Epidemics Tracker

  COMMENT | Simon Peter Longoli | The year 2020 has already presented us with a stream of disasters, especially in the northeastern part of Uganda. Notable among these have been the credible risk of resurgence of livestock theft and rustling, the locust crisis and the biggest of them all …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Joan Pons Laplana is a senior digital charge nurse working on the frontline in an intensive care unit treating coronavirus patients at Sheffield Teaching Hospital in the north of England. Like many of his colleagues in the state-run National Health Service (NHS), the 45-year-old medic …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP |  EU leaders are set to haggle on Thursday over a giant package to help their economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but bitter divisions mean little progress is expected. The situation facing the EU is dire: more than 110,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and an economy set …

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT | Julius Businge  |  Expenditure for the new budget should mainly focus on key sectors that must support revamping of the economy, according to civil society organisations under their umbrella group, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG).  In a joint statement dated April 20, the group …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The coronavirus is hitting the United States’ largest Native American territory hard, with a spike in cases bringing long-standing disparities to the fore in a land marked by the trauma of past waves of disease. With its towering sandstone mesas, majestic canyons and ancient ruins, …

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Parliament’s Budget Committee has recommended that the government reviews and revises the National Budget for the coming financial year 2020/2021 in the wake of COVID-19. This is one of the committee’s recommendations in its report to Parliament in which it approved the appropriation of Shillings 45.493 …

Washington, United States | AFP |  President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he has partially suspended immigration to the United States, with the aim of keeping foreigners out of local jobs during the coronavirus crisis. “In order to protect our great American workers, I’ve just signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration …

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Sweeping preventative measures seem to be curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the Great Lakes region of Africa, but the economic impact of the global pandemic threatens hard-won gains made along the long road back to peace and stability, a UN regional representative has stated.   …

Algiers, Algeria | AFP |  Dozens of Algerians linked to the country’s anti-government protest movement remain “forgotten” in pre-trial detention during the coronavirus crisis, with little or no legal support. Zinedine Hanane, 32, was arrested on March 1, 2019, in Algiers while returning from a demonstration, after two people from his …

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Two more truck drivers have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Uganda to 63. One of the truck drivers, a 43-year-old is a contact of the first Tanzanian driver who tested positive last week. He entered the country on March …