November 14, 2022

New China COVID Rules Spur Concern as Some Cities Halt Routine Tests

  Several Chinese cities began cutting routine community COVID-19 testing on Monday, days after China announced an easing of some of its heavy-handed coronavirus measures, sparking worry in some communities as nationwide cases continued to rise. In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, some families expressed concern about exposing their children to the virus at school, giving excuses such as toothaches or earaches for their children’s absence, according to social media posts following a state media report that testing in the city would end. Other cities, including Yanji in the northeast and Hefei in the east, also said they will stop

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Invasive Mosquito Threatens Malaria Control in Africa

  Malaria exploded this year in the Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa, which saw more than 10 times as many cases between January and May as it did in all of 2019. What made this spike in cases unusual is that it happened outside the rainy season, when malaria typically surges across Africa, and in an urban area — malaria is more of a rural problem on the continent. Cities are not immune, but they typically don’t see these kinds of outbreaks. Something new and insidious has arrived in the Horn of Africa. An invasive species of mosquito called Anopheles

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THE NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE Follow-up reports 2022 Vol II issued by the National Audit Office

The Auditor General, Charles Deguara, presented to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anġlu Farrugia, the second volume of follow-up audits report for 2022, comprising the results of four follow-up audit reports relating to audits conducted over the past few years.   As in the first volume of follow-up audits for 2022, the objectives of these audits were to follow up the extent of implementation of the main recommendations that had been made in the original audit reports.   An analysis on the degree of implementation of this Office’s recommendations was undertaken on the following past IT and Performance

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