Emirates to fly from India again after ban over virus

Jun 20 2021

Emirates airline says it will resume flights from India from June 23, after Dubai lifted a ban over the coronavirus

Dubai (AFP) - Aviation giant Emirates said Sunday it will resume flights from India from next week, after Dubai lifted a ban imposed when coronavirus cases spiked.

The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, suspended all flights from India – including for transit passengers – in April in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“We will resume carrying passengers from South Africa, Nigeria and India… from June 23,” Emirates said in a statement.

Dubai said on Saturday that only passengers from India “with a valid residence visa and who have received two doses of a UAE-approved vaccine” would be allowed to travel to the emirate.

They would also need a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of departure, a rapid test four hours before departure, and another PCR test on arrival with “institutional quarantine” required until the results are received.

Dubai authorities did not specify the rules for transit passengers and Emirates did not say whether transit passengers were allowed to fly through Dubai en route to third nations.

Some 300 flights a week were operating between the UAE and India before the ban was announced in April, according to local media, making the air corridor one of the busiest in the world.

The UAE is home to some 3.3 million Indians who make up a third of the population – most of them in Dubai.

Some Indians who had been stranded in their homeland during a coronavirus surge had hired private jets to take them back to the UAE, which had exempted private jets from the ban.

Agence France-Presse

AFP journalists cover wars, conflicts, politics, science, health, the environment, technology, fashion, entertainment, the offbeat, sports and a whole lot more in text, photographs, video, graphics and online.

© 2021 AFP

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Nairobi, Kenya

 

Kagwe roots for social protection to cushion economically vulnerable Kenyans

By Citizen Reporter For Citizen Digital

 Published on:  March 31, 2021 15:46 (EAT)

        

FILE - A woman walks on a street at the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum in the capital Nairobi, Kenya, March 16, 2015. PHOTO | REUTERS

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has underscored the role of social protection programmes’ to ease economic challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: GBV survivors and those at risk should be considered when setting up policies for social protection

Kagwe noted that well thought out social protection programmes will act as safeguards for the economically vulnerable.

“Social protection is an effective way to protect immediate human needs and to cushion economic reversals by protecting productive assets,” he said. “If governments have channels in place that they can use to put income into people’s hands when they lose their livelihoods, they can forestall losses that might set economic recovery back years.”

He was speaking at the 23rd African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Virtual Senior Policy Seminar on Wednesday.

Also Read: Third of world’s people get no gov’t aid during COVID-19 pandemic: Oxfam

Also Read:

1. Raila on COVID-19: I was very sick but I’m fine now
2. Kenyans warned against venturing in and out of COVID-19 zoned area
3. COVID-19 vaccine considerations for people with underlying medical conditions: CDC

The seminar, which featured delegates from across the continent, including Central Bank Governors, Finance and Economic Affairs Ministers among other stakeholders, was hosted under the theme The Global COVID-19 Health Pandemic and Its Implications for the African Economies.

In his speech, CS Kagwe noted that with new infections on the rise, it is a race against time for governments to re-look at some policy interventions necessary to provide appropriate coping and recovery mechanisms to respond to the crisis.

Social protection initiatives, he said, support positive health outcomes by mitigating economic shocks, such as income losses resulting from the measures governments have imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

CS Kagwe advised economic policy stakeholders to consider adopting social protection measures such as the Kazi Mtaani initiative.

“The objective is to avoid panic sales of productive assets, ensure households keep a roof over their heads, help small businesses to pay wages of furloughed staff, and to provide public works employment while the informal sector is paralysed,” he said.

Also Read: The unspoken inequality of the COVID-19 pandemic

Other speakers at the seminar included AERC Executive Director Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, and Dr Arqebe Oqubay, Senior Minister and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

At the seminar, Equity Bank (Kenya) Board Chairman Amb. Erastus Mwencha, who is also the former Vice-Chair of the African Union, served as the Chair of a Special Session honouring the first AERC Executive Director and former Governor of the Tanzania Central Bank, Prof. Bennu Ndulu, who passed on last month (February).

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck business ecosystems, affected livelihoods and threatens to overturn sub-Saharan Africa’s development progress and growth projections.

It has brought to the fore economic challenges and exposed many institutions’ frailty across the continent.

France schools to close under third lockdown

French President Emmanuel Macron stands outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

France schools to close under third lockdown

Macron said that schools would move to remote learning from next week.

In Summary

• The country is facing a peak of over 5,000 people in intensive care.

• All non-essential shops are to close from Saturday and there will be a ban on traveling more than 10km (six miles) from home without good reason.

French President Emmanuel Macron stands outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

French President Emmanuel Macron stands outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

French schools will close for at least three weeks as part of new national restrictions to fight rising Covid cases, President Emmanuel Macron says.

Macron said that schools would move to remote learning from next week.

Lockdown measures, introduced in some areas of France earlier this month, are also being extended to other districts.

All non-essential shops are to close from Saturday and there will be a ban on traveling more than 10km (six miles) from home without good reason.

The country is facing a peak of over 5,000 people in intensive care.

On Wednesday, the country's health ministry reported 59,038 new cases.

France has so far reported more than 4.6 million cases of coronavirus and 95,495 Covid-related deaths.

What measures has Macron announced?

In his live televised address on Wednesday, Macron described the situation in the country as "delicate" and said that April would prove crucial. "We will lose control if we do not move now," he said.

The 43-year-old president said it was a race between vaccinations on the one hand and attempting to control the spread of the virus on the other.

He said that while schools would be closing from next week, classes would remain open for the children of key workers.

Macron said that measures introduced in 19 districts earlier this month - including the closure of non-essential businesses, exercise restricted to within 10km of an individual's home, and a ban on travel to other parts of the country without a valid reason - would be extended nationwide.

"Everyone should limit their contacts with other people," he said, adding that people would be given the Easter weekend to get themselves to where they want to spend the lockdown.

Russian Covid-19 Vaccine SPUTNIK V finally AUTHORIZED IN KENYA-a partnership with The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund)

SPUTNIK V AUTHORIZED IN KENYA

Moscow, March 10, 2021 – The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announces the approval of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in the Republic of Kenya.

Sputnik V has been registered under the emergency use authorization procedure. It is now approved for use in 47 countries globally with total population of over 1.2 billion people.

Sputnik ranks second among coronavirus vaccines globally in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators.

Sputnik V had been approved earlier in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San-Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana, Egypt, Honduras, Guatemala, Moldova, Slovakia, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Laos, Iraq and North Macedonia.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said:

“With the authorization of Sputnik V in Kenya there are now 10 African nations that have registered the Russian vaccine. Sputnik V is approved in 47 countries around the world with more registrations expected in coming weeks. It is truly a vaccine for all humankind and one of the best solutions to fight the pandemic.”

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6% as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals; it is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%; Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.

The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca on a joint clinical trial to improve the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine.

There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.

***

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia's sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 to make equity co-investments, primarily in Russia, alongside reputable international financial and strategic investors. RDIF acts as a catalyst for direct investment in the Russian economy. RDIF’s management company is based in Moscow. Currently, RDIF has experience of the successful joint implementation of more than 80 projects with foreign partners totaling more than RUB2 tn and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF portfolio companies employ more than 800,000 people and generate revenues which equate to more than 6% of Russia’s GDP. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 18 countries that total more than $40 bn. Further information can be found at rdif.ru

For additional information contact:

Alexey Urazov
Russian Direct Investment Fund
Director for External Communications
Mobile: +7 915 312 76 65
E-mail: Alexey.Urazov@rdif.ru

Andrew Leach / Maria Shiryaevskaya
Hudson Sandler
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7796 4133