New York, 23 September 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) together with the UN, specialised agencies and partners today called on countries to develop and implement action plans to promote the timely dissemination of science-based information and prevent the spread of false information while respecting freedom of expression. WHO, the UN,…

UNICEF is supporting the scale up of screening of travellers at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) and land border crossings to strengthen the surveillance systems and build capacity for detection of COVID-19 cases. Within the reporting period, more than 77,500 road travellers and about 400 flyers that entered the country through KIA were screened…, 1 Highlights • UNICEF is supporting the scale up of screening of travellers at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) and land border crossings to strengthen the surveillance systems and build capacity for detection of COVID-19 cases. Within the reporting period, more than 77,500 road travellers and about 400 flyers that entered the country through…

Block leaders in Lilongwe are joining forces with young people and local non-government organisations to help spread the word about how to avoid contracting COVID-19. Ackimu Katola, block leader for Tsabango 1 Ward block D in Lilongwe, says fighting the virus needs innovative approaches such as working with youth. Katola says it is not enough to…

After five months away from school Tiyamike Bonongwe is feeling frustrated. The standard 8 student at Chioko primary school in Lilongwe, Malawi, says she hoped schools would have reopened by now so she could have sat her examinations. "We understand we still have the pandemic but I expected the authorities to allow us to sit for our exams,” says…

One of the myths circulating in Malawian communities about coronavirus is that it only infects white people. Another is that people taking antiretroviral medication are immune. Group village headman (insert first name here) Tekateka, of Chitukula, in Lilongwe District, said misconceptions about COVID-19 were a threat to public health as a lot of…

Nairobi/Johannesburg, Tues 22 September 2020 - UNICEF has called on governments, parents and teachers across Eastern and Southern Africa to urgently and safely re-open schools, as the costs of continued school closures escalate across Eastern and Southern Africa. While there are encouraging reports that 13 out of 21 countries in Eastern and…

Chaotic scenes were imminent when 1,211 households from Malawi and Mozambique converged at Bangula Admarc premises, in Nsanje, where a camp was set up for people who had been forced out of their homes by the 2019 floods, which were worsened by Cyclone Idai. With 878 Malawian households on one side, and 335 households from Mozambique on the other,…

Seven-year-old Alice Millias was playing at the neighbouring houses within Kaleso Village, in Nsanje district, about 185 kilometres south of Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre, when we arrived. She was wearing a pink and grey dress with white polka dots that depicted Disney World cartoon character, Minnie Mouse, on the front. Alice has never…

Among those most affected by COVID-19 are frontline healthcare workers who are at the forefront fighting the disease. Eunice Marorongwe, 49, is a senior nurse/midwife technician who used to work at the Emergency Treatment Unit (ETU) at Mangochi District Hospital. She is one of the many healthcare workers in Malawi who were infected with the virus…

The biggest toll the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be taking among rural masses in Malawi is the shunning of health services by communities amidst rumours of the pandemic’s prevalence and associated dangers in health centres. Having heard stories about COVID-19 and how one is susceptible to contract the virus from a hospital, Mangochi resident Maryam…