Eritrea Wire

The Biden administration is in the process of delivering 25 million vaccine doses to African countries in a massive effort to help African nations beat the COVID-19 pandemic. VOA’s Hayde Adams, the host of “Straight Talk Africa,” spoke with Akunna Cook, the U.S. deputy assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, about how the effort is going. The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: These are difficult times all over the world In Africa, only about 1% of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated. Please tell us more about what the United States is doing to get much needed vaccines to African countries and where those doses are going first.

COOK: It’s a pleasure to be with you, particularly talking about this topic of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a top priority of the Biden-Harris administration. The president has been very clear that we have to approach, vaccine, vaccine contributions around the world with the same urgency that we have here in the United States, and so we are working tirelessly to get out this first tranche of 25 million doses to Africa. We have already, in the past two weeks or so, donated the first five million doses into 16 African countries. Burkina Faso and Djibouti were among the first.

But there’s many more coming… We will be delivering the largest sum of doses to any country, to South Africa at, 5.6 million doses, and then to Nigeria at just over four million doses coming up.

And so this is just the beginning. This are the initial tranche. We remain the largest contributor to (global vaccine distribution scheme) COVAX and are committed to getting vaccines out as quickly as possible because we know that we cannot end this pandemic anywhere until we’ve ended it everywhere.

VOA: The World Health Organization says Africa needs about 200 million doses to vaccinate 10% of its population by September this year. Is the United States prepared to do more? Is this a once off donation?

COOK: So our vaccine contributions are, what, multitiered and multilayered, right? So these initial this initial tranche of 25 million, it’s the first step. But we are also doing other things including supporting vaccine manufacturing on the continent. And so we have invested in vaccine manufacturing in South Africa and in Senegal to ensure that Africa can then produce its own vaccines moving forward. We are also providing economic assistance to countries that have been impacted by COVID-19 with over $541 million in assistance to respond to the economic aftereffects of the pandemic. And so this is just the beginning. This is an initial tranche of our assistance. And I’m sure that we will see more rolling out over, over the next couple of months.

 

VOA: Something we are seeing in the United States and something that is very prevalent across the African continent is misinformation around vaccines. There is a lack of trust as people feel that in the past, Africans, have been used as guinea pigs for scientific experiments, and of course there was an element of that here in the United States as well. What is your message to people in Africa about taking a vaccine coming from the West? How can they feel safe to trust the vaccines?

COOK: Well, you know what I will say is we absolutely acknowledge that there have been past reasons for there to be distrust here in the United States and around the world. But it is absolutely the case that these vaccines are safe and they are effective. And we are working to disseminate best practices, including working with trusted messengers to get the word out that these vaccines are safe and they are effective, and that is absolutely critical that populations around the world including here in the United States, avail themselves of these vaccines so that we can end this pandemic once and for all.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Authorities in Unity state say at least seven people are reported dead after floods submerged several homes in Mayendit County in recent days. The floods have also displaced about 400 families, officials say.

Mayendit County Commissioner Gatluak Nyang told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that heavy rains had intensified over the past few weeks.

Seven people died of drowning, and 17 people have been bitten by snakes, Nyang said.

The floods destroyed infrastructure, houses and the livelihoods of hundreds of people. Nearly 90% of the land in Mayendit is submerged, Nyang said.

Nearly 400 families fled to higher ground for safety, and more than 500 head of cattle and 300 goats died in the flooding, he said.

“People are facing very, very bad situation in health,” Nyang said. “There are many diseases … because the hygiene is very poor. They have lack of shelter, and there is lack of mosquito nets, and people have malaria.”

Nyang urged aid agencies and the national government to provide food, shelter and medicine to prevent waterborne diseases from spreading.

John Juan Bum, executive director of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in Unity state, has issued a plea for help.

“We have submitted the comprehensive emergency and disaster report this morning to UNCHR as well as the NGO (nongovernmental organization) forum so that they share it with all the partners on (the) ground, such as to respond or at least initiate a rapid response,” Bum told South Sudan in Focus.

Kai Yer, a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) coordinator in Unity state, said he had yet to receive full reports on the extent of the damage.

“We have not got the details,” Yer said.

Torrential rains across South Sudan have repeatedly devastated several parts of the country, including Jonglei and Lakes states and parts of Central and Western Equatoria states.

Between July and September 2020, about 800,000 people were affected by flooding in areas along the White Nile River, forcing entire communities to flee to higher ground, according to the South Sudan government and aid agencies.

 

Source: Voice of America

Rescue ships picked up more than 700 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, mainly off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant aid group said Sunday.

The latest figures came as United Nations migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share the responsibility of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean countries.

SOS Mediterranee said that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six operations in international waters since Saturday.

In the last intervention, it rescued 106 people off the Maltese coast after being alerted by German aid group Sea Watch, said the Marseille-based organization.

“The youngest survivor rescued in this operation is just 3 months old,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted.

Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Ocean Viking joined vessels from Sea Watch and ResQship, another German group, to help 400 people in difficulty in the central Mediterranean, said the group.

They were rescued from a vessel that was taking on water, in what a spokesman for the organization told AFP was a particularly perilous operation.

Those who were rescued were shared out between the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch3.

Ocean Viking alone has 555 passengers on board from this weekend’s operations, including at least 28 women, two of whom are pregnant. The organization has yet to determine at which safe port they will be able to leave them.

Libya remains one of the main departure points for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing, despite the continuing insecurity in the country. Most of them try to reach the Italian coast, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) away.

Celine Schmitt, the spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ French operation, said last month there was an urgent need for an automatic system to share the new arrivals between countries, to ensure them a better reception, and not leave it to Mediterranean countries to assume sole responsibility.

“If we look at the central Mediterranean, last year, there were fewer than 50,000 people who arrived,” she said.

“It is totally manageable for the European population,” when you consider there are 82 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes, Schmitt said.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon took a similar position last week.

“By advocating for better migration management practices, better migration governance and greater solidarity from EU member states, we can come up with a clear, safe and humane approach to this issue that begins with saving lives at sea,” he said.

The central Mediterranean crossing, between Libya and Italy or Malta, is by far the deadliest in the world, according to figures from the IOM.

Of the 1,113 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the first half of this year, 930 of them were recorded there.

Nevertheless, according to the latest IOM figures, increasing numbers of migrants have attempted the crossing this year.

 

Source: Voice of America

Tokyo’s metropolitan government said new coronavirus infections surged to a record high Saturday as the city hosts the Olympic Games.

The government reported 4,058 new cases, topping 4,000 for the first time.

The new record was set one day after Japan extended a state of emergency for Tokyo through the end of August to contain the spread. The extension also applies to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka.

A new record for infections also was set nationwide Saturday. Public broadcaster NKH reported 12,341 new cases, 15% higher than the day before.

“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it,” World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday in Geneva about the global COVID-19 outbreak that is now being driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the delta variant is as contagious as chicken pox and that infections in vaccinated people may be as transmissible as those in the unvaccinated.

“WHO’s goal remains to support every country to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by the end of September, at least 40% by the end of this year, and 70% by the middle of next year,” the WHO chief said, but added that the realization of the goals is “a long way off.”

“So far, just over half of countries have fully vaccinated 10% of their population, less than a quarter of countries have vaccinated 40%, and only three countries have vaccinated 70%,” Tedros said.

He recalled that WHO had earlier “warned of the risk that the world’s poor would be trampled in the stampede for vaccines” and that “the world was on the verge of a catastrophic moral failure” because of vaccine inequity.

“And yet the global distribution of vaccines remains unjust,” Tedros said.  “All regions are at risk, but none more so than Africa.”

“Many African countries have prepared well to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived,” he said. “Less than 2% of all doses administered globally have been in Africa,” with only 1.5% of the continent’s population fully vaccinated.

The WHO chief said his organization was “issuing an urgent call” for $7.7 billion for the launching of the Rapid ACT-Accelerator Delta Response, or RADAR, a response to the delta surge that would provide tests, treatments and vaccines.

He also said COVAX; which provides vaccines to lower-income countries, needs additional funding.

“The question is not whether the world can afford to make these investments,” Tedros said,” it’s whether it can afford not to.”

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that civilian federal government employees must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing and wear masks.

On Friday, a reporter asked Biden as he was leaving the White House whether Americans should expect more guidelines and restrictions related to the coronavirus. “In all probability,” he said.

Biden also noted that on Thursday almost a million Americans received COVID-19 vaccinations and said, “I am hopeful that people are beginning to realize how essential it is to move” in response to the coronavirus threat.

The White House said the average number of people getting their first shot of the coronavirus vaccines this week was up 30% over last week.

Also Friday, Walmart joined a growing number of U.S. companies issuing mandates for its workers to be vaccinated, saying the policy would apply to all employees at its headquarters along with managers who travel within the United States.

The Broadway League said Friday that audiences will be required to show proof of vaccination to watch Broadway performances and will be required to wear masks.

Vietnam said Saturday it would extend travel restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City and 18 other southern cities and provinces for another two weeks to contain its worst outbreak to date, according to Reuters.

The extension begins Monday in a country that contained the virus for much of the pandemic but reports a total of 145,000 cases and more than 1,300 deaths, 85% of which were reported in the last month.

A weekend lockdown has been imposed in India’s southern state of Kerala as it grapples with some 20,000 new cases daily, Reuters reported. Federal authorities sent experts to the area to monitor developments in the state that accounts for more than 37% of the nearly 32 million cases reported by India’s health ministry.

Australia’s third-largest city of Brisbane said it would begin a COVID lockdown on Saturday amid rising case numbers. Neighboring areas will also be subject to the stay-at-home orders.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that 80% of adults must be vaccinated before the country will consider reopening its border.

In Israel, health officials began administering coronavirus booster shots Friday to people older than 60 who have been fully vaccinated in an effort to stop a recent spike in cases.

Italy’s Health Institute announced Friday that the delta variant accounted for almost all new COVID-19 cases in the country at nearly 95% of cases as of July 20.

German officials announced Friday that unvaccinated travelers arriving in the country will need to present a negative COVID-19 test result.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Saturday reported there have been more than 197 million global COVID infections.

 

Source: Voice of America