Day: July 23, 2021

KHARTOUM – Health authorities in Sudan’s Red Sea state town of Port Sudan say they have seen a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent days and suspect the rise is due to the highly contagious delta variant.

Health officials say over the past week they have recorded nearly 140 new cases of the virus.

Doctor Zafaran Ahmed Azzaki, director general at the Red Sea state health ministry, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that symptoms in the new cases appear slightly different from those identified in the previous wave of COVID-19 cases, prompting health officials to believe the new wave could be linked to the delta variant.

“The infection rate has been very high in recent days, and we still believe that there are a lot of positive cases that are not reaching the hospital. Suspected cases have increased and 90 percent of them are found positive and automatically, cases of death also have increased,” Dr. Azzaki said.

Health workers in Red Sea state recorded at least 60 COVID-19-related deaths in the past two months, about the same amount recorded during the entire six-month period of the first wave, according to Dr. Azzaki, adding that, “Death cases within this third wave have increased drastically but when you look at the timeframe of two months, it has reached 60, and this is our worry.”

Last week, state medical workers collected 170 suspected cases out of which 137 tested positive, said the state health ministry official.

The World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa reported on July 15 the continent recorded a 43% week-on-week rise in COVID-19 deaths.

Deaths increase across Africa

Continent-wide, fatalities increased to 6,273 in the week ending July 11 from 4,384 deaths in the previous week. Africa is now less than 1% shy of the weekly peak reached in January when 6,294 deaths were recorded, according to the WHO.

Africa recorded one million additional cases over the past month.

The WHO says the surge is driven by public fatigue with key health measures and an increased spread of variants. To date, the delta variant, which is currently the most transmissible of all variants, has been detected in 21 African countries.

Red Sea state health ministry officials have been unable to determine how many new cases are caused by the delta variant and say they will need assistance from a recognized outside laboratory institution.

Samples sent to South Africa

Dr. Azzaki said her team has sent some samples for testing to South Africa and expects results within a few days.

“We have already agreed to send all positive cases to South Africa so that the National Ministry of Health can confirm if the new infection is from the Indian strain or not but according to the symptoms, this strain spreads faster and its transition period is also quick,” Azzaki told VOA.

Red Sea state authorities ordered a partial lockdown in Port Sudan for a two-week period, which ended Friday, but due to the recent surge in cases, health officials have recommended the lockdown be extended for another two weeks, said Azzaki.

She called on citizens celebrating the Eid-al-Adha holiday to follow all health directives and protocols, including mask wearing, social distancing, avoiding all public gatherings, and frequent hand washing.

Source: Voice Of America

NEW YORK – Stocks rallied to records Friday on Wall Street, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 35,000 level for the first time, as the market continued to roar back from its short-lived swoon at the start of the week.

The S&P 500 index climbed 44.31 to 4,411.79 to top the record it set early last week. The Dow rose 238.20 to 35,061.55, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 152.39 to 14,836.99.

All three indexes finished with gains of better than 1% for the week, brushing aside the sharp downturn that trimmed 1.6% off the S&P 500 on Monday.

That drop was caused by worries about a potentially sharp slowdown in the economy because of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus. But the S&P 500 has since climbed four straight days, as big companies reported better profits than expected and as investors again saw any dip in stocks as merely a chance to buy low.

The economy continues to recover at a torrid pace, with the question being how much growth will slow in coming months and years. A preliminary report from IHS Markit on Friday indicated U.S. manufacturing growth may be unexpectedly accelerating in July, though growth in services industries looks to be slowing more than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury gave up some of its gain following the release of the report, but it still rose to 1.27% from 1.26% late Thursday. For months, it has been sending a concerning alarm about the economy as it dropped from a perch of roughly 1.75% in late March.

Staffing provider Robert Half International jumped 7.4% for one of Friday’s biggest gains in the S&P 500 after it reported revenue and profit for the latest quarter that topped Wall Street’s expectations. It said it’s seeing a broad-based global acceleration in demand for its services.

Widespread rally

It led a widespread rally across the market, where more than 80% of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose. Communications stocks led the way after Twitter reported results that blew past Wall Street’s forecasts on growing advertising demand. It climbed 3%. Snap, the parent company of social media app Snapchat, soared 23.8% after reporting results that were much better than expected.

Such surprises have become the norm this reporting season. With roughly a quarter of all the profit reports now in from S&P 500 companies, nearly 90% have topped Wall Street’s already high expectations for the spring.

Companies in the index are on pace to report roughly 74% growth for earnings in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That would be the strongest growth since the economy was exploding out of the Great Recession at the end of 2009.

Concerns have been rising about inflation, which has spiked recently. But companies have nevertheless been able to maintain their profits, often by raising their own prices.

S&P 500 businesses appear on track to say they made $124 in profit for every $1,000 in sales, according to FactSet. That would be a slight dip from $128 during the first three months of the year, but it would remain comfortably above the average of $108 over the last five years.

On the losing end was Intel, which fell despite also reporting solid second-quarter earnings. It dropped 5.3%. And Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams, sank 26% amid worries about fizzling sales of hard seltzer.

In European stock markets, indexes also rallied by roughly 1%. Asian stock markets were mixed, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 1.4% and South Korea’s Kospi up 0.1%.

Source: Voice Of America