Tag: Covid 19

Africans in America's Media

A Nigerian Doctor’s Fight for Equitable Access to Vaccines

By Ginanne Brownell | The New York Times

Dr. Ayoade Alakija, an infectious disease specialist based in Nigeria, is co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA). In December 2021, Dr. Alakija, nicknamed Yodi, was put in charge of accelerating equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines for the World Health Organization’s global initiative known as the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator. She uses the term “global north” to describe high-income countries and “global south” to describe low- and middle-income countries.

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Embassies & High Commissions

Consulate holds memorial for Nigerian COVID-19 victims in New York

By Tosin Omoniyi | Premium Times

The Consulate-General of Nigeria in New York on Saturday held a remembrance ceremony to honour the memory of Nigerians who died from COVID-19 within its jurisdiction.

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Uncategorized

Toronto-based Mastercard Foundation to spend $1.3B to vaccinate Africans for COVID

By GERALD IMRAY and HALELUYA HADERO | The Associated Press

One of the world’s largest foundations will spend $1.3 billion over the next three years to acquire and deliver COVID-19 vaccines for more than 50 million people in Africa. It’s a first-of-its-kind effort for a Western nonprofit to bolster Africa’s lagging vaccination campaign amid widespread fears of a third wave of infections on the continent.

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Education

Two UC Berkeley Students From Africa Grapple With COVID-19, Racial Violence in the US


By Chloe Veltman | KQED

Abdoul Aziz Sandotin Coulibaly has seen plenty of riots and civil unrest in his native Ivory Coast. But the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol this week shocked and saddened the 23-year-old UC Berkeley graduate student.

“I am not really sure if there will be any real inclusion or acceptance of diversity or end to racism in this country,” he wrote in an email to KQED. “Despite the constant praise of the U.S. as being a country that upholds democracy, this is a clear statement that the U.S. today is like a developing country – susceptible to coups and such actions.”

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Uncategorized

COVID-19 Pandemic Alters Lifestyle Of Nigerians In U.S.

By News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigerian Diaspora Movement (NDM) says the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic truncated the annual social lifestyles for many Nigerians in the U.S. in 2020. The Chairman of NDM, Prof. Apollos Nwauwa, made this known in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) .

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Uncategorized

Lost to COVID-19 | Ghanaian-born University of Akron professor hosted international students at his house every Thanksgiving

By Jennifer Pignolet | Akron Beacon Journal

Baffour Takyi knew what it was like to be far from home. The University of Akron professor was from Ghana, and he still had deep roots, including extended family, in the African nation. So every Thanksgiving, he and his wife invited Akron’s international students to their house for a meal. 

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Uncategorized

Dipo Oyeleye examines African music as pandemic response in PhD research inspired by COVID-19

By Yvonne Kim | The Capital Times | madison.com

If you have been on Instagram or TikTok this year, you have likely heard some rendition of “Bored in the House,” the pandemic anthem for videos documenting people’s cabin fever or stuck-at-home activities. You also may have heard the musical mashup “Coronavirus” by DJ iMarkkeyz, inspired by rapper Cardi B freaking out over the virus in early March. But while there have been some songs here and there, Dipo Oyeleye, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said European and American music have largely been devoid of COVID-19 topics.

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Uncategorized

Onyema Ogbuagu | Effusive praise for Nigerian doctor in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial

By Marcel Mbamalu and Chukwuma Muanya | The Guardian

Accolades are pouring for Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, the Nigerian-born medical doctor leading the Pfizer trial for the coronavirus vaccine in the United States. Ogbuagu is also director of the HIV Clinical Trials programme of the Yale AIDS Programme, Section of Infectious Diseases of the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, New York City.

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Uncategorized

Kojo Asamoa-Caesar |Ghanaian-American named Hero Of COVID-19

By Oral Ofori  | ModernGhana

Kojo Asamoa–Caesar became the first Ghanaian-American to receive a major political party nomination for federal office in the United States (US) when he was nominated to run for congress after winning the primaries in his district as a black man, a feat that hasn’t happened in over a century in that district. Mr. Asamoa-Caesar is TheAfricanDream.net Hero of COVID-19 for the month of November 2020.

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Uncategorized

Moncef Slaoui | Moroccan- American Vaccine czar says 20 Million Could Receive COVID-19 Vaccine in December

By Morgan Hekking  Morocco world News

Moncef Slaoui, the Moroccan scientist leading the US COVID-19 vaccine development team, said  that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of December. The chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed added that after December, between 25 million and 30 million people in the US could receive vaccines for COVID-19 each month.

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Uncategorized

Ghanaian-Americans Demand Policymakers to Approve Critical Coronavirus Relief for Americans

By PR.com | Benzinga

Washington, DC, Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective (GHPAC) extends the following statement regarding the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (“HEROES Act”):

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Uncategorized

Moncef Slaoui | Moroccan-born head of U.S. vaccine program expects data readouts in November-December

by | Reuters

The chief adviser for the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed COVID-19 vaccine program, Moncef Slaoui, on Tuesday said efficacy data readouts are expected from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc between next month and December.

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Uncategorized

Ilhan Omar Demands ICE Halt Deportations of Somalis Over COVID Concerns.

By Emily Zanotti |  DailyWire.com

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) penned a letter to the Department of Homeland Security last week demanding that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement halt plans to deport 39 Somali nationals over concerns that they could contribute to the “spread of COVID.”

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Uncategorized

Larry Madowo | Kenyan reporter interviews Bill Gates on Covid 19 vaccine access for Africa

By BBC

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said Covid-19 has “set back” public health efforts, reducing food distribution and inflating prices. Speaking to BBC World’s Larry Madowo, he said richer countries including the US had not yet done enough to make sure that vaccines will be available for all when ready for distribution.

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Entertainment

Tiffany Haddish | Eritrean American entertainer tests positive for coronavirus

By Bang Showbiz |

Eritrean-American entertainer, Tiffany Haddish has tested positive for coronavirus. The 40-year-old actress revealed she was working on a movie set when she learned that someone she “wasn’t in direct contact” with contracted the virus, forcing the production to shut down.

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Communities

How a Somali community took on a Minnesota meatpacking plant to contain a Covid-19 outbreak

By Chidinma Irene Nwoye | Quartz Africa

Six years ago, then 27-year-old Nimo Ibrahim started her new job deboning chickens at Pilgrim’s Pride in Cold Spring, Minnesota. For the young Somali refugee and single mother of three, the job was a lifeline as she had no other skills.

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Opinion

Going far together: The East African diaspora steps up to address COVID-19 in their home region

by Azan Virji | Global Voices

As COVID-19 threatens the lives of millions around the world, the East African community has not been immune to this threat. The region has reported over 7,000 cases as of June 14. When COVID-19 cases began to rise in my home country of Tanzania, I became very concerned for my family members, all of whom have severe health issues that make them vulnerable to the virus.

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Uncategorized

Kenyan Villagers in Kisii follow kin’s burial in Minnesota via Zoom

By Capital News

A Kenyan-American, Dr. Thomas Nyambane, who died of Coronavirus in the United States, has been buried in Minnesota with his kin in Kenya following his burial via zoom. Dr. Nyambane’s body could not be transported back to Kenya due to travel restrictions around the world.

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Uncategorized

Covid-19: 41 Ghanaians Evacuated From USA arrive Accra

By ModernGhana

Some 41 Ghanaians who were in Washington DC, USA, have arrived in Ghana. Most of them were students who went on an exchange program sponsored by the State Department of the United States of America.

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Uncategorized

Another Kenyan succumbs to Covid-19 complications in Minneapolis, Minnesota

By Collins K’ebwato | KDRTV

A Kenyan American Mr. Richard Mumia Shimaka died last week in the US due to Covid-19 complications, raising the number of Kenyans who have died in the Diaspora through symptoms related to the deadly Corona Virus in the USA.

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Uncategorized

Hassan Nor, Somali elder and artist whose work depicted pre-war Somalia, dies of COVID-19

By SHEILA REGAN | SAHAN JOURNAL

Hassan Nor, a Somali elder and self-taught artist known for his intricate drawings layered with stories, characters, and aspects of cultural life from pre-civil war Somalia, died May 19 after contracting the coronavirus. He was 83. 

Hassan resettled in the United States in 2002, but the art he created earlier did not survive the journey.

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Covid-19: 33 Ghanaians Have Died In New York – Ghana’s US Ambassador

Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Baffour Adjei Bawuah has disclosed that a lot Ghanaians have died from COVID-19 in that country.

“Quite a number of Ghanaians have been affected and indeed we have 33 people who have been verified to have died from the disease in New York alone,” he said.

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Uncategorized

Coronavirus kills 20 Ghanaians in the United States

By Rayliza

Twenty (20) Ghanaians living in the United States (US) have died after contracting the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The figures were disclosed by officials of the Ghana Embassy in the United States of America (USA). The victims are reportedly members of the Ghanaian community, most of whom reside in New York and New Jersey.

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Uncategorized

Worker From Congo Dies After COVID-19 Outbreak at Iowa Plant

By Associated Press

An immigrant from Congo who worked at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Waterloo has died of the coronavirus, the company confirmed. The Congolese community in Waterloo has been mourning the death of Axel Kabeya, which several members announced on social media.

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Uncategorized

Canada pushes for African debt relief to ward off COVID-19 economic crisis

By Mike Blanchfield | The Canadian Press

Canada’s development minister says the government is pushing international actors to provide debt relief in Africa and other less-developed regions to help fight threats of hunger, economic ruin and terrorism from COVID-19. Karina Gould tells The Canadian Press the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa is rising, which is worrying because the continent doesn’t have the safety net to ward off an impending socioeconomic crisis that would accompany a health emergency.

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Opinion

The Cultural and Social Challenges to Slowing the Pandemic in Africa

The coronavirus was slow to make its way to Africa, but it is now there in full force and will be difficult to contain because of certain cultural and social behaviors.

By Chris Macoloo  | Stanford Social and Innovation Review

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Opinion

African Diaspora and Disparities in Healthcare in the Age of COVID-19

By Grace A. Jibril | The Liberian Observer

What can we learn from the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to face about ourselves both culturally and socioeconomically across either side of the Atlantic? A comparative look at disparities in local healthcare provision America offers a revealing perspective.

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Immigration

Fear keeps undocumented immigrants from hospitals despite coronavirus

By AFP

Fear of deportation. Fear of facing an unpayable bill. Fear of becoming a “public charge” and unable to obtain legal status. These are some of the reasons undocumented migrants including Africans are avoiding hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, many have contracted the disease and died, and the novel coronavirus is spreading with little check in the community.

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Evacuation of 700 Nigerians from US begins on May 10

By Adelani Adepegba | The Punch

Evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the novel coronavirus will begin on May 10, the Consulate of Nigeria in New York has announced. It said 700 Nigerians have registered with the missions in the US for the evacuation, which would be done in batches.

The Consul-General, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, disclosed this in a notice on Sunday.

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Jonathan Adewumi, Popular Entrepreneur and African Restaurant Owner, Dies from COVID-19

By Ruschell Boone  | NY1

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Jonathan Adewumi was the popular co-owner of the Amarachi restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn, but for many Nigerians he was much more than a restaurateur. The 57-year old was the person many called when they needed to make a business and personal connection. Now many are in mourning following his death from COVID-19.

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