Coronavirus: Africa facing the pandemic on August 27, 2020

Text by: Tancrède Chambraud

6 min

Africa counted this Thursday, August 27, more than a million confirmed cases of coronavirus, for 21,000 deaths. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office for Africa, the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic are South Africa with 615,000 cases including 13,000 deaths, Nigeria with 53,000 cases including a little over a thousand deaths, and Ethiopia with 45,000 cases including 725 deaths.

Publicity

• Morocco : visits suspended in several prisons

The Moroccan prison administration (DGAPR) announced Thursday, August 27, the freezing of visits to detainees in about fifteen prisons. An additional restriction measure, while Morocco has been facing a surge in the number of cases of the new coronavirus for several weeks.

Since mid-July, family visits to Moroccan prisons had resumed after four months of suspension. From now on, this "protective measure" has once again suspended visits.

Morocco is facing a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections, with more than a thousand cases recorded daily against a few dozen at the start of the pandemic.

No report of contamination in prison has been published since April by the prison administration, which at the time reported 300 cases. A statement on Wednesday (August 26th) denied the "  rumors  " of infection in the largest prison in the country, located in the west of the country in Casablanca. The authorities confirm “  cases of contamination recorded in the ranks of civil servants  ”, but claim that they were “  contracted outside penitentiary establishments  ”. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in early March, human rights defenders have urged the authorities to release detainees to limit the risk of infection.

In total, Morocco officially lists 55,864 infected people, including 984 deaths, according to Wednesday's report. The state of health emergency remains in effect until September 10.

• Rwanda steps up anti-Covid-19 measures after spike in cases

Rwanda has extended the length of its nighttime curfew and banned travel to and out of the western Rusizi region to deal with the recent spike in the number of coronavirus cases. The country was one of the first African countries to impose strict containment on March 22 before partially lifting these measures on May 1, while Rwanda had yet officially recorded only 225 cases and no deaths.

But on Tuesday, Rwanda recorded 217 new cases, a daily record of contamination. A third of the total cases - 3,625, including 15 deaths on August 26 - have been recorded in the past ten days, with authorities blaming the increase on growing non-compliance with social distancing rules.

After a cabinet meeting chaired by Head of State Paul Kagame, the government announced Wednesday evening that the duration of the curfew would be extended, starting at 7 p.m., instead of 9 p.m. previously.

"  Due to the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in Kigali, public transport between Kigali and other regions has also been banned,  " the government said in a statement. All travel to and from Rusizi, where numerous cases have recently been recorded, have also been banned. Nationally, schools, which were to reopen in September, will remain closed for the time being.

Other measures currently in place, such as the closure of bars, the compulsory wearing of masks in public, the limitation of the number of employees working at the same time in offices and the ban on public gatherings are maintained. The country has reopened its international flights to tourists, who must present a certificate proving that they are not contaminated. But the land borders are still closed to foreigners.

• Senegal: a first case of Covid-19 on the emblematic island of Gorée

Gorée, symbolic island of the slave trade off Dakar, recorded its first case of Covid-19, six months after the onset of the disease in Senegal. The patient, who works on the continent, returns regularly to the family home in Gorée, said Augustin Senghor, mayor of Gorée, who has decided to strengthen his protection.

Gorée, from which African slaves left for the Americas for several centuries, had until then been preserved by the pandemic which has so far reached 13,056 people in Senegal and left 274 dead. Half of the cases have been recorded in the Dakar region.

Located a few kilometers off the Senegalese capital, access has been closed to visitors since the first case declared in Senegal on March 2. Only its some 2,000 inhabitants spread over 28 hectares are authorized to take the boats that serve the island and ensure its supplies. "  We will continue in line with these measures and strengthen them  ", with stricter control of the wearing of masks and compliance with barrier measures on boarding and disembarking, assured the mayor.

Many inhabitants of Gorée work on the continent. Others earn their living there, mainly from tourism and its derivatives. The closure of the island has long kept it away from the pandemic, "  but economically, it is very hard for the population ," said the mayor. "  The island is for tourism and with the closure of shops, hotels, restaurants and craft activities, it is 60 to 70% of losses  ", detailed Augustin Senghor.

• Financial scandal: Uganda recalls its ambassador to Denmark

Uganda recalled its ambassador to Denmark and her deputy on Monday, August 24, after the broadcast of a recording suggesting that the two diplomats plotted during a videoconference to share funds intended to deal with the Covid crisis -19.

During the videoconference, a video of which circulated on social media, Ambassador Nimisha Madhvani, her deputy and other diplomatic staff appeared to be plotting to share the money that was supposed to be spent helping stranded citizens. by the Covid-19 crisis.

Participants suggest, from the recording, that instead of being recorded for expenses caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the money be used as an indemnity for diplomats.

"  Give yourself $ 4,000  ," said Deputy Ambassador Elly Kamahungye, stressing that there would be "clutter" in the accounts and recalling that diplomats had been able to bribe controllers in order to that they put on hold a previous investigation into the embassy's accounts. Nimisha Madhvani suggests, according to the recording, that diplomatic staff "  find a way  " to use the money.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ugandan Foreign Ministry Patrick Mugoya assured Monday that an investigation would be carried out into the affair. The ministry expresses its "  serious concern about these allegations and takes this matter seriously  ", he declared, adding that the officials involved "  have been recalled to the headquarters of the ministry to pave the way for the investigations  ".

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• Africa
• Health and medicine
• Coronavirus
• Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic
• Morocco
• Rwanda
• Uganda
• Senegal

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