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Kano Records 92 New Cases Of COVID-19

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Kano Records 92 New Cases Of COVID-19

Kano on Friday reported 92 new cases of the deadly COVID-19 disease, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The state now has a total of 311 infections, second only to Lagos which has recorded 1,006.

However, the northern state appears to be closing the gap as it has posted the highest figures for two consecutive days.

Kano experienced a setback last week after its testing centres ran out of vital supplies and laboratory workers contracted the disease, leading to the shutdown of the state’s COVID-19 testing centre.

Without the capacity to test, reports of mass deaths circulated and the federal government scrambled to offer a response.

By Monday, the NCDC had rebooted the COVID-19 testing centres in the state.

The state’s rising figures are a reflection of increased testing for the disease.

Tanker fire kills one, injured scores in Obalende

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Tanker fire kills one, injured scores in Obalende

One person has been killed and several others injured after a  petrol tanker burst into flames in the Obalende area of Lagos State.

The tanker belonging to the NNPC was said to have tipped over before bursting into flames in front of the Oando filling station.

The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the development, said the 45,000-litre capacity tanker loaded with petrol caught fire after fallen on its side in from of the filling station.

He said after the LASEMA got the distress call about the fire, officials from the agency were dispatched to the scene where they along with men of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Federal Fire Service fought and brought the fire under control.

“Unfortunately, the inferno has resulted in a single fatality, 15 minor casualties, and one major casualty, who happens to be a Lagos State Firefighter. He has been subsequently transferred to the Lagos State General Hospital for treatment while the minor casualties received on the scene medical attention,” he said.

“We appeal for calm and urge members of the public to keep away and allow the responders to complete their work.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday also commiserated with families of the victims.

In a statement signed by NNPC spokesman, Kennie Obateru, the corporation said it wished all those that sustained injuries in the incident quick recovery.

The corporation explained that all the injured from the incident had been rushed to the hospital while further investigation is on to determine the accident’s cause.

In its statement, the corporation “expressed appreciation to the good-spirited people of Lagos around the scene of the incident and fire service personnel who brought the fire under control.”

Nigeria Records 238 New Cases Of COVID-19 as Deaths Rise to 68

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Nigeria Records 238 New Cases Of COVID-19 as Deaths Rise to 68

Nigeria has recorded 238 new cases of COVID-19 as deaths rose to 68, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a tweet on Friday.

The new cases bring the country’s number of total infections to 2,170.

For the second consecutive day, Kano recorded the highest number of cases in the country with 92 infections. The FCT posted 36 cases and Lagos reported 30.

The number of infections has risen due to the increased capacity for testing across the country, the NCDC has said.

Earlier on Friday, the NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu said at a press briefing Nigeria had tested about 2,000 samples on Thursday, the country’s highest in one day.

On Tuesday, the NCDC announced it has set the target of testing two million people within the next three months.

Experts believe cases will continue to rise as more testing is carried out.

Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 235,519 people since the outbreak first emerged in China in December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 8pm on Friday.

More than 3,303,510 cases were registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these cases, at least 1,003,600 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

Since 8pm on Thursday, 3,982 new deaths and 70,199 new infections were recorded worldwide.

The countries that registered the most deaths over the 24 hours were Britain with 739, Brazil with 435 and Spain with 281.

The United States has the highest number of total deaths with 63,127 out of 1,082,411 cases. At least 159,663 have been declared recovered.

Italy has the second-highest toll with 28,236 deaths out of 207,428 cases, followed by Britain with 27,510 deaths on 177,454 cases, Spain 24,824 deaths and 215,216 cases and France with 24,594 deaths and 167,346 cases.

The country with the highest proportion of fatalities per population is Belgium, with 66 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Spain with 53, Italy with 47, Britain with 41 and France with 38.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,633 deaths and 82,874 cases. It has 77,642 recovered cases.

Europe has a total of 140,101 deaths from 1,495,563 cases, the United States and Canada have 66,589 deaths and 1,137,191 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 11,548 deaths and 218,824 cases, Asia has 8,727 deaths and 227,471 cases, the Middle East has 6,791 deaths and 176,715 cases, Africa has 1,645 deaths from 39,668 cases, and Oceania 118 deaths from 8,086 cases.

Founder of AIT, Raymond Dokpesi Snr, and 7 members of his family test positive to Coronavirus

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Founder of AIT, Raymond Dokpesi Snr, and 7 members of his family test positive to Coronavirus

Chief Raymond Dokpesi, founder of Daar communications ( parent company of AIT) his daughter-in law, along with six members of his family, have tested positive to Coronavirus.

This is coming 3 days after his son and chairman of the board of the company, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr tested positive to the virus.

A test conducted by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC on the Dokpesi family came out positive for eight members of the family.

They have all been evacuated by the NCDC to the isolation centre at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, where his son is already receiving treatment.

Reacting to the development, Dokpesi who spoke shortly after the arrival of the NCDC Ambulance, said he feels very well.

“I am of quite ok, i feel very well”, he said, an indication that his condition is still asymptotic.

On Monday, his son, Raymond Jnr, tested positive to the virus and has been sent to the Isolation center in Abuja. Contact tracing immediately commenced with his family members including his father, High Chief Dokpesi and members of his household.

The test was later extended to senior management and members of staff who had been in close contact with the company’s index case.

The entire DAAR headquarters building sitting on the Kpaduma hills in Asokoro District of Abuja have since been fumigated.

India’s COVID-19 restrictions to continue till May 17

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India’s COVID-19 restrictions to continue till May 17

Parts of India which are not seriously affected by Coronavirus infections will slowly emerge out of a 40-day nationwide lockdown on Monday.

But most of the 1.3 billion Indians are unlikely to notice much change in their day-to-day life for at least two additional weeks. This is because many of the restrictions which have been in force since March 25 to contain COVID-19 will continue to be enforced across the country.

In new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs here, all of India will be under a strict curfew from dusk to dawn daily. “Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities, shall remain strictly prohibited between 7pm to 7am,” the Ministry announced.

Travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement of people by road will continue to be prohibited everywhere in India. Running of schools, colleges, and other educational institutions, hotels and restaurants, operation of cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums and sports complexes will also not be allowed.

Social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings are prohibited and religious places will continue to be closed. However, movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for emergencies and for select needs as permitted on a case-by-case basis by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

For purposes of enforcing the lockdown for an additional fortnight beyond Sunday, India has been divided into green, orange and red zones.

Green Zones are districts where no COVID-19 infections have been reported at any time or places with no positive cases in the last 21 days, Normal life will fully resume in the Green Zones from Monday. The only prohibitions there will be on activities that are not allowed on a pan-India basis.

Red Zones are those with high number of active COVID-19 cases, where doubling of confirmed cases is frequent, areas determined by feedback from testing and surveillance. Restrictions will continue to be severe in these districts.

Orange Zones fall between high infection zones and nil cases of active COVID-19. Limited personal public transport, such as taxis, and private vehicles with very restricted number of passengers will be allowed to move in Orange Zones.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare here announced this evening that India’s COVID-19 cases had touched 35,365 of whom 9,065 patients had recovered. There have been 1,152 deaths, leaving behind the number of active cases at 25,148.

COVID-19: UAE stem cell center develops breakthrough treatment with promising initial results

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COVID-19: UAE stem cell center develops breakthrough treatment with promising initial results
A United Arab Emirates’ research institute has developed a breakthrough treatment for COVID-19 which could be a game-changer in the global fight against the virus.
The Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC) has developed an innovative method which involves extracting stem cells from a patient’s blood and reintroducing them into the lungs via inhalation of a mist, regenerating lung cells and preventing the immune system from overreacting.
The treatment has already successfully undergone an initial phase of clinical trials – with 73 patients making full recoveries without any adverse side effects. The recipients were moderately or severely ill before treatment, with many intubated in an ICU.
More trials are being conducted and we should have a clearer understanding of the treatment’s potential in the coming weeks, but it could have a significant impact on our ability to live with the virus until a vaccine is available.
The ADSCC effort is one of around 60 significant studies in the UAE aiming to produce COVID-19 treatments and improve testing, in line with the UAE Government’s determination to mobilize the country’s resources towards overcoming the virus.

Covid 19: We may be forced to treat victims at home, taskforce cries out

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Covid 19: We may be forced to treat victims at home, taskforce cries out

By Bukola Olasanmi

The Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday made an outcry about inadequate bed spaces to accommodate COVID-19 patients in isolation centres.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu said Lagos State is the worst-hit by this challenge of inadequate bed spaces although Kano State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are also affected.

He stated this while responding to questions from journalists at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja. Ihekweazu added that although there are about 3,500 bed spaces available across the country, this is insufficient and it leaves the infectious disease control agency to struggle.

The team said it may be forced to treat patients at home

“In response to the question about bed spaces. There is not doubt about that, we are struggling in certain places especially in Lagos. To an extent Kano and Abuja too but the biggest challenge right now is in Lagos where bad spaces are really tight.

“Across the country we have about 3500 bed spaces identified as available for COVID-19 but in Lagos we are really struggling. So, we are going to keep trying to work with them to make more spaces available and ultimately,” he said.

The NCDC boss added that due to this challenge, there might be need for a change of strategy and start treating some patients at home.

“We might have to change our strategy a little bit and start considering home care in certain circumstances where the person is able to provide a room where a patient can be managed sufficiently and secondly, we are able to support the care by enabling healthcare workers come to that.

“We will always be honest with Nigerians, we are struggling at the moment we might have to adapt that strategy because of the reality we have faced over the next few days and weeks,” Ihekweazu said.

Nigeria currently has 1,728 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across 34 states of the country including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Only 307 persons have been discharged while 51 deaths have, so far, been recorded.

COVID-19: Govt Offices, Banks Can Open From Monday, Says PTF

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COVID-19: Govt Offices, Banks Can Open From Monday, Says PTF

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has announced that government offices and banks can resume operations from Monday the 4th of May.

This follows the approval of a phased easing of the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory, by President Muhammadu Buhari, to allow for the restoration of socio-economic activities.

However, there would be a 6:00 am to 8:00 pm curfew to regulate the movement of people.

Giving a breakdown of how the easing of the lockdown will be implemented, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Aliyu Sani, during Wednesday’s briefing, said all government offices and banks can resume operations from Monday.

“For government offices, staff will be allowed to resume from the 4th of May but it will be based on specific grade levels and specific days, so that we can reduce the amount of congestion that we might have in the offices,” he said.

For financial institutions such as banks, the PTF coordinator noted that they will be allowed to open but only between 8:00 am and 2:00 pm, while also ensuring that staff and customers adhere to the hygiene and social distancing measures.

Aliyu stressed that the easing of the lockdown is actually just a shift from one set of interventions to another.

“The most important thing I want to emphasize is, even though we talk about easing the lockdown, in actual fact, we are not really easing, we are just shifting from one set of interventions to another because we are really still far from controlling this epidemic,” he said.

For general movements outside the curfew periods, the PTF coordinator said: “people may go out for work, to buy necessary food and for exercise but we strongly advise persons to restrict themselves to their local government areas except for those that live in metropolitan areas”.

Interstate travel, according to him, will be restricted to only those involved in the supply chain and services such as goods, agricultural products, petroleum products, courier services and relief items etc.

On the other hand, for intrastate movement, services and businesses were advised to provide hand sanitizers for customers.

The general public was also advised to imbibe the use of face masks and other hygiene measures.

On the issue of mass gatherings, Aliyu said there shall be no gatherings of more than 20 persons anywhere per time so as to ensure adherence to physical distancing.

For the manufacturing sector, “we encourage shift work for manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies and limiting staff to only 30-50% to maintain physical distancing and pharmacy shops may remain open overnight,” he said.

Restaurants have been asked not open to the public but will be allowed to engage in home deliveries of food items.

While partial operations will be allowed for the above sectors, academic institutions were, however, advised to remain closed until further evaluation is done.

“Schools are encouraged to continue with e-learning and virtual teaching”, the PTF coordinator added.

Trump ‘confident’ coronavirus may have originated in Chinese lab

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Trump ‘confident’ coronavirus may have originated in Chinese lab

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus originated in a Chinese virology lab but declined to provide any evidence for his claim that is likely to further increase tension with China over the origins of the pandemic.

Trump told reporters at the White House that evidence he had seen gave him a “high degree of confidence” the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“Yes, yes I have,” he said, declining to give specifics. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”

The Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed the allegations, and other officials in the United States have downplayed the idea. Intelligence agencies said on Thursday that the virus was “not man-made or genetically modified”, but that they were still investigating whether there could have been a lab accident or leak.

Most experts believe the virus originated in a market selling wildlife in Wuhan and jumped from animals to people.

Trump has shown increasing frustration with China in recent weeks over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives across the world and triggered an unprecedented global economic contraction. The US has recorded more deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, than any other country, and the outbreak is threatening Trump’s chances of re-election in November.

The Republican president told reporters that US agencies were investigating how the virus first emerged and what China had done to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the world.

“We’ll be able to get a very powerful definition of what happened,” Trump said, adding that a report would be made to him in the “not too distant future”.

He has said previously his administration was trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from the Wuhan lab, following media reports it may have been artificially synthesised at a China state-backed laboratory or perhaps escaped from such a facility.

Deepening rift

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday it was not known whether the virus came from the lab.

“We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don’t know if it emanated from the wet market or yet some other place. We don’t know those answers,” Pompeo said in an interview with Iowa station Newsradio 1040.

The spread of the coronavirus has contributed to a deepening rift between the Trump administration and China. Beijing has suggested the US military might have brought the virus to China and Trump has said China failed to alert the world to the risks in a timely and transparent fashion.

Other countries have also been drawn into the dispute with Australia under pressure from China over its backing for an independent global inquiry into the virus’ origins.

 

Trump also said on Thursday it was possible that China either could not stop the spread of the coronavirus or let it spread. He declined to say whether he held Chinese President Xi Jinping responsible for what he feels is misinformation about the emergence of the coronavirus.

Trump said of China’s efforts to get to the bottom of how the virus emerged: “At least they seem to be trying to be somewhat transparent with us.”

“But we’re going to find out. You’ll be learning in the not-too-distant future. But it’s a terrible thing that happened – whether they made a mistake or whether it started off as a mistake and then they made another one. Or did somebody do something on purpose?” he said.

‘Destructive policies’: Turkey slams UAE over Middle East, Africa

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‘Destructive policies’: Turkey slams UAE over Middle East, Africa

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused the United Arab Emirates of pursuing “destructive policies” in northern Africa and the Middle East and called on the Emiratis to abandon what it called a “hostile attitude” towards Ankara.

The comments from Turkey followed a statement from the UAE that called on all Libyan parties to commit to the United Nations-supervised political process to end the war, but also saluted the army led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar and rejected Turkish military intervention on behalf of the country’s UN- recognized government.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the remarks were an attempt by the UAE to “hide their two-faced politics” and said the country was providing aid to “putschists” in Libya.

Turkey backs the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and has signed a military cooperation agreement to help the fight against Haftar. The government in Ankara has repeatedly urged world powers to stop supporting Haftar’s forces, which it deems “putschists.”

In its Thursday statement, the Emirati Foreign Ministry said it “commends the Libyan National Army for conducting anti-terror operations,” and expressed “its categorical rejection of the Turkish military intervention” in support of the GNA.

The UAE statement did not comment directly on Haftar’s declaration on Monday that his army would take power, ripping up a 2015 political agreement that has been the basis for all international peacemaking efforts.

‘Hostile stance’

Aksoy said the “ugly” and “baseless” allegations that had been made by the UAE administration were attempts to cover up its own “destructive policies”, the Turkish news agency Anadolu reported.

Sources told Al Jazeera on Thursday that several top Emirati officials were on a visit to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to rally support and recruit fighters for Haftar.

“The UAE’s actions disrupting international peace, security and stability not just in Libya, but all the region, including Yemen, Syria and Africa, are well known to the international community,” Aksoy said in a statement.

“We call on the UAE leadership to avoid taking a hostile stance against our country and to know its place.”

Yemen’s civil war erupted late in 2014 when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, along with much of the country’s north and overthrew the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Nominally, the Hadi government and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) are part of an “Arab coalition” fighting against the Houthis.

However, Hadi’s government is mainly supported by Saudi Arabia, where it operates, while the STC and its leaders are based in the UAE.

Earlier this week, the STC announced self-rule in Yemen’s southern provinces and the key port city of Aden, which it has controlled since 2015 in a move analysts said could create the conditions for perpetual conflict.

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