For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: Mkhize slams expert over Covid-19 advice, WHO reports record number of new daily coronavirus cases and, Burundi voting ends in calm despite fraud allegation

 

Mkhize slams expert over Covid-19 advice

South Africa's health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has rejected comments made to local media by a medical expert suggesting the government was not taking advice on handling the Covid-19 crisis.

Chief executive of the South African Medical Research Council Professor Glenda Gray, who chairs the research sub-committee on a team of 50 expert Covid-19 pandemic advisors to the government, in a recent interview criticised some of the regulations around a nationwide lockdown.

Mkhize said the government had based its Covid-19 responses on 50 advisories provided by the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19, of which Gray is a member.

 

WHO reports record number of new daily coronavirus cases

The World Health Organization expressed concern about the rising number of new coronavirus cases in poor countries, even as many rich nations have begun emerging from lockdowns.

The global health body said that 106 000 new cases of infections of the novel coronavirus had been recorded in the past 24 hours, the most in a single day since the outbreak began in December.

Dr Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programme warned that soon will soon reach the tragic milestone of five million cases.

 

Burundi voting ends in calm despite fraud allegation

Voting in Burundi’s presidential election passed calmly on Wednesday despite simmering political violence, the coronavirus pandemic and the opposition accusing the authorities of fraud.

In what could be the first competitive presidential election in Burundi since a civil war erupted in 1993, the ruling CNDD-FDD party's candidate, retired general Evariste Ndayishimiye, is running against opposition leader Agathon Rwasa and five others.

President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose government has repeatedly been accused of rights abuses, will step down after 15 years.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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