Cloudbeds présente une nouvelle solution de paiement pour rationaliser davantage les opérations hôtelières

La solution de paiement entièrement intégrée, simple et sécurisée est désormais disponible aux États-Unis, au Canada, en Europe et au Royaume-Uni, pour faire gagner du temps et de l’argent aux hôteliers.

SAN DIEGO, Californie, 09 juin 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cloudbeds, la plateforme de gestion hôtelière à la croissance la plus rapide, a annoncé le lancement d’une solution de paiement entièrement intégrée et d’une nouvelle division de services financiers aux États-Unis, au Canada, au Royaume-Uni et dans l’UE. Cloudbeds Payments est une solution de paiement robuste qui offre aux hôteliers une méthode abordable et efficace de gestion de tous les types de paiements. Cloudbeds Payments propose un terminal à la pointe de la technologie, des frais transparents, des rapports intégrés, des analyses, une sécurité et une assistance de classe mondiale (en interne) pour que les hôteliers puissent se concentrer sur leurs clients plutôt que sur l’acceptation et la réconciliation des paiements qui prend du temps.

Une vidéo accompagnant ce communiqué est disponible à :

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8a6b2363-8d1b-4e56-9a1c-44eeda1b9bfb/fr

En règle générale, les solutions de paiement d’hospitalité sont complexes et prennent du temps, ce qui a un impact sur les relations des clients avec un service client incohérent et lent tout en prenant trop de temps pour les hôteliers avec la gestion et la réconciliation. Les hôteliers peuvent désormais éviter la saisie manuelle des cartes et les longs processus de vérification avec des fournisseurs tiers. Au lieu de cela, les paiements sont rapides, faciles et complètement intégrés à la plateforme Cloudbeds.

«La meilleure partie de Cloudbeds Payments est qu’il est entièrement intégré à leur interface existante», déclare Tarek, directeur financier de Convo 212 à Athènes, en Grèce. «Mes clients paient directement sur mon website et cela se reflète immédiatement dans leur réservation et sur nos rapports. Il accepte tous les paiements par carte de crédit, gère le processus de vérification et facilite le rapprochement.»

«Notre processus de paiement précédent était très long – saisie manuelle des cartes, processus de vérification, rapprochement, rétrofacturation, litiges – cela prenait trop de temps et d’efforts. Cloudbeds Payments nous a aidé à accélérer tous les aspects du processus de paiement client. C’est facile et efficace pour les clients de réserver et pour nous de gérer», remarque Austin, Property Manager au Rancho Caymus Inn à Napa Valley, Californie. «Cloudbeds Payments fait gagner beaucoup de temps à notre personnel.»

Fidèle à son objectif d’innover pour aider les hôteliers à générer des revenus, à gagner du temps et à accroître la satisfaction des clients, la division des services financiers de Cloudbeds a développé une solution de nouvelle génération qui permettra aux établissements de gagner 10 à 15 heures par mois lors de rapprochements. En plus de son équipe d’assistance de classe mondiale, Cloudbeds Payments propose une équipe interne de gestion des litiges composée d’experts du secteur qui comprennent intimement le secteur de l’hôtellerie pour mieux soutenir les hôteliers et les clients. Cloudbeds prévoit de déployer les paiements dans d’autres pays dans les mois à venir, notamment l’Australie, le Brésil et la Nouvelle-Zélande.

«Cloudbeds a pour mission de donner aux entreprises d’hébergement tous les outils dont elles ont besoin pour sortir de la pandémie avec succès», déclare Richard Castle, cofondateur et COO. «Cloudbeds a crée une expérience transparente qui élève tous les aspects de leur entreprise – du fonctionnement de leur personnel à l’expérience du client. Notre solution de paiement est le premier de plusieurs services financiers à venir conçus pour aider les entreprises d’hébergement à passer plus de temps avec leurs clients et moins de temps à gérer leur propriété.»

À propos de Cloudbeds

Fondée en 2012, Cloudbeds est la plateforme de gestion hôtelière à la croissance la plus rapide au monde. Sa plateforme SaaS fournit des outils pour gérer de meilleures propriétés de tous types et de toutes tailles, permettant aux gestionnaires/propriétaires immobiliers de se concentrer davantage sur leurs clients tout en générant des revenus, des réservations et en augmentant l’efficacité opérationnelle. Reconnue par plus de 20 000 hôtels, auberges, et hébergements alternatifs dans plus de 155 pays, la suite Cloudbeds est une plateforme de fonctionnalités entièrement intégrée, conçue pour aider les propriétés à unifier leurs systèmes de gestion, de réservation, à augmenter leurs revenus et à automatiser les flux de travail avec confiance et facilité. Pour plus d’informations, visitez www.cloudbeds.com.

Contact médias:

Austin Edgington
austin@austinedgecomms.com

Global Unity Concert Sponsored by Shrucoin Cryptocurrency. Davido, King Of Afro beats, Ask 2 Million Fans To Support His Livestream on June 18th.

Portions of the proceeds from the global concert will support waterholes in Africa. The concert will livestream only on GFNTV.com.

HOUSTON, TX — (June 9, 2021) – Shrucoin, Inc. The shrucoin cryptocurrency company today announced that Davido, the Nigerian entertainer, known as the king of afrobeats has challenged 2 million of his nearly 20 fans and followers on social media to support his upcoming Global Unity The Countdown Begins, 9 Days Until the Davido Live! Concert on June 18, 2021. The concert will livestream from Nigeria on GFNTV.com at 8pm WAT (West Africa Time). Tickets are on-sale now for only $5 via GFNTV.com.

The Davido Live, Global Unity Concert is brought to you by Shrucoin cryptocurrency. The King of Afrobeats himself, Davido will perform live from Nigeria and will stream globally exclusively on GFNTV.com. Davido, will perform his greatest hits and a few surprises. Watch him perform Skelewu, Fall, DamiDuro, If, La La and more.

“We are bringing the world together through the international language of music. Davido and Afrobeats are the future of music, and Shrucoin Cryptocurrency is the future of money, together changing world,” said Julius Jenge, Chief Executive Officer of Shrucoin, Inc.  Tickets are only $5 USD to purchase tickets go to GFNTV.COM now using Mpesa, Mobile Money all major US credit cards. Mobile money and Mpesa are available in Kenya, The DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania  and South Africa.

About Shrucoin, Inc.

SHRUCOIN is a cryptocurrency built on the Ethereum Blockchain, tethered by several assets. There are 1 billion SHRUCOIN’s available, a basket of cryptocurrency assets tethers each coin. The SHRUCOIN basket of cryptocurrency assets comprises 25% Bitcoins, 25% Ethereum, 25% Bitcoin SV and 25% Litecoin.  The 1 billion tethered SHRUCOIN assets include: 1,000 Bitcoins, 1,000 Ethers, 1,000 BitcoinSVs, and 1,000 Litecoins.Blockchain token SHRU can be used for purchases relating to psilocybin and cannabis. SHRU can be purchased at www.shrucoin.com. Consumers can also use the SHRUCOIN Pay app by visiting www.shrucoinpay.com.

For more information:

info@shrucoin.com

Sophi.io remporte deux Global Media Awards de l’INMA

TORONTO, 08 juin 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, la plateforme mondiale d’optimisation et de prévision basée sur l’intelligence artificielle de The Globe and Mail, a été annoncée lauréate des Global Media Awards de l’International News Media Association (INMA) dans deux catégories, Meilleure utilisation des données pour automatiser ou personnaliser, et Meilleure solution de l’exposition pour l’Amérique du Nord.

« Les Global Media Awards de l’INMA se concentrent sur l’excellence dans tous les domaines du secteur des médias », a déclaré Phillip Crawley, éditeur et PDG de The Globe and Mail. « Je suis particulièrement heureux que le péage de lecture numérique entièrement dynamique, personnalisé et en temps réel de Sophi ait été nommé lauréat dans deux catégories, et que la technologie révolutionnaire d’impression automatisée de Sophi ait été nommée pour son utilisation avec Naviga et Agderposten. »

Sophi a également décroché la deuxième place dans les catégories Meilleure initiative d’acquisition d’abonnés et Meilleure utilisation des données pour stimuler les abonnements, le contenu ou la conception de produits, et a été sélectionnée comme finaliste dans les catégories suivantes : Meilleure initiative pour enregistrer des utilisateurs et Meilleure innovation de produit et technologie.

Le concours de cette année a attiré 644 candidatures de 212 marques de presse dans 37 pays. Le jury était composé de 44 experts mondiaux issus des médias qui se concentrent sur l’aspect révolutionnaire des résultats, le côté unique des concepts, la force de créativité, l’innovation de la réflexion et les synergies gagnantes sur toutes les plateformes.

« Une excellente utilisation des données avec un impact énorme. La personnalisation de péages de lecture numérique est la clé du succès dans le secteur des abonnements numériques pour les médias d’actualité. Cette entrée démontre davantage pourquoi cela est vrai », a déclaré un juge à propos de la technologie de péage de lecture numérique. « Son développement de modèles de propension pour l’utilisateur et le contenu est une bonne pratique dont bien d’autres pourraient tirer des leçons », a déclaré un autre juge.

Un autre juge a fait remarquer : « Une personnalisation incroyable basée sur l’intelligence artificielle et une parfaite prise en compte du besoin d’insérer des talents en science des données dans une organisation d’actualités. Un impact et des chiffres excellents. »

Le péage de lecture numérique entièrement dynamique, personnalisé et en temps réel de Sophi utilise le traitement automatique du langage naturel (TAL) pour analyser le contenu et le comportement de l’utilisateur afin de déterminer le moment où demander de l’argent ou une adresse e-mail à un lecteur, et quand le laisser tranquille. Ce système peut optimiser simultanément plusieurs résultats (tels que différents lots ou points de prix) et fonctionne également bien dans des situations de démarrage à froid.

Sophi est une plateforme d’IA qui aide les éditeurs à identifier leur contenu le plus précieux et à en tirer parti pour atteindre leurs principaux objectifs commerciaux, tels que la maximisation des abonnements. Les éditeurs de quatre continents utilisent désormais la technologie IA/AA de Sophi pour alimenter les décisions de péage de lecture numérique, l’automatisation des sites Web et l’automatisation de l’impression.

La solution d’impression automatisée de Sophi, qui alimente Naviga Publisher, a remporté une mention honorable dans la catégorie des meilleurs produits et technologies innovants. Un juge de l’INMA a commenté : « Sophi, en tant que première solution en son genre, est un excellent exemple de solution d’impression automatisée. Il est incroyable de voir que le travail de l’éditeur se réduit uniquement à la sélection du contenu. L’automatisation pouvant aller jusqu’à 80 % des pages éditoriales des journaux pourrait changer la donne de l’industrie de l’impression. »

L’année dernière, Sophi a également remporté le Online Journalism Award (OJA) pour l’Innovation technique au Service du journalisme numérique, remis par la Online News Association (ONA), et le World Digital Media Award et le North American Digital Media Award décernés par The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-STEMA) dans la catégorie Meilleure start-up de la presse numérique.

À propos de Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) a été développée par The Globe and Mail pour aider les éditeurs de contenu à prendre des décisions stratégiques et tactiques importantes. Il s’agit d’une suite d’outils d’optimisation et de prévision basés sur l’IA et l’AA qui comprend Sophi Site Automation et Sophi Dynamic Paywall ainsi que Sophi Analytics, un système d’aide à la décision pour les éditeurs de contenu. Sophi vise à améliorer les mesures qui comptent le plus pour votre entreprise, telles que la rétention et l’acquisition d’abonnés, l’engagement, la récence, la fréquence et le volume.

Contact auprès des médias  
Jamie Rubenovitch 
Directrice du marketing, Sophi 
The Globe and Mail         
416-585-3355  
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com

Sophi.io Conquista Dois INMA Global Media Awards

TORONTO, June 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A Sophi.io, plataforma de previsão e otimização com base em inteligência artificial da The Globe and Mail, foi a vencedora do Global Media Awards da International News Media Association (INMA) em duas categorias, Melhor Uso de Dados para Automatização ou Personalização e Melhor do Show da América do Norte.

“Os INMA Global Media Awards se concentram na excelência em todas as áreas de mídia”, disse Phillip Crawley, Editor e CEO da The Globe and Mail. “Estou particularmente contente com o fato de o paywall totalmente dinâmico e em tempo real da Sophi ter sido reconhecido em duas categorias e que a inovadora tecnologia automatizada de laydown de impressão da Sophi tenha sido indicada para uso com Naviga e Agderposten.”

A Sophi também ficou em segundo lugar nas categorias de Melhor Iniciativa para Aquisição de Assinantes e Melhor Uso de Dados para Impulsionar Assinaturas, Conteúdo ou Design de Produto e foi pré-selecionada como finalista nas seguintes categorias: Melhor Iniciativa para Registro de Usuários e Melhor Inovação de Produto e Tecnologia.

A competição deste ano contou com 644 inscrições de 212 marcas de notícias de 37 países. A banca de jurados contou com 44 especialistas em mídia focados em resultados inovadores, conceitos únicos, forte criatividade, pensamento inovador e sinergias vencedoras em todas as plataformas.

“Grande uso de dados com enorme impacto. A personalização de paywalls é fundamental para o sucesso da área de assinatura digital de mídia de notícias. Esta categoria é mais uma prova de que isso é verdade”, disse um jurado sobre a tecnologia de paywall. “O desenvolvimento de modelos de propensão de usuário e de conteúdo é uma boa prática com a qual as outras empresas podem aprender”, disse outro jurado.

Outro jurado comentou: “Personalização baseada em uma incrível Inteligência Artificial e perfeita aceitação da necessidade de inclusão de talentos em ciência de dados em uma empresa de notícias. Excelente impacto e números.”

O paywall totalmente dinâmico, personalizado e em tempo real da Sophi usa processamento de linguagem natural (natural language processing – NLP) para analisar o conteúdo e o comportamento do usuário para determinar quando solicitar dinheiro ou um endereço de e-mail a um leitor e quando deixá-lo em paz. Ele pode otimizar vários resultados simultaneamente (como diferentes pacotes ou pontos de preço) e também funciona com problemas de cold-start.

A Sophi é um a plataforma de IA que ajuda os editores a identificar o conteúdo mais valioso e usá-lo para alcançar os principais objetivos da empresa. Editores de três continentes agora usam a tecnologia AI/ML da Sophi para impulsionar decisões de paywall, automação de sites e automação de impressão.

A solução automatizada de laydown de impressão da Sophi, que capacita a Naviga Publisher, recebeu uma menção honrosa na categoria Melhor Inovação de Produto e Tecnologia. Um jurado da INMA comentou: “A Sophi – a primeira deste tipo – é um grande exemplo de uma solução automatizada de laydown de impressão. É muito interessante ver que o trabalho do editor fica reduzido somente à seleção do conteúdo. A automação de até 80% das páginas editoriais dos jornais pode ser um divisor de águas para a indústria gráfica.”

No ano passado, a Sophi também foi vencedora do Online Journalism Award (OJA) por Inovação Técnica no Serviço de Jornalismo Digital, concedido pela Online News Association (ONA), e do World Digital Media Award e do North American Digital Media Award concedido pela The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) na categoria de Melhor Start-up de Notícias Digitais.

Sobre a Sophi.io
A Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) foi desenvolvida pela The Globe and Mail para ajudar os editores de conteúdo a tomar decisões estratégias e táticas importantes. É um conjunto de ferramentas de otimização e previsão alimentadas por IA e ML que inclui Sophi Site Automation e Sophi Dynamic Paywall, bem como Sophi Analytics, um sistema de suporte à decisão para editores de conteúdo. A Sophi foi projetada para aprimorar as métricas que mais importam para sua empresa, como retenção e aquisição de assinantes, engajamento, recentidade, frequência e volume.

Contato com a Mídia  
Jamie Rubenovitch 
Dirigente de Marketing, Sophi 
The Globe and Mail         
416-585-3355  
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com

Foundation to Spend $1.3B to Vaccinate Africans for COVID

One of the world’s largest foundations will spend $1.3 billion over the next three years to acquire and deliver COVID-19 vaccines for more than 50 million people in Africa. It’s a first-of-its-kind effort for a Western nonprofit to bolster Africa’s lagging vaccination campaign amid widespread fears of a third wave of infections on the continent.

The Tuesday announcement from the Toronto-based Mastercard Foundation, which has more than $39 billion in assets, comes days after the World Health Organization said Africa was encountering an alarming mix of a spike in virus cases and “a near halt” of vaccine shipments. The delays have been tied to India’s halt on vaccine exports, among other things.

The foundation will purchase single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines at the discounted rate negotiated by the African Union during its 220 million dose deal with the vaccine manufacturer. Those vaccines will begin to be delivered to the AU’s 55 member states from July to September, with an option to purchase an additional 180 million doses through next year.

But some countries have been experiencing issues with the J&J vaccine. In South Africa, the first batch of 1.1 million doses, which should have already been put to use, remain on hold at a plant because of contamination concerns at a factory in Baltimore. Another batch of 900,000 doses was meant to be released in June.

Dr. John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a Tuesday press conference that he remains “positive and optimistic that the findings from the manufacturing site in the U.S. will be resolved soon,” and there will be more clarity by the end of this week.

The doses bought by the foundation, which has operated independently from Mastercard since its launch in 2006, will begin to be available in August, “in progressively larger quantities,” said Julie Waiganjo, a spokesperson for the foundation.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with the foundation on the initiative, and will be consulting African government agencies and other institutions on how to best deploy the shots.

“It is actually a huge moment, and a moment that I characterize as transformational in our ability to fight the war against this pandemic,” Nkengasong told The Associated Press.

“We will engage the countries to understand their vaccination plans, and see exactly where to fit in,” he said, adding the partnership with the foundation will also help deploy the 220 million J&J doses that are slated to arrive.

The foundation says the money will be used, in part, to help transport the vaccines, hold community engagement activities that address vaccine hesitancy, identify potential virus variants, train workers to improve the speed of vaccine deployments and help develop a skilled workforce that could expand vaccine manufacturing in Africa.

“We should expect good things out of this, but it’s going to take time,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “It’s not going to solve all the problems.”

“Africa will soon become the epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “It’s going to reverse many of the gains that Africa made in a whole range of areas… It will devastate the African economy.”

Africa has administered vaccine doses to 31 million people out of its population of 1.3 billion. But only 7 million have received both doses, the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa said last week.

Health officials have been raising alarms about the dire situation, and urging richer countries to share their remaining vaccines. The White House said last week the U.S. would allocate 5 million doses to Africa through the United Nations-backed COVAX program as part of a plan to share 25 million doses worldwide.

“I do hope other foundations, and more governments, step up to help the continent,” said Gostin.

Source: Voice of America

Danakali (ASX:DKM) sulphate of potash project in the Danakil region of Eritrea

Danakali Limited (ASX:DKM) Executive Chairman Seamus Cornelius discusses the company’s Colluli project, including financing and economics, and the positive impact of the project on the region.

Melissa Darmawan: Hello. Melissa Darmawan for the Finance News Network. Joining me from Danakali (ASX:DNK, LSE:DNK) is Executive Chairman Seamus Cornelius. Seamus, nice to meet you and welcome to FNN.

Seamus Cornelius: Thanks very much, Melissa. It’s great to be here, and I’m really happy to have this opportunity to talk to your viewers.

Melissa Darmawan: It’s great to have you. First off, can you start with an introduction to the company?

Seamus Cornelius: Danakali is a public company listed on the ASX and on the LSE, and we’re developing the Colluli sulphate of potash project in Eritrea, in a joint venture with the Eritrea National Mining Corporation.

Melissa Darmawan: By the way, where does the name “Danakali” come from?

Seamus Cornelius: So, the asset, Colluli, is in the Danakil Basin, which is the D-A-N-A part, the “Dana”, and then “kali” is salt. So, we just put the two together, Danakali.

Melissa Darmawan: When we did speak to you last, you were in a financing stage with the project. How has that progressed?

Seamus Cornelius: With COVID going on last year, we didn’t make as much progress as we thought we’d make. But if I start looking at things from this year in March, we’ve really gone forward really well. We just did a very important capital raise. It was only just over $20 million, but it’s very significant because it lets us start the early work, and it will trigger some further developments on the debt side of the project. So, we have US$200 million dollars of debt signed up, properly documented, and we are working on getting some more senior debt, which has been going very well, and closing the equity gap in a very short frame of time.

Melissa Darmawan: And, Seamus, can you remind us about the economics of the project?

Seamus Cornelius: Danakali is in a 50/50 joint venture with ENAMCO, which is the Eritrean National Mining Corporation. So, when I talk about the numbers now, I’ll talk about Danakali numbers. We will be getting US$43 million per year on an average basis, free cashflow. So, that is fantastic for Danakali. When we have two modules, our free cashflow every year will be US$85 million coming to Danakali. So, that’s post-finance, post-tax, those two numbers. Our total capital cost, as defined in our FEED study, is about $302 million. There’ll be some working capital on top of that, so you’re probably looking at somewhere around, altogether, $340 to $350 million, including contingencies and provisions, and actual capital spend. So, you can do the calculations and see that free cashflow that we get as Danakali is really strong compared to the total project capex, most of which is going to be funded by third-party debt at the project company level. So, we think it’s really compelling.

Melissa Darmawan: How does that stack up in terms of social and environmental impact, and carbon footprint?

Seamus Cornelius: We’re really conscious of the fact that, when you have an asset like Colluli, it will be producing for 200 years, and it’s in Eritrea, which is in the Horn of Africa. And we know that there’s a lot of population and economic growth coming in that part of the world. And therefore, there’s a strong demand for fertiliser. And the fertiliser that we’ll produce in the first instance is SOP, sulphate of potash. That’s basically the best kind of potash. We’re not producing anything other than first-grade fertiliser that goes on first-class food for people to eat, so that’s really strong. Besides that, we will indirectly contribute to about 10,000 jobs in Eritrea, which is really significant. The reason I know these numbers, and, more broadly, the kind of impact we will have socially and environmentally, is because very uniquely for us, the United Nations Development Program has done a study just on Colluli. We will have a very positive impact on 13 of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals. People should look it up. You can find it from the UNDP website.

Melissa Darmawan: Last question. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Seamus Cornelius: Most people don’t know much about the Danakil, but if they know anything, it’s that it’s one of the hottest and the driest places in the world. So, we have abundant solar energy. We’ve been collecting wind data for quite a long time. And, more recently, we’ve started to talk about the geothermal potential that exists at Colluli, because it’s right on top of the East African Rift, which is the really large, well-known, well-studied geothermal source of energy. So, those three things combined make it very obvious for us to transition from not being a zero-carbon producer when we turn the plant on, and going as quickly as we can to becoming a zero-carbon producer. It’s part of our whole approach to doing the right thing at Colluli, and making sure that we don’t just get the economic benefits, but we get all of the social and environmental and other benefits as well — for our company, for our shareholders, for our partners, but also for all our consumers. I think people will be very happy to take a zero-carbon Colluli SOP and put it onto their plants. We think that drives real value, and also it helps the environment, and it helps people.

Colluli is a really superior asset. It’s going to give superior returns, and have superior social and environmental impacts as well. So that’s really good. The way that you get involved in Colluli is through Danakali. That’s how you can access it. We’re committed to honouring the obligations that we have by being involved in an asset like Colluli. These things don’t come along very often. As we like to say, there’s only one Colluli, and there’s only one way to get involved, and that’s through Danakali.

Melissa Darmawan: Seamus Cornelius, it was nice to meet you. I look forward to hearing from you on your next update.

Seamus Cornelius: Thanks very much, Melissa.

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

Slow Vaccination Rate in Africa Could Have Major Consequences, Experts Warn

By any measure, the number of those being vaccinated against COVID-19 in Africa are running behind the rest of the world. Health experts warn that failure to inoculate the 1.3 billion people on the continent will have a huge impact on its health care systems and economies.

More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, most African countries have vaccinated only a tiny fraction of their populations.

Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, has fully vaccinated just 0.1% of its citizens.

The Africa Center for Disease Control says three countries — Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea — and the self-declared Sahrawi Republic have yet to receive any vaccines, while Burkina Faso has received 115,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but has not yet administered a single jab.

Abdhalah Ziraba, an epidemiologist and the head of the health system at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, says the failure to inoculate is partly due to vaccine hesitancy among the population, and underdeveloped health care systems, especially in non-urban areas.

“In Africa, most people live in rural areas. The health care system that should be the system to deliver the vaccines to the last person is not as elaborate as the population is distributed. So, people are far away from where they can get access to vaccines, and as a consequence, they are definitely left out, but they remain at risk of getting exposed to COVID-19,” Zariba said.

Kenya has fully vaccinated just 13,000 people out of a population of 50 million, although about 1 million have received one dose of a vaccine.

Davji Atellah, the secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union, calls for the government to allocate 1% of the country’s budget to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.

“Countries like Uganda, or here in Kenya, we can still see there are waves, there is a surge in infections. So, the ultimate way to get things back to normal is to vaccinate. That’s why we are asking the government, if our current budget is 3.6 trillion Kenya shillings. If 1%, that’s about 35 billion shillings ($324.4 million) is put into buying the vaccines for the Kenyans, then we may have hope to see the opening up.” Atellah said.

Kenya’s western region has been witnessing high rates of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, and officials have warned they may have to impose a new lockdown to curb transmissions.

In neighboring Uganda, the government recently reintroduced a strict lockdown to fight an increase in infections. The lockdown includes the shutting down of schools and religious activities, and imposing travel bans within the country.

Ziraba said African countries’ failure to vaccinate their population will disrupt everyday life and will pose a problem to the rest of the world.

“It will be a cascade that will be very disruptive to the African countries’ economies and health care system. But the rest of the world will not sit pretty because while a big part of their population will be protected, they will not be comfortable knowing that there will be a new infection coming to their borders every now and then,” Ziraba said.

Overall, Africa has recorded about 5 million cases of COVID-19 and 133,000 deaths.

Source: Voice of America