Dogs in Australia, Finland trained to sniff out coronavirus in sweat Adelaide, Australia | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | Dogs that have previously been deployed to trace drugs, explosives and cancer, are being trained to sniff out people infected with COVID-19. Researchers in Finland, and at the University of Adelaide in …
Read More »WFP gets Shs 490bn for refugee crisis
UN agency says it needs more aid to stave off looming crisis Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has commended several donors for their recent response to the call to ramp-up funding for the refugee response in Uganda. According to WFP, since 2020 …
Read More »MOES allows schools to operate as ‘day and boarding’, learners will not mix
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ministry of Education and Sports has allowed schools to operate both day and boarding sections as they reopen for non-candidate classes in a staggered manner. While reopening schools for candidate classes in October last year, the government schools to only operate either as day or …
Read More »Access to COVID-19 vaccine is a human right
IGAD boss says international community should unite against ‘vaccine nationalism’ Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | As African governments struggle to secure the sought after COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has said access to the vaccine should be taken as …
Read More »Uganda’s COVID overreaction
How copying and pasting Western solutions to the pandemic was unrealistic for Uganda and Africa THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | When COVID-19 struck, the world held its breath. In early 2020, there were doomsday predictions that the pandemic would devastate Africa, given the continent’s poverty leading to …
Read More »Archbishop pleads for children to return to church
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, the Most Rev. Dr Stephen Samuel Kaziimba has asked the government to put in place strategies to enable children to attend church prayers again. According to the primate, the youngsters were not included in the arrangements as the …
Read More »US FDA approves Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
Washington, US | XINHUA | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday authorized Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the United States. It does not have to be kept in extra-cold facilities, and is a one dose vaccine. It is the third COVID-19 vaccine that …
Read More »Scientists and global health experts had been expecting a new coronavirus for years
Could a universal coronavirus vaccine future-proof our response? COVID-19 SPECIAL FEATURE | Priya Joi | Although the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, with many still reeling at how drastically the world has changed, scientists and global health experts had been expecting something like this for years. Coronaviruses are notorious for spilling over …
Read More »African experts urge investments in nutrition
Adequate financing and political goodwill are required to tackle malnutrition and childhood stunting worsened by the pandemic Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | Robust investment in food security and nutrition programs tailor-made for vulnerable demographics including children, women and the elderly is key to hastening Africa’s recovery from COVID-19 related shocks, experts …
Read More »Why vaccine side effects might be more common in people who’ve already had COVID-19
Minor side effects are a normal sign that the immune system is mounting a protective response following vaccination, although they aren’t universal. COVID-19 SPECIAL FEATURE | Linda Geddes | Tens of millions of people have already been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and in the coming months, hundreds of millions more will follow. …
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