Three Things for April 19
1. Death toll rises in Africa following flood
At least 443 people have died and 63 are missing after a flood in South Africa.
The floods began on Wednesday, April 13, when the cities of Durban and the KwaZulu-Natal province were hit with heavy rain.
“Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless and more than 550 schools and nearly 60 health care facilities have been damaged, according to the South African government. Authorities have announced an immediate 1 billion rand ($68 million) in emergency relief,” reports ABC News.
According to Sihle Zikalala, premier of KwaZulu-Natal, many roads, bridges and essential infrastructures were damaged and completely washed away.
Zikalala is now raising funds and making plans to rebuild what was destroyed.
"We want to say, without any equivocation, that all the resources allocated for flood relief and the recovery and rebuilding process will be utilized in line with fiscal rectitude, accountability, transparency and openness," Zikalala said.
2. CDC starts forecasting center for infectious disease
On Tuesday, April 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a new government center.
According to AP News, the new Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics is “an early warning system to help guide the response to COVID-19 and future pandemics.”
Leaders of the new program say there were previous issues with data-collecting, but according to the center’s associate director Caitlin Rivers, the CDC is requiring better access to data from state governments and hospitals.
Rivers says the agency broadly relies on voluntary reporting and complex data agreements.
“The center is housed at CDC. Its initial $200 million in funding came from the 2021 coronavirus relief package. The center has awarded $21 million to academic institutions to develop modeling and forecasting methods,” reports AP News.
3. Explosions near Kabul kill six civilians
Blasts targeting a school in Kabul, Afghanistan killed at least six people and injured 17 on Tuesday, April 19.
“The explosions occurred inside the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School and near the Mumtaz Education Center several kilometers (miles) away, both in the predominately Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. There were no immediate reports of casualties at the Mumtaz Center,” reports AP News.
An alleged suicide bomber died in the school compound, which houses up to 1,000 students.
“No one has immediately claimed responsibility. The area has been targeted in the past by Afghanistan’s deadly Islamic State affiliate, which reviles Shiite Muslims as heretics,” reports AP News.
Associated Press video journalist observed numerous walls inside the school splattered with blood, burned notebooks and children’s shoes.
Save the Children in Afghanistan released a statement “strongly condemning ” the attack and said, “no school should be deliberately targeted, and no child should fear physical harm at or on the way to school.”
