Coronavirus Africa summary: cases, deaths and news - 9 June

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You can join our rolling live blog for Wednesday 10 June.

We’ll be taking a brief pause from our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa but the morning team will be here shortly to keep you up to date with all the latest developments as they unfold throughout Wednesday.

A teacher screens students as schools begin to reopen after the coronavirus disease lockdown in Langa township in Cape Town, South Africa.. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Nigeria updates

The latest coronavirus figures from Nigeria, according to WHO data: 663 new cases were registered on 9 June. 

Morocco to ease coronavirus lockdown measures

(Reuters) The Moroccan government said on Tuesday it will start easing restrictive measures imposed to curb coronavirus infections but delay a full lifting of the state of emergency until July 10.

Morocco has been on lockdown since March 20. The gradual relaxation will take into account disparities in the infection rate between Moroccan regions, the government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Saad Dine El Otmani is expected to brief parliament on Wednesday on the next steps.

Morocco had confirmed 8,437 coronavirus cases, including 210 deaths, by Tuesday evening, as the rise of hot spots within factories and families complicates efforts to curb contagion.

Over 2,000 new cases in SA

The South African Department of Health has issued its latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic in the country, with 2,112 new cases recorded on 9 June and almost one million tests conducted. 

Senegal eases restrictions after protests

The Senegalese government has bowed to pressure from citizens to lift some restrictions in the country after a series of protests against the severity of the Covid-19 lockdown. 

Kenyan figures for 9 June confirmed

The Kenyan Ministry of Health have confirmed that 127 new cases have been recorded in the country with the total death rate from Covid-19 at 88.

Cigarette smuggling business booming in SA

Fine brief report from CNN on how the pandemic ban of cigarettes and alcohol in South Africa has led to a surge in smuggled goods.

Coronavirus cases surge in Libya after repatriations

The number of coronavirus cases has surged in Libya this month, with health authorities blaming the biggest outbreak in a southern city on the repatriation of nationals stranded abroad.

The National Centre for Disease Control last week announced more than 90 new cases in the southern city of Sebha after weeks with only a few dozen confirmed cases across the whole country.

By Tuesday, Libya had confirmed 332 cases of COVID-19, of which 142 were in Sebha and the others mostly in the northwest.

Libyan and international health agencies have warned of the high risks of any wave of coronavirus cases in Libya, where years of chaos and war have undermined the health system.

Libya closed its borders in March to stop the coronavirus spreading but last month began arranging flights to repatriate Libyans stuck abroad, without a quarantine requirement.

The disease control centre attributed the cases in Sebha to people returning home, though the city medical centre's media office manager Mohamed Grain said they had not yet identified the "patient zero" who triggered the outbreak.

CORONAVIRUS

WHO claim 'rare' for asymptomatic people to spread coronavirus

WHO claim 'rare' for asymptomatic people to spread coronavirus challenged

World Health Organisation epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove, said on Monday that that transmission of COVID-19 by people with no symptoms is "very rare".

WHO Africa offers risk guidelines

Anyone can contract the Covid-19 virus, but as the World Health Organisation (Africa) point out, elder individuals and those with respirator issues are more susceptible. 

AstraZeneca accelerates testing of COVID-19 antibody treatments

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it expects to move two COVID-19 antibody therapies it has licensed from U.S. researchers into clinical studies in the next two months as the drugmaker ramps up efforts to help combat the health crisis.

The British company said it has agreed terms with the United States' Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to back its project to develop a monoclonal antibody treatment against the coronavirus.

A decade on, South Africa insists World Cup worth investment

Thursday marks 10 years since South Africa hosted a World Cup highly charged with symbolism but dogged by questions about the wisdom of spending billions on a sports event that might have been better used elsewhere.

Hosting the first soccer World Cup in Africa was seen as a coming of age for the embattled continent.

But the month-long tournament, which had a US$3-billion price tag, also came at a time when the country faced an enormous backlog of social needs such as housing, hospitals, water and electricity.

Danny Jordaan, who was the force behind the successful bid and then ran the local organising committee, insists the 2010 World Cup - which was won by Spain - has left a positive legacy for the country and was money well spent.

“There was never money taken away from the delivery of essential services. The money that built the World Cup was always intended for new infrastructure,” Jordaan told Reuters in an interview.

He said airports, roads and stadiums built for the tournament had proven a major boon, not only for South African sport but also its economy, notably tourism.

“We changed the negative perception about the country and tourism has been a major winner since,” said Jordaan, who is now president of the South African Football Association.

“There was the sentiment that Africa did not have the capacity and that it couldn’t be trusted. We were under so much pressure to deal with the world’s negativity, but after the World Cup, we saw a lot of that Afro-pessimism end.”

SA cases top 50,000 mark

This graphic from the Pretoria based outlet highlights the regions of the country most affected by the pandemic.

Tunisia ends state of emergency

Tunisian president Kais Saied confirmed late on Monday that the state of emergency in the country provoked by the pandemic had come to an end. The virus has has caused 49 deaths in the North African nation.

Did Covid-19 begin in August 2019

The novel coronavirus may have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, according to Harvard Medical School research based on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and search engine data.

'Increased hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019,' according to the research. 'While we cannot confirm if the increased volume was directly related to the new virus, our evidence supports other recent work showing that emergence happened before identification at the Huanan Seafood market.'

The research can be viewed on the Harvard website.

Tackling coronavirus in SA 

South Africa in March unveiled plans to test 30 000 people a day, only weeks after the first infection was diagnosed. Today, with more than 940 000 tests completed and 12 million people screened, its programme is by far the most comprehensive on the continent.

But some 80 000 tests haven’t been processed and results can take between five and 14 days, making it impossible to isolate those who are infected and trace their contacts.

Reasons behind the lower numbers

By end of last month, the case fatality rate globally was 6.5 per cent and three per cent in Africa. And Kenya may escape a full-blown Covid-19 pandemic partly because of its youthful population, warm weather and some assumed immunity gained through exposure to similar diseases, scientists have said.

Catch-up

Some of the headlines making the coronavirus news yesterday:

- Covid-19 crisis "has fuelled China-US rivalry in Affrica"

- Akeredolu bans public viewing of football matches in Ondo

- South Africa hits two Covid-19 milestones on Monday: 50,000 cases and 1,000 deaths

- UN Provides $40 million in response to new Ebola outbreak in Congo

- South Africa starts reopening classrooms but over 250 million kids in Africa remain out of school 

Africa Covid-19 update: 08:00 WAT on Tuesday 9 June (08:00 CEST)

According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 7,119,736 cases have been detected worldwide, with 406,542 deaths and 3,293,975 people now recovered.

Nigeria: 12,486 cases / 361 deaths
South Africa: 50,879 cases / 1,080 deaths
Ghana: 9,910 cases / 48 deaths

Coronavirus Africa live updates: welcome

Hello and welcome to our live, Africa-focused coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which as of Tuesday morning had registered over seven million cases and now over 400,000 deaths worldwide, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Join us for the latest news and developments as they emerge throughout the course of the day.