You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Host Esther Githui-Ewart and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis.
Top Stories:
Global deaths from COVID-19 passed a grim milestone as more than 300,000 people have now died from the highly contagious virus and the total worldwide infections is nearing 4.5 million, according to the latest Reuters tally.
The United States continues to lead the world with more than 25% of all fatalities, with more than 85,000 deaths. Britain and Italy account for another 10% and 11% each, while France and Spain each account for 9% of all corona-virus deaths.
The president’s office in South Sudan is reporting its first coronavirus death, but details of the victim were not released. South Sudan is now confirming a total at least 230 cases of COVID-19 – and for the first time the disease has been detected inside a packed protection site in the capital, Juba, according to Reuters.
In South Africa, health minister Zweli Mkhize says the country is assigning multiple levels of virus lock-down restrictions for the nation’s 50 districts. Mkhize says officials will review the restrictions for each district every two weeks – and he added that the country is moving away from its one-size-fits-all approach.
The global coronavirus pandemic is forcing many schools to switch to online learning, but in developing countries like Nigeria, millions of children without remote learning access are being left behind. Forty percent of Nigerians live on less than one dollar per day and only one-in-four have internet access.
As the global race to find a vaccine against the coronavirus intensifies, medical researchers are looking for people to participate in clinical trials, to test potential vaccines in humans. One such study is taking place at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, one of America’s leading research institutions. Africa 54’s Hayde Adams Fitzpatrick spoke to a man who signed up for Emory’s clinical trial. Jack Krost is a senior digital writer at the Weather Company.
A new generation of entrepreneurs are launching start-ups that focus on honing mobile technology by creating tech-based products and solutions, including mobile money, and online payments. School Pay, a Ugandan Fin-tech company, is making it easy for parents to pay school fees online. But COVID-19 is making it difficult to do. Africa 54’s Paul Ndiho, spoke to Kiiza Joseph, co-founder of the School Pay app.
A54 Entertainment: One of Rwanda’s most worshipped reggae Stars Jaques Murigande released a highly anticipated new song and music video after nearly a decade in the making. It’s a new style reggae tune with a strong message. VOA Music Time in Africa host Heather Maxwell reaches Mighty Popo, as he is popularly known, in Kigali to find out more and watch the video together.
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