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See no evil: 6 in 7 COVID-19 cases in Africa go undetected, according to the WHO. That means the continent’s COVID-19 cases could be as high as 59 million, far above the 8 million reported cases. This news also complicates otherwise encouraging reports of decreasing case loads. Senegal, for example, reported zero new cases on 20 October, the first time since the pandemic began. To address the disparity, the WHO Regional Office for Africa announced a new initiative to increase COVID-19 screening in...
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Beware the bottlenecks: The massive disruption to global supply chains could hamper the world’s economic recovery, and potentially require a redesign of the world’s shipping infrastructure. Nearly 13% of the world’s cargo ship capacity is tied up in delays, creating a domino effect of bottlenecks. “The supply chain is overwhelmed and inundated. It’s not sustainable at this point,” said the head of the US’s Port of Savannah, which, like many ports around the world, is overwhelmed by a glut of...
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Pandora’s box, open: This week, the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ) launched the “Pandora Papers,” its latest leaked investigation into the murky world of “offshore” finance. The data leak includes the names of more than 330 politicians in 91 countries, including 35 current and former world leaders, who seemingly participate in and benefit from a global system that enables illicit practices like corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion. Such activities undermine government revenues and trust in government at...
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African Marshall Plan: President Emmanuel Macron agreed to share 20% of France’s IMF-allocated emergency funds, Special Drawing Rights. This is a good move. But it risks setting a low bar for the remaining G7 countries — which will receive $282.8 billion SDRs even though they don’t need them. (In fact, some G7 countries may have economic rebounds so promising that the US will see its fastest growth rate since 1894.) Last week, African leaders continued calls for rich...
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Nuclear threat: As leaders and diplomats gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, French fury over a cancelled order for submarines risked undermining global cooperation on a real crisis: COVID-19, which has killed 60,000 people in the past week. Thankfully, sense (mostly) prevailed as President Joe Biden garnered support for a first-of-its kind goal to end the pandemic everywhere: vaccinate 70% of the world’s population in every country by September 2022, alongside important targets on...
The global response to COVID-19 is not working. So far this year, despite the development and roll out of effective vaccines, more than twice the number of people have died from COVID-19 than in all 2020. More than 8,000 people died each day in the past week.
A new target to vaccinate 70% of the population in all country income categories by September 2022 could provide the impetus needed to bring the pandemic under control. But as ONE’s latest analysis...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter, and read on for Tanzania’s take two, Biden’s efforts to convene a global vaccine summit, and a South African genomics lab that can help close the knowledge gap on Africa-originating variants.
Powder keg: Global food prices were up 33% in August from the year earlier, hitting emerging markets the hardest, and reaching the highest prices...
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Stop Biden time: Intent on building an “arsenal of vaccines for the world,” US President Joe Biden is calling for a global summit to boost vaccine supply. This comes on the back of a $3 billion commitment to vaccine manufacturing and a call for an “Apollo style” fund for pandemic preparedness, both of which are diplomatic leverage to push other leaders on their pledges on dollars and doses. Welcome news after G20 health ministers shared more rhetoric than...
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Brutal crescendo: Ethiopia’s cases increased by more than 1,800% between July and September — signaling the start of an alarming third wave in a country grappling to contain both the virus and a devastating civil war. Nation-wide, vaccination rates stand at just 2%, but that figure is nearly non-existent in Tigray due to the myriad challenges of administering vaccines in conflict zones and the destruction of at least 70% of the region’s health centers last fall. While the...
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A race against time: Countries that aren’t able to vaccinate at least 60% of their populations by mid-2022 may have GDP losses totalling $2.3 trillion between 2022 and 2025, per the Economist Intelligence Unit. South Africa and Morocco are the only African countries on track to reach this threshold by mid-2022, with the bulk of countries meeting that goal in 2023 and beyond. Consequently, sub-Saharan African nations will likely shoulder a 3% loss relative to the region’s GDP,...