Author: web desk

 

Luanda- The Angolan head of State, João Lourenço, is due Sunday to start a two-day state visit to Ghana to strengthen cooperation relations between the two countries.

According to the official programme of the visit, the Angolan Head of State will meet his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Akufo-Addo, and address the West African nation’s Parliament.

His agenda also includes a meeting with local businesspeople, aiming at promoting investment between the two countries.

President Joao Lourenço, who returns to Luanda Wednesday, is on a tour that has already taken him to Turkey and Guinea.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

 

 

Luanda – The Secretary of State for Sports, Carlos Almeida, congratulated Saturday in Luanda, the Sagrada Esperança team for being crowned champions of the national first division football championship, Girabola2021.

Speaking to the press at the end of the victory of the Sagrada Esperança team over Petro de Luanda by 1-0, Carlos Almeida considered the achievement as the culmination of a regular and difficult season for the diamond team.

He reminded that the championship was held in a season with many financial difficulties, but praised the fact that the participants were able to conclude the competition.

Sagrada Esperança, who dethroned 1º de Agosto, achieved their second national title. The first one was won in 2005.

 

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

 

 

Florida reported a record 21,683 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, making the Southeastern U.S. state the national epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The state’s previous record was 19,334 cases reported on January 7, before vaccinations had become widely available, according to federal health data, The Associated Press reported.

Florida, with a population of nearly 21.5 million people, now accounts for about one-fifth of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., the CDC said. The state had reported about 17,000 new cases on Friday, the same day state Governor Ron DeSantis barred schools from requiring that students wear masks when they return to in-person classes in August.

AdventHealth, one of the state’s largest health care systems, said on Friday that its Central Florida Division would not perform nonemergency surgeries in an effort to conserve resources because of the increase in COVID-19 patients in the region.

Since the start of the pandemic, Florida has recorded 2.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 39,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Cruises return

The cruise ship industry, which is a big part of Florida’s tourism industry, was hit hard when the pandemic began in early 2020. On Saturday, the Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras ship was to set sail from Port Canaveral, Florida, the first ship since March 2020.

The ship, planning a seven-day voyage to the Caribbean, was running at just 70% of its normal 5,282-passenger capacity.

The pandemic forced cruise lines to suspend trips leaving from U.S. ports. Carnival Cruise Line is requiring — at least for its July and August voyages — that 95% of its passengers and crew be vaccinated, according to the AP.

A day earlier, Royal Caribbean announced that six passengers — four fully vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated minors — had tested positive for COVID-19. All six were Americans, Royal Caribbean spokesperson Lyan Sierra-Caro told the AP. She said the six, who were not all traveling together, had disembarked in Nassau, the Bahamas, after a seven-day cruise. Royal Caribbean planned to fly the six back to the U.S. on private transportation, Sierra-Caro said, according to the AP.

 

Florida also is home to several major theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld. On Saturday, Universal and SeaWorld began asking guests to wear masks indoors. Universal also is requiring employees to wear masks while indoors and to practice social distancing protocols.

“The health and safety of our guests and team members is always our top priority,” Universal said in a statement.

On Friday, the Walt Disney Co. started requiring employees and guests older than 2 to wear masks indoors and on Disney transportation and said it would be requiring all salaried and nonunion employees who work at its properties in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated. As of now, face coverings are not required outdoors at the parks.

 

Those Disney employees who are unvaccinated will have 60 days to receive the shots.

Across the country, the state of Arizona, in the U.S. Southwest, is dealing with a worsening outbreak caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus, as well as low vaccination rates in the state, health officials said.

“Unlike last summer when we were headed into school w/ declining rates, the match has been lit and the kindling is aflame this time,” Dr. Joe K. Gerald, a University of Arizona researcher who tracks COVID-19 data, said on Twitter, according to AP.

The state reported more than 2,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the first time in nearly five months, according to an AP report. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients topped 1,000 for a third straight day as well, according to officials.

Arizona, with a population of 7.2 million, has reported 925,169 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 18,224 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins.

Vaccine distribution

The CDC also reported that as of Saturday, the U.S. had distributed 400.6 million vaccine doses and had administered 345.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which include the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson.

More than 190.8 million people had received at least one dose of the vaccine, while more than 164.4 million had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday.

As of Saturday, 197.7 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 4.2 million deaths had been recorded globally, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. led the world in number of COVID-19 cases, with nearly 35 million, and related deaths, 613,113, according to the university.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Tokyo’s metropolitan government said new coronavirus infections surged to a record high Saturday as the city hosts the Olympic Games.

The government reported 4,058 new cases, topping 4,000 for the first time.

The new record was set one day after Japan, with a population of more than 126 million, extended a state of emergency for Tokyo through the end of August to contain the spread. The extension also applies to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka.

A new record for infections also was set nationwide Saturday. Public broadcaster NHK reported 12,341 new cases, 15% higher than the day before.

Since the start of the pandemic, Japan has reported 914,718 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 15,197 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Protests related to the coronavirus pandemic occurred Saturday in countries including France, Italy and Israel.

In France, more than 200,000 people protested around the country to voice opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s recent COVID-19 measures, media reported.

While most protests were peaceful, in Paris, where more than 14,000 people gathered, three police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators, according to Reuters.

The French government has instituted a mandatory coronavirus health pass in an effort to control the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. It has pushed the number of COVID-19 cases in the country from a few thousand each day in early July to 24,000 new cases on Friday, health officials said.

The health pass will be needed for people to be able to enter most public spaces, such as restaurants, museums and movie theaters. The pass, which takes effect Aug. 9, requires a vaccination or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from COVID-19 and mandates vaccine shots for all health care workers by mid-September, the AP reported.

France, a country of 67 million, was hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic and has recorded 6.1 million confirmed cases of the disease and 112,011 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

For a second week, thousands of protesters in Italy, also opposed to the use of a vaccine pass, demonstrated in cities including Rome, Milan and Naples.

 

In Tel Aviv, several hundred Israelis protested against new coronavirus restrictions and vaccines as the country sees a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases because of the delta variant.

On Saturday, the health ministry recorded 2,435 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number since March.

To battle the outbreak, Israel rolled out a booster shot for older citizens, reimposed mask requirements indoors and restored “green pass” restrictions requiring vaccine certificates for entering enclosed spaces such as gyms, restaurants and hotels, according to Agence France-Presse.

Nearly 60% of Israel’s 9.3 million people have gotten two shots, mostly with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to AFP, but about 1 million Israelis still refuse to be vaccinated.

Israel has had 871,343 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 6,469 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

Vietnam said Saturday it would extend travel restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City and 18 other southern cities and provinces for another two weeks to contain its worst outbreak to date, according to Reuters.

 

The extension begins Monday in a country that contained the virus for much of the pandemic but reports a total of 141,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins, 85% of which were reported in the last month.

The White House announced on Friday that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris would travel in August to Singapore and Vietnam.

Symone Sanders, a White House senior adviser and chief spokesperson, said in a statement released Friday that Harris would engage with the leaders of both countries on issues of mutual interest, including the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House did not give specific dates for the trip.

A weekend lockdown has been imposed in India’s southern state of Kerala as it grapples with about 20,000 new cases daily, Reuters reported. Federal authorities sent experts to the area to monitor developments in the state that accounts for more than 37% of the nearly 32 million cases reported by India’s health ministry.

Australia’s third-largest city of Brisbane said it would begin a COVID-19 lockdown on Saturday, amid rising case numbers. Neighboring areas will also be subject to the stay-at-home orders.

In London, a four-day “vaccine music festival” was under way Saturday. The event was to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Already, more than 72% of people older than 18 in the United Kingdom have received two doses of vaccine, according to government figures reported by the AP.

Great Britain, which recently lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions, said starting Monday, fully vaccinated visitors from the European Union or the United States would no longer need to quarantine upon arrival.

As of Saturday, there were 197.7 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 4.2 million deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. leads the world in number of COVID-19 cases, nearly 35 million cases, and 613,113 deaths, according to the university.

Some information for this report comes from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

 

Source: Voice of America

BLANTRYE, MALAWI – Malawi expects to receive more than 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine soon. In May, the country had to discard 20,000 doses due to a lack of demand. But officials say that when the new vaccine arrives, demand will be high and Malawi will be prepared.

Over the next two months, Malawi is expected to receive about 372,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and about 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Experts are warning the country needs to be ready to store and distribute it.

In May, authorities burned about 20,000 expired doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that went unused due to a shortage of distribution centers and widespread vaccine hesitancy, the latter caused by myths and misinformation about their safety.

 

Queen Dube is chief of health services in Malawi’s Ministry of Health. She said there will be no repeat of that incident, because a government campaign has now convinced Malawians the vaccines are safe and protective.

She notes that a recent consignment of 192,000 AstraZeneca vaccines, which the country received last Saturday were gone within days.

Even if some of the donated vaccines are due to expire soon, they will be distributed within sufficient time, she said.

“It’s this scenario where you have one week of shelf-life left that puts you in very difficult circumstances,” Dube said. “But, you know, we have created demand. Remember on 27th [July] we vaccinated 75,000 people and so even if we had all those doses that were to expire in two weeks, say for example 100,000 doses, we should be able to quickly use them within two, three days.”

Dr. Alinafe Kasiya is a public health expert with Village Reach, an international health charity that is supporting vaccine delivery in African countries.

He said countries need to think about their storage and distribution systems.

“That means a number of things; Do we have enough capacity to be able to store the vaccines that are coming?” Kasiya said. “I mean some of the vaccines might have different cold chain requirements. But also do we have a logistic system in place to be able to move these vaccines around? Do we have enough people trained? Are we opening up enough sites? Are we looking at doing more to create demand?”

Kasiya, the country director for Village Reach in Malawi, applauds Malawi’s government for creating demand for the vaccine.

Queen Dube says even though the Pfizer vaccine needs ultra-cold storage, no doses will be wasted.

“There are two things with Pfizer,” Dube said. “We now have evidence that if you take it out of an ultra-cold system you can store it at temperatures between two to eight degrees. These are normal temperatures that we store our vaccines in; and you can use it for 31 days.”

So far, Malawi has recorded about 51,000 cases of COVID-19 and nearly 1,600 deaths. Only a tiny fraction of the country’s 18 million people have been inoculated, though that number will quickly rise if more people cooperate with the government’s vaccination campaign.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Russian space officials said Friday that a software malfunction had caused the unexpected firing of thrusters on a newly arrived module, moving the International Space Station out of its intended attitude.

The incident occurred Thursday, hours after the long-delayed Russian laboratory module, known as Nauka, docked with the ISS.  It took mission controllers nearly an hour to reposition the ISS, which had been bumped 45 degrees out of alignment.  Ground controllers fired Russian thrusters on other Russian elements at the station to fix the positioning.

In a statement Friday, ISS Russian segment flight director Vladimir Solovyov said the software failure had prompted a direct command to turn on the module’s engines.

Communications between the ground and the crew went out twice for several minutes, but in a statement, the U.S. space agency NASA said the ISS crew was never in danger.

On Twitter Friday, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky said not to worry and the work to integrate the new module into the ISS was continuing as scheduled.

The Russian unmanned, 20-ton, nearly 13-meter-long Nauka module — also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module — docked with the ISS following a long and, at times, uncertain journey.

Nauka is now the first new module in the Russian segment of the station since 2010.

The troubled trip to the orbiting space station followed years of problems getting the module off the ground. Nauka — designed to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew — was initially scheduled to launch in 2007 but was repeatedly delayed because of technical problems.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Conakry – Angolan head of State João Lourenço is meeting this Friday in Conakry with his counterpart of Republic of Guinea, Alpha Condé, as part of strengthening of bilateral relations.

Angolan Head of State João Lourenço has been in Conakry since Thursday for a two-day state visit (30 and 31), at the invitation of his Guinean counterpart, Alpha Condé.

According to the visiting agenda reached Angop, the Angolan statesman is expected to visit the Port of Conakry, a unit undergoing modernisation process and which employs some 460 people.

Presidents João Lourenço and Alpha Condé will witness the signing of cooperation agreements between the two countries.

Angolan ministers of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, and of Defence and Homeland Veterans, João Ernesto dos Santos, who join the presidential delegation, are working with a Guinean ministerial representation on the mechanisms for strengthening bilateral cooperation.

Earlier this evening, the Angolan Head of State will be awarded the Grand National Order of the Republic of Guinea.

The friendly relations between Angola and the Republic of Guinea date back to the beginnings of the struggle for Angola’s liberation and independence.

In recent years, the two countries have been working to increase relations in the economic, scientific, technical and cultural fields.

Angola and Guinea have excellent cooperation relations in the fields of defence, security, transport, mining and oil.

Angola Guinea cooperation is based on a General Agreement on Friendship and Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation signed in Conacry on 15 February 2011.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The Multisectoral Commission for the Prevention and Fight against Covid-19 meets this Tuesday with the political parties represented in Parliament to address issues related to the Presidential Decree on the Situation of Public Calamity.

The Parliament has four political parties and one coalition, namely MPLA, UNITA, CASA-CE, PRS and FNLA.

In a statement sent to Angop on Monday, the commission explained that the meeting was the result of non-compliance by the parties with the rules on mass political events in public spaces.

According to the commission, for some time now, political parties have been organising mass events with their militants, friends and sympathisers, in several arteries of the city and outlying areas, which essentially call into question the observance of biosecurity rules laid down in Presidential Decree 150/21 of 8 June.

The decree establishes that mass political activities should only take place with a maximum of 50 people, in Luanda, while in the other provinces they may take place in the presence of 100 people. The violation of this assumption is liable to a fine.

 

 

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency