Around 1.8 billion people are at heightened risk of COVID-19 and other diseases because they use or work in health care facilities without basic water services, warn the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund. "Working in a health care facility without water, sanitation and hygiene is akin to sending nurses and doctors to work without personal protective equipment" said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "Water supply, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities are fundamental to stopping COVID-19. But there are still major gaps to overcome, particularly in least developed countries." As of 16 December 2020, 2,408,385 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed across Africa of which 57,072 proved fatal and 2,036,030 resulted in recoveries.
In the past week, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to rise with 70 million cumulative cases and 1.6 million deaths globally ... see more »
Citing progress made in Namibia - which saw a recent spike in Covid-19 cases - the World Health Organisation has said that contact tracing is looked upon as the bridge between ... Read more »
In Benin, the World Health Organisation (WHO) welcomed the nation's expansion of laboratory facilities for testing Covid-19, allowing it to perform 10,000 tests per day. Similarly, ... Read more »
According to the World Health Organisation, although the Africa region saw a slow but continuous decline in newly-reported cases since mid-July, there were 11% more cases reported ... Read more »
An official from the Nairobi Health Department disinfects a street (file photo).
AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 400 news and information items daily from over 100 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
