Covid-19: Angola records 240 new cases, 10 recoveries

The health authorities have announced the registration, in the last 24 hours, of another 240 new infections, seven deaths and 10 patients recovered.

According to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who was speaking at the usual update session, the figures were 123 men and 117 women, aged between one month and 84 years.

The new patients were diagnosed in Luanda province, with 199, Benguela, 21, Cunene, eight, the same number in Zaire, and one each in the provinces of Huambo, Cuanza Norte, Malanje and Benguela.

Four deaths were registered in Luanda, two in Benguela and one in Cuanza Sul.

Angola has 7,462 positive cases, with 241 deaths, 3,022 recoveries and 4,199 active patients.

Of the active cases, 12 are in a critical state with invasive mechanical ventilation, 20 severe, 103 moderate, 412 show mild symptoms and 3,650 asymptomatic.

Under medical care in the country's treatment centres, there are 590 patients.

Food challenge during Covid-19 period

The world celebrated on October 16 the World Food Day under increasingly world hunger, due to several factors, such as the climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, which has imposed social confinement in every country.

According to data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, some 132 million people may join this year's the almost 690 million who were already in hunger in 2019, an increase motivated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2019, after a downward revision of China's figures, almost 690 million people were undernourished (8.9% of the world's population), 10 million more than in 2018.

Asia had the highest number of hungry people (381 million), followed by Africa (250 million) and Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million).

The number of hungry or undernourished people was over 1 billion in the early 1990s and fell to 784 million in 2014 and 2015.

However, the downward trend was reversed, and the number increased to 821 million in 2018. The numbers continue to fall in Asia but rise in Latin America and the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa.

World Food Day was established in 1981 and for this year 2020, the October 16 is celebrated by more than 150 countries and took place under the theme: Grow, Nourish, Sustain, Together.

This is an important date, which also marks the creation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and to raise public awareness on nutrition and food issues.

We are pleased to announce the new season of Africa Educates Her - Back to school after lockdown. Don't miss it! Webisode 1

We are happy to announce the new campaign - ''Back to school after lock-down''!

Last week we ended the Africa Educates her campaign, which aimed to ensure that all girls will return to school as soon as they reopen.

Schools in Angola reopened last week and students resumed classes. Now we want to certify that there is no weak compliance to COVID-19 measures, specially in  government-owned schools.

It should be noted that, from the 785 existing public schools, more than 100 had no conditions for the resumption of classes in Luanda. Moreover, at least 4 students tested positive for covid-19.

Today we invited Finelma and Belma, both are 13 years old and are studying the 6th grade class at one of the public schools of Angola.

Note: this is a collection of stories via video from girls in primary, secondary and tertiary level who have been affected by the lockdowns.

Key questions answered are:

What is your name?

Finelma and Belma

What is your age?

13

Country?

Angola

What level of education are you in?

6th grade

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

Yes

What are the measures that you saw that the government created for you to study safely?

Social distance of one meter, the use of mask constantly, hands washing with water and soap, the use of the alcohol-gel, take a damp cloth with bleach to clean the desks, division of  the classes, do not lend personal school material to colleagues, nor pencil, neither notebook, nor book.

And how do you feel? Are you enjoying it or are you very scared?

We're enjoying it. We should not be afraid, because if we prevent ourselves from this disease we will not get sick but if we do not take care of ourselves we will be contaminated.

We should not expect someone in our family to get coronavirus, we must keep in mind that the enemy may be our neighbor!

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown is an unprecedented situation in modern times. It is hard to gauge the full impact that the situation is having on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.   

Pupils’ experiences of the lockdown period will have been very varied. For some, it will mostly have been a safe and enjoyable time. For others, it will have been challenging or traumatic. Schools and teachers are used to supporting their pupils through challenges that they face in life – the current situation will amplify those situations many times over.  

Finelma added that teachers appeal to take at least two masks when going to school, not to borrow anything from their classmates, nor water or food if someone asks for it.

Covid-19: Angola reports 126 new cases, 84 recoveries

 The health authorities have announced the registration of 126 new infections, six deaths and 84 recovered patients in the last 24 hours.

According to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who was speaking at the usual update session, the deaths were registered in Luanda, Huíla and Benguela provinces.

Angola has 7,222 positive cases, with 234 deaths, 3,012 recovered and 3,976 active patients.

Of the active people, 15 are in critical condition with invasive mechanical ventilation, 20 severe, 101 moderate, 415 have mild symptoms and 3,425 asymptomatic.

Twitter changes hacked content rules after Biden story furor

Twitter said late Thursday it was changing its policy on hacked content after an outcry about its handling of an unverified political story that prompted cries of censorship from the right.

The social media company will no longer remove hacked material unless it’s directly shared by hackers or those working with them, the company’s head of legal, policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde, said in a Twitter thread.

And instead of blocking links from being shared, tweets will be labeled to provide context, Gadde said.

“We want to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation,” she said.

Twitter and Facebook had moved quickly this week to limit the spread of the story published by the conservative-leaning New York Post, which cited unverified emails from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son that were reportedly discovered by President Donald Trump’s allies. The story has not been confirmed by other publications.

Twitter initially responded by banning users from sharing links to the article in tweets and direct messages because it violated the company’s policy prohibiting hacked content. But it didn’t alert users about why they couldn’t share the link until hours later.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that it was “unacceptable” the company hadn’t provided more context around its action. A little over 24 hours later, Gadde announced the company was making changes after receiving “significant feedback (from critical to supportive)” about how it enforced the policy.

The company said the link to the New York Post story will still be blocked under a policy prohibiting sharing personal information. However, users were widely sharing the story on Friday and it wasn’t clear why they were able to do so.

Facebook said it was “reducing” the story’s distribution on its platform while waiting for third-party fact-checkers to verify it, something it regularly does with material that’s not banned outright from its service, though it risks spreading lies or causing harm in other ways.

Finance literacy: Challenges and opportunities. Interview with Nany Conde

Nany Conde. She is a physician assistant and a financial professional topic of the discussion is Finance literacy: Challenges and opportunities.

She will talk about how people can manage their money, create a savings account, and apply for health insurance using the salary reliable income.

Meet Kristal Hansley, the woman behind the first Black female-owned solar company

Kristal Hansley is an entrepreneur and an advocate for the use of solar power to help working families reduce the cost of electricity.

She got involved in the solar power industry when the state of Maryland and others passed laws designed to increase the use of solar power while deregulating the market to give consumers more choices to meet their energy needs.

She is now the proud founder of WeSolar, the first Black female-owned community solar power company in the US. This historic feat stems from Hansley’s conviction of the role solar energy could play in reducing the cost of electricity for households.

“During my time leading the Community Affairs policy at Congresswoman Eleanor Norton’s office, Maryland passed new laws to increase the use of solar energy across the state. I saw how effectively solar could reduce the cost of electricity for households, and decided to get involved in the emerging world of community solar,” Hansley told Black Enterprise.

Hansley worked at Neighborhood Sun, a regional solar company in Maryland, as director of Government and Community Relations. She saw how solar power helped thousands of low-to-moderate-income families save on their utility bills. It was at this point that she decided to launch her own company dedicated specifically to opening community solar farms in cities like Baltimore.

Under her leadership, WeSolar has built solar plants to be used on a local grid in black communities where customers can either subscribe to blocks of electricity or purchase a portion of the solar panels. Hansley’s overarching ambition will be to help Black and mostly low-income communities get affordable power.

In America, low-income black homeowners pay more for electricity than their counterpart white homeowners, according to the University of California, Berkeley, Energy Institute at Haas. The “disproportionate costs” result in a Black household energy burden that perpetuates wealth and housing disparities, the paper added.

Meanwhile, a 2016 report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy found that the part of income black households devoted to utility bills was 64 percent higher than that of white households adding that if household efficiency levels were brought up to median standards, black households’ energy burden would be less than 30 percent higher than white ones.

One of the major hurdles faced by WeSolar is restoring trust in communities who have been preyed on by misleading practices of solar companies. “In prior years, there has been these energy voucher type of companies that when in and preyed on vulnerable communities and promising them such savings and those savings never occurred,” Hansley told NowThis.

“And so we need a medium to say listen ‘community solar is actually a legitimate program, it’s been passed in your state legislature and you can tap into these resources and now you actually have access to solar when you didn’t have it before,” she added.

She also added that to build trust, it is going to take the “community to debunk some these myths and echo community solar, so folks can build trust again.” Her company prioritizes black communities. She has built solar farms where customers can either subscribe to blocks of electricity or purchase a portion of the solar panels.

We Solar is one of the fastest-growing solar companies in the US, providing consumers across Maryland access to affordable solar energy, regardless whether they live in a house, apartment, condo, or mobile home.

In her spare time, Hansley serves on the Steering Committee for the non-profit Baltimore People Climate Movement and the board of directors of Maryland Baptist Aged Home, Dads United Organization, and F.A.C.E. (Freedom Advocates Celebrating Ex-Offenders).