10:28
Charities are helping Indian villagers struggling with the coronavirus outbreak by setting up helplines connecting them to vital services.
Due to the lack of reliable internet services in some rural areas, charities involved in the Disaster Emergency Committee’s fundraising for India are helping link villagers to oxygen supplies, hospital beds and advising them on how to care for patients at home.
Save the Children India’s spokesperson, Madhura Kapdi, said many of the calls to their helplines are from children traumatised by the pandemic.
“We, as adults, are grappling with this situation, and we are not maybe able to make sense of it all. Just imagine what happens to children if they don’t have anybody that they can talk to about this, or aren’t able to comprehend everything shutting down, nothing working, no schools, parents are at home for there are no jobs, there’s very little food in the home. It’s very stressful not being with friends,” said Kapdi.
Action Against Hunger and ActionAid are also running helplines, as well as Christian Aid, which are supporting migrant workers trying to return to their homes.
Updated
09:26
A year after the late Tanzanian president John Magufuli denied the existence of coronavirus in the country, the government will start reporting on the prevalence there of the disease.
According to recommendations by a taskforce appointed by president Samia Suluhu to evaluate the prevalence of the disease in the country, the government will draft a new coronavirus treatment guide, increase testing for the disease and build capacity to detect other variants of the virus.
“Government will provide data on Covid-19 disease to the public and the World Health Organization so that citizens can get the correct information from the authorities while respecting agreements and regulations that the country is signatory to,” states the committee report.
And in a marked departure from the hardline stance taken against the use of vaccines by Magufuli, the country will start administering vaccines approved by the WHO through the Covax facility, first to protect frontline health workers, tourism industry employees, border personnel, religious leaders, pilgrims and those aged 50 and above.
The committee reports that Tanzania has had two deadly waves of the virus, and a third was likely.
The task force gave no figures regarding any deaths or hospitalisations resulting from the two waves.
Tanzania had not provided the WHO with any figures related to Covid-19 since May 2020, when it reported 509 confirmed cases and 21 deaths. Since then, a number of high-ranking government officials have died of coronavirus-related complications.
In February, the WHO reported that some Tanzanians travelling to neighbouring countries had tested positive for coronavirus, prompting Kenya to ban passenger traffic between the two countries in May 2020.
Despite the new recommendations, the committee insists Tanzanians should continue using “natural remedies and other alternatives that conform to the basics of science”.
Updated
09:14
Fully vaccinated Britons could still be told to go into quarantine on arrival at their EU holiday destination if Downing Street fails to reciprocate by allowing Europeans to freely visit Britain, according to the text of an agreement between member states.
Representatives of the 27 members approved a change of policy on Wednesday under which anyone from a non-EU country could travel if they are able to prove that they have been fully vaccinated.
The full unpublished text of the agreement, seen by the Guardian, contains a significant threat to British hopes of a summer holiday in a European tourist destination.
The agreed text says that EU member states are to consider whether the government of a non-EU country is permitting their citizen’s entry without the need to quarantine or an obligation to take PCR tests.
As it stands, every EU country apart from Portugal is on the UK government’s so-called amber list. Those coming from a country on the amber list must quarantine at the place they are staying for ten days and take a Covid-19 test on or before day two and on or after day eight.
More on the EU’s Covid travel document here:
