Contact tracing and capitalism’s response to the pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Less than three months ago, on April 2, the world marked one million cases of COVID-19. Before the end of June, the globe will have surpassed ten million cases of COVID-19. The World Health Organization repeated their warnings this week that the pandemic is accelerating, and it is time “to double down” on the basic tenets of public health measure—test broadly, trace every contact of those infected, isolate and treat every infected individual, and protect the most vulnerable. This requires initiative on the part of every level of government to work closely with all communities to engage everyone in the fight to contain the spread of the infection.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, during a House committee hearing last Tuesday, explained that the United States is experiencing a “disturbing” rise in cases in states that rushed to reopen quickly with little foresight into how they would provide adequate testing of infected individuals and trace their contacts in a concerted effort to take advantage of the gains made by the shutdowns this spring. In response to questions from the panel, Dr. Fauci said, “The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges we see in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other states.” He also added that deaths usually lag, and it would be essential to watch this trend.

In the United States, there has never been a serious attempt to contain the pandemic. This has characterized every step, from the abysmal false starts in testing, the chronic shortage of PPE, the trillion-dollar CARES Act and other initiatives that enriched corporations, the launching of a phased intervention to open the economy, all accompanied by the cartoonish clowning and brazen lying of a bad circus show. All the while, the daily number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise unabated.

Last weekend on “Meet the Press,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said succinctly, “I don’t think this is going to slow down. I’m not sure the influenza analogy applies anymore. I don’t think we’re going to see one, two, and three waves—I think we’re just going to see one very, very difficult forest fire of cases.”

New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the US in April and May, is attempting to proceed into the next phase of reopening. However, the city has hired only 3,000 contact tracers to facilitate the necessary public health measures to guard against the coronavirus’ resurgence. According to the New York Times, “only 35 percent of the 5,347 city residents who tested positive or were presumed positive for the coronavirus in the program’s first two weeks gave information about close contacts to tracers.” Despite the strides made by the city to reduce its daily case numbers, more than 300,000 people have returned to work this week while the city is very far from achieving World Health Organization standards on contact tracing and other public health measures.

Massachusetts was one of the first states in the US to begin a “comprehensive” contact tracing program. Yet, it continues to have difficulty reaching a substantial number of contacts by phone. The chief medical officer of Partners in Health, Dr. Joia Mukherjee, told Boston25 News, “We’d like to have a higher rate. We’re still missing 30 to 40 percent of the people who aren’t picking up the phone.” They have only hired about 1,000 contact tracers to supplement their public health department.

Louisiana has spent millions on contact tracing but is unable to get people to answer their phones, reaching less than 50 percent of infected people. Figures are similar in other states.

Austin, Texas, has seen hospital admissions increase by 90 percent since the end of May. According to the Austin Public Health department, admissions for COVID-19 to Travis county hospitals have nearly tripled averaging 25 to 30 per day. The ICU bed occupancy has risen 150 percent, and ventilator use is up 75 percent.

Dr. Mark Escott, Travis County’s Health Authority, explained to the local news media, KXAN, affiliated with NBC, that contact tracing efforts are proving to be ineffective. “When we look at the efficacy of contact tracing in other countries where it worked, that contact tracing happened when the places generally were shut down, when people weren’t moving around. That’s not what we’re doing here. Things have still opened, and we’re trying to contact trace at the same time we’re getting hundreds, or perhaps a thousand cases a day being reported. I’m not sure that’s going to give us what we need.”

Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told STAT News back in April, that once the US is passed the surge and in the suppression phase, using the usual military parlance, it would need an army of 300,000 people to battle and suppress the transmission of the virus effectively. Assuredly skeptical, he said, “until the federal response is more coherent, each state is going to be on its own.” Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the CDC, told Congress on Tuesday, as of June 23, 2020, the United States has about 28,000 contact tracers. This is an increase from only 6,000 in January, but far short of the number cited by Frieden.

Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said about contact tracing, “This is going to test the capacity of the existing public health system. I don’t know if we have enough staff in the public health department to do that.”

It should be clear that the lack of a large cadre of contact tracers is not an oversight. With massive funding available to police departments and free cash infused into the markets, this is part and parcel of the herd immunity policy.

Comparing countries that have adopted more stringent public health measures and those that chose a policy of herd immunity is instructive. South Korea and Germany (very belatedly) have carried out extensive testing of their population, as the ratio of number tested to positive cases detected is above 100. Meanwhile, Sweden and the United States have, despite claims by the Trump administration, been running near or below ten tests per positive case. The implication here is that there is insufficient testing being conducted.

Without a robust, comprehensive strategy, both Sweden and the United States have suffered staggering daily new confirmed cases per capita, higher case fatality rates, and atrocious per capita daily confirmed deaths. Fundamentally, behind Sweden’s strategy of herd-immunity is not the well-being of its nursing home populations nor concerns for the mental health of the children but concerns over its gross domestic product, which is expected to decline 5 percent this year, according to the Financial Times. Last week, Reuters announced that truck and construction equipment maker, Volvo, “plans to cut its white-collar workforce by around 4,100 positions.” Unemployment is estimated to reach 12 percent.

CNBC reported that Germany’s industrial production fell 17.9 percent in April during the peak of the pandemic in Europe, “the largest decline since the beginning of the time series in January 1991”, and this despite a less severe epidemic than in Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING, was, however, optimistic about a strong rebound when the lockdowns were lifted, while admitting, “the period after the imminent rebound does not look too promising.” Germany’s woes may be compounded by recent reports that the rates of infections have been rising since opening with the reproduction rate (R0) jumping to 2.88 this week. A number under 1.0 indicates declining numbers. Last week, 1,300 workers at a meat processing house in North-Rhine Westphalia tested positive.

South Korea faces similar economic hardships despite its massive mobilization to flatten the outbreak that emerged in February. Asia’s fourth-largest economy recorded its most severe contraction since the global financial crisis of 2008. The first quarter saw its economy shrink 1.4 percent. Exports had decreased by two percent, and consumer spending fell more than six percent. Economists have forecasted their economy will contract six percent in the second quarter. The World Bank projects that advanced economies overall will decline by seven percent.

The United States also saw real GDP decline by 5.0 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Research. Over 40 million Americans filed for unemployment. This must be placed in the context that the bottom 90 percent, due to chronic wage stagnation, have for nearly four decades spent more than they earn to get by. The pandemic has only exposed the massive poverty that underlies the astronomical wealth possessed by the financial oligarchs, exemplified by the miles of cars waiting at food distribution centers throughout the country.

Nations pursuing a policy of herd immunity will not escape the impact and devastation on their national economies as every market is deeply entrenched in an integrated network of interconnected economies that span every square inch of the planet. Fundamentally, the “herd immunity” policy highlights the utter disregard for life and prosperity of working people as they attempt to forestall the collapse of the financial markets while culling the excess population to ensure production lines stay in motion.

Every nation faces the pressures imposed by capitalism to quicken the forced contamination. As the pandemic accelerates, the term used by the Director-General of the WHO “a dangerous phase” acquires a more significant meaning.

UK government refuses support to unemployed migrant workers facing destitution during pandemic

Harvey Singh

Charities and local authorities are calling on the Johnson government to suspend the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) stipulation for migrant workers for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being categorised as NRPF has resulted in one million migrant workers and their families falling into poverty, destitution, and homelessness.

UK immigration law states that migrant workers have “no recourse to public funds” if they are subject to immigration control. This draconian attack on democratic rights was introduced by the last Labour government in Section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

It was subsequently strengthened with the NRPF policy introduced in 2012 by the May government and became symptomatic of the “hostile environment” for immigrants policy of successive Conservative governments. Under its provisions, migrant workers can work in the UK but are prevented from accessing most state benefits if they become unemployed. It ensnares even those who moved to the UK to live with their British families.

Many of these individuals work in the restaurant and hotel industry and have lost their jobs since the lockdown closed their workplace and are now struggling to feed their families and pay rent. An increasing number now face becoming homeless once the restrictions on evictions—that were put in place during lockdown—are lifted.

Although exact figures are difficult to obtain, at least 100,000 and up to an estimated 250,000 children could directly be threatened with poverty due to the NRPF status of their parents.

According to the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, increasing numbers of NRPF workers struggling to survive during the pandemic have approached councils for emergency assistance.

A consortium of over 40 migrants’ rights organisations has called on the government to scrap the NRPF status permanently because it “bars most migrants from accessing a vast proportion of the social security net we all rely on in times of crisis”. Among the state benefits that workers with an NRPF status are excluded from are: Universal Credit, disability allowances, local authority homelessness support, free school meals and access to mainstream refuges for victims of domestic violence.

Sally Daghlian, the chief executive of the migrant rights charity Praxis (associated with the uncovering of the Windrush scandal), said, “We have seen parents going without food to try to ensure their children eat, and people facing homelessness and mounting debt. In the face of this pandemic, people with NRPF have not been supported through the government’s COVID-19 safety net. If the government is committed to ending destitution, child poverty and homelessness, it should permanently suspend NRPF as a matter of urgency.”

During the lockdown, which began on March 23, charities across the country have been desperately trying to feed NRPF families after they were plunged into unemployment and potential destitution.

The Guardian recently cited a typical NRPF case in London:

Ali and Noreen (who asked for their full names not to be printed, due to fear of complicating their immigration applications) moved to the UK from Pakistan 15 years ago. Until lockdown, Ali ran a business assisting international students hoping to study in the UK. This came to a virtual halt during the lockdown and he and his wife have been unable to pay rent on their one-bedroom flat and struggle to buy food for their three teenage children.

The family now rely on food banks to survive.

The cost for visa renewals for a family of five is around £12,000, payment of which is mandatory every two-and-a-half years—until eligibility to apply for British citizenship after a process that lasts 10 years. This has meant the family have no savings and do not know where they will find the money to renew their visas again this October.

The family have been told that they will face eviction later this summer if they are unable to pay their arrears in rent. “We came here legally. I had a respectable job and paid taxes. It feels unfair—there is no safety net,” Ali said.

Noreen found a part-time job as a care worker in a care home but her precarious minimum wage, zero-hours contract does not pay enough to cover their rent.

In the nearby London borough of Newham, charities have begun feeding hundreds of mainly Indian students who have lost their part-time jobs in local shops and restaurants, which had subsidised their studies. Their international student visas also have an NRPF status attached, and some of them have faced starvation in the capital.

The secretary of the Tamil Sangam local community centre, Kumar Arumugam, said, “We’ve seen real desperation. People have been queuing in the streets in their hundreds and we have had to turn people away.”

Homelessness across Britain had already reached record levels months before the COVID-19 pandemic. As with all social ills under capitalism, the pandemic has tremendously exacerbated the already immense suffering of the most vulnerable who are homeless. Now, thousands are to be thrown back onto the streets from temporary accommodation as part of the governments “back to work” drive.

Government spokespeople have briefed the press about various ways in which those with NRPF status can supposedly extricate themselves from their difficulties by applying for assistance. However, when asked recently, the Home Office was unable to say how many had applied for an exemption, or how many had been granted it. Charities say getting the NRPF status lifted is extremely difficult, to near impossible, as it requires actual proof of destitution. Furthermore, the government’s “advice” to “anyone eligible to submit an application,” is a thinly veiled threat to jeopardise their immigration status.

An open letter to council leaders published on June 18, and signed by more than 100 charities (including; Refugee Action, Praxis and the Big Issue Foundation) urged them not to evict homeless people with NRPF status and not to share their information with the Home Office without their consent. The letter read, “As lockdown measures are eased, we are extremely concerned that some homeless people, particularly those with NRPF, may be evicted from council-provided accommodation and be forced to return to destitution.”

Benjamin Morgan, coordinator of the homeless rights project at the Public Interest Law Centre, told the Independent he had seen at least two cases where homeless people with NRPF had approached councils during the pandemic and “had been told their information would be shared with immigration enforcement if they accepted support.” Although the local authorities relented following intervention by the charity, he said, “this raised concerns about what happens to people who don’t have a charity supporting them.”

Last month, a case was brought to court to force a legal challenge to the status of NRPF. An unnamed 8-year-old British national had the claim brought on his behalf by his mother, a Ghanaian national who had been granted leave to remain as his parent subject to NRPF conditions. She worked as a carer but the imposition of the NRPF conditions led to her and the claimant enduring periods of destitution where they were forced into living on the streets. They had to move house repeatedly, with the claimant having to change school five times before the age of eight. Their applications for the NRPF condition to be lifted were refused. Although in “R (W, a child) v Secretary of State for the Home Department”, the court ruled NRPF as unlawful, it is clear the government will treat this as a technicality as it is left to the Home Secretary to determine whether there is an “imminent risk of destitution.”

This is of a piece with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s appearance before an online liaison committee, at the end of last month, in which he unconvincingly feigned ignorance of the issues surrounding NRPF workers. This sparked media speculation about an imminent change of government position on the issue. Within days, this was shown to be smoke and mirrors. When Home Secretary Priti Patel was asked if the status would be suspended during the pandemic, she said unequivocally, “The answer is no.”

The government will not be deterred by legal challenges from its stated aim—which preceded and will follow the pandemic—of “completing the Thatcher revolution” and boosting the wealth of the super-rich while imposing austerity on workers—native and foreign-born.

CIA releases TV recruiting ad for streaming video services

Kevin Reed

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has released its first-ever television recruitment advertisement that portrays the covert and criminal US international security service as a glamorous and diverse workplace.

Released on Monday to be run on streaming services such as YouTube and Hulu, the 60-second commercial is made with actors in the style of a pro-US government TV spy thriller such as Showtime’s Homeland.

The advertising campaign, titled “Discover the CIA: Your Nation Is Counting On You,” is set to run in 90-second, 60-second, and 15-second advertising spots on streaming services such as YouTube and Hulu

With short clips shifting from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to an undisclosed overseas location and an anonymous overseas ministry, it depicts a male African American official addressing a class of CIA recruits in voice-over saying, “It only takes one new piece … of foreign intelligence … and everything can change in an instant.”

The ad cuts to a scene of a blond female intelligence analyst at headquarters on the phone with her supervisor after she makes a discovery, saying, “I think I found something.” Later in the commercial, a young female African American agent carries out a “brush pass”—a handshake exchange of a thumb-drive presumably containing classified information—with an official from an unnamed foreign ministry.

In the end, the African American lecturer says, “The nation ... is counting on you to discover the truth ... Ladies and gentlemen ... welcome ... to the CIA,” to a round of applause from his classroom of youthful recruits.

That the activities depicted in the TV commercial—although they are left unspecified—could involve assassination, torture or the overthrow of a government should not be lost on anyone watching the slick presentation.

Nor should the possibility be ignored that the young woman involved in the overseas brush pass might wind up dead. Every year, dozens of CIA agents are killed in the field, most of whom are never named and are represented by a star in the black Moroccan goatskin-bound book known as the “Book of Honor” on display at the Original Headquarters Building in Langley.

A press release accompanying the TV commercial quotes Sheronda Dorsey, head of CIA Talent Acquisition, saying “We’re meeting Americans right where they are—on streaming platforms—to share a glimpse of an exciting CIA career and what it could mean for their futures.”

Although the CIA has no problems recruiting agents—every year thousands of applications are submitted for hundreds of available positions and 2019 was reportedly a banner recruiting year—the agency has become less diverse in recent years. According to a study in 2015, “Racial and ethnic minority officers make up 23.9% of the entire CIA workforce, but account for only 10.8% of the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS), 15.2% of GS-15s [highest government pay category], and 21.0% of GS-14s [supervisory government pay category]. A similar gap between the workforce and the leadership ranks exists for minority female officers and officers with disabilities.”

CIA recruitment on Ivy League campuses and other elite colleges has been going on since the agency was founded in 1947. In the 1980s, the agency expanded its recruitment to state colleges and universities in an effort to add diversity to its ranks. Under John O. Brennan, who was director from 2013 to 2017, the CIA began recruiting at historically black colleges and universities.

Another concern is that the CIA is competing for tech talent with companies based in Silicon Valley and it sees the online streaming TV services as a means of reaching this audience. This points to an emphasis at the agency—and within the US military-intelligence as a whole—on hacking, malicious software and cyberwarfare technologies.

CIA Director Gina Haspel is quoted in the press release for the TV ad, saying, “Since becoming Director, I prioritized how, where, and whom we recruit to be the next generation of CIA officers. Advertising on streaming services is an important step forward to reach talented Americans with the diversity of experiences we require to continue to be the world’s premier intelligence service.”

Haspel was nominated by President Trump and took over at the CIA on May 21, 2018, replacing Mike Pompeo, who became Secretary of State. Her nomination was approved in 10–5 vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee, including supporting votes of two Democrats, despite her direct participation in the CIA torture program during the administration of George W. Bush.

Haspel was in charge of a “black site” torture chamber in Thailand codenamed “Cat’s Eye” in 2002 which included the torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Documents obtained through a freedom of information request dating from November 2002 and were either approved or written by Haspel detail the torture of al-Nashiri including slamming him against a wall, confining him to a small box, waterboarding him and depriving him of sleep and clothing, while threatening to turn him over to others who would kill him and calling him culturally offensive names.

Young people should reject the farcical presentation of employment opportunities at the CIA in the new advertising campaign. They should keep in mind a tweet by former CIA officer and intelligence contractor Edward Snowden at the time of Gina Haspel’s nomination on March 13, 2018, “The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible.”

Indonesia passes 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases

Owen Howell

Amid a new surge in coronavirus infections and deaths, Indonesia has passed the grim milestone of 50,000 confirmed cases. The spike in infection rates has come after the government’s first steps towards reopening the economy earlier this month.

The past three weeks have witnessed more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases almost every day. Yesterday 1,240 infections were recorded, bringing the total to 51,427 cases, with 2,683 deaths. Indonesia has now surpassed Singapore as having the highest number of cases in South East Asia. The death toll remains the highest in East Asia, outside of China.

Achmad Yurianto, spokesman for the nation’s COVID-19 task force, claimed that the sudden climb in official figures aligns with the country’s increased testing capacity, which is now averaging close to the government’s target of 20,000 tests a day.

It must be noted, however, that Indonesia’s coronavirus testing rate is among the lowest in the world. Since the outbreak of the virus, it has performed just 731,781 tests in a country of over 273 million, or 2.7 tests per million people. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is ranked 164th in the world for its testing.

There is every indication that the real extent of the spread is significantly greater than official records suggest. The severe lack of testing across the archipelago nation has been accompanied by a proportionally high percentage of positive tests. On June 18, for example, 1,331 new infections were confirmed from testing just 10,381 people—an infection rate of nearly 13 percent.

Beginning early this month, the government pursued its plans to reopen businesses, abandoning any attempts to eradicate or even contain the virus, and placing millions of workers and their families at risk of infection and possible death. Offices, restaurants, and shopping centres have reopened, while public transportation has also resumed services. Other restrictions are expected to be gradually lifted through July.

Prior to this, in mid-May the government began to urge workers under the age of 45 to return to work, even though a dramatic surge in cases had been reported.

The overriding concern of the Widodo administration has been to prop up the struggling banks and transnational corporations, while reserving a pittance for the health sector and welfare payments. It has refused to make the necessary investments in public health infrastructure, mass testing, contact tracing, or adequate lockdown measures. Now it is enacting a criminal policy of reopening the economy under conditions where the virus is spreading through the population.

From the outset, the Indonesian ruling class acted with utter neglect and indifference for the potentially devastating impact of the virus on workers and peasants.

Both national and provincial governments knew about a surge of pneumonia-related cases in January, shortly after the virus emerged in China, but kept the facts hidden from the public. The first two cases were announced as late as March 2. Soon afterwards, President Joko Widodo admitted that authorities had withheld information from the public to “avoid panic.”

In May, the government failed to implement significant social restrictions during the Idul Fitri religious holiday, which involves a mass exodus of city residents to the countryside. The lack of a swift travel ban allowed millions to migrate from viral hotspots—major cities such as Surabaya, Medan, Makassar, Banjarmasin, and the capital Jakarta (the country’s COVID-19 epicentre)—to rural areas, resulting in a disastrous spread throughout towns and village communities.

In addition, the decision not to close non-essential businesses over the holiday period—an annual source of business revenue—revealed the government’s profit-driven calculations. Scenes emerged of overcrowded markets and bustling shopping strips, during which no physical distancing measures were imposed.

The coronavirus has now spread to all of Indonesia’s 34 provinces. It took 60 days before the country had more than 10,000 confirmed cases, but the same increment was reached in only 21, 16, 10, and then nine days when the total crossed 50,000.

East Java, home to around 39 million people, has replaced Jakarta this week as the new virus epicentre. Yesterday the province reported 356 new cases, bringing its total to 10,901 cases, topping Jakarta’s tally of 10,796.

On Wednesday, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa pointed to the province’s high positivity rate as an indicator that figures would continue to climb over the coming weeks. “The chance for probable cases to become positive in East Java is above 40 percent,” she said, according to the Jakarta Globe.

Many deaths are likely going undetected, as both East Java and Jakarta have reported sharp rises in the number of funerals over the past four months. A Reuters report noted that the March burial figure for Jakarta cemeteries, which was up by 40 percent, was the highest since such data began being collected a decade ago. It will never be known for certain how many of these fatalities were coronavirus victims, but the majority were held under COVID-19 burial procedures.

In a recent visit to East Java, President Widodo ordered the provincial administration to decrease the transmission rate within two weeks. “I demand integrated and serious controls from all institutions in the region… so we can handle and lower the number of confirmed cases… within two weeks,” Widodo told the press in Surabaya.

Any effort, however, to resolve the health crisis, in East Java or elsewhere, must involve an enormous expenditure in new health infrastructure and therefore cuts across the business interests that the Widodo administration represents.

Indonesia’s under-resourced healthcare system is unable to cope with the new surge in infections. The chronic shortage of medical and protective equipment and facilities has meant that proper hospital care is denied to many COVID-19 cases or suspected cases who are admitted. In many cases, patients are sent home because there are simply not enough beds. In East Java, the number of ICU beds and isolation rooms in hospitals is estimated to be less than half the number of the province’s active cases.

Capacity to provide treatment is far lower in poorer areas. Less than 10 percent of the nation’s physicians practice in rural communities, where 45 percent of Indonesia’s population live, according to a 2018 study in the Lancet.

Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been widely reported, with doctors in some regional areas ordered to wear plastic rain jackets. A photo of a specialist from Makassar, Dr Bernadette Albertine Francisca, wearing a flimsy rain jacket, went viral after she died from coronavirus in March.

The toll on medical workers is assuming ever greater dimensions. At least 110 nurses in East Java alone have tested positive. In an Australian Broadcasting Corporation article Thursday, the Indonesian Doctors Association confirmed that 68 doctors and nurses have died from the virus. Deputy Chairman Adib Khumaidi said the COVID-19 mortality rate for health workers in Indonesia, after this new surge, would become the highest in Southeast Asia, and perhaps even the world.

The scale of the economic crisis has seen countless hospitals cut pay for thousands of medical workers, even as they work longer hours in increasingly dangerous conditions. The Doctors Association also revealed that some have died from exhaustion due to overwork.

The pandemic’s global economic impact is expected to cause Indonesia’s economy to contract by 0.3 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund has forecast. National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa told a parliament hearing this week that up to 5.5 million workers, mostly in the informal sector, may permanently lose their jobs. Further, he said the poverty rate was expected to rise more than a point to 10.2 percent.

Back-to-work policy accelerates spread of COVID-19 in Turkey

Çetin Akın

As the direct result of the back-to-work policy dictated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, new COVID-19 cases and deaths are both on the rise in Turkey, as in countries around the world. The number of daily cases, which fell to 786 on June 2, the lowest level since the outbreak began, is again at 1,500.

As of Thursday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca reported 1,458 new cases and 21 deaths, with a total of 193,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths, which is undoubtedly an underestimation. There are 941 intensive care patients, 369 intubated patients is and more than 22,000 active cases in Turkey. The ratio of intensive care patients to active cases rose again to 4 percent, which was its level in April. At the beginning of the June, as “normalization” began, it was just 2 percent.

On June 18, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) warned, “The consequences of early reopening are alarming,” adding that official figures released by Koca are suspicious. The Turkish Health Ministry has refused to make public the full coronavirus data, including on the situation of frontline health care workers. As a result, no one except state authorities has clear information on the distribution of cases by regions, provinces, occupations, age groups and genders.

The government’s concealment of data is aimed to defuse growing popular opposition as workers are forced back to workplaces and factories amid a raging pandemic. On June 23, an event revealed some of the underlying political issues.

According to the Mezopatamya Agency, while the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the Cizre district of southeastern Şırnak province was 8, nearly 200 houses in 10 neighborhoods have been quarantined. Cizre has a population of nearly 150,000 people, and the government dismissed its elected Kurdish-nationalist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayor last year.

While Cizre is shown in almost totally in red on the official online pandemic map, tens of thousands of people campaigned with “Look at Cizre” hashtag on social media to call for immediate measures to contain the outbreak in the district. According to Attorney Nuşirevan Elçi, bar president of Şırnak, patients there have been sent to other cities because Cizre’s public hospital has been overwhelmed.

In another statement on Tuesday, TTB officials blamed the growing numbers of cases on the government, stating: “We are concerned about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The TTB criticized the government for only reporting “positive” numbers about the disease to encourage the population to let down its guard, as it never closed non-essential production and has moreover re-opened shopping malls and entertainment venues. The government also forced millions of youth to take national exams amid the pandemic.

President Erdoğan declared on June 20 that “Recovery signals in economy are coming strong,” and the government has continued its preparations to attack workers’ right to severance pay, a major social attack to attract transnational and multinational companies into Turkey. At the same time, there were growing reports about new cases and deaths among workers, who have been forced to work in factories and workplaces.

The class character of the government response is clearly demonstrated in the rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases among workers, which is more than three times the average in Turkey.

According to June 6 report from the Health and Safety Labour Watch (İSİG), titled “COVID-19 has become a working class disease,” the number of workers who died of COVID-19 had reached 146. As a result of the government’s full “opening” policy since June 1, it is almost certain this number will increase further.

Adnan Serdaroğlu, the general secretary of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) and Birleşik Metal-İş Chairman, told the daily BirGün 20 workers were infected in a factory in the Tuzla Free Zone, Istanbul. Another DİSK official, Seyit Aslan, reported nearly 15 coronavirus cases in a meat-packing plant in the western city of Balıkesir, adding that other factories also have cases. He complained, “There are no measures left at the factories.”

Mehmet Türkmen, a DİSK official in the textile sector, said “there are [COVID-19] positive cases at 35 factories” in Gaziantep, adding: “We think that there are cases at more than 100 [factories].”

However, union officials have called no action to protect workers’ lives and health under unsafe conditions. This exposes their reactionary collaboration with the government and ruling class at workers’ expense amid the pandemic.

A worker told the daily Evrensel that more than 300 workers at the Namet meat processing plant in Çayırova, Kocaeli, are infected or under quarantine. Despite this dangerous outbreak, the company has not stopped the production at the factory. After the “normalization” began at the Otokar plant in Sakarya, an auto factory owned by Koç Holding, workers have reported at least 37 positive cases at the factory.

This is the direct result of the Erdoğan government’s “herd immunity” policy, which enjoys the open or tacit support of the established opposition parties, the media and trade unions. Bourgeois opposition parties like the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the HDP, and their pseudo-left supporters have almost completely abandoned talk of the pandemic; they have no serious objection to the AKP’s response. Moreover, all the trade union confederations including the pro-opposition DİSK collaborate with this criminal policy, continuing their longtime ties to management and the state.

The DİSK declared at the end of March that it might invoke the constitutional right to not work in unsafe conditions, but it has never called any strikes. Instead, it played a significant role to contain growing anger among workers, even as many DİSK members were infected.

Echong the Trump administration’s attack on COVID-19 testing, the Turkish Health Ministry ordered hospitals to decrease testing in order to present the current situation as less dangerous. Objecting to this change, Prof. Dr. Güner Sönmez tweeted on June 20, “The criteria for performing PCR tests have been changed. Testing will no longer be done if there are no symptoms or contact with infected people. However, we know that a significant number of positive cases pass without symptoms and infect,” asking: “Does closing our eyes change the truth?”

The only way forward for the working class in Turkey and internationally is to intervene independently against the ruling class’ deadly response to the pandemic. To save millions of lives, it is necessary to form rank-and-file safety committees in factories, workplaces and neighborhoods, independent of the trade unions and bourgeois parties. It is critical for workers to stop production in nonessential sectors during the pandemic while staying on full pay and ensure safe working conditions for workers still on the job.

British government suppressed daily pandemic death toll by thousands

Simon Whelan

Research by Guardian journalists into data collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and released by Downing Street reveal how the Johnson government suppressed the number of daily COVID-19 deaths throughout April.

For 22 consecutive days between April 2 and 23, a total of 26,566 people died in the UK from COVID-19. Government ministers, however, issued figures at the Downing Street briefings day after day that never once reached four figures. As the Tory government presided over its reckless and homicidal policy of herd immunity, it covered over the severity of its crimes by fiddling the figures and announcing partial death tolls.

On Easter Monday, April 6, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson ill with the virus, the Downing Street briefing was taken by Dominic Raab. The foreign secretary stated the death toll in the 24 hours to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 5 had risen by 439. However, the ONS figures reveal that almost three times as many people died on April 5, a total of 1,210.

Analysis of the official figures shows that on April 8, the UK suffered a record 1,445 deaths from COVID-19 in 24 hours. However, the following day, on April 9, Raab, deputising again for Johnson, claimed the death toll had increased by 881 the previous day. The actual death toll was 64 percent higher than that announced.

In the UK, in just 18 days, COVID-19 deaths accelerated from 139 in a single day to a peak of 1,445, on April 8. It would be 58 days later before the death toll returned to running in the low hundreds or less. Moreover, it was not until April 29 that the government altered its daily presentation to include deaths in all locations, including those where no test had been carried out, but the virus was mentioned on the death certificate.

In increasingly surreal attempts to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, the Department of Health and Social Care effectively announced it was unable to carry out simple addition, claiming that the task of providing accurate death toll numbers was technically challenging and time consuming.

The reported death tolls announced by ministers during the initial period of the crisis at the daily press briefings were systematically partial and inaccurate. Their presentation undercounted the real death toll by collecting only deaths recorded in hospitals following a positive COVID-19 test. Downing Street’s figures initially only included confirmed deaths in hospitals, conveniently ignoring the many thousands of deaths in care homes. In the first 24 weeks of data, nearly 30 percent of all deaths attributable to the virus occurred in care homes, according to ONS figures. Many who died in these locations had previously been discharged from hospitals without being tested. The policy of removing from hospitals the elderly and infirm and dumping them into residential care homes—supposedly justified by the need to “protect the National Health Service”—killed thousands needlessly, including many care workers.

By June 23, according to the ONS, there had been 14,404 deaths in care homes, 2,205 in private homes, 660 in hospices, 219 in other communal establishments and 182 elsewhere.

In early June, ONS figures first came to light showing gaping disparities between the horrific reality and the picture presented by the government. On June 2, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed the government was being “transparent,” despite statistical data showing how it had vastly under-reported the likely number of COVID-19 deaths.

Hancock rubbished the ONS figures on “excess deaths,” which showed death rates three times higher than those announced by the government at the time. The excess deaths method of compiling figures for COVID-19 is internationally recognised as the best. The Health Foundation explains, “Excess deaths is a better measure than the COVID-19 deaths of the pandemic’s total mortality. It measures the additional deaths in a given period compared to the number usually expected and does not depend on how COVID-19 deaths are recorded.”

Speaking to the Guardian, Sir David King, the former government chief scientific adviser and chairman of the independent SAGE group, suggested the lacuna between the government’s figures and the objective toll was “an attempt to play down the adversity that the country was faced with.”

“They didn’t say we have to add on all these other numbers which would have been a more honest thing to say,” said King, suggesting the government was, by implication, dishonest. King continued, “They were saying things were more rosy than they actually were. The most important thing when you are running any crisis of this kind is truth and honesty. The only way to maintain the moral authority of the government. This is the most disastrous handling of any serious challenge to a government for 100 years.”

In response to Guardian requests for a comment, the government offered up another of their now usual pro-forma statements: “Every death is a tragedy, and our deepest sympathies go out to all the families who have lost loved ones. We have always been transparent about the way we report COVID-19 deaths and it is wrong to suggest we would in any way attempt to play down the scale of this global pandemic. The government’s daily figures and the ONS data count different things, which we have always fully explained and clearly reported.”

The government suppressed the extent of COVID-19 fatalities because its policies directly created the conditions for an explosive outbreak of the virus and consequently tens of thousands of needless deaths.

There is no innocent explanation for the blatant suppression of the pandemic death numbers. The government’s briefings were an act of propaganda designed to deceive the public and to suppress anger within working class communities, which have disproportionately borne the overwhelming majority of deaths from the virus. Millions are employed in key parts of the economy without sufficient workplace protection and consequently many thousands have and continue to die from infection at work.

By masking the severity of the virus, the government’s many obfuscations also serve to undermine public attitudes towards the need for extreme caution and maintaining adequate social distancing and shielding as advocated by many independent scientists. By under reporting the number of deaths, the government sought to mask the virulence of the virus and the full extent of the its criminal negligence.

Now, with the Tories rushing headlong to end lockdown and remove any meaningful social distancing measures, even the daily coronavirus press briefings have been ditched.

WHO warns of “very significant” coronavirus resurgence in Europe

Will Morrow

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe, Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, gave a press conference in Copenhagen and warned of a “very significant” resurgence of the coronavirus taking place across the continent. Europe saw an increase in total weekly cases for the first time in months last week.

“For weeks I have spoken about the risk of resurgence as countries adjust new measures,” Kluge said, referencing governments’ ending of lock-down policies. “In several countries across Europe, this risk has now become a reality—30 countries have seen increases in new cumulative cases over the past two weeks.” This is more than half the 54 countries that make up WHO’s European region.

“In 11 of these countries,” he added, “accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe.” These are largely concentrated in eastern Europe: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, North Macedonia and Ukraine, as well as Sweden in northern Europe.

The WHO regional director’s warning comes as the rate of spread of the virus is accelerating globally. There were a record number of new cases reported on Sunday, with over 183,000 in 24 hours. Europe has reported more than 2.5 million cases, slightly less than a quarter of the international total. It continues to report almost 20,000 cases and 700 deaths every day.

The resurgence of the virus is being driven by governments’ reopening policy, whose aim is the full and unhindered resumption of corporate profit-making activities, regardless of the threat that this poses to the working population.

In the countries of western Europe which imposed fairly stringent lock-down policies that have since been lifted, there are many signs that the impact of these measures on the spread of the virus is over and that a new acceleration is underway.

Increasingly the hot-spots of the virus are concentrated in poorer and working class areas where large numbers of people live or reside in close quarters with no protection.

The Italian government deployed riot police and military troops to the coastal town of Mondragone, 60km south of north of Naples in the country’s south, on Wednesday and Thursday, after protests erupted by residents of an impoverished community estate that has been placed under lockdown. There are more than 700 residents in the estate, most of them reportedly immigrant workers from Bulgaria, who pick fruit for poverty-level wages and are now unable to work or obtain any income. The Corriere della Sera described the complex as “one of thousands of ghettos in Italy” with “more or less heinous conditions.” At least 45 cases were detected at the estate.

Similar conditions exist at the Göttingen high-rise complex in Germany, which was quarantined last week by German police after at least 120 cases were found. The apartments of entire families with several children range in size from 19 to 37 square meters. These conditions caused protests by residents against the quarantine, which were met by the deployment of riot police.

Germany’s r-value, which estimates the average number of people that a carrier of the virus infects, increased to 2.88 this week, after the discovery of a massive cluster at a Tönnies abattoir in the western state of North Whine-Westphalia. An r-value above 1 indicates that the virus is spreading exponentially. The seven-day averaged r-value, which is more stable, increased from 1.55 to 2.03 with the detection of the outbreak.

At least 1,558 workers at the Tönnies have tested positive, more than one fifth of the total workforce, and more than two-thirds of the workers in the cutting department. The employees live in cramped company-provided accommodation.

In Portugal, nineteen of 24 districts in the capital Lisbon have been placed on lock-down Thursday until at least July 14. On Thursday, the health ministry confirmed 311 new cases, almost 80 percent of which were in Lisbon.

In France, the r-value is increasing in seven out of 13 departmental regions, meaning that the rate of propagation of the virus is accelerating. In three areas, Normandie, Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes and Occitanie, the r-value is above 1. In the central Île-de-France area that includes Paris, it is at 0.94. The national average for the period of June 6 to 12 was 0.93, an increase from 0.88 at the beginning of June.

In French Guyana, an overseas territory bordering Brazil, the situation is extremely stark. The number of cases per 100,000 members of the population has exploded to 308, compared to 88 only one week ago.

On Wednesday, the Macron administration announced a further lifting of whatever remained of the restrictions on the operations of employers kept in place after confinement was ended on May 11. Labor minister Muriel Pénicaud released a new set of guidelines for employers, which no longer require that a surface area of four square meters per employee be available in order to ensure social distancing between co-workers.

The four square-meter requirement is being replaced by a “guide” for employees to have one meter of separation between one another. This is non-binding and amounts to nothing. The new recommendations add that if the one-meter distancing cannot be maintained, employees should wear a mask. They are otherwise not required to do so. More than 29,700 people have died from the virus in France.

In Britain, where hundreds continue to die every day from the virus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an end to the remaining lockdown measures on Tuesday. As in France, social distancing requirements have similarly been replaced with meaningless “advice” of a one-meter separation.

The full reopening policy of European governments amounts to an unstated implementation of the murderous pseudo-scientific “theory” of “herd immunity.” The spread of the virus is to be allowed to continue, in order that there may be no fetters on the profit-making of the corporate and financial elite.

As pandemic rages, Trump administration calls on Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare

Kate Randall

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late on Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010. The filing came the same day the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that nearly half a million Americans had signed up in April and May for health care plans under the program, popularly known as Obamacare, amid the economic devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ending the ACA would wipe out health care coverage for as many as 23 million Americans. In a week that has seen the highest number of new cases since the coronavirus outbreak began, the filing shows the indifference and contempt of the government for the American people, who are struggling with unemployment, sickness and death as a result of a pandemic that has been allowed to ravage the country.

Some 45 million people have lost their jobs over the past three months, in many cases losing their employer-sponsored health insurance as well.

The administration submitted an 82-page brief to the high court an hour before the midnight deadline on Thursday. It joined Republican officials in Texas and other states who argue that the then-Republican-controlled Congress had rendered the entire law unconstitutional when it reduced to zero the ACA’s tax penalty for those not covered by employer- or government-provided programs who fail to buy insurance—the so-call individual mandate.

Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco argued in his brief: “Nothing the 2017 Congress did demonstrated it would have intended the rest of the ACA to continue to operate in the absence of these three integral provisions.” He added, “The entire ACA thus must fall with the individual mandate.”

The Supreme Court has already ruled on two legal challenges to Obamacare, both times leaving most of the law intact. Trump had previously supported preserving the law’s more popular provisions, such as guaranteed coverage for those with preexisting medical conditions and allowing those up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance coverage.

With his hardline stance against the ACA, Trump is playing to his base and the ultra-right in the lead-up to the November election. However, some officials in his administration, including Attorney General William Barr, had urged the president to take a less aggressive position against ACA, fearing the stance could backfire against Republicans in the election.

The Democrats seized on Trump’s move as the occasion to posture as the champions of workers’ health care. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the brief by saying, “President Trump and the Republicans’ campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus is an act of unfathomable cruelty.”

Lost in this bluster is the reality that Obamacare has always served to enrich the private insurance companies. Its central component, the individual mandate, forces individuals to purchase coverage from a private insurer or face a penalty, thus funneling billions into the coffers of the insurance monopolies.

While this mandate was shot down by the 2017 Congress, private insurers, pharmaceuticals, giant hospital chains and their CEOs continue to enrich themselves, as the ACA provides little oversight of what these private entities charge for their products and services.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential candidate, offered a particularly demagogic response to Trump’s attack on Obamacare. He argued that if the ACA is struck down, Americans “would live their lives caught in a vise between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from American families.”

In remarks in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on Thursday, Biden criticized Trump’s filing, making promises about what his administration would do to improve health care that he knows would never be fulfilled.

While pointing out that ending the ACA under conditions of a pandemic would be devastating for the 23 million Americans who receive coverage under the program, he did not touch on the murderous return-to-work campaign now taking place across the county, in which meatpacking, auto and other industries are forcing workers back on the job under conditions of rampant COVID-19 infection and no personal protection against the virus.

Like Trump, the Democrats are concerned about corporations continuing to run their profit-making enterprises and boosting their stocks on Wall Street. Biden said, “We need to find a way to run the economy as we bring the number of cases down.”

However, the former vice president provided no details on how he intends to go about this. The Democrats are complicit in the return-to-work campaign, presiding over states and cities across the country that are prematurely reopening in accordance with Trump’ de facto policy of “herd immunity.” Their major action in the course of the pandemic has been to authorize the doling out of trillions of dollars to big business through the CARES Act, while allocating pittances to workers in the form of supplemental unemployment pay, which is set to run out in a month, and a one-time stipend.

Among the promises Biden made Thursday was that he would restrict health insurance premiums to 8.5 percent of household income, and an undefined smaller percentage for those with low incomes. For a single individual making 200 percent of the official poverty income, an absurdly low $25,520 a year, 8.5 percent would amount to about $2,170 annually, or $180 a month. A household earning the median annual income of $59,000 would pay over $500 a month, or more than $6,000 a year.

It is only under conditions where the health care system is entirely beholden to private interests that such out-of-pocket costs are presented as a major improvement!

Biden also pledged to introduce a public option on the ACA exchanges.

It is possible that the administration’s suit against the ACA could be argued before the Supreme Court in October, before the November election. The earliest a ruling could be delivered is some time in 2021.

FINCAD Women in Finance Scholarship 2020/2021 for International Postgraduate Students

Application Deadline: 30th June 2020 at 5:59 PM ET

Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (University): Any university accredited by the national or international body approved for that purpose in the country where the university is situated.

About the Award: FINCAD established the annual FINCAD Women in Finance Scholarship to encourage and support outstanding women in the field of finance, particularly relating to the use of derivatives in capital markets and/or financial risk management, and give them an opportunity to cultivate their skills and knowledge.

Type: Masters/PhD Degree

Eligibility: 

• The scholarship is open to women of any age and citizenship who are studying Finance in an accredited graduate-level program.
• The scholarship will be awarded to a deserving applicant who is enrolled in a post-graduate program with an emphasis on finance, particularly relating to the use of derivatives in capital markets and/or financial risk management. If your field of study does not meet that description, DO NOT APPLY.
• Applications and all supporting documents, except university transcripts must be in English.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Programme: The FINCAD Women in Finance Scholarship is an award of US$20,000 to support graduate-level studies.

How to Apply: It is important to go through the application procedure and visit the Programme Webpage (link below) before applying for this scholarship.

Visit Programme Webpage for details

DAAD Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (PRIME) 2020 for Research in Germany

Application Deadline: 31st August 2020.

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): Germany

About the Award: With co-funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) gives young postdocs the chance to spend a period of time researching abroad, in combination with a research phase in Germany. What is special about this programme is that is provides jobs, not scholarships. Applications are invited from postdoctoral researchers of all nationalities and subjects.

Type: Research

Eligibility: Requirements for applicants include the following:

• PhD completed before the start of funding
• free choice of country for the research phase abroad, providing that the candidate did not spend a total of more than twelve months there in the previous three years
• agreement of host institutions in Germany and abroad
• confirmation from the German host that it is willing to employ the postdoctoral researcher for the entire funding period if funding is approved

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Program: 

• basic salary and international allowance, plus travel allowance for the researcher, spouse/partner and children
• invitation to attend an orientation seminar before programme begins

Duration of Research: 18 months

• twelve months spent abroad
• six months spent in Germany

How to Apply:

• The application form is available in the application portal. To get to the portal please click on Stipendiendatenbank für Deutsche, fill in Fachrichtung (subject of your research), Zielland (country of the period abroad) and Status “Promovierte” (position), and select the programme.
• Please mind the instructions on registering on the portal, choose English as portal language, activate, if necessary, the compatibility view of your browser and choose English as browser language. After registration in the portal, please click on the tab “personal funding“.

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Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2020/2021

Application Deadline: 14th September 2020 at 4pm GMT+1.

Eligible Countries: Countries within Sub-Saharan Africa. For the purposes of the competition, sub-Saharan countries include:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Crucial commercialisation support is awarded to a shortlist of innovative applicants through a six-month period of training and mentoring. Following this period of mentorship, finalists will be invited to present at an event held in Africa and a winner will be selected to receive £25,000 along with runners-up, who will each be awarded £10,000.

Eligibility: To be eligible,

• Applicants must be individuals or groups of no more than three people.
• Individual applicants must be citizens of a country within sub-Saharan Africa and currently reside there. For teams of two or three, the lead applicant must be a citizen of a country within sub-Saharan Africa and currently reside there.
• Applicants must have an engineering innovation and provide a letter of support from a university of research institution.
• Industrial researchers and establishments are not eligible.
• The applicant’s innovation can be any new product, technology or service, based on research in engineering defined in its broadest sense to encompass a wide range of fields, including: agricultural technology, biotechnology, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, design engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, ICT, materials science, mechanical engineering, and medical engineering. If you are in any doubt that your area of expertise would be considered engineering then please contact the Academy to discuss your application.
• Applicants should have achieved the development of, and be in the early stages of commercialising, an engineering innovation that:

1. will bring social and/or environmental benefits to country/countries in sub-Saharan Africa;
2. has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up;
3. is accompanied by an ambitious but realistic business plan which has strong commercial viability.

Number of Awardees: not specified

Value of Prize: Finalists will be invited to present at an event held in Africa and a winner will be selected to receive £25,000 along with runners-up, who will each be awarded £10,000

Duration of Program: Crucial commercialisation support is awarded to a shortlist of innovative applicants, through a six month period of training and mentoring.

How to Apply: All applications must be submitted via the online grants system, applicants should ensure they read the guidance notes before submitting their application.

Visit Program Webpage for Details