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Covid-19
ALMOST three times as many people have died as a result of Covid-19 as the official data shows, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, in the most comprehensive look at the true global toll of the pandemic so far.
There were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with Covid-19 by the end of 2021, the UN body said yesterday.
The official count of deaths directly attributable to Covid-19 and reported to the WHO in that period, from January 2020 to the end of December 2021, is slightly more than 5.4 million.
The WHO’s excess mortality figures reflect people who died of Covid-19 as well as those who died as an indirect result of the outbreak, including people who could not access health care for other conditions when systems were overwhelmed during huge waves of infection. It also accounts for deaths averted during the pandemic, for example because of the lower risk of traffic accidents during lockdowns. | Reuters
Somalia
THE Somali Parliament announced yesterday that the long-awaited presidential election will take place on May 15 in the capital, Mogadishu. The joint parliamentary committee organising the presidential election said 329 politicians from both houses – 54 from the Senate or Upper House and 275 from the Lower House – will elect the country’s 10th president. The committee said the presidential candidates would address Parliament next week on their policies before the vote. The election will coincide with the c 79th anniversary of the Somali Youth League formed on May 15, 1943, by 13 young activists who spearheaded the struggle for a united and independent Somalia in the 1940s and 1950s. | AFP
UK
LOCAL and regional elections were being held across the UK yesterday that could prove historic in Northern Ireland and heap further pressure on embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The contest for the devolved assembly in Belfast could see a pro-Irish nationalist party win for the first time in the troubled history of the British province. The results could have huge constitutional implications for the four-nation UK’s future, with predicted victors Sinn Fein committed to a vote on reunification with Ireland. | AFP
Spain
SPAIN’S top spymaster was grilled behind closed doors by lawmakers yesterday over mobile phone hacking revelations that have roiled the country’s fragile coalition government. Paz Esteban López, the first woman to head Spain’s CNI intelligence agency, appeared before a parliamentary committee for questioning over the affair that has dominated headlines for days. The scandal broke last month when Canadian cybersecurity watchdog Citizen Lab said the phones of more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement had been tapped using Pegasus spyware after a failed independence bid in 2017. | Reuters