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House of Reps queries health minister on whereabouts of Chinese doctors
Lawmakers at the House of Representatives have questioned the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, demanding activities and whereabouts of the Chinese doctors. The lawmakers at their plenary on Tuesday said they are not satisfied with the statement of the Minister that the Chinese doctors are not guests of the Federal Ministry of Health but that of a Chinese firm in Abuja. The resolution of the House stems from a motion of urgent public importance raised by Representative Dachung Bagos. The House, in a separate motion, also resolved to investigate the status of medical and pharmaceutical research in the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria. They expressed worry that Nigerian scientists and researchers have not been given the necessary support and funding for medical research. The Minister o...
Newborn baby tests positive for coronavirus in Russia
A baby was born with the coronavirus in Russia’s Caucasus region, health officials were quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Sunday, to a mother who is also infected. The birth in the North Ossetia city of Beslan follows one in mid-April in Peru, which health officials there said was the second known case of a COVID-19 positive newborn worldwide. In North Ossetia, “a pregnant woman was infected by the coronavirus, and her baby was born infected”, a regional health ministry spokesman was quoted by the state agency TASS as saying. “They are now at home, their state is satisfactory,” the spokesman added. The head of the hospital’s maternity unit, Hassan Tagaiev, was quoted by local television as saying that 17 of 35 women who were about to give birth there had tested positive for COVID-19....
Rivers monarchs accuse IGP of reversing presidential lockdown order
President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to reverse the order of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on the movement of agricultural produce, livestock, goods and services in Rivers State. The call was made on Saturday by the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, which noted that the IGP had set up a Joint Technical Task Force at the instance of the Federal Ministries of Agricultural and Rural Development, Defence, Environment as well as various security agencies, to ensure free and unhindered movement of food, livestock, agricultural inputs and others into the State. The State Chairman of the Council, King Dandeson Jaja, speaking on behalf of the council in Port Harcourt wondered why the IGP would unilaterally lift the ban on the Presidential order restricting interstate movement...
Coronavirus: Lagos begins chloroquine clinical trial this week
The Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, has said the state will this week commence the clinical trial treatment of COVID-19 using chloroquine as approved by NAFDAC. The state, which is the epicentre of the virus in the country, had previously disclosed plans to carry out the chloroquine clinical trial. Omotoso, in an interview with newsmen on Saturday, said, “We are ready for the chloroquine clinical trial because we have just secured all the approvals. The documentation has also been completed. Those that will be used for the trials are ready too. By next week we should be ready for the trial. “Also, Lagos got a supply of additional 20,000 testing kits, although we were expecting 40,000. It means that the testing will increase now.” In a related devel...
55 Coronavirus patients discharged in Jigawa
The Jigawa State Government has announced the discharge of 55 Coronavirus patients who tested negative twice for the virus. Auwal D Sankara, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on New Media, said in a statement that 55 COVID-19 patients were confirmed to have been cured and discharged after testing negative twice in Jigawa state, Northwest Nigeria. This brings the total number of discharged patients in the state to 62, with three fatalities. The statement quoted the Commissioner for Health and the chairman of the state Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Abba Zakari, as saying that the state was hoping to discharge more soon. Meanwhile, the commissioner said the state has recorded 15 additional cases and imposed lockdown in three additional towns affected to prevent further spread of the virus...
Coronavirus: African football must wait – CAF chief
CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad, has stated that African football must wait till the coronavirus pandemic is over. He said health comes first before football and as such, it is better that the pandemic is managed and curtailed before football resumes in the continent. He said: “As we see the ratio of tests that have been carried out in these countries, it is always alarming because we lack visibility in the management of this pandemic. “There is a lack of visibility. We must wait. As president, I invite everyone to be very careful and wait for the situation to normalize. But beyond that, I do not want football to be a source of destabilization for the precautionary measures taken by the various governments to deal with the pandemic. “The whole world is facing a very important health crisis, and...
PTF: Stop stigmatisation of coronavirus patients
Worried by the negative impacts on the society, the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic has warned the public to desist from stigmatization of Covid-19 patients. This warning was given on Friday by Dr. Sani Aliyu, PTF National Coordinator, during the daily press briefing in Abuja. He lamented the growing cases of stigmatization of Covid-19 patients, saying that this state of affairs will not augur well for the fight against the pandemic in Nigeria. “Stigmatization of Covid-19 patients can only make many who have the disease to go underground and by that singular act the virus will continue to spread. When we stigmatize people who have contracted the virus it is obvious that many other people will be afraid to come clean. The carriers will be afraid to come forward fo...
Official: Why 471 persons died in Yobe in three weeks
Dr. Mohammed Lawan, Yobe Commissioner for Health, on Tuesday gave reasons for the 471 deaths recorded across different communities in the State in the past three weeks amidst fears that the deadly COVID-19 virus may has been claiming lives in the State without notice. Lawan, who is the Vice Chairman of the state’s COVID-19 Committee, however, said the deaths which occurred between the last days of April till date was not due to the global pandemic, according to preliminary report of the investigative response team constituted by the government. According to him, 90 per cent of the deaths had no multiple case definition symptoms of Coronavirus disease, while further noting that most of those that died were elderly people. According to him, “57 per cent of the total deaths had an underlying ...
Nigeria increases coronavirus testing above 27, 000
The Federal Government on Monday said the country has ramped up testing for the coronavirus to 27,078. Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, disclosed this in Abuja at the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 in the country. Ehanire said this has yielded about 4,399 cases in 35 states with a gender ratio of 30 per cent to 70 per cent of men and women. He said 778 persons have been discharged with 143 deaths. The minister added that personnel in federal hospitals participated in a multi-national teleconference with medical and academic experts in Beijing on the COVID-19 treatment strategy of China. “Our COVID-19 response must become a concerted national collaborative drive to become more effective. “This requires synergies across all tiers of government levels which should be...
Minister: Plant extract in Madagascar’s coronavirus ‘remedy’ grows in Nigeria
The Federal Government has said the “Artemisia annua”, the plant extract in Madagascar’s announced ‘remedy’ for coronavirus also grows in Nigeria. The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, revealed this during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Monday. Ehanire said samples of the said plant would be got from Madagascar and compared with the ones which grow here in the country. He said, “The cure from Madagascar has been making the news and we have promised to get samples of the herb or the botanical products that is there for analysis and (also) use (that) as an opportunity to speak with the health authorities, particularly the scientific community, on how they use it. “We will give that to the research community with us here to examine and see what they can...
Ekiti discharges five patients, expands isolation centre
Ekiti State Government on Monday disclosed that five patients of the deadly coronavirus pandemic have been discharged from the Isolation Centre in Ekiti on Monday. This is just as the government revealed it’s a plan to expand the Isolation Centre to 100-bed space capacity for more preparation on the Pandemic. Governor Kayode Fayemi had on Saturday evening broke the news on his Twitter handle that the state recorded new three cases. According to the tweet from the Governor, “We got information from NCDC tonight that three more persons tested positive to COVID-19 virus. Two are contacts of the medical doctor still in our care and another person who sneaked into the state before he was quarantined. This underscores the need for extra vigilance. ” With the development so far, Ekiti has 15 conf...
Lagos targets scaling up coronavirus testing capacity to 2,000 daily
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has disclosed plans to scale up its testing capacity for COVID-19 from 850 to 1500 and 2000 daily. This is subject to the availability of COVID-19 extraction kits considering the acute global shortage. Sanwo-Olu, disclosed this among other measures, while giving an update on COVID-19 situation in the state, during a live broadcast, Saturday, 11th in the series. According to the governor, who is the Incident Commander, “Let me say, as I have said before, that the success of our efforts, at ramping up testing, is part of the reason why we are seeing a significant escalation in the number of cases in Lagos State. “Quite clearly, also, we are firmly in the community transmission stage of the infection, and the only way to be sure we are making all th...
