JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s communications minister has paid an admission-of-guilt fine for lunching at a friend’s house during lockdown, the country’s National Prosecuting Authority said yesterday.
Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams publicly apologised after being placed on special leave earlier this month for flouting a stay-at-home order meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
She was suspended after a picture posted on Instagram showed her having lunch at the home of a former deputy minister during the second week of lockdown, which came into force on 27 March and is set to run through to the end of April.
A statement from the National Prosecuting Authority said Ndabeni-Abrahams had paid an admission of guilt fine of 1 000 rand for failing to confine herself to her home.
The state alleged her lunch stop was unlawful under lockdown regulations, which only allow citizens to leave their homes for groceries, pharmaceuticals and medical appointments.
NAIROBI – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Kenyan police of killing at least six people and beating and extorting others while enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Kenya imposed the 19h00 to 05h00 lockdown from 27 March.
The rights watchdog said yesterday the police had imposed the measure in a “chaotic and violent manner from the start”, sometimes whipping, kicking and tear gassing people to force them off the streets. “At least” six individuals had been killed, it said.
HRW described the case of a 13-year-old boy who died in Nairobi on 31 March after being shot while standing on his balcony as the police forced people into their homes on the street below.
In another incident, a tomato seller died after being hit by a tear-gas canister, while four men were beaten to death in different parts of the country, .
“It is shocking that people are losing their lives and livelihoods while supposedly being protected from infection,” said Otsieno Namwaya, senior Africa researcher at HRW, in a statement. “Police brutality isn’t just unlawful; it is also counterproductive in fighting the spread of the virus.”
WASHINGTON – A second wave of the novel coronavirus in the United States could be even more destructive because it will likely coincide with the beginning of the influenza season, one of the country’s top health officials said on Tuesday.
Robert Redfield, director of the centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called on Americans to use the coming months to prepare – and get their flu shots.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with The Washington Post published late Tuesday. “We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said.
Redfield said the virus arrived in the US just the as regular flu season – which itself can strain healthcare systems – was waning.
If the two diseases had peaked at the same time, he said, “it could have been really, really, really, really difficult” for health systems to cope.
Getting a flu vaccination ahead of the next flu season, he said, “may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus”.
– Nampa-AFP
