''Corona Voice'' - Angola. The tok show with Sofonie Dala. Don't Miss Out. Day 22

 Our coronavirus show is ongoing

There is so much people can do to make this day special at home.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, Christmas celebrations this year have been subdued but that should not stop you from making this festival special for your friends and family. Here is a song from Rosy to share with you all.

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Let's party to rejoice

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Let's party to rejoice

Coronavius leave, leave, you will not affect me

Coronavirus leave, leave, you will not affect me.

After dancing and singing, Rosy decided to share with us how the coronavirus pandemic has affected her life.

Hi, my name is Rosy, I am 6 years old and I live in Angola. I would like to start studying my mother tried to enroll me in school but tuition fees are very expensive.

Rosy how has the coronavirus affected you?

Covid-19 stopped me from going to church and I must always stay at home.

Have you been following the coronavirus prevention measures?

Yes I have

What are the preventive measures against covid-19?

We should always use the mask, wash our hands with water and soap and put the alcohol gel.

Moreover, when you go to the store you have to use the mask, when you see a basin with water you should wash your hands and disinfect them with alcohol gel only after that you can go in to do the shopping.

May this festive season sparkle and shine, may all of your wishes and dreams come true, and may you feel this happiness all year round. Merry Christmas!

This is the first and the only Coronavirus show in Angola where the most ordinary citizens show their brilliant talents.

The heroes of the program are the most ordinary citizens - they share with the audience their songs, poems and real stories of how the Coronavirus pandemic affected their lives.

We launched the “Corona Voice show” campaign to provide a space for young women and men around Angola to share their views, experiences and initiatives.

Click here to watch free full webisodes: https://she-leads.blogspot.com/

Africa Educates Her Campaign - Angola. Season 3. Don't Miss Out! Webisode 8

 Our girls back to school campaign is ongoing

This year due to COVID-19 it might be difficult to meet your near and dear ones on this day. But this should not take away the joy of this festival. Whether or not you get to celebrate the day with your friends and family this year,

Here are some lovely Christmas wishes from Fernanda. She will share with us her academic experience during the pandemic.

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!!!

My name is Fernanda Oscar Andre, I am 10 years old and I study in the fourth class.

Fernanda are you studying this year?

No

Why?

Because of the coronavirus

Now that the schools have reopened, have you gone back to school?

Schools reopened but I didn't go back to school because my parents don't have the money to pay my tuition.

Fernanda next year would you like to go back to school?

Yes, I would like to go back to school

Have you complied with the coronavirus prevention measures?

Yes I have been fulfilling it. By using mask, washing my hands with soap and water and disinfecting them with gel alcohol.

One of the first cutbacks that many poor families consider during tough financial times is education for their daughters. During the pandemic with in-class learning shuttered, some girls from poor family are being pushed to drop out.

“When families can’t afford school and have to choose, they will often send boys”. Financial hardships and cultural stereotypes about gender roles play a major part in keeping girls in less-developed countries from completing their education.

Don't miss this opportunity to bring girls back to school. Tell us your story!

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus would you like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the poverty among women?

FIND SOMEONE TO SPONSOR TODAY

Your sponsorship will help the most vulnerable girls and women to take the first step out of poverty.

Click here to watch free full webisodes: https://she-leads.blogspot.com/

Celebrate the wonder and the joy of the festive season. Merry Christmas!

We wish #MerryChristmas to all who are celebrating🎄

May the Christmas season finish this year on a happy note and making room for a new year that is fresh, light and peace. Season's greetings to all of you.

#merrychristmas2020

#JourneyTowardsPeace

May this festival bring abundant joy and happiness in your life.

May all your stress fade away and your heart is filled with wonder and warmth.

May your heart and home be filled with all of the joys the festive season brings.

May all of your wishes and dreams come true, and may you feel this happiness all year round. Merry Christmas!

Call for Proposals: Data4COVID19 Africa Challenge 2021 (EUR 100,000 in funding)

 Application Deadline: February 5, 2021 

l'Agence française de développement (AFD), together with Expertise France and The GovLab, is soliciting innovative proposals (re) using data in a collaborative and responsible way to provide actionable intelligence for decision-makers and people to respond to COVID-19 and future pandemic challenges across Africa.

AFD, together with Expertise France and The GovLab, is seeking ideas and proposals that (re) use data to provide actionable insight on COVID-19 along the following domains:

PUBLIC HEALTH

Tracking Disease Spread

Developing Disease Treatment

Identifying the Availability of Supplies

Monitoring Adherence to Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

ECONOMIC

Supporting Post-Pandemic Re-openings and Recovery

Alleviating Pandemic-related Unemployment and Poverty

Guaranteeing Protections for Workers

Supporting Education and Upskilling

Fostering Business and Government Solvency

SOCIO-POLITICAL

Understanding Public Perceptions and Behavior

Protecting Human Rights and Promoting Accountability

Addressing Misinformation

Click here to apply: http://bit.ly/3rqaHhd

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) 2021 Master’s degree in mathematical sciences Scholarships (Fully Funded)

 Application Deadline: 31 March 2021

Funding:

No registration fees are required for the candidates selected for the Master’s degree. Full scholarships covering tuition, accommodation, meals and travel expenses are also awarded to successful applicants.

The AIMS Structured Master’s Program runs over three semesters. The requisite skills phase of the AIMS course builds a standard core set of problem-solving skills: estimation, computation, approximation, modeling, data analysis and statistics. The elective review phase allows students to apply these skills in some of the most exciting areas of science.

Why Apply:

Classes are taught by renowned African and international teachers and supported by a team of resident tutors.

Students and teachers cohabit in a permanent learning environment.

A highly interactive teaching environment where students are encouraged to learn together through questions and discoveries.

An emphasis on computing with 24-hour access to computer rooms and the internet.

A Pan-African student body made up of at least 30% women.

AIMS graduates embark on outstanding graduate programs and professional careers in Africa and around the world.

Click here to apply:  http://bit.ly/2KoFJ8J 

CHRISTMAS: PRESIDENT WISHES HEALTH, HAPPINESS TO ANGOLANS

 The head of State João Lourenço Thursday wished the Angolan people good health and happiness.

In his Twitter account, the Angolan president also reiterated that “peace and harmony reign in every home”.

João Lourenço ends his message from him wishing “Merry Christmas” to all Angolans.

Mexico, Chile begin COVID vaccine roll-outs

 Mexico and Chile have become the first countries in Latin America to start vaccinating their populations against COVID-19, with frontline healthworkers receiving the first shots.

Mexico, which has one of the world’s highest COVID-19 death tolls, launched its mass vaccination program at a hospital in the capital, Mexico City, in a televised event on Thursday.

“It’s the best gift I could receive in 2020,” 59-year-old Mexican nurse Maria Irene Ramirez said as she received the injection.

“It makes me safer and gives me more courage to continue in the war against an invisible enemy. We’re afraid but we must continue. ”

The launch came a day after the first 3,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived by courier plane from Belgium.

Medical personnel were first in line as vaccinations began in Mexico City, the epicenter of the current wave of infections. The Central American country now has more people hospitalized for COVID-19 than it saw at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in late July.

The Health Department says 18,301 people are in hospitals across Mexico being treated for the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus. That is 0.4 percent more than in July. In Mexico City, the capital, some 85 percent of hospital beds are in use.

The state of Morelos, just south of the capital, became the fourth of Mexico’s 32 states to declare a “red” alert, which will lead to a partial lockdown and the closure of non-essential businesses starting Thursday.

Mexico has recorded more than 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 120,000 deaths linked to the disease, the fourth-highest death toll in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

‘Many emotions’

In Chile, 46-year-old nursing assistant Zulema Riquelme was the first person shown receiving the jab, hours after the first 10,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived by plane.

“I’m very excited and nervous – many emotions,” she said after being inoculated in the presence of President Sebastian Pinera in the capital.

Chile is the first South American country to begin vaccinating against COVID. Costa Rica also received its first shipment of the Pfizer doses on Wednesday, while Argentina received an initial batch of about 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.

The vaccine arrived at Ezeiza International Airport, in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, on a special flight of carrier Aerolineas Argentinas from Moscow, according to Reuters news agency witnesses and images shown on local television.

Officials in Argentina, the third country to approve the Sputnik vaccine after Russia and Belarus, said they plan to start administering the vaccine in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said the country has secured 30 million coronavirus vaccines from three suppliers, enough to inoculate 15 million people – more than two-thirds of the population – in the first half of 2021.

The doses arrived at Santiago airport from Pfizer’s manufacturing hub, the town of Puurs in Belgium, just before 7am local time (10:00 GMT) on Christmas Eve, according to a statement from the presidency.

The doses were transferred by police helicopter to a logistics centre in the capital Santiago, with vaccinations due to begin later in the morning.

Chile is among the countries in Latin America to have struck the most bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies, including deals with AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac as well as the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX.

Meanwhile, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada told a news conference vaccinations would begin there on Thursday.

“It may be the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” he added.

The Costa Rican leader was at Juan Santamaria Airport in the capital San Jose to greet a flight delivering the first 9,750 doses of the vaccine, which arrived at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Thursday).

Costa Rica last week announced it had approved the vaccine, with health workers and the elderly now expected to be the first to receive jabs.The country of about five million people had recorded more than 160,000 coronavirus cases as of Wednesday, with 2,065 deaths.

Like many others in the region, its health system has been placed under severe strain by the number of infections.

SOURCE : NEWS AGENCIES

Another new COVID strain found in Nigeria, says Africa CDC

 Another new variant of the new coronavirus seems to have emerged in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease control body has said, cautioning more investigation was needed.

The discovery could add to new alarm in the pandemic after similar variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appear to be more contagious were announced in the United Kingdom and South Africa, leading to the swift return of international travel restrictions and other measures just as the world enters a holiday season.

“It’s a separate lineage from the UK and South Africa,” John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), told reporters on Thursday.

Nkengasong said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in that country - Africa’s most populous - will be analyzing more samples.

“Give us some time… it's still very early,” he said.

The alert about the apparent new variant was based on two or three genetic sequences, Nkengasong said, but that and South Africa’s alert late last week were enough to prompt an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week.

The variant was found in two patient samples collected on August 3 and on October 9 in Nigeria’s Osun state, according to a working research paper seen by The Associated Press news agency.

Unlike the variant seen in the UK, “we haven’t observed such rapid rise of the lineage in Nigeria and do not have evidence to indicate that the P681H variant is contributing to increased transmission of the virus in Nigeria. However, the relative difference in scale of genomic surveillance in Nigeria vs the UK may imply a reduced power to detect such changes ”, the paper said.

Surge in infections

The news came as cases surge in Nigeria and South Africa. In the past week, Nigeria reported a 52 percent increase in cases and South Africa a 40 percent increase, Nkengasong said.

The new variant in South Africa is the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach one million.

While the variant transmits quickly and viral loads are higher, it is not yet clear whether it leads to a more severe disease, he said.

“We believe this mutation will not have an effect” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant.

South Africa’s health minister late on Wednesday announced an “alarming rate of spread” in that country, with more than 14,000 new cases confirmed in the past day, including more than 400 deaths.

It was the largest single-day increase in cases.

The country has more than 950,000 infections and COVID-19 is “unrelenting”, Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said.

For the first time since confirming sub-Saharan Africa’s first virus case in February, Nigeria is in the spotlight during this pandemic as infections surge.

“Over recent weeks, we’ve had a huge increase in number of samples to [Nigeria CDC] reference lab,” CDC Director-General Chikwe Ihekweazu said on Twitter on Thursday.

“This has led to an unusual delay with testing, but we’re working around the clock,” with many colleagues cutting short their holidays and returning to work.

Nigeria has more than 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.

The African continent has more than 2.5 million confirmed cases, or 3.3 percent of global cases.

SOURCE : NEWS AGENCIES

Fifa approves a maximum of six Women’s World Cup slots for Africa

 The world football governing boss revealed that African representation at the women’s showpiece in 2023 could rise to six teams

Fifa has approved up to six slots to Africa in the 2023 Women’s World Cup to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

The development is coming after the expansion of the global showpiece to a 32-team competition, allowing eight additional participating teams.

Following Thursday’s ratification by Fifa, Africa will get one additional automatic slot (when compared to the 24-team competition), that means four teams. This will take effect for the 2023 edition where two more can qualify.

The new 32-team competition has 29 direct slots and three other slots will be decided through a playoff tournament between 10 teams, with two countries from Africa to also battle for tickets. If these two do qualify then Africa will have six participants in total.

Besides Africa, Uefa got 11, Asia claimed six, Concacaf earned four, while Conmebol and OFC bagged three and one respectively.

For the playoff tournament, two slots each went to Asia, Africa, Concacaf and Conmebol, while Uefa and OFC got one each.

“The two host countries, Australia and New Zealand, will automatically qualify for the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023, and their slots have been taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederations, namely the AFC and the OFC respectively,” Fifa announced in a statement.

According to Fifa, the 10-team playoff tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand as part of a World Cup preparatory event, with all participating teams to play at least two matches.

“Teams from the same confederation will not be permitted to be drawn in the same group,” Fifa added.

“The play-off tournament will be used as a test event in Australia and New Zealand for the Fifa Women’s World Cup, and both hosts will be invited to participate in friendly matches against the teams in Group 1 and Group 2, thereby ensuring that all teams play two matches during the play-off tournament.”

The qualifying matches are expected to start in 2021 and end in 2022 but no details have been released yet in Africa, following the scrapping of the 2020 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Women’s World Cup will be held from 10 July – 20 August, 2023, with the USA being the defending champions.

Africa ‘not yet ready’ to introduce COVID-19 vaccines

 African countries are unprepared to introduce COVID-19 vaccines, which poses a serious threat to the global fight against the disease, scientists say.

The COVID-19 vaccine readiness assessment tool spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners examines countries’ plans for COVID-19 vaccine introduction.

The tool covers areas such as planning and coordination, resources and funding, and vaccine regulations, as well as logistical capabilities, communications and community engagement.

According to a WHO statement released last month, the African region had an average score of 33 per cent readiness for a COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which is well below the desired WHO benchmark of 80 per cent.

“Based on self-reports made by the countries, we moved from 33 per cent…to 35 per cent [readiness] by the first week of December,” says Phionah Atuhebwe, vaccines introduction medical officer at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, adding that the analysis is based on data from 40 African countries.

Atuhebwe says that most countries lack properly trained healthcare workers, guidelines and monitoring and evaluation tools.

She says that Africa suffers from serious resource mobilisation and income gaps, compared to high income countries, and early preparation is necessary.

“In Africa we do not even have data on the number of the elderly. Our systems take long to ramp up these things,” Atuhebwe says. “All factors in life depend on preparations and we don’t want the vaccine to be ready and we start fumbling with its distribution.”

According to Atuhebwe, when vaccines are licensed and approved, Africa will expect from COVAX facility enough doses to provide protection to an initial 20 per cent of the African population. An additional five per cent will be co-financed with a country’s government if they wish to go above the 20 per cent. “Beyond that countries will be solely responsible for acquiring and distributing the vaccines”.

COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), a global collaboration aimed at speeding up the development, manufacture and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, was launched in June by the WHO and partners. As of last week (18 December), 190 countries had subscribed to COVAX, according to the WHO.

Tolbert Nyenswah, a senior research associate at US-based Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who once served as Liberia’s deputy minister of health, says that Africa’s health systems are severely challenged, with unreliable stocks of essential medicines, little to no electricity to maintain the cold chain needed to transport vaccines, high medical fees for patients, and poor access to health facilities.

“For example, in the African region, maintaining a cold chain for a minus 70 degrees Celsius vaccine presents formidable challenges, and even minus 20 degrees Celsius presents obstacles,” he tells SciDev.Net.

Large-scale vaccination programmes will be an ‘uphill battle’ for the region and will require collective action, Nyenswah says.

Africa’s governments and institutions, he says, should take the lead and begin developing actionable COVID-19 immunisation rollout plans.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.