(Reuters) – Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) will add labels and warning messages on some tweets with disputed or misleading information about COVID-19, the company said on Monday, as part of a new approach to misinformation that will eventually extend to other topics.
Twitter’s new labels will provide links to more information in cases where the risk of harm from the tweet is not severe enough to be removed but people could be confused or misled, Twitter said in a blog post.
The company said that depending on the propensity for harm and type of misleading information in the tweet, warnings may also be added to say the tweet conflicts with guidance from public health experts before a user views it.
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Twitter said these labels, which will look similar to ones launched to flag synthetic and manipulated media, will also apply to tweets that have been sent before Twitter’s announcement and will be used regardless of who sent the tweet.
Social media sites, including Facebook Inc (FB.O) and YouTube, the video service of Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, are under pressure to combat misinformation that has spread on their platforms about the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.
Such false claims have ranged from bogus cures to misinformation linking the virus with conspiracy theories about high-profile figures such as Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates or about 5G mobile phone technology.
Social media giant Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners, which include Reuters, rate and debunk viral content on the site with labels and last month, YouTube said it would also start showing information panels with third-party, fact-checked articles for U.S. video search results.
Twitter’s labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information.
“One of the differences in our approach here is that we’re not waiting for a third party to have made a cast-iron decision one way or another,” said Twitter’s public policy director Nick Pickles.
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“We’re reflecting the debate, rather than stating the outcome of a deliberation,” he added.
Twitter said it would not take action on tweets with information unconfirmed at the time of sharing, but it could place warnings or labels on disputed claims, as well as those confirmed as false.
In March, Twitter banned here tweets that go against COVID-19 guidance from public health authorities. On Monday, Twitter’s head of site integrity Yoel Roth said in a call with reporters that it would continue to prioritize the removal of tweets with a call to action that could potentially cause harm, such as telling people to stop social distancing.
Roth said an example of tweets the company would now consider labeling would be those disputing the origin or nature of the virus.
“We will continue to introduce new labels to provide context around different types of unverified claims and rumors as needed,” Twitter said.
It said it would use internal systems to proactively monitor tweets related to COVID-19 and rely on “trusted partners,” such as non-governmental organizations and think tanks, to identify content that could cause harm.
Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based “cure” for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation that its efficacy is unproven.
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina addresses his supporters during a campaign rally at the Coliseum stadium in Antananarivo, Madagascar November 3, 2018. REUTERS/Malin Palm
Last month President Andry Rajoelina launched the remedy at a news conference, drinking from a sleekly-branded bottle filled with an amber liquid which he said had already cured two people.
On Friday, a Tanzanian delegation arrived in Madagascar to collect their consignment.
The tonic, based on the plant Artemisia annua which has anti-malarial properties, has not undergone any internationally recognised scientific testing. While Rajoelina extolled its virtues, the WHO cautioned it needs to be tested for efficacy and side effects.
Madagascar has been giving away thousands of bottles of “COVID-19 Organics”, developed by the state-run Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.
Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau have all already received thousands of doses of COVID-19 Organics free of charge.
A legal adviser in the president’s office told Reuters on Wednesday that Madagascar would now begin selling the remedy, which domestically can be bought for around 40 U.S. cents per bottle.
“This remedy can be put on the market,” Marie Michelle Sahondrarimalala, director of Legal Studies at the Presidency, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “Madagascar has already received orders from state authorities in other countries, but also from private individuals.”
Heads of other African countries said they were placing orders.
Isolated compounds extracted from Artemisia are effective in malaria drugs, the WHO noted, but the plant itself cannot treat malaria.
WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti said she was concerned people who drank the product might feel they were immune to COVID-19 and engage in risky behaviour.
“We are concerned that touting this product as a preventive measure might then make people feel safe,” she said.
Guinea Bissau has received over 16,000 doses which it is distributing to the 14 other West African nations. Liberia’s deputy Information Minister Eugene Farghon said this week there was no plan to test the remedy before distribution.
“It will be used by Liberians and will be used on Liberians,” he said, noting WHO had not tested other popular local remedies. “Madagascar is an African country … Therefore we will proceed as an African nation and will continue to use our African herbs.”
By Thursday, Madagascar had a total 225 confirmed coronavirus cases, 98 recoveries, and no deaths.
The African Union (AU) said on Monday that it was trying to get Madagascar’s technical data on the remedy, and would pass that to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation.
“This review will be based on global technical and ethical norms to garner the necessary scientific evidence,” the AU said.
Since Kenya confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 13, authorities have adopted various measures to curb the spread of the virus while stopping short of imposing a full lockdown.
AFP spent a day this week exploring how the measures are impacting the capital Nairobi and its 4.3 million inhabitants, as the health crisis exacerbates social inequalities and batters the economy of the regional powerhouse.
– 6:45 am, Ndenderu police checkpoint –
The sun has just risen and morning mist envelops a valley on the outskirts of Nairobi. On this road heading north towards the Rift Valley region armed police monitor vehicles and pedestrians.
“The only people who can go through are the ones with the authorisation: the lorries carrying food, doctors, etc,” explains police inspector Julius Kariuki Mugo.
Edward, a 25-year-old driver, shows a stamped pass from his boss that enables him to continue on his route to deliver flour to a town 75 kilometres (45 miles) northwest.
Since April 6 Kenya has blocked movement in and out of Nairobi, three coastal towns, and the northeastern county of Mandera. Two refugee camps have also been cordoned off, as well as one suburb in Nairobi and one in Mombasa.
After initially creeping up slowly, virus cases this week began to jump, with authorities fearing rampant community transmission in slums and poor areas of the capital and second city Mombasa.
There have been 582 cases and 26 deaths, and Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe has urged citizens not to make a “mockery” of two months of efforts as social distancing fatigue sets in.
– 8:30 am, central Nairobi –
Normally congested during rush hour, central Nairobi is quiet.
In a store that sells bicycle spare parts, brothers N. Shah and S. Shah, both in their fifties, are feeling the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
“We’re doing 10 percent of our usual business,” says N. Shah.
“People don’t have money. If you don’t have money to pay your rent, you don’t have money for shopping,” says S. Shah.
Their neighbour, A.J. Shah, does not know how he will pay his rent and the salaries of his four employees with business at “around 15 percent” of its normal level.
His shop sells food and cleaning products to hotels and restaurants. Even if hotels reopen, it is unclear who would actually stay in them.
“The crisis is hitting everywhere,” he says. “Who is going to come to visit the wildlife?”
– 11:00 am, physiotherapy practice –
Since mid-March, Kenyan authorities have closed schools and encouraged working from home, which many have taken up.
But it does not make sense for everyone.
“For us, working from home is not an option,” says Victoria Choi, who runs a physiotherapy practice in the Westlands neighbourhood with her husband Bernard.
Only one client is allowed in the office at a time, and all must use hand sanitiser and wear masks.
Like many parents, Bernard and Victoria have rearranged their schedules to take care of their two youngest children — girls aged 15 and nine.
Their social lives have also taken a hit.
“I miss going out with the boys,” Bernard says, adding that “having a beer alone in the house in front of the television” is not exactly a substitute.
– 1:00 pm, Java cafe –
An institution in Nairobi, the Java chain of restaurants has continued operating, albeit at a much reduced pace.
“We’ve been affected a lot since we’re only doing takeaways” and home deliveries, explains Pamella Gavala, deputy manager of this franchise.
Java, with 2,500 employees in total and 50 restaurants in Nairobi alone, plans to reopen gradually after the government last week approved a supervised resumption of restaurant activity.
To comply with the new rules, employees must be tested for COVID-19 and customers must undergo temperature screening.
Once inside, no more than two people can sit at tables which have been spaced out to allow for physical distancing.
– 3:00 pm, Foodplus supermarket –
Grocery stores, one of the few sectors still booming during the pandemic, have also had to make changes.
Masks are required, thermal screening takes place at the entrance and shopping carts are regularly wiped down with disinfectant.
At the registers, markers on the ground indicate where customers must stand to keep an appropriate distance.
“They’re more than cooperative,” Daniel Mutuku, the manager of the Foodplus store in the Kilimani neighbourhood said of customers.
– 5:00 pm, La Tasca tapas restaurant –
Normally open from noon “until the last customer leaves”, Maurizio Fregoni’s restaurant in upscale Lavington is almost completely dead.
The 7:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew imposed since March 25 has brought Nairobi’s nightlife to a standstill.
The restaurant is currently relying on a limited takeaway business and hoping for better days for its 14 employees, most of whom are taking unpaid leave.
Fregoni, an eternal optimist, says the quiet period has given him “time to rethink the menu”.
– 7:00 pm, Kibera slum –
This settlement in the heart of Nairobi, home to hundreds of thousands of Kenyans and often billed as the largest slum in Africa, continues to buzz with activity.
Cans of soap and water have been set up in front of stalls and masks are common, though some wear them around their chins.
A handful of cases of the virus have cropped up here and in other slums in the capital, sparking fears of a massive outbreak in the crowded settlements where social distancing is near impossible.
It is residents of such areas who have been hardest hit by the economic slump the virus has caused.
George Juma, a 39-year-old electrician, has not had work in a month.
“Everybody is afraid of the disease so they don’t want to bring you in their home,” he says.
Juma managed to convince his landlord to let him pay rent “when it’s over”. In the meantime, his family of four is scraping by thanks to a food donation from a NGO and the benevolence of vendors who sell to him on credit.
As curfew approaches, a police helicopter shines its spotlight on Kibera.
Joel, 45, rushes to pack up the stall where he sells fried fish — which used to stay open until 9:30 pm.
With the curfew in place, his earnings have been cut “around 25 percent”.
– 9:00 pm, downtown Nairobi –
The city centre is deserted. At the headquarters of the Nation Media Group, a sign broadcasts prevention messages: “Stay home”, “Wash hands”.
Lilian, one of the few people around to actually see the sign, sweeps the streets of the capital.
She will finish at midnight, then sleep for a few hours in a shelter before curfew lifts at 5:00 am so she can take a share-taxi home.
The task of introducing a vaccine for the coronavirus faces an uphill struggle in Africa, where a flood of online misinformation is feeding on mistrust of Western medical research.
Across the continent, Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms have been swamped by messaging that characterises vaccine research as harmful or even part of a plot to kill black people.
The world’s poorest continent — and the most vulnerable to the disease, given its poor health infrastructure — Africa has recorded more than 48,000 COVID-19 cases, 1,900 of which have been fatal, according to an AFP tally as of Wednesday.
The toll is below that of other continents, although the true figure may be considerably higher, given the lack of access to testing.
The absence of a cure has sparked a flurry of claims for purported remedies.
They range from consuming onions and ginger and drinking one’s urine to a herbal formula touted by Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina — assertions that fly in the face of stern scientific warnings.
But it is the quest for a vaccine that has sparked particularly toxic disinformation, an investigation by AFP Fact Check has found.
In Senegal, a rumour that seven children died after being given a COVID-19 vaccine was shared thousands of times in Facebook posts in English and French.
In a video showing a crowd gathered in a Dakar street near a parked police car, a female voiceover presents the footage like a news report, explaining that the children “dropped dead” after receiving the vaccine.
AFP found that the disturbance was in fact triggered when locals mistook a door-to-door cosmetics salesman for a health ministry worker. The government said that no children have died from a coronavirus vaccine.
Another post shared on Facebook and Twitter refers to a US government experiment that started in the 1930s and saw health workers withhold treatment from black men with syphilis to study the disease.
In 40 years, 28 of the test subjects died of syphilis and another 100 died of complications.
“US government offers free healthcare to southern rural blacks. Intentionally injects them with syphilis. Still want a corona vaccine?” the post reads, next to a photograph of black men in flat caps and dungarees waiting to be seen by white health workers.
And in another post widely shared around Africa, an illustration shows a black woman brandishing a machete towards a white doctor performing an injection.
– Long history of mistrust –
Experts point to entrenched suspicions in Africa that the continent’s role is to be a test bench for novel drugs.
“There is a long history of mistrust,” Keymanthri Moodley, director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, told AFP.
This explains why comments made last month by two French researchers had an outsized impact south of the Sahara, Moodley said.
On television, the pair discussed the benefits of holding drug trials in Africa.
Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at the Cochin hospital in Paris, suggested testing a vaccine in Africa “where there are no masks, no treatment, no intensive care, rather as was done with certain studies on AIDS, where things are tested on prostitutes because it’s known that they are highly exposed”.
Vaccines are routinely tested in Africa and scientists point out that testing in a particular location can often provide key insights into how a drug works there.
The pair later apologised for any offence — but this did little to calm allegations that Africans were being manipulated or even used as guinea pigs.
“It is as if we were back in the colonial era,” Kenya’s former justice minister Martha Karua told AFP. “I personally think it is racist and condescending.”
The storm unleashed a tsunami of misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiment online, including dozens of claims in several languages debunked by AFP Fact Check.
A Facebook post shared thousands of times warned against a “Bill Gates” vaccine, after the billionaire pledged $250 million to fight COVID-19.
The message, circulated widely in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Benin, falsely claimed that French doctor Didier Raoult — a maverick who promotes the malaria drug chloroquine as a possible treatment — said the vaccine “contains poison” and that “the West wants to destroy Africa”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged earning public trust as an urgent health challenge and warned of an “infodemic” — a deluge of information, including misinformation on social media — that is hampering the COVID-19 response.
The body says concerns that Africa could be abused as a vaccine testing ground are unfounded.
“I would really reassure people that the clinical trials currently ongoing on the continent respect international standards and follow the same protocol as other developed countries,” Richard Mihigo, the WHO’s Programme Area Manager for Immunisation and Vaccine Development in Africa, told AFP.
There are more than 100 candidate vaccines in development around the world, with eight already being tested in human trials.
One such drug developed by Britain’s Oxford University was hit by misinformation last month when a widely-shared South African news article debunked by AFP claimed that a woman taking part in trials died shortly after being given the vaccine.
The volunteer, Elisa Granato, later confirmed she was “absolutely fine”.
– ‘Recognise the concerns’ –
Sara Cooper, senior scientist at the South African Medical Research Council, said misinformation had to be tackled by targeting underlying sentiment.
“Rather than dismissing these as ‘false rumours’ or ‘erroneous beliefs’, these concerns should be heard and recognised,” she told AFP.
She said ethical research led by African scientists rather than by “top-down” foreign programmes could “go a long way in rebuilding community trust and reducing resistance”.
In Nigeria, pharma giant Pfizer was sued when 11 children died in a meningitis trial in 1996. The families’ lawyer claimed they could not have given proper consent as they did not speak English.
Despite the problems of perception, the WHO’s Mihigo was optimistic that when a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, it would be widely accepted in Africa.
“Communities know very well that when immunisation is not given, outbreaks do occur. We’ve seen that with measles,” he said.
“People turn up overwhelmingly to vaccination campaigns. They know the benefits. They’ve seen people dying.”
A new study from Chinese scientists found coronavirus particles in the semen of 16% of the male patients studied.
The virus was present in semen from both patients who had active infections and those who had recovered.
The researchers aren’t sure yet whether the virus can be spread through sexual contact.
Scientists are still learning about the ways the coronavirus moves through the body. Viral particles have been found in saliva, blood, urine, and stool samples.
A new study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medicine Association, found the coronavirus in semen, too. Particles were detected in the semen of both men who had active infections and those who had recovered.
The researchers aren’t yet sure, however, whether the finding means the virus can be sexually transmitted.
Roughly 16% of the men studied had the virus in their semen
A team of Chinese researchers took semen samples from 38 male COVID-19 patients in a hospital in the Henan province, which borders Wuhan, between January 26 and February 16.
The researchers detected the virus, whose official name is SARS-CoV-2, in the semen in six of the 38 patients — roughly 16%. Of the six, four were at the acute stage of active infection and two had recovered.
The six who tested positive ranged in age from their 20s to their 50s.
“There was no significant difference between negative and positive test results for patients by age, urogenital disease history, days since onset, days since hospitalization, or days since clinical recovery,” the study authors wrote.
It’s not yet known whether the virus can be passed through sex
The researchers noted that they’re not sure whether the virus can be sexually transmitted between people. It can, however, spread via saliva droplets.
The study authors also don’t yet know how exactly the coronavirus entered the patients’ testes. But the barrier between the bloodstream and various parts of the penis is imperfect, so viruses can pass through it, the researchers wrote. Inflammation, which the coronavirus causes, can impact this barrier, too.
Many types of viruses that aren’t typical STIs have also been found in semen in the past.
“The presence of viruses in semen may be more common than currently understood, and traditional non-sexually transmitted viruses should not be assumed to be totally absent in genital secretions,” the researchers wrote.
Other research on viruses in semen has shown that the Zika and Ebola viruses can be sexually transmitted.
It’s also possible that the coronavirus particles in semen wouldn’t be infectious.
More research is needed on the possibility of sexual transmission of the coronavirus, the researchers said.
“Studies on viral detection and semen persistence are beneficial to clinical practice and public health, especially concerning viruses that could cause high mortality or morbidity, such as SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote.
Japan on Thursday authorised the antiviral drug remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients, the government said, with an eye to approving another medication Avigan this month.
This makes Japan the second country to approve the drug after US regulators authorised it on Friday for emergency use against severe cases of COVID-19.
“Remdesivir was approved under exceptional measures,” a health, labour and welfare ministry official said.
“It was our country’s first such approval for the treatment of coronavirus patients,” the official told AFP.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last week the government was getting ready to give a speedy green light to the experimental drug developed by US firm Gilead Sciences.
The US go-ahead came after a major clinical trial showed remdesivir — originally developed to treat Ebola — shortened the time to recovery in some patients by a third.
The difference in mortality rate was not statistically significant.
Remdesivir, which is administered by injection, was already available to some patients who enrolled in clinical trials around the world.
“The Japanese approval of remdesivir is in recognition of the urgent need to treat critically ill patients in Japan. It is a reflection of the exceptional circumstances of this pandemic,” said Merdad Parsey, chief medical officer at Gilead Sciences.
Remdesivir incorporates itself into the virus’s genome, short-circuiting its replication process.
The Gilead statement noted that clinical trials are ongoing to evaluate the safety and efficacy of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19.
As for Avigan, developed by Japanese firm Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the government “aims to approve it this month” if a clinical trial involving 100 patients proves effective.
The drug, whose generic name is favipiravir, was approved for use in Japan in 2014 but only in flu outbreaks that are not being effectively addressed by existing medications.
It is not available on the market and can only be manufactured and distributed at the request of the Japanese government.
Favipiravir, which can be taken orally as a pill, works by blocking the ability of a virus to replicate inside a cell.
Avigan has been shown in animal studies to affect foetal development, meaning it is not given to pregnant women.
The hashtag #Money Heist has been trending on Twitter in Kenya in recent days – not because of the Netflix series which featured a memorable character called Nairobi but because of a controversial report presented by Health Secretary Mutahi Kagwe to parliament.
The report was a breakdown of how 1.3bn Kenyan shillings ($12.2m; £9.8m), mostly donated by the World Bank, was used in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
What caught the attention of the parliamentary committee and Kenyans at large was the cost of some of the items procured or leased.
It showed that 42m shillings was used to lease ambulances, 4m shillings went on tea and snacks, and 70m shillings on communication.
Kenya’s vibrant online community immediately began to question some of the expenses.
Why lease 15 ambulances at that amount instead of just purchasing new ambulances or using the existing fleet?
Why allocate 2m shillings for mobile phone airtime when telecommunications company Safaricom had offered officials involved in the fight against the virus a free package?
Had the airtime previously allocated to the health ministry for the 2019/2020 financial year already been exhausted?
Why was 70m shillings allocated for communication, bearing in mind that media houses had already contributed to airtime for coronavirus-related news updates?
Nevertheless, the damage was done and the government was forced to defend itself. President Uhuru Kenyatta denied that any money had been misappropriated or stolen, while Mr Kagwe dismissed the allegations as “propaganda”.
Official’s tweet deleted
But shortly thereafter Mr Kagwe carried out a reshuffle in his ministry, transferring 30 senior procurement and accounting officers, according to Kenya’s leading Daily Nation newspaper.
Was this an already scheduled reshuffle or was it a reaction to the hue and cry over the expenditure?
What confused many was that the most senior civil servant in the ministry, Susan Mochache, tweeted a statement saying that they had not received the “complete amount of 1 billion kshs from the World Bank and no money had been spent at all”. The tweet with those details was hurriedly deleted.
So why did the ministry present a report to parliament with a column entitled “funds used”?
Auditor-general’s post left empty
It is possible that no money has been lost but at the least there is a lack of proper co-ordination within the ministry at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19.
Kenyans are worried because the ministry is no stranger to controversy – the auditor-general could not account for 10.9bn shillings allocated to the ministry in the 2017/18 financial year and a similar amount in the 2015/16 financial year.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Kenya has waded into the controversy, calling for greater transparency and accountability of Covid-19 funds.
But the problem is that the post of auditor-general remains vacant nine months after its previous occupant retired.
It is not just in Kenya where there has been a hue and cry over money allocated to fight Covid-19.
"We can ill afford a corruption pandemic on top of a health pandemic."", Source: Waihiga Mwaura, Source description: Kenyan journalist, Image: Waihiga Mwaura
Across the border in Uganda, the High Court ordered MPs to hand back $5,000 (about £4,000) given to each of them to fight coronavirus in their constituencies.
The MPs had allocated themselves about $2.6m in total to raise public awareness about Covid-19.
In South Africa, the government is under pressure from the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) to explain how 37 million rand ($3m; £1,6m) could be spent on a 40km (25 mile) border fence to keep people with coronavirus out.
Images circulating online show that the razor wire fence has already been cut through, and the DA has described it as a “washing line”.
With social distancing rules and restrictions on gatherings, it will be more difficult for parliamentary watchdog committees to scrutinise Covid-19 spending.
However, we can ill afford a corruption pandemic on top of a health pandemic. So, let us hope that each penny is spent wisely.
More than half of people, who had reported coronavirus or COVID-19 infection in the landlocked East African country of Uganda have recovered.
Out of 98 pandemic cases reported in the country so far, 55 people have been discharged from hospitals.
Uganda is also among a few countries, which have not reported any death from the COVID-19.
Local authorities said that infections in the country had come mostly from the truck drivers from Tanzania, Kenya, and Burundi.
Emmanuel Safali, 64, discharged from the hospital on April 16 said it was a journey back to life.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Safali said he was confirmed positive after he had reported a coarse throat.
“It was very painful, but I did not know that I had contacted COVID-19,” he said.
A diabetic patient for the past 20 years, Safali said when he was admitted to the hospital, he was repeatedly given vitamin C tablets and kept in monitoring.
Doctors attended to his diabetic problem and kept it in control.
Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital Dr. Baterana Byarugaba said the treatment strategy of Uganda has helped to keep the infections in check.
“Our success is due to our ability to maintain the patients on their normal drugs. What we have done is that, if patients are hypertensive, we treat hypertension. We treat diseases they may have been carrying like ulcers, diabetes, and all forms of diseases. And I think, that was part of our success,” said the doctor.
No specific medicine
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said while there was no specific medicine so far for the coronavirus, medical professionals in his country are supporting patients with several measures to increase their immunity and attend to their other ailments to help them to combat the virus.
Uganda has also used anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat patients.
Dr. Fred Nakwagala, the senior consultant physician at the Mulago hospital, said they have used anti-malaria drugs under strict monitoring.
“We are examining every other organ in the body, once we receive a patient. We are following patients very closely and attend to even if there is any injury. And we keep monitoring the activities of the virus is in the body, “he said.
Uganda is currently on its third phase of lockdown after easing movement for workers in particular sectors including lawyers, mechanics, wholesale merchants, metal, and woodwork workshops.
The IMF approved the disbursement of US$739 million to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility to support the authorities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a serious toll on the Kenyan economy, significantly reducing growth, creating fiscal and external financing needs.
It is important that the authorities resume their fiscal consolidation plans to reduce macroeconomic vulnerabilities once the crisis abates.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved the disbursement of SDR542.8 million (100 percent of quota, about US$739 million) to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). This will help to meet Kenya’s urgent balance of payments need stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The impact of COVID-19 on the Kenyan economy will be severe. It will act through both global and domestic channels, and downside risks remain large. While the authorities have taken decisive action to respond to the pandemic’s health and economic impacts, the sudden shock has left Kenya with significant fiscal and external financing needs. Authorities have committed to resume their fiscal consolidation plans once the crisis abates to reduce debt vulnerabilities.
The RCF will help the authorities to address those needs. It will allow them to maintain an adequate level of international reserves and help provide the budget financing needed to respond to the pandemic.
The IMF is in close contact with the Kenyan authorities and stands ready to provide policy advice and further support, as needed.
At the conclusion of the Board discussion, Mr. Tao Zhang, Deputy managing Director and Acting Chair, stated:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a large economic shock to Kenya. The pandemic has impacted nearly all facets of the economy—particularly tourism, transport, and trade—and led to urgent balance of payments and fiscal financing needs.
“Emergency financing under the RCF will deliver liquidity support to help Kenya cover its balance of payments gap this year. It will provide much-needed resources for fiscal interventions to safeguard public health and support households and firms affected by the crisis. It will also catalyze necessary financing from other donors.
“A pause in the authorities’ fiscal consolidation plans to accommodate COVID-19-related measures is appropriate. These measures should be temporary and well-targeted. Once the crisis abates, it is critical that the authorities resume their pursuit of a growth-friendly medium-term fiscal adjustment, including raising revenues as a share of GDP, to reduce debt vulnerabilities.
“The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has taken various measures to maintain sufficient liquidity in the financial sector. It should continue to stand ready to further support the economy and the financial sector’s health, as necessary, while ensuring that policy decisions are data-driven. The CBK should also continue to allow the exchange rate to act as a shock absorber.
“To ensure that COVID-19 related resources are used for their intended purpose, the authorities plan to conduct independent post-crisis auditing of COVID-19 related expenditures and publish the results.”
(Reuters) – A genetic analysis of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with COVID-19 suggests the new coronavirus spread quickly around the world late last year and is adapting to its human hosts, scientists said on Wednesday.
A study by scientists at University College London’s (UCL) Genetics Institute found almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations of the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – which the researchers said showed how it may be evolving as it spreads in people.
Francois Balloux, a UCL professor who co-led the research, said results showed that a large proportion of the global genetic diversity of the virus causing COVID-19 was found in all of the hardest-hit countries.
That suggests that the virus was already being transmitted extensively around the globe from early on in the epidemic.
“All viruses naturally mutate. Mutations in themselves are not a bad thing and there is nothing to suggest SARS-CoV-2 is mutating faster or slower than expected,” said Balloux. “So far, we cannot say whether SARS-CoV-2 is becoming more or less lethal and contagious.”
In a second study also published on Wednesday, scientists at Britain’s University of Glasgow who also analysed SARS-CoV-2 virus samples said their findings showed that previous work suggesting there were two different strains was inaccurate.
A preliminary study by Chinese scientists in March had suggested there may have been two strains of the new coronavirus causing infections there, with more of them more “aggressive” than the other.
But publishing their analysis in the journal Virus Evolution, the Glasgow team said only one type of the virus was circulating.
More than 3.68 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 256,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since cases were first identified in China in December 2019.
The UCL team’s findings, published in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution, confirm that the virus emerged in late 2019, Balloux said, before quickly spreading across the globe.
His team screened the genomes of more than 7,500 viruses from infected patients around the world. Their results add to a growing body of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 viruses share a common ancestor from late 2019, suggesting this was when the virus jumped from a previous animal host into people.
This means it is unlikely the new virus was circulating in people for long before it was first detected, Balloux said.
A study by French scientists published earlier this week found a man there was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
The World Health Organization said the French case was “not surprising” and urged countries to investigate any other early suspicious cases.
Balloux said the 198 small genetic changes, or mutations, that his and other studies have identified held helpful clues for researchers seeking to develop drugs and vaccines.
“If we focus our efforts on parts of the virus that are less likely to mutate, we have a better chance of developing drugs that will be effective in the long run,” Balloux said.
This Covid-19 pandemic will show us things! One is never quite sure about the truth of some stories appearing in the media. There was a time when certain interested chaps planted stories in newspapers. Looks like this still happens.
On April 30, the People Daily carried a small story titled, “We have enough testing kits, Kemri assures” (p.5).
“Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has disputed reports it has run out of testing kits,” the paper reported.
“Kemri managing director Yeri Kombe said the claims were based on a report compiled by the research institute before the government procured and delivered the consignment.”
Where did Kombe say this? Did he speak to the PD reporter exclusively, addressed a press conference, spoke on a radio or TV show, tweeted, posted on Facebook or told a gang of mechanics fixing broken cars with fake spare parts at Grogon?
Anyway, Kombe was apparently reacting to the lead story in the Star just the previous day headlined, “Kemri runs out of Covid testing kits” (April 29).
The paper reported that, “The country has run out of essential screening and testing equipment, even as the government projects up to 30,000 Kenyans could die of Covid-19.”
Lion Place cited a report Kemri director Kombe submitted to a Senate committee that said the institution had exhausted the equipment, reagents and materials used in screening and testing Covid-19 patients.
“As a result, Kombe disclosed the institute was in dire need of Sh790 million to restock the supplies to resume normal operations and scale up testing,” the Star reported.
The paper said something else quite startling: Kemri had no capacity for Covid-19 mass testing that the government has been talking about for weeks.
“Kombe said the challenges range from inadequate technical staff, cash flow challenges and exhaustion of essential materials needed to fight the virus,” the Star reported.
“Currently, an average of only about 700 samples are tested per day against the capacity of 37,000.”
The PD reporter should have questioned Kombe on the claims contained in the report he submitted to the Senate committee.
On May 1, the Pan-African housing financier Shelter Afrique donated Sh1 million to buy Covid-19 testing kits. Capital FM online carried the story.
“Currently, an average of only about 700 samples are tested per day against a daily capacity of 30,000,” the report said.
“This Kombe attributed to the shortage of reagents and consumables, equipment, and the capacity of health workers to collect such many samples every day.”
With Shelter Afrique’s Sh1 million donation, Kemri will buy about 1,250 testing kits, Kombe said.
So, the Big Q is: Does Kemri have enough kits for mass testing as reported by PD?
A source at KEMRI however intimated to Kenya Insights what could be the situation, “The bottomline there are less than 25000 test kits. When Dr Lutomiah asked difficult questions, he was shoved aside by the mandarins at MoH who see this pandemic as their opportunity to eat.”
“For the Mafia at Mafya house, its a feasting opportunity. Collaborators and smaller research projects expect to be reimbursed on what they have contributed in kind as well as weĺl as funds in kemri grant accounts. When Dr Lutomiah asked about this, he was shown the door. The delay in results was just an excuse to get rid of someone asking too many difficult questions. MoH wants results without any input which is impossible. We can’t be asking for donor money now. Every nation is overwhelmed.” Said the source.
Dr Lutomiah being the director CVR and Kenyan project lead for Global Emerging Infections(GEIS) which is funded by US Army Medical research unit stepped up and prepared the centre for the work ahead including mobilizing resources and personnel. Viral transport media which is used to collect samples was in short supply worldwide, Dr Lutomiah made arrangements to have it prepared in CVR because it ran out in KEMSA. “We’ve been supplying and supporting less disadvantaged countries in the region including Somalia and Eritrea. After all this, when Dr Lutomiah started asking questions regarding funding, he was judged a criminal and everything possible was done to make an example of him so there won’t be anymore like him.” Said the source.
“Mass testing wont be happening.” Our source says. He continues, “Just expect at most 1000 tests daily. Even the diagnostic kits that they say Kemri will make are antibody kits which generally have low accuracy and can’t tell definitively be used in diagnosis compared to PCR currently being used.”
Kenya Insights went further to dig deeper on the capacity. “If kits were available, numerous genexpert equipment used in TB and are in almost every level 4, 5 and 6 hospitals would have already been deployed rather than shipping samples accross the country to KEMRI. Each of these has a 2 hour turnaround time for 16 tests and so more ground would be covered. South Africa has done so hence they are doing 5000 to 8000 per day. But we are stuck with people who’s only interest is how they stand to benefit financially.” Our source said.
In March, Kenya received a batch of 25,000 kits for testing coronavirus. The kits were donated by China’s billionaire Jack Ma through his Alibaba Foundation.
Our 3rd donation to Africa will immediately be made to @_africanunion and @AfricaCDC. This includes 4.6m masks, 500k swabs & test kits, 300 ventilators, 200k clothing sets, 200k face shields, 2k thermal guns, 100 body temp. scanners and 500k pairs of gloves. #OneWorldOneFight
In the backdrop of all this is the big question of where the kits have been and if they’ve been efficiently utilized. According to a document obtained by Kenya Insights, the bulk of kits especially from Jack Ma has been distributed to the counties as follows;
Kits distribution.
Jack Ma’s medical supplies for Kenya has however drawn suspicions with Kenyan blogs alleging that they’ve been squandered and healthcare cartels making millions out of them. Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Chairman Richard Ngatia has found himself as a center focus and punching bag for curious blogs.
Mr. Ngatia.
Kenya Digest that had the exclusive story of an alleged fraud of selling Jack Ma’s kits wrote, “Galileo Lounge owner Richard Ngatia is also the high priest of medical supplies in Kenya through the Governmental Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) which is a state corporation under the Ministry of Health established under the KEMSA Act 2013 and “which provides reliable, affordable and quality health products and supply chain solutions to improve healthcare in Kenya…”
“The greatest cause of distress during this COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya revolves around the well-known fact that we lack the medical capacity to handle a full-blown infection.”
“First World countries’ capacity has been outstripped and doctors are having to choose whom to give emergency medical care, and whom to let die.
Ngatia had been ready for the coronavirus outbreak since January, by using his access to high-level international intelligence that is available to the Kenyan Presidency, he, therefore, imported a lot of the testing kits and PPEs that would be critical, before the lockdown of airspace around the World.
Currently, Kenya has 10s of thousands of testing kits in the country, with two-thirds having been donated by Chinese Jack Ma and others, but these donations were taken over by Ngatia, to be resupplied to private hospitals.”
Cabinet Secretaries Dr. Fred Matiangi, James Macharia and Mutahi Kagwe receive medical supplies flown in by KQ from China.
Following sustained questioning and flagging of the donations from China. Sources talking to Kenya Insights says that Jack Ma is personally unhappy with everything and has asked the authorities to do a follow up and give an accountable report on how the supplies have been utilized.
Other sources talking to Kenya Insights intimate that getting equipment for coronavirus from kemsa is a toll order and absolutely expensive. We’re told of situations where public hospitals are having a hard time procuring supplies from KEMSA. It seems the private hospitals with big money are getting priorities.
Eighty-two per cent of healthcare workers surveyed are forced to reuse Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) due to lack of supplies.
The study aimed to find out the level of problems and their major concerns.
The online survey of 601 health workers, public and private, was conducted from April 9 to April 20 in all 47 counties.
Ninety per cent cited lack of goggles, isolation gowns, gloves and protective suits.
Eighty-two per cent lack of N95 masks, 18 per cent lacked gloves while 30 per cent lacked surgical masks.
As Kenyans languish in poverty and in constant fear, coronavirus is making overnight millionaires. President Uhuru Kenyatta was assured Kenyans there will be audit of all monies that will have been spent on combating Covid-19, it is not clear if the names of the private companies that has supplied Personal Protective Equipment will be made public. A small bird has told corridors that at least three companies owned by powerful and highly connected businessmen and a sitting MP are some of the individuals who have a made a kill out of the pandemic. A group of the businessmen are said to have met two weeks ago at a home of a politician at a home within Nairobi’s Hurligham area.
Kenya Insights has since obtained details of the names and firms involved in the supply chain to be revealed in follow up article.
Disturbing fact indicates at a lack of capacity for the government to conduct a mass testing as things stand now but the modalities could likely change in the coming weeks. We’ve had budget breakdowns the worry is why other crucial areas as research and testing capacity not getting the bulk.
Kenya’s friends continue to come through for the nation. Latest being UAE even though their donation is yet to hit the Media airwaves.
Kenyans have validated reasons to question expenditures of the aid and monies allocated to coronavirus containment. MOH has cartels who’ve previously looted the ministry with no shamelooted the ministry with no shame and there’s no surety they no longer exist.
This time we’re not going to let the cartels fatten off innocent lives. We know you, will come for you. Definitely.
NB: If you have any relevant information in relation to coronavirus fraud schemes, email me on ([email protected]) you’ll be treated with the highest confidentiality.
The African Union (AU) has said it is in discussion with Madagascar over Covid Organics (CVO), a herbal drink that is said to prevent and cure patients suffering from the novel coronavirus, according to a statement.
The AU in a statement late Monday said it is talking with Madagascar via its embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of a herbal remedy, recently announced by Madagascar for the reported prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
It said, once finished, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) will review the scientific data gathered so far on the safety and efficacy of Covid Organics.
”This review will be based on global technical and ethical norms to garner the necessary scientific evidence regarding the performance of the tonic,” the statement added.
Last month, Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the CVO, a herbal mixture, claiming that it can prevent and cure patients suffering from the novel coronavirus. The drug was developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.
But, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against any self-medication and said it has not recommended any medicine as a cure for COVID-19.
In response, the WHO said it supports scientifically-proven traditional medicine.
”WHO welcomes every opportunity to collaborate with countries and researchers to develop new therapies and encourages such collaboration for the development of effective and safe therapies for Africa and the world,” it said in a statement.
Rajoelina said on Monday his government was already collaborating with foreign doctors and researchers on the matter, looking for alternative research possibilities but still on the trail of the Artemisia plant — the main component of CVO.
“A pharmaceutical factory will be set up within a month to increase the production capacity of Covid Organics. It will be administered in other forms such as injections,” Rajoelina said on Twitter.
This is going to light up people. Nobody is dying of Covid-19. People are dying with Covid-19. And there’s a difference. A big one.
This claim was made last week in a Kenyan WhatsApp group chat by mostly communication academics.
If it’s right, The Standard would be wrong in its April 13 front-page story titled, “More than 800-000 Kenyans could die of Covid-19 — Study.” So would Capital News in its April 18 story, “2 Kenyans succumb to Covid-19 in the UK as death toll at home hits 12.” And innumerable media outlets around the world saying Covid-19 is killing people.
The post by one Dr Sam [last name withheld] warned against looming disastrous consequences if with the new coronavirus the world goes down the same path it did with HIV-Aids in the early 90s.
The world has not quite recovered from the stigma associated HIV infections.
“Being Covid-19 positive does not mean death and is not a reason to get stigmatized [much less get clobbered by misguided Kenyan police officers enforcing quarantine],” he said. “Many people will die with Covid-19 and not due to Covid-19.”
This is the good part. And The Standard in its April 14 story, “Covid-19: Five Kenyans died in the US over last month,” would be right by clarifying that the Kenyans “died of Covid-19 related complications.”
What’s really going to light up people are three other maverick opinions by the doctor with a Kenyan last name.
One, that after looking at trends in different countries and studying our own [Kenyan] trends, any medical personnel would tell you that Covid-19 is “a mild infection that most people will recover from without anything to talk about.”
Mild? The body bags in New York and Italy and narratives by survivors who describe “horrible” experiences suggest otherwise.
On the other hand, a model which uses data from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) now shows that “Covid-19 is more widespread, less severe,” according to an April 14 report by WebMD, an online publisher of health information.
Two, that the obsession with testing and continuous data updates, amplified daily in the media, may result in undesirable consequences: stigmatising people who contract the virus.
That conclusion is open to debate. But the premise is not. You need data to know what you don’t know, to deal with it.
Three, that without downplaying the significance of Covid-19 to some groups of people, healthcare workers should “refuse to let this highly infectious but mild disease take us where HIV did. We lost our mind and followed donors, not medicine.”
This last point ends like a conspiracy theory. But the meat of the entire post is worth debating.
Dr Sam, who said he is now a surgeon, said that as a young doctor in the early 90s he “followed the book” and regrets everyone back then giving up on the sick the instant an HIV diagnosis triumphantly shot up in the air.
He wrote: “The moment HIV was diagnosed, we were to ‘do the necessary,’ meaning the barest minimum to maintain the patient’s comfort as the patient wasted away to a stigmatised and lonely death. We called it palliative care. But it was more of supervised death.”
True, back then few patients diagnosed with HIV lived more than a few weeks. How could they after healthcare workers, friends, relatives and the system gave up on them!
“It took me a while before I realized that many of these patients died with HIV, not of HIV,” said Dr Sam. “The HIV just stigmatized and jeopardized their treatment.”
Here we are today with another pandemic.
The self-described “now wiser” medic worries that patients who are critically ill are increasingly getting tested for Covid-19. And if found positive, the treatment is going the old HIV way: isolation, quarantine, stigma.
The recent undignified handling of a corpse in Siaya County, which was reportedly buried hurriedly with no coffin and no traditional prayers in a shallow grave in the dead of night, paints a perfect picture of stigma.
On the other hand, the rule of thumb on infectious diseases is that isolation saves the living. And gives science time to cure the sick.
The problem: How do you isolate and not stigmatize?
The key argument: That once mass testing becomes the norm, Covid-19 and not underlying conditions will be wrongly blamed for cause of deaths.
This is debatable.
Summary: Do not spread panic; do not justify draconian measures for quarantine; do not stigmatise; do not scare healthcare workers into psychologically giving up on the sick; preach the practice of good hygiene to stem spread of infectious deceases.
The ink is not yet dry on Ugandans’ social media demands to know how their parliament used an equivalent Sh260 million, allegedly to fight the raging coronavirus. Last week, social media smoked out Kenya’s own scandal in the making: how Sh1.3 billion has gone up in smoke.
Parliament in Kampala recently wired to each Member of Parliament USh20 million to fight Covid-19, according to a story in SoftPower News, a local digital publication. The Ugandan parliament has 426 seats.
MPs were to use the equivalent of Sh600,000 to maintain ambulances, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga explained, according to the Daily Monitor ofApril 16. The Speaker also said on a TV interview that her MPs needed “to sensitize the citizens against the virus in their local languages,” SoftPower News reported.
Then, along came Nairobi.
It started on twitter. A tweet by one @gathara April 29 said, “According to @MOH_Kenya responses to the National Assembly, nearly 10% of the Sh1 billion GoK got from @WorldBank “for emergency response” was spent on airtime for staff, stationery and tea and snacks, and communication with Sh8m used just to print forms.”
This was liked 1,500 times and retweeted 1,400 times.
In a front-page lead headline, “Where Corona millions went,” The Standard followed up on April 30 with a detailed breakdown.
The intro said that “the Sh1.3 billion spent in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic includes Sh42 million for leasing ambulances, Sh4 million for tea and snacks, and Sh2 million for airtime.”
Never mind that the funds were earmarked for “emergency response, including procurement of personal protective equipment (PPEs), medicines and setting up of isolation facilities,” according to The Standard.
Timeline for this eye-popping expenditure, various media reported, is barely a month. Yet, practically every budget line is already overshot by millions.
Communications cost was listed as Sh70 million. And one Isaac Maweu asked on Facebook, “What’s the difference between airtime that costed [sic] Sh2m and communication that costed [sic] Sh70m?”
How is all of this explained? In a statement that did the rounds online last week, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe swatted it all off as detractors trying to bring down the agenda.
But one morning radio show was not going to take this lying down.
“The Situation Room” by Spice FM is gaining currency in town as the channel to tune in to for serious journalism.
Last Thursday, the show hosts pulled no punches over the raging storm around Covid-19’s millions, which by Sunday the Nation termed flat out stolen. (See Sunday Nation May 3 story: “MPs summon Kagwe, Yatani over ‘stolen’ Covid-19 funds.”)
The Show co-host Ndu Okoh put it loud and clear on air: “When you don’t explain things to people in detail, you leave room for people to speculate,” she said. “By not telling people that this is how we got the ambulances, these are the number of people we ferried from Point A to Point B […] Covid has presented another opportunity for you to steal money that could actually help Kenyans. This is an example of how impunity reigns.”
Church would say, Amen!
Here is what’s stunning. On this thing, social media chatter got to the highest levels of government. Leaders directed their fire this time not at mainstream media but at Kenyans on social media.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Labour Day scolded Kenyans on Twitter (KOT).
“Stop politics! Covid-19 funds will be accounted for – Uhuru,” said a Star headline on May 1. All mainstream TV stations broadcasted the President terming the public uproar as “siasa duni.”
“Tusicheze na maisha ya wakenya,” said the President. “Huu sio wakati wa kugombanisha. Wakati ikifika it shall be audited in broad daylight. This is not the time for us to be petty […] Think before you start talking nonsense on this social media of yours!” he said in videos still posted online.
The related Star story by Nancy Agutu sparked swift comments, unwavering that the President was not getting the best advice.
Charleys Ghoverhn: “Sure, the expenditure will be audited just like happened to Eurobond, NYS…”
Mbiyu wa Mgambo: “Shouldn’t we have an audit while we can stop the bleeding … what are we afraid of … if months from now, we found that funds were looted this month, May 2020, what are the chances that we will recover the stolen funds… almost nil.”
Mikoto: “It’s not nonsense, on the contrary these are legitimate concerns. This is taxpayers’ money and questionable expenditure needs to be investigated or justified or rectified. You don’t wait for moneys to be stolen or wasted then come later and tell us public money was stolen or misused.”
You’ve heard it was said that sunshine is the best disinfectant? Citizens are saying as much in the media, be it in Uganda or Kenya.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday stepped up a US campaign to hold China accountable for the spread of the deadly coronavirus, asserting there is “enormous evidence” the virus originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.
The high-security bio-containment facility, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has called such claims “impossible”.
Pompeo, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” did not elaborate on what he also described as “significant amounts of evidence”. But Pompeo’s words clearly sought to buttress repeated criticism from Donald Trump about China’s role in the pandemic.
The US president has said that by playing down the gravity of the virus early this year and failing to fully cooperate with international investigators, Beijing put lives at risk around the world.
Pompeo’s comments came as an Australian newspaper, The Saturday Telegraph, reported that China had deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence about the outbreak in an “assault on international transparency” that cost tens of thousands of lives.
The report cited what it said was a 15-page dossier on the COVID-19 contagion prepared by the so-called Five Eyes intelligence agencies of the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
Pompeo, a former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, made no mention of the Five Eyes report, but said that “there is enormous evidence that this (Wuhan) is where it began.”
Last week, Pompeo indicated he had not seen definitive proof. “We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of virology,” he said at the time.
While highly critical of China’s handling of the matter, Pompeo declined on Sunday to say whether he thought the virus had been intentionally released.
The pandemic has so far infected more than 3.4 million people and killed more than 243,000 around the world, while also fuelling conspiracy theories about its origin.
– ‘Not man-made’ –
News reports say Trump has tasked US spies to find out more about the origins of the virus, at first blamed on a Wuhan market selling exotic animals like bats.
Pompeo told ABC that he agreed with a US intelligence community statement Thursday that backed “the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.”
But he went further than Trump, in citing “significant” and “enormous” evidence that the virus originated in the Wuhan lab.
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world and running substandard laboratories,” Pompeo said, adding early Chinese efforts to downplay the coronavirus amounted to “a classic Communist disinformation effort. That created enormous risk.”
In its Thursday statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that the intel community will continue to study “whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
The Saturday Telegraph report said the Australian government believed the virus probably originated in a so-called wet market, but that there was a five percent chance it accidentally leaked from the Wuhan lab.
Some Democrats have said Trump is trying to shift blame to avoid responsibility for a slow response to the pandemic that has resulted in the US having by far the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
“Not wanting to take responsibility as the deaths continue to mount, he blames others,” Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said in a statement.
– Growing calls for transparency –
Trump has also been sharply critical of the World Health Organization’s response to the pandemic and is suspending US financial support, saying it moved too slowly to alert the world to the gravity of the disease and was insufficiently skeptical of China’s involvement.
The WHO has said it wants to be invited to take part in Chinese investigations into the animal origins of the pandemic.
Several countries, including Australia, Britain, Germany and France, have joined in US calls for China to be more transparent about the coronavirus outbreak.
The United States now has more than 1,134,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 66,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
China now has nearly 84,000 cases and more than 4,600 deaths.
After moving aggressively to lock down the region and contain the virus, Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei lifted restrictions on movements in late March and early April.
Robots delivering meals, ghostly figures in hazmat suits and cameras pointed at front doors: China’s methods to enforce coronavirus quarantines have looked like a sci-fi dystopia for legions of people.
Authorities have taken drastic steps to ensure that people do not break isolation rules after China largely tamed the virus that had paralysed the country for months.
With cases imported from abroad threatening to unravel China’s progress, travellers arriving from overseas have been required to stay home or in designated hotels for 14 days.
Beijing loosened the rule in the capital this week — except for those arriving from abroad and Hubei, the province where the virus first surfaced late last year.
At one quarantine hotel in central Beijing, a guard sits at a desk on each floor to monitor all movements.
The solitude is broken by one of the few visitors allowed near the rooms: A three-foot-tall cylindrical robot that delivers water bottles, meals and packages to hotel guests.
The robot rides the elevator and navigates hallways on its own to minimise contact between guests and human staff.
When the robot arrives at its destination, it dials the landline phone in the room and informs the occupant in an eerie, childlike voice: “Hello, this is your service robot. Your order has arrived outside your room.”
Its belly opens and the guest takes the delivery items before the robot turns and rolls away.
Doctors in hazmat suits go from room to room daily reminding occupants, including an AFP journalist who had been in Hubei, to take their temperatures with the mercury thermometer provided at check-in, and to ask if any are experiencing symptoms.
People under home quarantine elsewhere in the city have had silent electronic alarms installed on their doors.
Officials put up a notice on each quarantined household’s door asking neighbours to keep an eye on the confined inhabitants.
In one Beijing residential compound, officials told AFP that people under home quarantine must inform community volunteers whenever they open their doors.
Friederike Boege, a German journalist, began her second quarantine in Beijing this year on Sunday after returning from Hubei’s capital Wuhan.
Her building’s management installed a camera in front of her door to monitor her movements.
“It’s quite scary how you get used to such things,” she told AFP.
“Apart from the camera I do believe that the guards and the cleaner on the compound would denunciate me if I were to go out,” Boege said.
During her previous quarantine experience in March after returning from a trip to Thailand, she was reported to building management by a cleaner for going downstairs to take out the trash.
– No human contact –
Total isolation has become a temporary norm for those under strict quarantine, without even a single trip to the grocery store or walk to break up the monotony.
Joy Zhong, a 25-year-old media professional returning to Beijing from a work trip in the virus epicentre of Wuhan, spent three weeks without leaving a cramped room at another hotel in the Chinese capital.
There, guests were not allowed to order their own food and were instead given standardised meals.
Friends were allowed to bring packages to the front desk, which were then left outside hotel rooms by staff who avoided direct contact with guests.
“Spending 21 days in a row without seeing a single person, it felt like time was passing extremely slowly,” Zhong told AFP.
Not all people under quarantine are as closely watched as those in Beijing, however.
Charlotte Poirot, a French teacher who arrived in China in late March — just before a ban on foreigners entering the country was introduced — spent two weeks under quarantine at a hostel in the southeastern city Guangzhou.
She was confined alone in a 10-bunk room, with meals delivered to her door and medical personnel coming to check her temperature multiple times a day.
“They never locked the door and the (whole) process was based on reliance,” Poirot told AFP. “We all played the game without contesting.”
China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion.
The 15-page research document, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, lays the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China.
It states that to the “endangerment of other countries” the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in laboratories and refusing to provide live samples to international scientists who were working on a vaccine.
The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province. Picture: Hector Retamal/AFP
It can also be revealed the Australian government trained and funded a team of Chinese scientists who belong to a laboratory which went on to genetically modify deadly coronaviruses that could be transmitted from bats to humans and had no cure, and is not the subject of a probe into the origins of COVID-19.
As intelligence agencies investigate whether the virus inadvertently leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, the team and its research led by scientist Shi Zhengli feature in the dossier prepared by Western governments that points to several studies they conducted as areas of concern.
It cites their work discovering samples of coronavirus from a cave in the Yunnan province with striking genetic similarity to COVID-19, along with their research synthesising a bat-derived coronavirus that could not be treated.
Its major themes include the “deadly denial of human-to-human transmission”, the silencing or “disappearing” of doctors and scientists who spoke out, the destruction of evidence of the virus from genomic studies laboratories, and “bleaching of wildlife market stalls”, along with the refusal to provide live virus samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.
Key figures of the Wuhan Institute of Virology team, who feature in the government dossier, were either trained or employed in the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory where they conducted foundational research on deadly pathogens in live bats, including SARS, as part of an ongoing partnership between the CSIRO and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This partnership continues to this day, according to the website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite concerns the research is too risky.
Politicians in the Morrison government are speaking out about the national security and biosecurity concerns of this relationship as the controversial research into bat-related viruses now comes into sharp focus amid the investigation by the Five Eyes intelligence agencies of the United States, Australia, NZ, Canada and the UK.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking out in the interests of national security and biosecurity. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP
RISKY BAT RESEARCH
In Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, not far from the now infamous Wuhan wet market, Dr Shi and her team work in high-protective gear in level-three and level-four bio-containment laboratories studying deadly bat-derived coronaviruses.
At least one of the estimated 50 virus samples Dr Shi has in her laboratory is a 96 per cent genetic match to COVID-19. When Dr Shi heard the news about the outbreak of a new pneumonia-like virus, she spoke about the sleepless nights she suffered worrying whether it was her lab that was responsible for the outbreak.
As she told Scientific American magazine in an article published this week: “Could they have come from our lab?” Since her initial fears, Dr Shi has satisfied herself the genetic sequence of COVID-19 did not match any her lab was studying.
Yet, given the extent of the People’s Republic of China’s lies, obfuscations and angry refusal to allow any investigation into the origin of the outbreak, her laboratory is now being closely looked at by international intelligence agencies.
The Australian government’s position is that the virus most likely originated in the Wuhan wet market but that there is a remote possibility — a 5 per cent chance — it accidentally leaked from a laboratory.
The US’s position, according to reports this week, is that it is more likely the virus leaked from a laboratory but it could also have come from a wet market that trades and slaughters wild animals, where other diseases including the H5N1 avian flu and SARS originated.
CREATING MORE DEADLY VIRUSES
The Western governments’ research paper confirms this.
It notes a 2013 study conducted by a team of researchers, including Dr Shi, who collected a sample of horseshoe bat faeces from a cave in Yunnan province, China, which was later found to contain a virus 96.2 per cent identical to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19.
The research dossier also references work done by the team to synthesise SARS-like coronaviruses, to analyse whether they could be transmissible from bats to mammals. This means they were altering parts of the virus to test whether it was transmissible to different species.
Their November 2015 study, done in conjunction with the University of North Carolina, concluded that the SARS-like virus could jump directly from bats to humans and there was no treatment that could help.
The study acknowledges the incredible danger of the work they were conducting.
“The potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens,” they wrote.
You have to be a scientist to understand it, but below is the line that the governments’ research paper references from the study.
“To examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs, we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic CoV spike protein — from the RsSHCO14-CoV sequence that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats — in the context of the SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone,” the study states.
One of Dr Shi’s co-authors on that paper, Professor Ralph Baric from North Carolina University, said in an interview with Science Daily at the time: “This virus is highly pathogenic and treatments developed against the original SARS virus in 2002 and the ZMapp drugs used to fight ebola fail to neutralise and control this particular virus.”
President Xi Jinping waves to a coronavirus patient and medical staff via a video link at the Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan on March 10. Picture: Xie Huanchi/XINHUA/AFP
A few years later, in March 2019, Dr Shi and her team, including Peng Zhou, who worked in Australia for five years, published a review titled Bat Coronaviruses in China in the medical journal Viruses, where they wrote that they “aim to predict virus hot spots and their cross-species transmission potential”, describing it as a matter of “urgency to study bat coronaviruses in China to understand their potential of causing another outbreak. Their review stated: “It is highly likely that future SARS or MERS like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China.”
It examined which proteins were “important for interspecies transmission”.
Despite intelligence probes into whether her laboratory may have been responsible for the outbreak, Dr Shi is not hitting pause on her research, which she argues is more important than ever in preventing a pandemic. She plans to head a national project to systemically sample viruses in bat caves, with estimates that there are more than 5000 coronavirus strains “waiting to be discovered in bats globally”.
“Bat-borne coronaviruses will cause more outbreaks,” she told Scientific American. “We must find them before they find us.”
AUSTRALIA’S INVOLVEMENT
Dr Shi, the director of the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Institute of Virology, spent time in Australia as a visiting scientist for three months from February 22 to May 21, 2006, where she worked at the CSIRO’s top-level Australian Animal Health Laboratory, which has recently been renamed.
The CSIRO would not comment on what work she undertook during her time here, but an archived and translated biography on the Wuhan Institute of Virology website states that she was working with the SARS virus.
“The SARS virus antibodies and genes were tested in the State Key Laboratory of Virology in Wuhan and the Animal Health Research Laboratory in Geelong, Australia,” it states.
The Telegraph has obtained two photographs of her working at the CSIRO laboratories, including in the level-four lab, in 2006.
Shi Zhengli, director of the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Institute of Virology, who working in Australia in 2006.
Dr Shi’s protégé, Peng Zhou — now the head of the Bat Virus Infection and Immunity Project at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — spent three years at the bio-containment facility Australian Animal Health Laboratory between 2011 and 2014. He was sent by China to complete his doctorate at the CSIRO from 2009-2010.
During this time, Dr Zhou arranged for wild-caught bats to be transported alive by air from Queensland to the lab in Victoria where they were euthanised for dissection and studied for deadly viruses.
Dr Linfa Wang, while an Honorary Professor of the Wuhan Institute of Virology between 2005 and 2011, also worked in the CSIRO Office of the Chief Executive Science Leader in Virology between 2008 and 2011.
Federal Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson said it was “very concerning” that Chinese scientists had been conducting research into bat viruses at the CSIRO in Geelong, Victoria, in jointly funded projects between the Australian and Chinese governments.
“We need to exercise extreme care with any research projects involving foreign nationals which may compromise our national security or biosecurity,” she said.
While the US has cut all funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the CSIRO would not respond to questions about whether it is still collaborating with it, saying only that it collaborates with research organisations from around the world to prevent diseases.
“As with all partners, CSIRO undertakes due diligence and takes security very seriously,” a spokesman said. “CSIRO undertakes all research in accordance with strict biosecurity and legislative requirements.”
IS THE RESEARCH WORTH THE RISK?
The US withdrew funding from controversial experiments that make pathogens more potent or likely to spread dangerous viruses in October 2014, concerned it could lead to a global pandemic.
The pause on funding for 21 “gain of function” studies was then lifted in December 2017.
Despite the concerns, the CSIRO continued to partner and fund research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The CSIRO refused to respond to questions from The Saturday Telegraph about how much money went into joint research collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Science and its Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Wuhan Institute still lists the CSIRO as a partner while the US has cut ties since the coronavirus outbreak.
The argument is whether it is worth developing these viruses to anticipate and prevent a pandemic when a leak of the virus could also cause one. Debate in the scientific community is heated.
There have also been serious concerns about a lack of adequate safety practices at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when dealing with deadly viruses.
A ‘‘Sensitive but Unclassified’’ cable, dated January 19, 2018, obtained by The Washington Post, revealed that US embassy scientists and diplomats in Beijing visited the laboratory and sent warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety practices and management weaknesses as it conducted research on coronaviruses from bats.
“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” the cable stated.
Australian Animal Health Laboratory, in East Geelong, is part of the CSIRO. Picture: Andy Rogers
UNLIKELY CLAIMS VIRUS CREATED IN LAB
Scientific consensus is that the virus came from a wetmarket. But the US’s top spy agency confirmed on the record for the first time yesterday that the US intelligence committee is investigating whether COVID-19 was the result of an accident at a Wuhan laboratory.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence acting director Richard Grenell said the virus was not created in a laboratory.
“The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to US policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China,” he said.
“The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified. As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to US national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Despite Mr Grenell’s statement and scientific consensus that the virus was not created in a laboratory, based on its genome sequence the governments’ research paper obtained by The Telegraph notes a study that claims it was created.
South China University of Technology researchers published a study on February 6 that concluded “the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high-risk biohazards laboratories”.
“The paper is soon withdrawn because it ‘was not supported by direct proofs’, according to author Botao Xiano,” the dossier noted, continuing to point out that: ‘“No scientists have confirmed or refuted the paper’s findings’, scholar Yanzhong Huang wrote on March 5.”
The Saturday Telegraph does not claim that the South China University of Technology study is credible, only that it has been included in this government research paper produced as part of the case against China.
CHINA’S COVER-UP OF EARLY SAMPLES
The paper obtained by The Saturday Telegraph speaks about “the suppression and destruction of evidence” and points to “virus samples ordered destroyed at genomics labs, wildlife market stalls bleached, the genome sequence not shared publicly, the Shanghai lab closure for ‘rectification’, academic articles subjected to prior review by the Ministry of Science and Technology and data on asymptomatic ‘silent carriers’ kept secret”.
It paints a picture of how the Chinese government deliberately covered up the coronavirus by silencing doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence from the Wuhan laboratory and refusing to provide live virus samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.
The US, along with other countries, has repeatedly demanded a live virus sample from the first batch of coronavirus cases. This is understood to have not been forthcoming despite its vital importance in developing a vaccine while potentially providing an indication of where the virus originated.
THE LAB WORKER WHO DISAPPEARED
Out of all the doctors, activists, journalists and scientists who have reportedly disappeared after speaking out about the coronavirus or criticising the response of Chinese authorities, no case is more intriguing and worrying than that of Huang Yan Ling.
A researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the South China Morning Post reported rumours swirling on Chinese social media that she was the first to be diagnosed with the disease and was “patient zero”.
Then came her reported disappearance, with her biography and image deleted from the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s website.
On February 16 the institute denied she was patient zero and said she was alive and well, but there has been no proof of life since then, fanning speculation.
US President Donald Trump has been urging China to be transparent about how the virus spread. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP
DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE
On December 31, Chinese authorities started censoring news of the virus from search engines, deleting terms including “SARS variation, “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”
On January 1 without any investigation into where the virus originated from, the Wuhan seafood market was closed and disinfected.
It has been reported in the New York Times that individual animals and cages were not swabbed “eliminating evidence of what animal might have been the source of the coronavirus and which people had become infected but survived”. The Hubei health commission ordered genomics companies to stop testing for the new virus and to destroy all samples. A day later, on January 3, China’s leading health authority, the National Health Commission, ordered Wuhan pneumonia samples be moved to designated testing facilities or destroyed, while instructing a no-publication order related to the unknown disease.
Doctors who bravely spoke out about the new virus were detained and condemned. Their detentions were splashed across the Chinese-state media with a call from Wuhan Police for “all citizens to not fabricate rumours, not spread rumours, not believe rumours.”
A tweet from the Global Times on January 2 states: “Police in Central China’s Wuhan arrested 8 people spreading rumours about local outbreak of unidentifiable #pneumonia. Previous online posts said it was SARS.” This had the intended effect of silencing other doctors who may have been inclined to speak out.
So the truth about the outbreak in China has remained shrouded in secrecy, with President Xi Jinping aggressively rejecting global calls for an inquiry.
The dossier is damning of China’s constant denials about the outbreak.
“Despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December, PRC authorities deny it until January 20,” it states.
“The World Health Organisation does the same. Yet officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.”
The paper exposes the hypocrisy of China’s self-imposed travel bans while condemning those of Australia and the United States, declaring: “Millions of people leave Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing locks down the city on January 23.” “Thousands fly overseas. Throughout February, Beijing presses the US, Italy, India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours and others not to protect themselves via travel restrictions, even as the PRC imposes severe restrictions at home.” In the paper, the Western governments are pushing back at what they call an “assault on international transparency”.
“As EU diplomats prepare a report on the pandemic, PRC successfully presses Brussels to strike language on PRC disinformation,” it states.
“As Australia calls for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, PRC threatens to cut off trade with Australia. PRC has likewise responded furiously to US calls for transparency.”
Chair of Australia’s Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security Andrew Hastie said after the cover-up and disinformation campaign from China, the world needed transparency and an inquiry.
“So many Australians have been damaged by the mismanagement of COVID-19 by the Chinese government, and if we truly are as close as Beijing suggests we are then we need answers about how this all started,” he said.
KEY DATES IN COVID COVER-UP
November 9, 2015:
Wuhan Institute of Virology publish a study revealing they created a new virus in the lab from SARS-CoV.
December 6, 2019
Five days after a man linked to Wuhan’s seafood market presented pneumonia-like symptoms, his wife contracts it, suggesting human to human transmission.
December 27
China’s health authorities told a novel disease, then affecting some 180 patients, was caused by a new coronavirus.
December 26-30
Evidence of new virus emerges from Wuhan patient data.
December 31
Chinese internet authorities begin censoring terms from social media such as Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.
January 1, 2020
Eight Wuhan doctors who warned about new virus are detained and condemned.
January 3
China’s top health authority issues a gag order.
January 5
Wuhan Municipal Health Commission stops releasing daily updates on new cases. Continues until January 18.
January 10
PRC official Wang Guangfa says outbreak “under control” and mostly a “mild condition”.
January 12
Professor Zhang Yongzhen’s lab in Shanghai is closed by authorities for “rectification”, one day after it shares genomic sequence data with the world for the first time.
January 14
PRC National Health Commission chief Ma Xiaowei privately warns colleagues the virus is likely to develop into a major public health event.
January 24
Officials in Beijing prevent the Wuhan Institute of Virology from sharing sample isolates with the University of Texas.
February 6
China’s internet watchdog tightens controls on social media platforms.
February 9
Citizen-journalist and local businessman Fang Bin disappears.
April 17
Wuhan belatedly raises its official fatalities by 1290.
Panic has gripped Taveta sub-county at the Kenya-Tanzania border after a middle-aged man reported to have escaped from a Covid-19 quarantine facility in Tanzania was admitted at Taveta sub-county hospital following a freak accident on Friday night.
The man, a Kenyan, was quarantined in Tanzania but later escaped due to alleged harsh conditions he encountered.
He sneaked across the border undetected on Thursday and went back to his home.
In a bizarre twist, he was involved in an accident that would see him seek medical attention.
It was only after he was rushed to Taveta sub-county hospital that his quarantine history came to light.
A worried source at Taveta sub-county hospital said the man was initially admitted due to the injuries from the accident and not symptoms related to Covid-19.
“After getting information about his history, the team handling him panicked. It was quite a shocker,” said the source.
After that disclosure, the patient was immediately transferred to a holding room as samples were taken to Kenya Medical Research Institute (KeMri) laboratory in Kilifi for testing.
Already, security agencies and teams of medics have launched the process of contact tracing to identify all the individuals who might have come into contact with the patient since he sneaked back into the country.
KNA could not independently establish the number of days the patient had spent in Tanzania quarantine facility.
When contacted on Saturday, County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Health John Mwangeka confirmed that the patient was in a secure holding facility in Taveta sub-county while the county medical team awaited his test results.
He added that medics in Taveta had adequate training on handling any eventuality relating to covid-19.
The CECM further pointed out that tracing of the contacts has started as he expressed optimism that all of them will be found.
“We are waiting for the results for samples sent to Kilifi. While we do, we are looking for anyone who came into contact with the patient. This is a normal precautionary measure,” he said.
To date, the county has not reported any Covid-19 case. The county has intensified screening of temperature for highway users, fumigating of towns, and deployment of public hand-washing points and closure of high-risk businesses as part of interventions to keep Coronavirus at bay.
However, the Taveta incident brings to the fore the dangers and threats posed to the county by a poorly-manned and incredibly porous border between Kenya and Tanzania.
Security agencies have grappled with several measures to seal the border and stop all cross-border movements but challenges still persist.
Security heads in the region admit that such efforts have been defeated by the presence of many illegal routes used by villagers and unscrupulous traders who are still sneaking into Kenya from Tanzania.
Despite intensified patrols, border crossing incidents are still being reported and attributed in parts to some rogue patrol officials who have been compromised by the illegal crossers.
Former Governor John Mruttu, whose home is in Taveta, called upon the residents of the border villages to be vigilant and report cases of foreigners and local people who are crossing over to Tanzania. He said the region was most vulnerable due to its proximity to the border.
“We must all work together to ensure we put our safety first. This is a time to be vigilant for all,” urged the former governor.
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted authorization to Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) for emergency use of its experimental antiviral drug remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19, it said in a letter to Gilead.
During a meeting in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O’Day called the move an important first step and said the company was donating 1.5 million vials of the drug to help patients.
Gilead said on Wednesday the drug had helped improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and provided data suggesting it worked better when given earlier in the course of infection.
The closely watched drug has moved financial markets in recent weeks, following the release of several studies that painted a mixed picture of its effectiveness.
Vice President Mike Pence said the 1.5 million vials would start being distributed to hospitals on Monday.
Kenya is now scaling up its testing capacity with a decentralized system away from the National Influenza Centre. Ministry of health has approved and listed laboratories across the country that have cut above the standards of measure for testing novel SARS-COV-2 viral infections.
The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province. Picture: Hector Retamal/AFP
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking out in the interests of national security and biosecurity. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP
President Xi Jinping waves to a coronavirus patient and medical staff via a video link at the Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan on March 10. Picture: Xie Huanchi/XINHUA/AFP
Shi Zhengli, director of the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Wuhan Institute of Virology, who working in Australia in 2006.
Australian Animal Health Laboratory, in East Geelong, is part of the CSIRO. Picture: Andy Rogers
US President Donald Trump has been urging China to be transparent about how the virus spread. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP
