Ambassador Aurelien Lechevallier, briefing the media yesterday, insisted the doctors view in no way reflect the position of the French 

French Ambassador Aurelien Lechevallier says the remarks by  two French doctors show they should be looking after patients rather than saying stupid things that they know nothing about.

There was a need to test vaccines. 

Currently a decades old  anti-tuberculosis medicine known as BCG is being tested on a limited number of COVID 19 patients in Australia, Netherland and France among other countries.

He says this could also be tested in Africa,

(Take in test clip here)

The medicine needs to be tested in different areas with different specificities.

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She’s a 29 year-old United Nations worker from the Netherlands.

Only four African countries now remain free of coronavirus infections.

The COVID 19 patient in South Sudan is recovering well.

She returned from a home visit shortly before the UN declared a travel ban on its staff in South Sudan.

World Health Organisation workers are tracing those who came into close contact with her.

Seven years of civil that killed 50 000 – and possibly eight times that amount – and displaced four million, has left South Sudan is pitifully under resourced to fight a pandemic like COVID 19.

It has four ventilators to serve it 11-million population.

African cases of COVID 19 now exceed 9000 with 444 deaths.

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The West African country is playing a leading role in fighting the spread of the virus.

ends intro

In addition to closing its land sea and air borders, Senegal is focusing on potential COVID 19 infections.

Following the World Health Organisation’s instruction to test, test and test, Senegal is working with a British company its on developing a R20 test for infection by the virus that will take only nine minutes to reveal a result.

Senegal is controversially also working on using the anti-malarial drug chloroquine to treat infection.

The country has 44 confirmed cases of COVID 19 with 60 recoveries  and one death.

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They are all small, relatively remote and have tests rates either extremely low or not all.

South Africa continues to top the continental table of COVID 19 infections.

Its1462 cases recorded this morning are far and away ahead of second place Algeria which has 986 cases.

Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia follow that.

The African countries that have not recorded COVID19 cases are Comoros, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan  and Western Sahara.

All of these fall into the World Health Organisation’s remote category mentioned when it confirmed that the global infections exceed one million.

The total number of African deaths from COVID 19 is currently 290.

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Authorities in Mogadishu are dealing with a handful of coronavirus infection. However they fear things will get out of control if the Al Shabaab misinformation against traction.

At least a quarter of a million people died in the famine a decade ago when Al Shabaab prevented people from accepting international aid.

Now the terror groupm is saying COVID19 is being spread by crusaders and their disbeliever allies.

Muslim  clerics in Mogadishu are using loud hailers at street corners to nail the lie and persuade the people that getting the help of the World Health Organisation is vital.

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Alitalia has sent a plane to fetch them.

Expecting to enjoy a beach holiday, 224 Alitalia passengers landed on Mauritius today.

Authorities said 20 of them from Veneto and Lombardy had to go into quarantine or turn around.

The areas are in northern Italy where five people have died of coronavirus that has sickened at least 200 since last Friday.

The flu-like disease that originated in China is spreading with some European doctors warning of a global pandemic.

There have been no deaths from coronavirus in Africa, but the World Health Organization says the continent is ill equipped to deal with it spreading there.

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Death toll from the flu-like ailment has topped 600 and 31 000 people have been sickened – mostly in China.

It is not sure how China will spend the $2-million given by Equatorial Guinea.

The World Health Organisation says China is running out of surgical masks and protective equipment used to prevent the virus spreading.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema says the donation from Equatorial Guinea reflects the  deep and longstanding bilateral relationship.

China has always shown  the deepest support and solidarity to Equatorial Guinea.

There has been no confirmed coronavirus infection in subSaharan Africa but many countries have taken preventative measures.

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The UN body blames this violence on lack of coordination between blue-helmeted peacekeepers and the Congolese army.

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The WHO has had to move 500 health workers way from the eastern DRC  because of violence from rebels and  from residents attacking MONUSCO  personnel and facilities for failing to protect them.

The health workers have come under attack from septics who say they are profiting from public misery.

The 16-month EBOLA outbreak, which is the tenth in the DRC and the second worst in history. has killed at least 2 200 people.

New cases had diminished from 100 a week to ten before the new violence.

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A 5-year-old Congolese boy who came to Uganda with his family has died of the deadly hemorrhagic disease. His three-year-old bother and 50-year-old grandmother are confirmed to have contracted it.

ends intro

World Health Organisation Africa director Matshidiso Moeti says countries are discouraged from sending EBOLA victims back to their place of origin.

Uganda has been prepared for a spill over of EBOLA from the DRC since the world’s second worst outbreak began there last July.

There is increased screening of the border to prevent EBOLA carriers crossing into Uganda.

An intensive vaccination campaign is underway of the boy’s family and everyone they have had contact with.

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A five-year-old Congolese boy, who travelled with his family into Uganda, has the hemorrhagic disease that has killed nearly 1400 people since last July in the second-worst outbreak on the planet.

There have been scares about EBOLA moving from the Eastern DRC into neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

This first confirmed case was announced in a tweet from World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus.

It was quickly detected but much will depend on the speed and efficiency of the Ugandan response.

More than 2 000 Congolese have been sickened by the latest outbreak of the disease.

This number has accelerated in recent weeks because of rebel attacks on medical facilities and resistance from suspicious local communities.

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