Another Tanzanian truck driver has tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Uganda to increase the country's cases to 101. The 32-year-old who entered Uganda via the Mutukula border was the only positive case registered out of the 3,809 samples tested on Thursday. All the 718 community samples tested negative according to the ministry of Health.
In Kenya, two neighbourhoods — Eastleigh area in Nairobi, and the other in the coastal city of Mombasa have been closed after a surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus.
The two neighbourhoods were considered as coronavirus hotspots, and on Thursday, Kenyan authorities confirmed 25 new cases out of the 1,075 samples tested and 3 new deaths. The country's tally now stands at 607 infections and 29 deaths. Among Kenya's new cases, 22 were Kenyan nationals, one Tanzanian, a Ugandan and a Chinese national.
Rwanda reported 3 new cases and 3 new recoveries which takes the country's tally 271 confirmed cases and 133 recoveries with no deaths yet.
There were still no reports from Tanzania after President John Pombe Magufuli last week questioned the efficacy of the test kits - going as far as claiming that pawpaw, sheep, goat and bird samples that were disguised as human samples ended up testing positive at the National Influenza Laboratory in Dar es Salaam. Officially, there are 480 coronavirus cases and 16 deaths in Tanzania.
Police on Thursday summoned opposition MPs for boycotting parliament after 3 of their colleagues died within days after mysterious illnesses that they claim was coronavirus disease.
The MPs were given 24 hours to report or risk being handled as police have previously dealt with prostitutes in the past. The speaker of Tanzania's parliament Job Ndugai on Wednesday accused the opposition MPs of theft saying had already been paid a two-week advance of "sitting allowance", amounting to more than Shs 182m.
"In simple terms this is theft...And it's a very bad example of these leaders. You are being paid from poor citizens' money to work for them, but you abscond. You stage a baseless boycott but you've already pocketed the money. You have to return this money." Ndugai said.
Meanwhile, South Sudan, one of the last African countries to register COVID cases registered 16 new cases on Thursday. There were 1,978 new infections and 60 new deaths on Thursday compared to 1,908 new cases and 48 new deaths on Wednesday in Africa. Egypt once again had the most deaths on the continent within 24 hours at 13.
The north African country also recorded 393 new cases. Chad also registered double-figure deaths at 10 and 83 new cases. Chad now has a total of 27 deaths and 253 confirmed cases.
South Africa had 8 new deaths and 424 new cases while Algeria had 7 new deaths and 185 new cases. In Morocco, there were 185 new cases. Cameroon registered 2 new cases, Guinea 71 new cases. Senegal reported one new death and 59 new cases.
In Djibouti there 9 new cases. Sudan's deaths increased to 52 after 3 new deaths and 78 new cases were recorded on Thursday. Mayotte had 66 new cases and one death while Niger also recorded 4 new deaths and 11 new cases.
Somalia had 5 new deaths and 55 new cases. Gabon recorded 42 new cases and 2 new deaths. Madagascar recorded 35 new cases, Ethiopia 29 new case, Cape Verde 27 new cases, Eswatini 30 new cases and Togo 7 new cases.
In the USA there were 1,894 new deaths and 24,446 new cases. UK posted 539 deaths and 5,614 new cases. Spain had 213 deaths, Russia 88 deaths, France 178 deaths, Brazil 21 deaths, Spain 212 deaths while Italy had 274.
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