COVID-19

ADF STAFF South Africa’s Department of Basic Education announced in late June that masks no longer were required in schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The announcement was made a day after South African Health Minister Joseph…

ADF STAFF COVID-19’s highly transmissible omicron subvariants B.A.4 and B.A.5 drove South Africa’s fifth wave of infections and might offer clues to future outbreaks, experts say. The new variants spread faster than previous ones and…

ADF STAFF When two Sudanese doctors living in the United States took action to help their homeland during the pandemic, they knew it was just the start of a longer journey. One year after launching their project with medical students in…

ADF STAFF South African children younger than 9 years old were hospitalized at a higher rate than elderly patients during the country’s fifth wave of COVID-19, which was driven by the highly infectious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.…

ADF STAFF Three months after lifting a nationwide mask mandate, Kenya reinstated the order in late June amid a sixth wave of COVID-19 cases. The directive calls for wearing of masks in confined public spaces, including public service…

ADF STAFF Pregnant women who are hospitalized with COVID-19 have a higher risk of dying than those who are not pregnant. They are also more at risk of developing serious complications if they have underlying conditions such as…

ADF STAFF More than 11 million people across Africa have survived a COVID-19 infection since the beginning of the pandemic. But that does not mean they’re safe from the virus forever. Researchers at Stellenbosch University in South Africa…

ADF STAFF Despite the possible emergence of new COVID-19 variants and sub-variants, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that coronavirus deaths in Africa will decline by almost 94% in 2022 compared to last year. The WHO…

ADF STAFF The director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, reported recently that a new wave of COVID-19 infections appears to be building in his country, a pattern that is repeating across much of Africa. According to…

ADF STAFF More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly the entire population of South Africa has some level of immunity to the virus that causes the disease, according to a study by the country’s largest blood bank. Researchers…