The union’s Secretary-General, Mr George Gibore, said that medics who perform procedures that are more likely to generate high concentrations of infectious respiratory aerosols than coughing, sneezing or talking are at increased risk of infection because most hospitals do not have the appropriate masks.

    “We conducted a joint health workers’ survey, which revealed that 72 percent of health workers performing aerosol-generating procedures do not have proper protective equipment. They do not have N95 masks while s 74 per cent are anxious that they are not using the protective equipment properly,” he said.

    Mr Gibore said the survey, which assessed infection prevention and control among health workers, found that only 24 per cent of medics had undergone a two-day training on Covid-19 as recommended by global health bodies. He said 64 percent of the medics have reported experiencing burnout from working long hours.

    “We would like to implore the government to look at these challenges and ensure our welfare is secured especially since we are headed to the peak and we have not seen a significant increase in health workers,” he said.

    Source: allafrica.com

  • Morocco locks down main cities as virus surges

    Morocco’s government has announced a fresh lockdown in some major cities as new coronavirus cases in the country hit a record high.

    Movement has been restricted in the country’s largest city Casablanca, as well as in Tangier, Marrakesh, Fez and Meknes.

    Essential service providers authorised by government officials are exempted from the order. Those transporting goods are also allowed to operate.

    The lockdown has been reinstated because of non-adherence to guidelines intended to prevent the spread of the virus, officials say.

    The government warned that a nationwide lockdown was still an option if citizens kept disregarding the guidelines.

    The ministry of health on Saturday announced 811 new cases and a further 633 on Sunday – bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 20,278.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Trump and GOP senators again put economic openings ahead of suppressing virus

    President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill are still fighting the pandemic they wish existed, rather than a virus that unfolds at its own pace and is oblivious to their artificial political and economic timetables.

    Despite his supposed turn to taking the coronavirus more seriously, Trump on Monday warned some governors should be quicker in opening up their states, ignoring the fact his previous advice on such lines helped spark a surge in cases in the sunbelt.

    New stimulus bill: The Senate Republican Party meanwhile split over a new $1 trillion stimulus bill, with some conservatives warning that maintaining federal unemployment benefits at current rates would deter a return to work as the virus rages and delay the restoration of economy.

    Still, the impasse predated exceedingly difficult negotiations with Democrats and will inevitably degenerate into a hyper-partisan struggle given the stakes of the approaching election. But any delay could could see millions of Americans who lost jobs in lockdowns deprived of most of a $600 a week federal government lifeline that has already paid out for the last time at previous levels.

    It also emerged Monday that Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who works in the President’s mask-free West Wing, tested positive for the coronavirus, in a sign of how flaunting basic precautions leaves no one safe from infection even if such steps are politically unpalatable.

    Crisis continues: The machinations in Washington unfolded against a backdrop of a crisis that is nowhere near fading despite Trump’s upbeat rhetoric. While there are signs the latest explosion of sickness in southern and western states may be cresting, the situation remains dire. By late Monday night, the daily toll stood at 53,972 new infections

    Source: cnn.com

  • Coronavirus: UK economy ‘might not recover until 2024’

    The UK economy could take until 2024 to return to the size it was before the coronavirus lockdown, according to analysis from the EY Item Club.

    The forecasters, who use a similar economic model to the Treasury, suggest unemployment will rise to 9% from 3.9%.

    They also estimate the economy will shrink by 11.5% this year, worse than the 8% they predicted only a month ago.

    Consumers have been more cautious than expected, they said, while low business investment will dampen growth.

    As a result, they now expect the post-coronavirus economic recovery to take 18 months longer than previously forecast.

    However, the Item Club says it is early days and useful data has only recently been made available.

    “Unsurprisingly, without hard data, a wide range of views on the performance and outlook for the UK economy emerged,” said Mark Gregory, UK chief economist at EY.

    Last week, the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane told MPs the UK economy had “clawed back” about half the fall in output it saw during the peak of the coronavirus lockdown in March and April.

    There had been a V-shaped “bounceback”, he said, referring to the shape that indicates a rapid economic recovery.

    Last month, Mr Haldane said the economy was “on track for a quick recovery”.

    ‘Past its low point’

    However, other economists have expressed doubts about the potential for such a swift recovery in activity.

    “Even though lockdown restrictions are easing, consumer caution has been much more pronounced than expected,” said Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club.

    “We believe that consumer confidence is one of three key factors likely to weigh on the UK economy over the rest of the year, alongside the impact of rising unemployment and low levels of business investment.

    “The UK economy may be past its low point but it is looking increasingly likely that the climb back is going to be a lot longer than expected.”

    The government has moved to cut taxes, support wages and offer incentives to spend in an effort to keep the economy going and encourage consumers to spend.

    Earlier this month, Chancellor Rishi Sunak cut VAT on hospitality and promised to pay firms a £1,000 bonus for every staff member kept on for three months when the furlough scheme ends in October.

    But he also conceded that not every job would be saved, and his £30bn package was criticised for helping certain sectors, such as restaurants and tourism, but ignoring others.

    Last month, the Bank of England said it would pump an extra £100bn into the UK economy to help fight the “unprecedented” coronavirus-induced downturn.

    Source: BBC

  • Republicans introduce $1tn pandemic recovery plan

    Republicans have proposed spending an additional $1tn (£776bn) to address the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

    The plan includes $100bn for schools and issuing stimulus payments of up to $1,200 to most Americans.

    Under the plan, the payment would replace a $600 boost to unemployment benefits during the pandemic.

    The proposal sets the stage for negotiations with Democrats who have called it “totally inadequate”.

    The US has already spent more than $2.4tn on virus relief measures, sending billions of dollars in aid to businesses and individual households. But economists have warned since the spring that more would be necessary.

    Senator Mitch McConnell said Republicans wanted to see how existing programmes were working, but had now produced a “tailored and targeted draft” to address the economic fallout of the pandemic.

    The proposal would reduce the $600 weekly unemployment benefit supplement to $200 until states can set up a more targeted system that replaces 70% of a person’s previous wage.

    The reduction reflects worries that the current benefits discourage workers from returning to work, since an estimated two thirds of recipients are getting more from unemployment than they did working.

    Mr McConnell said Republicans “want to continue” the unemployment supplement, which expires this week. “But we have to do it in a way that does not slow down reopening.”

    As well as money for direct payments to families and to help schools, Republicans said they want to put in place legislation to shield businesses from workers’ coronavirus health claims.

    What else do Democrats want?

    Senator Chuck Schumer, who leads Democrats in the Senate, said the proposal was “too little, too late”.

    The US has lost roughly 15 million jobs since February and the recovery remains on shaky ground as virus cases rise and some places reimpose restrictions.

    Nearly one in five US workers is collecting unemployment benefits and more than half of adults live in households that have seen a drop in income, according to a survey by the US census.

    “This is a serious, serious crisis,” Mr Schumer said. “We’re running out of time.”

    He said the Republican plan amounted to a “30% pay cut” at a time when most workers do not have jobs to return to and switching to a new system will be near “impossible” for states to execute. He pointed to problems that have plagued the programme so far.

    “It will delay benefits for weeks, if not months, as we slide into a greater degree of recession,” he said.

    Democrats, who have put forward their own $3tn plan, want funding for local governments, which are facing budget shortfalls due to the decline in economic activity. Many object to the unemployment benefit cut, which they want to see extended through to the end of the year.

    They have also rejected the proposal to shield businesses from liability.

    “What we will not support is what they’re saying to essential workers: ‘You have to go to work because you’re essential, we place no responsibility on your employer to make that workplace safe and if you get sick you have no recourse because we’ve given your employer protection,’” Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said in a recent television interview.

    What happens now?

    Some Republicans had proposed fast-tracking some pieces of the legislation – an idea rejected by Democrats, who see that strategy as an effort to avoid including their priorities.

    Mr McConnell said on Friday he expected the negotiations to take “a few weeks”. The senator will also need to persuade members of his own party, who are worried about rising levels of government debt and opposed to further spending.

    “The answer to these challenges will not simply be shovelling cash out of Washington. The answer to these challenges will be getting people back to work,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said.

    Source: BBC

  • Robert O’Brien, key Trump adviser, tests positive for coronavirus

    President Donald Trump‘s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, has tested positive for coronavirus, the White House has confirmed.

    Mr O’Brien, 54, has been self-isolating and working from home.

    The aide has mild symptoms and there was no risk of exposure to Mr Trump or Vice-President Mike Pence, a statement said.

    Mr O’Brien is the highest-ranking official in Mr Trump’s administration known to have tested positive.

    It is not clear when he and the president last met, but one administration official said it had not been for “several days”. The pair appeared together two weeks ago on a trip to Miami.

    The White House statement read: “He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site. There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice-president. The work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted.”

    Some staff members told CNN they had only learned of the infection on Monday from the media.

    One source told Bloomberg that Mr O’Brien had been out of his office for a week and that the adviser had contracted the virus after a family event.

    Anyone near the president is tested regularly for COVID-19.

    A number of people in and around the administration have tested positive, including a military member who works as a White House valet, Mr Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller, and a helicopter squadron Marine.

    Who is Robert O’Brien?

    Trained as a lawyer, he has had a long diplomatic career working for both Republicans and Democrats. He is believed to be the highest-ranking Mormon member of the Trump administration.

    He was picked to replace John Bolton as national security adviser last September, after Mr Bolton left amid a rancorous fallout with President Trump.

    Mr O’Brien shares similar views to Mr Trump on a number of issues, including criticism of the UN and opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.

    Mr O’Brien traveled to Paris this month to discuss foreign policy issues with European counterparts, and gave a speech in Arizona in June comparing Chinese President Xi Jinping with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

    Source: bbc.com

  • The world’s hopes for a coronavirus vaccine may run in these health care workers’ veins

    In the corner of a COVID-19 ward in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a woman cleaning the mouth of an intubated patient carries an extraordinary hope for pretty much all of us. Slipping a mouthwash-soaked brush into an elderly woman’s mouth, at great personal daily risk, dentist Denise Abranches has something more than courage in her veins.

    Abranches was the first of an expected 5,000 Brazilian key workers in the healthcare system to receive a trial coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University and multinational drugmaker AstraZeneca, along with volunteers in the UK and South Africa.

    Across the city, frontline medics like her have enrolled in a Phase 3 test of the vaccine’s efficacy as they battle the pandemic, which has infected more than 2 million Brazilians. And it isn’t just Oxford testing its vaccine in this vast human petri dish. Chinese firm Sinovac began trials last week in Sao Paulo, and US pharma giant Pfizer plans to do so soon, bringing a race among powers to prove their vaccine works first.

    Yet while nations fret over securing access to a vaccine, the potential geopolitical implications mean nothing in this ward. “To volunteer is an act of love, to donate a little of yourself to people,” said Abranches. Like many healthcare workers, she has been separated from her family for months of Brazil’s pandemic, in order to avoid spreading the virus, and often failed to hold back her tears when asked about the loved ones she missed.

    “The loneliness is greater of the patients who are suffering,” she said, as if to check her own solitude. “Being here for the whole period, seeing patients die — often without saying goodbye to their families — that moved us all here. I largely wanted to help, and the vaccine trial needs people like us, at high risk of contamination.”

    As a dentist at Hospital Sao Paulo, her days are spent immersed in infected saliva, which puts her among the highest-risk subjects that the trial could have chosen when she was injected in late June. Many others in her ward have also enrolled in this globally vital trial.

    As we tour their daily routine of life-saving procedures — a tracheotomy and extubation in just 30 minutes — more staff reveal they’ve had the jab, and endure the routine checks and testing that follow. One is going to receive the trial vaccine this week. Another is thinking about it. Their boss, Professor Flavia Machado, said she is about the thousandth recipient.
    Safety procedures on the ward remain strict. They don’t know yet if the vaccine works. And because it is a double blind trial, none knows whether they’ve had the vaccine, or a placebo.

    Developing vaccines at “warp speed”
    So it is that after five months of mitigating the suffering of one of the world’s worst-hit cities, the medical workers of São Paulo are now asked to help bring hope to the rest of the world.

    Scientists have toiled to create a vaccine in record time, with the Trump White House even naming its vaccine Operation Warp Speed as it sinks $1.9 billion into the Pfizer project. But after severe lockdowns reduced the virus’s spread in Europe, Western researchers looked further afield for heavily infected populations in which to test the vaccine.

    In Brazil, the virus is rampant. President Jair Bolsonaro has been dismissive of the threat, even though he contracted it himself. The country reported over 50,000 new COVID-19 cases on several days last week. Officials here have sought opportunity in the misfortune and allowed British, Chinese and US firms to run trials in hopes that Brazil may get faster local production of the eventual vaccine. The faster the population is immunized, the sooner the economy will be able to restart.

    Sinovac’s trial began last week with now a handful of recipients in the São Paulo healthcare system. Yet an unexpected side effect has emerged — not of the vaccine but the geopolitical race for it. A small fringe of angry Brazilians have railed on social media against the “China vaccine.” They’re echoing the earlier rhetoric, critics say, of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and the Trump administration about the “Chinese virus.”

    Sao Paulo State Governor Joao Doria displays a box of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech at the Hospital das Clinicas (HC) in Sao Paulo State on July 21, 2020.

    “God help me not to take the vaccine made by those who made the virus! #nothanks #chinesevaccineNO” reads one Twitter user’s post in Portuguese about the Sinovac vaccine. “My friends, do not allow yourself to be GUINEA PIG of CHINESE DICTATORSHIP and Doria (expletive),” reads another, referring to Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria, with the same #chinesevaccineNO hashtag.

    As a result, the Sinovac project has recommended that their contributors hide their identities. “This is the number one concern,” said leading epidemiologist and head of the Sinovac trial, Dr Esper Kallas. “Some people may react oddly in these days to a volunteer who participated in a vaccine that was conceptualized in a Chinese company.”

    Kallas added that he does not see the vaccine alternatives as Chinese or British or American. “These are mankind vaccines,” he said. “We need to have them available to fight this pandemic all over the world. And perhaps the ultimate solution is not going to be one vaccine, but a combination of them.”

    Only one participant in the Sinovac trial has spoken publicly so far, Stephanie Texieira Porto. A young doctor, she too has been separated from family for the past five months, and her eyes mist when she mentions her 90-year-old grandmother whom she’s not seen.

    She says she has only received kind words about her decision to participate in the Sinovac trial on social media, but was warned by the trial organizers that it could be different. “They told me to not expose myself too much, to try to not tell everybody how this study will be. It’s very strange, all of it. I don’t understand why [some people] hate China.”

    She is reticent to discuss the role Bolsonaro and his supporters have played in fomenting anti-Chinese rhetoric. “Our president, everything he says is important and the population believes him. He says … that it’s the flu. He’s said bad things about China. I prefer not to talk about him.”

    If successful, the two vaccine trials already underway should bring mass-produced vaccines to Brazil faster. AstraZeneca has agreed to let Brazil’s Fiocruz center make the vaccine locally, producing bulk quantities even before the trial ends, and Sinovac has agreed to share its technology with Brazilian partners. Brazil’s interim health minister recently expressed interest in buying doses of the drug that Pfizer is developing, too, though it has yet to begin trialing the drug in São Paulo. The company did not return a request for comment.

    For Kallas, talk of a race between nations and companies is a fruitless distraction to the global task at hand. “This is a threat to all of us and finding collectively a solution is the only way to go.”

    Porto agreed. World powers may “feel they are in a race, but it is a common effort so humanity go back to our lives again.”

    Source: cnn.com

  • Regulatory agency must help private sector with reliefs to combat coronavirus

    Regulatory agencies must work hand in hand with the private sector to cushion businesses as the Coronavirus pandemic continue to bite hard, Hilton John Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jonmoore International, a logistics services provider, has said.

    “The private sector is currently encountering tough time, and so these statutory bodies that regulate activities in the private sector should be transparent so that the challenges posed to business entities and disruptions to commercial transactions in the wake of the pandemic, will be substantiality mitigated,” he said.

    He applauded government for its timely intervention for making available some fund for disbursement to local entities through the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI).

    He explained that the provision of temporaary relief to companies and individuals to alleviate the adverse financial impact of a slowdown in economic activities, particularly in the area of payment of certificate or permit renewal, and others would be welcome.

    “If we come back next year to renew our permits with the regulatory institutions or statutory institutions, they should understand that we have gone through tough times,” Mr. Mitchell told the B&FT in an interview.

    He called for continuous support for the sector, as employers have to continue to pay employees salary, medical bills, even as the pandemic continue to ravage the economy.

    “Private sector is tough and all the support that should be giving to us, should be giving to us. We have people on our pay roll and medical insurance covering them. When we come and knock on the door of statutory and regulatory institutions, it is not because we want anything free, but because of the reality that we are facing,” he emphasised.

    Jonmoore International Limited is a multiple award winning Ghanaian transport and logistics service provider in Ghana and Africa for over two decades of experience.

    Source: thebftonline.com

  • Coronavirus: Non-Life Gross Premium hits GH¢515 million in 2020 first quarter

    In spite of the COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown of activities non-life insurers performance during the period in relation to income, generation was encouraging for this period under review.

    The 29 non-life companies generated total gross premium income of GH¢515,741,117 in the first quarter of 2020 as against GH¢397,461,040 the same period in 2019. This is due to the unwavering stands of the regulator to drive insurance growth and to ensure strict compliance with relevant laws affecting insurance business.

    The introduction of Motor Insurance Database (MID) by the regulator and the resilience by the companies to build on innovations not only on the product but also technology and people went a long way to improve the selling of the most popular insurance product vehicle insurance in the country whereby insurers and their clients will sit at the comfort of their homes to buy insurance.

    All the non-life companies grew their first-quarter gross premium income marginally against what they did in the same period in 2019.

    Source: thebftonline.com

  • Coronavirus: Over 11,000 tourists cancelled trip to Ghana

    More than 11,000 tourists have cancelled their scheduled visit to Ghana because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance said on Thursday.

    Presenting the 2020 mid-year budget review to Parliament, Mr Ofori-Atta said the cancellations led to a projected year-to-date revenue loss of GH¢4.8 million.

    He said the Tourism and Hospitality Industry was currently one of the hardest-hit by COVID-19, with severe adverse impacts on travel demand and accommodation bookings, domestic tourism, and other segments including; cruises, restaurants and cafes, conventions, festivals and conferences and meetings.

    “Within the space of a few months, the Ghanaian tourism industry had plunged from a situation of healthy growth into a crisis mode.

    Based on data collected by the Ghana Tourism Authority, as at May, 31, 979 accommodation facilities had shut down,” he said.

    Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the Creative Arts industry, which largely employed informal and vulnerable persons with mostly no social protection, were severely affected due to restriction on social gatherings, travel and border closures.

    Source: GNA

  • Tanzania’s Benjamin Mkapa had malaria, not coronavirus

    Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa was suffering from malaria and died of a heart attack, his family said Sunday, scotching rumours that he succumbed to coronavirus.

    “Mkapa was found with malaria and he was admitted for treatment since Wednesday,” family member William Erio revealed during a funeral mass broadcast on state television TBC1.

    Mkapa, who ruled the East African country for two terms from 1995 to 2005, died early Friday aged 81 in a Dar es Salaam hospital but the government did not reveal the cause of the death.

    “He was feeling better on Thursday and I was with him until 8pm that day,” Erio said.

    “After watching the evening news bulletin, he died of cardiac arrest,” Erio added, saying he wished to dispel rumours spreading on social media that Mkapa had contracted the new coronavirus.

    NO TRANSPARENCY

    President John Magufuli attended the funeral mass along with his vice president and prime minister at the national stadium.

    The opposition has accused Magufuli’s government of a lack of transparency regarding its handling of a pandemic which the president said last Monday was no longer present in the country as he urged tourists to return.

    Tanzania ceased publishing official statistics on the virus on April 29 and, unlike its neighbours, has taken no specific measures designed to halt its spread.

    Officially, Tanzania has logged a mere 509 Covid-19 cases to date whereas neighbours such as Kenya and DR Congo have respectively registered more than 16,000 and more than 8,000.

    QUESTIONS

    Questions arose over Mkapa’s cause of death after Magufuli did not immediately make an official announcement on the time, place and cause in line with 2006 legislation.

    Mkapa, who was the country’s third president after independence from Britain in 1962, will be buried in his home village in the southeastern region of Mtwara on Wednesday.

    After leaving office he remained active, taking part in mediation talks in Kenya after 2007-08 election violence.

    He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to mediate between Burundi’s government and opposition groups after a disputed 2015 election plunged the country into crisis.

    Source: theeastafrican.co.ke

  • Rwanda’s coronavirus recovery count hits 900

    Rwanda, on July 24, discharged 11 new Coronavirus patients after full recovery, bringing the COVID-19 overall recovery count to 900.

    According to the Ministry of Health’s daily update on COVID-19, the same day also saw 19 new Coronavirus cases identified, bringing the tally of confirmed cases to 1,729 total.

    The 19 new cases included 12 from Kigali, five from Rusizi District, one from Nyamasheke District and one from Kirehe District.

    Friday results were drawn from 2,491 samples tested in 24 hours, whereas the country has conducted 233,677 total sample tests since the outbreak of the global pandemic.

    Five people have so far succumbed to the virus in Rwanda, two of which were peacekeepers serving on a UN mission.

    The global track of coronavirus stands at 15,842,118 infections, of which 9,649,208 have recovered and 639,892 have succumbed to the virus.

    Source: allafrica.com

  • EU calls on US to lift tariffs in plane dispute

    The EU called Friday on the United States to lift tariffs imposed in a long-running dispute over aircraft subsidies after Airbus said it had brought itself into compliance with World Trade Organization rulings.

    The billions of dollars in tariffs, which apply to a wide range of food and agricultural goods in addition to planes, have been even more burdensome due to the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

    Airbus said Friday it had reached agreement with the French and Spanish governments that raises the interest rates on funds provided to help develop its long-haul A350 jet to levels the WTO considers appropriate.

    The European Commission said this removes any grounds for the US to maintain tariffs imposed on EU exports under WTO rulings as well as making a strong case for a rapid settlement of the dispute.

    “Unjustified tariffs on European products are not acceptable and, arising from the compliance in the Airbus case, we insist that the United States lifts these unjustified tariffs immediately,” EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said in a statement.

    Epic legal battle –

    An epic legal battle between Airbus and Boeing at the WTO began in 2004 when Washington accused Britain, France, Germany and Spain of providing illegal subsidies and grants to support the production of a range of Airbus products.

    A year later, the EU alleged that Boeing had received $19.1 billion worth of prohibited subsidies from 1989 to 2006 from various branches of the US government.

    The two cases were then tangled up in a legal quagmire, with each side being given partial vindication after a long series of appeals and counter appeals.

    In 2019 the WTO authorized the US to impose up to 100 percent in taxes on $7.5 billion of European goods, its biggest ever penalty.

    Washington then slapped 25 percent tariffs on a number of EU goods including wine, cheese and olives.

    A 10 percent tariff on Airbus planes was increased to 15 percent in March, which also affects US airlines which buy Airbus aircraft, as the manufacturer points out.

    In June the US threatened to levy tariffs on another $3.1 billion in EU goods as it has been authorized to do under a WTO ruling.

    – Resolution in ‘mutual interest’ –

    Airbus said the impact of those tariffs plus the coronavirus pandemic were the reason it was making the effort to resolve the dispute.

    “The tariffs imposed by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) are currently harming all targeted industry sectors, including US airlines, and are adding to a very difficult environment as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis,” the firm said.

    Airbus said Friday that it “considers itself in complete compliance with all WTO rulings” after increasing the interest rate paid on the government funds it received.

    The low interest rates on these funds were one of the arguments the US made that the EU was improperly subsidizing Airbus.

    “After 16 years of litigation at the World Trade Organization, this is the final step to stop the long-standing dispute and removes any justification for US tariffs,” said Airbus.

    In addition to there no longer being a justification for the tariffs, the EU believes that in light of the global recession triggered by the coronavirus pandemic it makes sense to resolve the dispute.

    “Especially under the current economic circumstances, the EU believes that it is in the mutual interest of the EU and the US to discontinue damaging tariffs that unnecessarily burden our industries and agricultural sectors,” the Commission statement said.

    Hogan noted a WTO decision is expected soon that could give the EU the right to impose tariffs against the United States.

    “In the absence of a settlement, the EU will be ready to fully avail itself of its own sanction rights,” he warned.

    Source: rfi.fr

  • European lawmakers scrutinize coronavirus recovery fund

    The EU leaders agreed to the historic recovery package following marathon talks, and it is now up to the European Parliament to vote on the deal. While discussing the package, EU lawmakers signaled their displeasure.

    Lawmakers from all major groups in the European Parliament criticized the proposed EU budget deal during the special session on Thursday, which is key to implementing the €1.8 trillion ($2 trillion) coronavirus aid and budget package.

    The deal, aimed at helping hard-hit bloc nations recover from the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus pandemic, was agreed on Tuesday by EU leaders following four days of heated debates. The marathon talks were close to breaking down on several occasions, and France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel walked out together in protest at one point.

    Addressing the parliament on Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the deal was a “a bitter pill to swallow.” While urging lawmakers to vote for the deal, she also recognized “painful and regrettable decisions” on the future funding of planned EU health and research programs.

    In response, the head of the center-right bloc Manfred Weber said it was “unbelievable” that dramatic cuts to the health sector were being discussed in the times of the pandemic.

    “We are for the moment not ready to swallow the bitter pill you were referring to,” Manfred said.

    A clause linking EU money to the rule of law that could jeopardize funds for Poland and Hungary is also coming under scrutiny.

    European Parliament to make the deal ‘better’

    Talking to DW, European Parliament Vice-President Katharina Barley described the recovery deal as a “compromise between the leaders of member states.”

    “But the European Parliament is the voice of the people, the only directly elected body. So we are here to add a more European perspective,” said the German Social Democrat politician.

    The assembly “has a chance to make it better,” said Barley, who also has UK citizenship.

    When asked about the clause linking the money to the rule of law, Barley said she would be happy about if it would be clear “how it is going to turn out.”

    She warned that there were various interpretations of the clause.

    “Have there been some kind of deals behind closed doors? We do not know. This is why we want a much clearer formula,” Barley said, warning that the rule of law was “deteriorating in a lot of member states.”

    A ‘pivotal’ moment of EU history

    Lawmakers will list their proposed alterations to the budget then start talks with the bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, and the EU presidency, which rotates between countries and is currently held by Germany. Parliament is expected to revisit proposed cuts in the areas of research, environment and migration.

    The European lawmakers, who have the final say in approving the budget, are expected to vote later Thursday on a resolution that strongly criticizes the conclusions of the summit.

    Von der Leyen also emphasized that the EU budget and protecting the rule of law go hand-in-hand.

    European Council President Charles Michel urged EU lawmakers to back the deal, reiterating comments he made on Tuesday that it was “pivotal” in European history.

    “This response is massive compared to the size of the economy. Europe’s response is greater than that of the United States or China,” added the Council president.

    What is in the recovery package?

    The package includes a €750-billion ($869-billion) fund that will be given to countries in the form of loans and grants, as well as a seven-year €1 trillion EU budget.

    Italy, which was initially the European epicenter of the virus, is set to receive 28% of the total funds, or €209 billion. That figure includes €81 billion in grants and €127 billion in loans.

    Greece will receive €72 billion under the plan, in a move that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called a “national success.”

    Source: dw.com

  • Redouble revenue mobilization to lessen debt levels

    Given that the coronavirus pandemic effects are still evolving with its associated uncertainties, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari has called for redoubling of revenue mobilization to lessen debt levels to more sustainable levels.

    According to the Bank of Ghana, data for the first quarter on the execution of the budget show a widening of the deficit relative to what was observed for the same period in 2019. As at the end of the first quarter, a deficit, equivalent to 3.4 percent of GDP had been recorded compared with a deficit target of 1.9 percent of GDP.

    The larger deficit has been a result of shortfalls in tax revenues — on the back of shortfalls in international trade taxes, taxes on goods and services and taxes on income and property in response to unfavourable external and domestic conditions — and higher pace of spending, which included some unbudgeted COVID-19 related expenditure.

    The expanded deficit led to an increase in the debt stock to 59.3 percent of GDP as at the end of March 2020.

    Speaking at an IMF webinar dubbed; Crisis to Recovery: Strengthen Economic Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa during COVID-19, Dr. Opoku-Afari said, “By the end of the crisis, all fiscal space would have been depleted and debt levels will rise. Redoubling efforts toward revenue mobilization will be critical to generate the appropriate primary balances to bring down debt levels to sustainable levels.”

    “Revenue generation will be also necessary to create fiscal space, to address anticipated renewed demand for the provision of public services to help support faster growth,” He added.

    Currently, the crisis has shed light on the need for more reforms in critical sectors of governments operations and further strengthening Public Financial Management (PFM) frameworks in accounting for the effectiveness in the delivery of COVID-related expenditures, the First Deputy Governor stated.

    “It is important to strengthen and implement reforms aimed at dismantling bottlenecks in domestic revenue mobilization and administration while undertaking legal reforms that ensure property rights protection,” he said.

    Dr. Opoku-Afari also recommended that the bureaucratic constraints in the delivery of government services should as much as possible be removed to allow for maximum benefits from government services, adding, “These processes will no doubt be critical going forward for a sustainable recovery.”

    Source: goldstreetbusiness.com