Coronavirus Africa summary: cases, deaths and news - 21 June
Coronavirus live Africa: latest Covid-19 news - 21 June
Africa Covid-19 update: 02:30 WAT on Monday 22 June (03:30 CEST)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 8,926,050 cases have been detected worldwide, with 467,611 deaths and 4,411,790 people have recovered.
South Africa: 97,302 cases / 1,930 deaths
Nigeria: 20,244 cases / 518 deaths
Ghana: 14,007 / 85 deaths
South Africa confirmed cases rise by nearly 5k
South Africa now has 97,302 confirmed cases of covid-19, with an increase yesterday of 4,621 people testing positive for the disease. The death toll rose by 53 to 1,930.
Morocco to resume domestic flights starting June 25
Morocco will resume domestic flights starting June 25, the state news agency said on Sunday, citing the ministry of tourism, air transport, handicrafts and social economy. Earlier today, the government said it would further loosen lockdown measures for the services sector and domestic transport starting June 24, adding domestic travel would resume including flights and railways.
Russian football game cancelled after two African players test postitive
Dynamo Moscow's Russian Premier League match was postponed on Sunday after two Africans and another player tested positive for coronavirus.
Goal reports that the three infected players were Cameroon forward, Clinton Njie, Burkina Faso midfielder Charles Kabore and Sebastian Szymanski. All three players have been placed in 14-day quarantine.
Nigeria's Osun State confirms latest figures
The Osun government on Sunday said it had confirmed six new cases of Coronavirus in the state, with one new death.
Egyptian high-school pupils, masked and gloved, head into exams
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian high-school pupils armed with masks, gloves and hand sanitizers started their final exams on Sunday, despite objections from some parents worried about spreading the coronavirus. The health ministry was laying on 2,500 ambulances and providing a doctor for each school. Any student with a high temperature is meant to have their exam postponed or sit it in isolation.
The students had their temperatures taken in the morning, before being seated at desks spaced apart from one another. Nearly 670,000 pupils from state and private schools, and 128,000 from religious schools, were due to sit the exams. They come at a time when Egypt has seen an acceleration of coronavirus cases, with confirmed infections surging to 53,758, including 2,106 deaths. Authorities have been gradually easing restrictions on movement, though schools and universities have remained shut since March.
The head of Egypt's doctors' syndicate had called for the exams to be postponed, private newspaper Al-Youm al-Sabaa reported, and some parents expressed concern about their children's safety. 'Honestly I was worried, and am still worried, because someone in the class might have something (be infected) without having informed the administration on the way in,' said Ayman Mahmoud, whose two sons were taking exams in Cairo.
Authorities said they had taken all necessary precautions and the education ministry offered students an option to postpone to the next academic year without any penalty. End-of-year exams were cancelled for younger pupils, who submitted online research papers instead. As in other countries, many coronavirus cases in Egypt are believed to go unreported. The higher education minister cited a study on June 1 estimating that the actual number of cases could be up to five times higher than the reported figure.
Africa should look to creative industries for rebuild after coronavirus
The creative industries constitute an important lever for economic diversification in Central Africa and can help countries of the sub-region build back better in a post-COVID-19 dispensation, said the Head of ECA’s Office for Central Africa – Antonio Pedro – to a range of actors from across Francophone Africa who attended a virtual conference dubbed “ResiliArt”. (Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa)
Kenya Covid-19 unrest
A BBC documentary explores how strict enforcement of coronavirus lockdown protocols have led to protests in Kenya.
São Tomé e Príncipe prepares to reopen
The island nation, a popular tourist destination, had a dress rehearsal on Sunday as it prepares to start welcoming visitors after Covid-19 restrictions were eased.
Morocco to resume domestic travel and services
(Reuters) Morocco will further loosen lockdown measures for the services sector and domestic transport starting June 24, the government said on Sunday.
Cafes, restaurants, sports clubs, and other services and entertainment businesses will be able to resume activity at half capacity except in the provinces of Tangier, Larache, Marrakech and Kenitra, where infections remain higher, it said.
Domestic travel will resume including flights and railways, it said. International passenger traffic remains suspended. Mosques have been closed since the lockdown started on March 20 and the state of emergency has been extended to July 10.
Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiques Khaled al-Anani (R) speaks to an employee at a diving center at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh during a visit to inspect the area as Egypt is gearing up to welcome back tourists kept away by the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt has since March halted air traffic and shuttered archaeological sites, museums and hotels to stem the spread of Covid-19. The North African country, like others, has in recent weeks started loosening confinement measures as it looks to slowly open up to tourists in the summer season. The minister said Red Sea resorts including in South Sinai will be the first to open along with Mediterranean beaches west of the coastal city of Alexandria. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Africa coronavirus update
According to the latest figures, there are now almost 287,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the continent.
Bomb blasts kill 7 people in southern and central Somalia
At least seven people have died in two separate bomb attacks in southern and central Somalia in the last 24 hours, police and military officers said on Sunday.
In the first incident, two bombs planted in front of the house of a military official in Wanlaweyn town, 90 km northwest of the capital Mogadishu, exploded late on Saturday, killing four people, including soldiers and civilians. No group has claimed responsibility.
In the second incident, three militants in a car carried out a suicide bomb attack at a military checkpoint in Bacadweyn town in central Somalia's Galmudug state on Sunday. Soldiers shot at the vehicle after its occupants ignored orders to stop. Three soldiers died and two others were wounded, according to Major Abdullahi Ahmed, a military officer in the nearby town of Galkayo.
Nigeria records 661 confirmed cases of Covid-19
Nigeria registered 661 new cases of Covid-19 infection on Saturday while the number of deaths has now surpassed 500. The majority of the new cases were in Lagos (230), taking the country's total to 19,808.
Lagos, Kwara and Bauchi to convert Hajj camps into isolation centres
Lagos and Kwara state governments have announced plans to convert their Hajj and pilgrims’ camps to isolation centres to ease the burden on hospital facilities and the limited number of bed spaces, The Punch reports.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi State Government has also said it had prepared two schools for conversion into isolation centres.
Egypt ready to receive tourists
Authorities are gradually reopening Egypt's crucial tourism sector, even as the daily number of new infections within the country hovers at around 1,400, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. Egypt has seen far fewer cases of the virus compared with countries of similar population size, such as Germany. But medical staff in urban centers have complained of an overwhelmed health care system and insufficient testing, while officials have spoken of the need to "coexist" with the virus.
Restaurants can reopen in South Africa
On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that under continued level 3 regulations, leisure businesses such as hotels, restaurants, casinos and cinemas would be allowed to reopen and operate while adhering to strict physical distancing guidelines.
The Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa welcomed the announcement, stating that the sector would take longer to recover due to a lack of international visitors and the failure of insurance claim payouts to some businesses.
Covid-19 cases in Africa reach 282,000
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday that the number of Covid-19 infections in Africa has exceeded 282,000 while 7,500 people on the continent have died of the illness, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
In this guide you’ll find a summary of many of the recommendations and explanations provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other public health authorities, along with answers to many of the most frequently asked questions about the coronavirus.
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Coronavirus Africa live updates: welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live, Africa-focused coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now registered over 8.7 million cases worldwide.