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NAIROBI (Reuters) - When Danish national Martin Nielsen moved to Kenya to work with a venture capital firm, he quickly switched gears after spotting an opportunity in streaming music and selling downloads.
Kenyan musician Nviiri Sande plays his guitar in his studio, during a Reuters interview in Nairobi, Kenya February 12, 2021. REUTERS/Edwin Waita
Fast forward eight years and the Kenya-based company he co-founded and now leads, Mdundo, is listed on the Danish stock market and is posting rapid growth in users in the African markets it serves.
Africa has been attracting international audio streaming firms like Sweden’s Spotify and Apple Music, keen on capitalising on growing internet users and rising demand for legal content.
(This March 12 story corrects spelling in Ronny Numa’s name, paragraph 11)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Outside the synagogue in Jerusalem’s Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood Har Nof, a poster bears the name of Osnat Ben Sheetrit, a pregnant mother of four who died of COVID-19, and the words: “For the ascension of her soul, get vaccinated.”
The stark message is part of a health ministry campaign aimed at Israel’s 1.2 million Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the community that was the hardest hit by the coronavirus but also blamed by many secular Israelis for prolonging the pandemic by ignoring lockdown rules.
Now the rate of infections among the Haredim, as they are known in Israel, has dropped sharply, falling below the national average for the first time since the pandemic broke out. Cases of severe illness have also dropped, and vaccine take-up is at 72%, a comparatively high rate globally although still below the national rate of 86% in Israel.
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SCHWENKSVILLE, Pa. (Reuters) - Behind the counter of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, near Philadelphia, owner Mayank Amin has been working late into the night since his independent drugstore received state approval to administer COVID-19 vaccines in late January.
There are thousands of emails to sort through and phone calls to field, supplies to organize, appointments to schedule.
Amin, known as Dr. Mak, set up a vaccination clinic on Super Bowl Sunday at the local firehouse that drew more than 1,000 people who kept their appointments for shots despite the snow that day.
“It was just like a party out there,” Amin, 36, recalled during an interview with Reuters in late February. “It was something you could have never imagined in your life, to see four strangers carrying somebody on a wheelchair to get them through the mud and into the building.”