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Providing the latest insights on coronavirus responses around the world.
Mexico: Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Testifies in Congress
Deputy Minister of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell was summoned to testify in a tumultuous Senate hearing regarding the administration’s measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deputy minister has become a focus point from opposition legislators to pinpoint the administration’s failures due to his popularity as the public face of the Ministry of Health. The…
Mexico: Lopez-Gatell Touts Ten-Week Mark of Decreasing Contagions
Deputy Minister of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell announced that Mexico has reached the ten-week mark of decreasing contagions, but acknowledged there is much to go as Europe deals with a second outbreak. Currently, Mexico has registered close to 790,000 confirmed cases and more than 82,000 deaths. Minister of Communications and Transportation Jorge Arganis announced that he…
São Tomé and Príncipe: state of calamity ended
Due to a significant reduction of new COVID-19 cases, on October 1, the government replaced the state of calamity by the situation of alert during 15 days.In September, the health authorities reported only 15 new cases of the disease.On 30 September the total number of cases was 911; 886 patients had recovered, 15 died of…
Nigeria: FinMin Forecasts Return To Growth In 2021
Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed forecast a return to economic growth for Nigeria early next year as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic eases. Her ministry has forecast growth of 3% and benchmarked oil at $40 per barrel in the approved 2021 budget, which goes before the Senate later this month. The minister faces a challenge…
Venezuela: IOCs prepare last oil cargoes amid U.S. Sanctions
A number of IOCs and multinational firms are planning to cease business operations with Venezuela’s NOC, PDVSA in the coming weeks. Since 2017, the U.S. government has ramped up sanctions, including an embargo on Venezuelan oil and a ban on bi-national business with any Venezuelan SOE. Last August, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized the limits…
Brazil: Former Health Minister Claims President Bolsonaro is Disloyal and Ignores Science
Former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta has published a book detailing his experiences with President Jair Bolsonaro during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. In the book, Mandetta claims Bolsonaro was “disloyal.” The former health minister claims that the president refused to sit down and evaluate the pandemic and its likely impacts on Brazil.…
Mexico: Phase III of COVID-19 Tests Will Begin in October
Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard announced that the administration will begin testing Phase III of COVID-19 vaccine projects in October and suggested that a viable vaccine would be available in the first quarter of 2021. The Ministry of Health stated that 5,000 Mexican citizens will participate as volunteers for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine project.…
Mexico: AMLO Rejects Undertaking Debt to Overcome COVID-19 Surges
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) contradicted the Deputy Minister of Finance Gabriel Yorio’s statements regarding the eventual need of contracting debt to overcome a second COVID-19 surge. AMLO touted the peso’s rebound as a positive development that will reduce the increasing debt and rejected any notion of needing additional funding to deal with complications…
Brazil: Growing Opposition to Environmental Policy as President Jair Bolsonaro Speaks to United Nations General Assembly
President Jair Bolsonaro addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and emphasized Brazil’s commitment to environmental protection. His speech was clouded by growing opposition, both domestic and international, to his government’s responses to recent fires in the Amazon and Pantanal wetland regions. Images of these fires are pervasive in social media posts and trigger harsh…
Colombia: US Secretary of State Pompeo Applauds Colombian President Duque
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited South America to racket up regional political pressure on the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. On 20 September, Pompeo stopped in Colombia to meet with President Ivan Duque and applaud his continued assistance in fighting drug trafficking and supporting Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guiado. Pompeo remarked that…
São Tomé and Príncipe: foreign minister Elsa Pinto dismissed
Finally, on 18 September, Prime Minister Jorge Bom Jesus announced the expected government reshuffle. Following the government’s controversial withdrawal of confidence from the attorney-general Kelve de Carvalho, President Evaristo Carvalho had threatened Bom Jesus to dismiss him if he would not reshuffle his government. The ministers of foreign affairs, Elsa Pinto, and of tourism and…
South Africa: Ramaphosa Announces Move To Level 1
President Cyril Ramaphosa on 16 September announced that COVID-19 lockdown regulations will move to Level 1 from midnight on 20 September. While Ramaphosa expressed concern over a possible second wave of infections, he suggested that this risk could be mitigated by expanded testing and contact tracing. Level 1 will ease restrictions on gatherings to allow…
Colombia Prepares To Reintroduce International Travel on 21 September
Minister of Transport Angela Maria Orozco announced that the government would gradually reintroduce international flights and reopen borders on 21 September. International flights were suspended in March and land borders remain closed. Colombia began a national lockdown in late March and implemented stay-at-home orders for four months before easing restrictions on 1 September. The national…
São Tomé and Príncipe: Shell becomes major investor in oil sector
A few days ago, the Dallas-based Kosmos Energy announced to farm down several oil exploration assets in Suriname and African countries to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. The acquisition includes Kosmos’ interests in blocks 6 (25%), 10, 11, 13 (35% each) in São Tomé and Príncipe’s EEZ making Shell the major investor in the…
São Tomé and Príncipe: government extends state of calamity
The government in São Tomé has extended the state of calamity for another fifteen days until September 30. Since April 6 the country has reported a total of 907 confirmed cases of Covid-19. In the last two weeks the health authorities only discovered eleven new cases. Altogether fifteen patients have died of the disease since…
Brazil: Covid-19 Decimates the Medical Profession and Continues to Plague the Bolsonaro Government
More than 500 medical doctors and, nurses and other medical professionals have died from Covid-19 in Brazil. The Federal Nurses Council (COFEN) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) claim that more Brazilian medical professionals have succumbed to Covid-19 than any other country in the world. Currently, over 4.29 million Brazilians have been infected with…
Brazil: Food Price Hikes Challenge Poor Brazilians and the Government
Hit hardest by the coronavirus, poorest Brazilians must now cope rising food costs. Rice and beans, the staples of the Brazilian diet, are now selling for 20% more than last year while a third of the population struggles to get by on welfare payments from the government. Today, the unemployment stands at 13.3 percent with…
Venezuela Promotes Gold Mining in the Amazon as Oil Industry Collapses
The Venezuelan government is promoting a gold rush into the Amazon Basin to counter the collapse of its oil production and exports. Government authorities are assisting with the provision of equipment and fuel to set up sustained mining operations in sensitive areas of the Amazon. The government plans to compel miners to sell the gold…
Colombia’s Labor Movement Organizes National Work Stoppage
Colombia continues to battle the coronavirus outbreak while the labor movement turns up the pressure on the administration of President Ivan Duque. The most prominent labor centrals, CUT, CTC, and CGT, along with the teachers union scheduled 7 September for a national work stoppage. In Bogota, a rally will be held at the National Park…
Coronavirus Spreads Through Brazil’s Amazon as Thousands Rush to Mine Gold
Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak is one of the largest in the world, infecting nearly 4 million people and killing more than 122,000. In the Amazon, the coronavirus fatality rate is highest in the country, nearly 75 per 100,000. Despite these devastating numbers, thousands of Brazilians are flocking to the Amazon to mine gold. Unemployed, most are…
Nigeria: Air France, Lufthansa Among Banned Airlines
The federal government has prevented several major airlines including Air France, Lufthansa and KLM from flying into the country when international air travel resumes Sept 5, aviation minister Hadi Sirika said. The minister said in August Nigeria would exercise reciprocity with airlines headquartered in countries that won’t let Nigerian flights land. Air France and Lufthansa…
Brazil’s Coronavirus Transmission Rate Begins to Fall as the Economy Contracts by Nearly 10% in Second Quarter
Brazil’s economy contracted by 9.7% during the second quarter and prospects for growth may need to wait until 2021. However, the coronavirus transmission rate seems to be subsiding despite rising numbers of Brazilians curtailing their social distancing efforts. The nation’s death toll is falling for the first time since May after a prolonged plateau with…
Venezuela’s Maduro Invites Monitoring of December National Assembly Elections After Pardoning 100 Political Prisoners
Amidst rising coronavirus transmissions and falling crude oil exports, President Nicolas Maduro announced that he invited the United Nations and European Union to monitor the National Assembly elections in December 2020. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza reported that the Maduro government sent a letter to UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres and the EU’s Josep Borrell to…
Mexico: Deputy Minister of Health Declares Test Mandates by Employers Discriminatory
Deputy Minister of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell declared that requirements from employers to undertake a COVID-19 test by employees to return to work is a discriminatory measure that violates workers’ rights. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health (SSA) reiterated its position against the Federal Commission of Sanitary Risk Protection (COFEPRIS)’s authorization of rapid tests with limited efficiency.…
Petrobras to Establish Permanent Telework Options for Administrative Staff
Petrobras announced that administrative staff can telework from home three days a week and work at the office two days a week after the coronavirus transmission rates decrease to the point where it can reopen its administrative facilities. Participation in the plan is voluntary, but the company suggested that it meets employees’ demands for greater…
Argentina: Cases Continues to Peak but Government Pushes Non-Covid Agenda
While contagion continues on the rise and spreads outside the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, the government of President Alberto Fernandez is trying to get his government out of an “only-Covid” agenda. For the first time since the lockdown started in late March, the President did not announce the new extension of the restrictions in a…
Mexico: COFEPRIS Establishes Guidelines for Vaccine Production
The Federal Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) held its first meeting to establish guidelines for the evaluation and production of the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca Labs and Oxford University. The Commission highlighted the need to fast-track the evaluation to proceed with production by the end of the year. President Andres…
Nigeria: GDP Drops 6.1% in Q2 On Pandemic, Oil Price
Nigeria’s GDP dropped by 6.1% in the second quarter due to weaker oil demand, the sharp drop in oil prices and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Oil output also fell over the same period, as Nigeria came into line with Opec cuts. Nigeria’s top finance officials have disagreed about the economic outlook for the…
Nigeria: International Flights To Resume Aug 29
International flights will resume from Lagos and Abuja on August 29, the aviation ministry said Monday. Flights from other cities and rules around international flights from Nigeria will be announced soon, it said. Oil hub Port Harcourt’s international airport remains closed to flights for now, and Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike may complicate any demand…
Argentina: Government Announces Vaccine Plan in Attempt to Give Public Hope
With the government struggling to enforce strict lockdown rules in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, President Alberto Fernandez announced on 14 August that the circulation restrictions would stay as they are until 30 August but urged the public to the “responsible.” The President acknowledged that the people are largely not abiding by the “quarantine,” as…
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