Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, Friday announced he is reinstating mandatory mask regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after cases spiked in the country this week, especially in Vienna.

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At a news conference Friday, Kurz announced, beginning Monday, masks will be mandatory again in all public areas, like supermarkets and other retail shops, government buildings and schools. Masks have remained mandatory on public transit.  

Kurz said he doesn’t expect the situation to improve in coming weeks and “we are going to need these measures at least during winter time.” He cautioned other measures could become necessary and the goal was to prevent a lockdown.

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The government has also limited the number of people who can attend private gatherings and public indoor events.

The Austrian health ministry says the nation has seen a total of 32,136 total cases with 5,879 active cases, including 580 reported on Friday.

The government has now classified seven regions as “yellow” under its current coronavirus traffic-light system.

SOURCE:VOA

South Sudan’s Central Bank Has No More Foreign Cash Reserves 

By David Mono Danga 

JUBA – South Sudan’s Central Bank has run out of foreign cash reserves and there is nothing the bank can do to stop the South Sudanese pound from further depreciating against the U.S. dollar, according to a senior bank official.

“It’s difficult for us now at this moment to stop this rapid exchange rate because we don’t have the [foreign] reserves for us to intervene in the market,” said Daniel Kech Pouch, a bank second deputy, at a Wednesday news conference.

Pouch acknowledged South Sudan’s black market is flush with U.S. dollars, but he said those dollars never make their way into the Central Bank.

“There are other agencies that bring money to South Sudan that does not come through the Central Bank. And there are some commercial banks that bring money, which does not also come through the Central Bank. You know, the Central bank has no system that unifies the operation of the bank [with] the flow of money, whether inside or going outside,” Pouch told VOA.

International NGOs and other agencies bring money into the country, but they sell directly to the people on the street or on the black market, according to Pouch.

South Sudan’s economy has been devastated by several factors since independence in 2011, including a 5½-year civil war, a drop in global oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nearly all of South Sudan’s revenue comes from crude oil, but current output is only about 180,000 barrels per day, down from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the war erupted in 2013, according to government figures.

The country’s economic troubles date to January 2012, when South Sudan suspended all oil production following disputes with Sudan over processing and transit fees for exporting Juba’s crude.

When South Sudan emerged from its civil war, the government should have invested in the country’s infrastructure, said professor Marial Awou, former dean of economics at the University of Juba and vice chancellor of South Sudan’s Upper Nile University.

“It will have a severe impact on the economy of South Sudan. Even people who have things to sell, there’s no one buying. When they stay in their shops, in their selling places, when they get tired, they will pack their things and go home because no one is buying from them,” Awou told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

The Central Bank’s failure to obtain foreign currency will translate into more suffering for businesses and citizens, said Ahmed Morjan, an economics lecturer at the University of Juba.

“It will be very difficult for businesspeople to import goods from the outside world and hence it will have a negative impact on what we consume. On the common man, it’s going to be serious because we will not get what we want, we will not be able to buy what we want, and our consumption of almost everything will go down,” Morjan told South Sudan in Focus.

Political instability, corruption and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic explain why South Sudan’s Central Bank ran out of cash reserves, according to Morjan. He said the government should immediately ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout as a short-term solution.

“If we want a long-term solution, the country should diversify its exports and that can only be done if there’s peace. If there’s no peace then it cannot, but the immediate way to bail out the country [is] we need a bailout from some international financial institutions,” Morjan said.

The U.S. dollar exchanged for 165 South Sudanese pounds Thursday in the Central Bank. On the black market, the dollar exchanged for 400 South Sudanese pounds.

SOURCE:VOA

DETROIT — A young woman who was declared dead at her suburban Detroit home opened her eyes at a funeral home as she was about to embalmed, a lawyer said Monday.

“They would have begun draining her blood to be very, very frank about it,” Geoffrey Fieger told WXYZ-TV

The Southfield fire department acknowledged it was involved in a bizarre set of events Sunday that began when a medical crew was summoned to a home where a 20-year-old woman was unresponsive.

Paramedics tried to revive the woman for 30 minutes and consulted an emergency room doctor, the department said.

The doctor “pronounced the patient deceased based upon medical information provided” from the scene, the department said.

The Oakland County medical examiner’s office said the body could be released to the family without an autopsy, according to the fire department.

But then came a startling discovery at the James H. Cole funeral home in Detroit: The woman was still alive more than an hour later.

“Our staff confirmed she was breathing” and called a emergency medical crew, the funeral home said.

Fieger, who was hired by the family, identified the woman as Timesha Beauchamp.

“They were about to embalm her, which is most frightening, had she not had her eyes open. … The funeral home unzipping the body bag — literally — that’s what happened to Timesha, and seeing her alive with her eyes open,” Fieger said.

Fieger didn’t return a message from The Associated Press. Beauchamp was in critical condition Monday night, said Brian Taylor, spokesman for Detroit Medical Center.

“My heart is so heavy. Someone pronounced my child dead, and she’s not even dead,” Beauchamp’s mother, Erica Lattimore, told WDIV-TV.

Southfield said it’s conducting an internal investigation but insisted that the fire and police departments followed procedures.

source:ctvnews

Canada announced Friday that the border it shares with the U.S. will remain closed to nonessential travel for another month as the U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID-19 deaths and coronavirus infections.

Many Canadians remain concerned about reopening the border after Canada successfully flattened its epidemic curve.

Canada has more than 123,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 9,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. In contrast, the U.S. has more than 5.3 million cases, one-fourth of all the cases worldwide, and more than 168,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

FILE – People eat in the food court at the Eaton Centre shopping center after indoor dining restaurants, gyms and cinemas re-open under Phase 3 rules from coronavirus disease restrictions in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 31, 2020.

Canada, which first announced the border restrictions in March, made the announcement one day after Mexico announced similar restrictions for its border with the U.S.

Spain announced Friday a new set of restrictions to contain a surge in coronavirus cases. Health Minister Salvador Illa said all discos and night clubs will be closed across the country. He also said smoking in public areas would be banned if smokers are unable to stay at least two meters from other people.

A man smokes on a terrace bar in Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 14, 2020. Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa announced a range of new nationwide restrictions to help fight a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Spanish authorities have recorded nearly 50,000 cases over the past two weeks, an average of about 3,500 new cases a day.

In Paris, officials are expanding the areas of the city where pedestrians are required to wear face masks, including the Champs-Elysees Avenue and the area around the Louvre museum, as cases continue to increase in the country. France has nearly 250,000 cases and more than 30,400 deaths.

Meanwhile, a glitch in California’s COVID-19 reporting system undercounted the state’s cases by as many as 300,000 cases, state officials say.

Nurse practitioner Debbi Hinderliter, left, collects a sample from a woman at a coronavirus testing site near the nation’s busiest pedestrian border crossing, in San Diego, Aug. 13, 2020.

According to a New York Times database Friday, California is the first U.S. state to reach more than 600,000 COVID-19 cases, with almost 11,000 deaths.

Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday that while the number of cases in California is increasing, the number of confirmed infections as a percentage of tests done has declined from 7% to 6% statewide over the past two weeks.

“I’m not going to back off on more tests because I fear (more cases),” Newsom said.

The U.S. Postal Service is warning states that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted as the country ramps up preparations for larger numbers of mail-in votes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the Postal Service sent warning letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia.

Many states have made it easier to vote by mail to address voters’ concerns about public gatherings at election precincts during the pandemic.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert said he had hoped the U.S. would be in a better place by now with the coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus crisis hearing, July 31, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

“We certainly are not where I hoped we would be, we are in the middle of very serious, historic pandemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a National Geographic panel discussion Thursday.

Even though President Donald Trump said this week he expects the outbreak to be in “good shape … in a very short period of time,” Fauci said the number of cases will continue to rise unless federal and state governments can work together.

There has been no single coordinated strategy between Washington and the states on how to fight the outbreak. Some states have mask mandates and are continuing restrictions, while others do not require masks in public places and have eased the rules on social gatherings. 

Some states are seeing the number of cases rise while such hot spots as Arizona, California and Florida are improving and are “having now, less deaths, less hospitalizations, less cases,” Fauci said.

Fauci has said that the coronavirus will likely never go away but that health officials can work to bring it down to “low levels.”

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference organized by Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said governments must “do it all” – test, isolate and treat patients, and trace and quarantine all the people with whom they had contact.

Other experts are warning that unless world leaders take more action to contain it, the coronavirus could be just as or even deadlier than the 1918 flu pandemic, which is believed to have killed 50 million people worldwide.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open looked at New York City.

It says even when doctors take into account the technology, life-saving drugs and information that did not exist 100 years ago, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases during the first two months of the outbreak was “substantially greater” than the peak of the 1918 epidemic

IGP petitioned to charge Carlos Ahenkorah for breaching COVID-19 protocol

Carlos Ahenkorah

The Inspector-General of Police has been petitioned to institute criminal action against a former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, for breaching the coronavirus protocols.
The petitioner, Enoch Agyapong, who is a resident of the Tema West Constituency, told the IGP in his petition that Mr Ahenkorah put the life of his constituents at risk by mingling with them while he tested positive for COVID-19.

Mr Ahenkorah admitted to moving about at a registration centre despite his COVID-19 positive status in media interviews and subsequently resigned.

Portions of the petition read: “As you are well aware, the whole world is in a COVID-19 pandemic and Ghana has not been spared. In view of that, the President, through the Ministry of Health, has put in necessary measures to arrest the spread of the virus, which have been generally termed as the COVID-19 protocols. Notorious among these protocols is the requirement that a person, who is diagnosed to be positive with the virus, must observe a mandatory 14-day isolation and tested negative before coming out to engage the public. It is worthy of note that, the president of the Republic, the first gentleman of the land, observed a mandatory 14-day isolation, after he was exposed to a COVID-19 patient.”

“Against these much-publicised protocols, the Honourable Member of Parliament was diagnosed positive with the COVID-19 virus on the 23 day of June 2020, which required the Honourable Member of Parliament to have observed a 14-day mandatory isolation immediately after he was told of his positive status. However, against the much-publicised protocols and all good reason, the Honourable Member of Parliament decided to embark on a tour of registration centres in our constituency and widely interacted with some of his constituents.”

THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE

GHANA POLICE SERVICE

HEADQUARTERS

ACCRA

Dear Sir,

PETITION TO COMMENCE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MR. CARLOS AHENKORAH, HONOURABLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR TEMA WEST CONSTITUENCY FOR VIOLATING THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 2012 (ACT 851)

I, Enoch Agyapong, residents of the Tema West Constituency humbly petition your good offices for the commencement of criminal proceedings against Hon. Carlos Ahenkorah, the incumbent Member of Parliament for the Tema West Constituency, for putting us his constituents at risk of the COVID-19 virus in violation of the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).

As you are well aware, the whole world is in a COVID-19 pandemic and Ghana has not been spared. In view of that, the President, through the Ministry of Health has put in necessary measures to arrest the spread of the virus, which have been generally termed as the COVID-19 protocols. Notorious among these protocols is the requirement that a person who is diagnosed to be positive with the virus must observe a mandatory 14-day isolation and tested negative before coming out to engage the public. It is worthy of note that, the president of the Republic, the first gentleman of the land, observed a mandatory 14-day isolation, after he was exposed to a COVID-19 patient.

Against these much-publicised protocols, the Honourable Member of Parliament was diagnosed positive with the COVID-19 virus on the 23rdday of June 2020, which required the Honourable Member of Parliament to have observed a 14-day mandatory isolation immediately after he was told of his positive status he should have been treated and discharge as negative of the virus. However, against the much publicized protocols and all good reason, the Honourable Member of Parliament decided to embark on a tour of registration centers in our constituency and widely interacted with some of his constituents.

The Honourable Member has since admitted on various media platforms that, he knew of his positive status at the time he embarked on the tour of the registration centers and has resigned his position as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, following a public outcry that was generated by his conduct.

I am of the firm conviction that, the conduct of the Honourable Member of Parliament is in violation of the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851). The relevant provisions of the Public Health Act are reproduced below;

Section 10. (1) A medical officer or an authorized health officer may

(a) cause a person suffering or suspected to be suffering from a communicable disease, whether in an infected area or not, to be removed to a health facility or designated place; and (b) detain that person until the medical officer or health officer determines that that person is safe to be discharged.

1. A person who, without lawful authority or excuse, the proof of which lies on that person,

(a) contravenes a provision of this Part for which a punishment is not provided, or does anything which, under this Part or under the Regulations that person ought not to do, or

(b) obstructs or impedes or aids or incites any other person to obstruct or impede a medical officer, veterinary officer, police officer, health officer, or any other person lawfully acting in the execution of a provision of this Part, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than fifty penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than three months, or to both. It is my contention that the conduct of the Honourable Member of Parliament after he was told of his positive COVID-19 status is in direct violation of the above provisions and that criminal proceedings ought to be instituted against him.

I would like your outfit to commence investigation leading to the death of one of his Coordinators, Osei Kofi Amankwah, who died as a result of COVID-19 on the 2ndof July 2020. It was evidently clear that the Honourable Member of Parliament had a meeting with the Coordinator on 21stof June 2020 whiles his samples had already been taken for COVID-19 testing waiting for the outcome, which eventually turned out to be POSITIVE.

Respectfully find attached the Hon. MP’s interview with Citi FM and Asempa FM as well as a video of him embracing party faithfuls whiles he was awaiting his test result which eventually turned out to be positive.

Respectfully submitted. Yours faithfully,

Akufo-Addo announces new directives to religious bodies

SOURCE;Adomonline.com

File photo: A congregation 90th

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has ordered that places of worship be opened fully and the duration of church services be extended from one hour to two hours.

The President had placed a ban on the full re-opening of churches as part of measures instituted by the government to control the spread of the COVID-19 disease.

In an address to the nation on Sunday night, the President said the churches must, however, ensure that there is the adherence to safety protocols.

“After further extensive consultation government has decided to open churches and mosque worship for 2 hours. Restriction on Attendance also lifted” he said.

All schools in Kenya will remain closed until next January because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Final year exams, usually taken in October and November, have also been cancelled.

Education Minister George Magoha said students would repeat a year as schools had closed in mid-March, three months after the school calendar had begun.

But colleges and universities are to reopen in September if they abide by strict guidelines.

The East African country has confirmed more than 8,000 cases of coronavirus with at least 164 deaths – and there has been a recent surge in new infections.

On Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a phased reopening of the country, including the lifting of travel restrictions in the main cities of Nairobi and Mombasa.

However, he did extend a nationwide overnight curfew – from 21:00 to 04:00 local time – for a further 30 days.

Kenya’s academic year runs from January to November.

“The 2020 school calendar year will be considered lost due to Covid-19 restrictions,” Mr Magoha said.

This would apply to public and private schools, he said.

The government-run Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has been providing school programmes via the radio, television and online since students stopped going to classes in March.

But while some have been able to cover the syllabus using these resources, there are many others who do not have access to the technology.

Mr Magoha said his ministry would explore how to make online learning accessible to all pupils.

(CNN)International students who are pursuing degrees in the United States will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only courses, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday.The move may affect thousands of foreign students who come to the United States to attend universities or participate in training programs, as well as non-academic or vocational studies.Universities nationwide are beginning to make the decision to transition to online courses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At Harvard, for example, all course instruction will be delivered online, including for students living on campus. For international students, that opens the door to them having to leave the US.”There’s so much uncertainty. It’s very frustrating,” said Valeria Mendiola, 26, a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “If I have to go back to Mexico, I am able to go back, but many international students just can’t.”In a news release Monday, ICE said that students who fall under certain visas “may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States,” adding, “The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States.”The agency suggested that students currently enrolled in the US consider other measures, like transferring to schools with in-person instruction. There’s an exception for universities using a hybrid model, such as a mix of online and in-person classes.Brad Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, said the announcement caught him and many others by surprise.”We think this is going to create more confusion and more uncertainty,” said Farnsworth, whose organization represents about 1,800 colleges and universities. “What we were hoping to see was more appreciation for all the different possible nuances that campuses will be exploring.”One concern with the new guidance, Farnsworth said, is what would happen if the public health situation deteriorates in the fall and universities that had been offering in-person classes feel they have to shift all courses online to stay safe.Visa requirements for students have always been strict and coming to the US to take online-only courses has been prohibited.”These are not some fly-by-night universities, these aren’t scams, these are legit universities who would normally have in-person curricula but for coronavirus,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. ”The bigger issue is some of these countries have travel restrictions on and they can’t go home, so what do they do then?” she added. “It’s a conundrum for a lot of students.”Harvard University President Larry Bacow said in a statement Monday evening that “we are deeply concerned that the guidance issued today by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement imposes a blunt, one-size-fits-all approach to a complex problem giving international students, particularly those in online programs, few options beyond leaving the country or transferring schools.”The guidance, Bacow continued, “undermines the thoughtful approach taken on behalf of students by so many institutions, including Harvard, to plan for continuing academic programs while balancing the health and safety challenges of the global pandemic.””We will work closely with other colleges and universities around the country to chart a path forward,” he said.The Trump administration has made a litany of changes to the US immigration system, citing the coronavirus pandemic, that have resulted in barring swaths of immigrants from coming to the country.Last month, the White House issued an immigration proclamation dramatically curtailing legal immigration to the US sending hundreds of people and businesses into a scramble to understand whether their future plans are derailed.In the proclamation, the administration argued that the “extraordinary circumstances” posed by coronavirus called for the suspension of employment-based visas. But immigrant advocates, industries and experts say the administration is taking advantage of the pandemic to make sweeping immigration changes and advance its agenda to slash legal immigration.Monday’s announcement, like the changes that preceded it, could similarly result in many foreign students who often pay high tuition to have to return to their home country.According to the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, about 1.2 million students who fall under the affected visas were enrolled and registered at more than 8,700 schools nationwide as of March 2018.Farnsworth said he sees the announcement as part of a larger pattern of moves by the administration that “have not set the right tone.””This is going to create I think more anxiety on the part of international students, and for those who are still thinking about where they’re going to go in the fall, I think this may push them in the direction of attending a university in another country,” he said.While students might have the option to transfer to a college or university offering in-person courses, it might be difficult to come by amid continued concerns over coronavirus. Some schools have announced plans to bring students back but shorten semesters, as well as cancel nearly all in-person classes through the semester.This story has been updated with additional quotes and information.

By Alexandra Meeks Family members hold hands as they pray at the first English Mass with faithful present at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, June 7, 2020.

(CNN)While you can still attend in-person church services in California, you can’t sing.The state, to curb a rapidly worsening pandemic, has temporarily banned singing and chanting in places of worship.”Practices and performances present an increased likelihood for transmission of Covid-19 through contaminated exhaled droplets and should occur through alternative methods like internet streaming,” the state’s Department of Public Health announced in an order Wednesday.California has had more than 24,000 coronavirus cases. On Tuesday, it announced 6,367 cases, the second highest total for the state since the pandemic began. This has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to tighten restrictions.Covid patients make up for about 30% of all hospitalizations, according to state data.Singing at services has proven to be one way to spread a virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The agency studied how coronavirus spread from one member to 87% of the singers at a Washington choir practiceand said in a report:”The act of singing, itself, might have contributed to transmission through emission of aerosols, which is affected by loudness of vocalization.”

Other changes

While the California Department of Public Health strongly recommends places of worship should continue to facilitate remote serves, in-person services are currently permitted in California if proper measures are followed.Among the existing protocols, all houses of worship are required limit their attendance to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, the order says.”Places of worship must take reasonable measures to remind congregants and visitors that they must use face coverings and practice physical distancing and should frequently wash their hands with soap for at least 20 seconds, use hand sanitizer, and not touch their face,” the order says.Offering plates and similar items that move between people at places of worship have also been temporarily discontinued.

source: CNN

The Ayew siblings were getting a charge out of heavenly seasons for their separate groups in the main two divisions in England before the break welcomed on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What’s more, after the resumption of both association battles, the two players are proceeding to flourish.

Preceding the end of the week, Andre had scored 12 association objectives for Swansea City in the Championship while Jordan had discovered the net multiple times for Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

This weekend, the two players were busy before objective once more, around the same time.

Jordan Ayew scored for Crystal Palace in their success over Bournemouth on Saturday in the Premier League, tapping home for the Eagles.

Andre Ayew likewise scored from the spot for Swansea after Conor Gallagher was brought down in the crate, as they whipped Middlesbrough 3-0 in the Championship.

This isn’t the first run through the two players have discovered the net around the same time this season. It isn’t even the second.Back in October, only hours after his sibling scored for Swansea City against Stoke, Jordan found the net late on for Premier League side Crystal Palace against West Ham United.

In February, Jordan Ayew scored the champ in Palace’s down against Brighton while Andre scored in Swansea’s 2-2 draw with Blackburn.

The two players will trust that this structure proceeds till the finish of the period and past.

SOURCE:CITINEWSONLINE.COM