Today's overseas foray: Africa (over last few days):
"Covid-19 Africa: What is happening with vaccine supplies?"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56100076"Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa: Free football tickets for fans with jabs"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-58499691.. and snipped from BBC quotes from Twitter, aggregated in
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa ,
headlines bolded for easier skimming:
"
Mauritius ex-PM flown to India for Covid treatmentFormer Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has been moved to India for treatment after he tested positive for Covid-19
..
Mauritius has recorded a surge in Covid-19 deaths since last week."
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"9:07 11 Sep
Ex-Ivory Coast PM dies after contracting Covid, staff say..."
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"14:21 13 Sep
DR Congo president takes jab after rejecting AstraZenecaThe Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi has had a Moderna Covid-19 vaccine months after turning down an AstraZeneca jab over fears that it wasn’t safe.
DR Congo politicians have been reluctant to promote the use of vaccines.
Only about 1% of the population has been vaccinated.
In July, President Tshisekedi said he did not want to take the AstraZeneca jab because of concerns about blood clots, but would take another one when it became available.
..
DR Congo last week received its first batch of about 250,000 doses of Moderna.
Official data says just over 1,000 people in DR Congo have died as a result of the virus..."
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"6:15 13 Sep
SA eases restrictions as Covid infections fall.. an overnight curfew would be shortened, alcohol restrictions would be eased and larger gatherings allowed.
.. the supply of vaccines was no longer a constraint .. the authorities were looking for ways to introduce “vaccine passports, which can be used as evidence of vaccination for various purposes” - raising fears that vaccines would be compulsory.
About one in five adults in South Africa has now been fully vaccinated - a far higher rate than elsewhere in Africa.
It is the worst-hit country on the continent with close to 85,000 deaths from Covid-19."
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"18:34 14 Sep
South Sudan receives its biggest vaccine delivery..
The latest batch of vaccines delivered to South Sudan through the Covax initiative is the country's biggest yet.
It has received more than 150,000 Johnson & Johnson's single-dose jabs on Tuesday, donated by the US.
..
Earlier this month South Sudan received 59,520 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Covax. The country had run out of supplies in July having immunized more than 50,000 people.
The US has pledged more doses of Johnson & Johnson for South Sudan, and an announcement of the exact numbers is expected next week.
About 3% of Africa's population has been vaccinated."
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18:15 14 Sep
SA's top businesses lobby against UK Covid red list
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More than 60 of South Africa's biggest businesses have started a campaign to lobby the UK government to have the country’s "red list" status revoked...
Before coronavirus hit the world, South Africa attracted 450,000 British travellers per year and that number has dropped significantly. .."
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Posted at 17:53 14 Sep17:53 14 Sep
Mozambique reports big drop in Covid cases..
The health ministry has advised people to continue observing strict measures against the spread of the virus..
Coronavirus cases in Mozambique have fallen sharplyin the first two weeks of September, according to data from the health ministry.
In the first 13 days of the month, there were 2,943 new cases of Covid-19 and 107 hospital admissions – a big drop from the 15,385 cases and 542 admissions reported in the same period in August.
Over that same period, the number of coronavirus deaths fell by 88.3% – from 256 in August to 30 in September.
These improvements, the health ministry said, were largely due to the effectiveness of measures taken by the government to restrict the spread of the disease..."
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"15:53 14 Sep
Ivory Coast to launch Covid pass for visitors
..
People entering Ivory Coast will from Monday be required to present a "health pass" showing that they have been vaccinated, or taken a Covid-19 test in the last 72 hours.
..the validity of coronavirus PCR tests would be reduced from five to three days for travellers arriving to Ivory Coast by air.
Ivorian authorities recently warned that they might ban unvaccinated people from accessing public places."