COVID
Private school teachers seek interest-free loan from government
The National Association of Private School Teachers (NAPST) has urged the Nigerian government to provide its members interest-free loans repayable gradually from when schools resume. The association said this is.to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on private school teachers in the country. NAPST, which is the umbrella body and voice of private school teachers in the country, said many of its members have turned to beggars for not being paid since the closure of schools over four months ago. The National President of the association, Akhigbe Augustine, made the plea in Abuja on Tuesday, Following the outbreak of COVID 19, schools were shut throughout Nigeria on March 19, leaving school authorities to adopt alternative modes of learning for students. The shutdown has been most felt by private ...
NCDC: Coronavirus presents malaria symptoms but it’s not
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says though Coronavirus (COVID-19) presents symptoms similar to malaria such as fever, both diseases are caused by different organisms and differ in mode of transmission. The NCDC made this known on its official twitter handle, while warning Nigerians against taking COVID-19 and malaria as the same infection. The health agency also identified 12 symptoms that could point to the existence of COVID-19 in the human body. According to NCDC, the listed symptoms will help Nigerians “take responsibility” by quickly calling the available holtines if they experienced a combination of this symptoms. The NCDC urged Nigerians to alert its officials, “If you have COUGH or FEVER and one of these symptoms: Loss of Taste; Loss of Smell, Difficulty Breathing, D...
Netflix adds another 10 million subscribers
Getty Images Netflix is still growing as people continue to shelter in place around the country, but the company is now seeing the slowed subscriber growth executives predicted would arrive three months ago. On top of announcing that longtime chief content officer Ted Sarandos would join CEO Reed Hastings as co-CEO, the company made a few impressive announcements. Netflix added 10.2 million subscribers in its second quarter, beating the company’s own estimates that it made in its first quarter, which suggested it could add around 7.5 million. Netflix noted that it added 26 million paid new subscribers in the first two quarters of 2020 alone; in 2019, the company added 28 million subscribers in total. The company’s revenue grew 25 percent year over year, but missed its revenue goals for the...
Lollapalooza Co-Founder Says Don’t Expect Live Music Until 2022
If you thought the wait for live music was tough enough as is, it may get a lot worse. Former WME global head of music/Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger said on the Bob Lefsetz Podcast that he doesn’t expect live music to resume “late ’21, more likely ’22” when the host asked him the timeframe for when concerts would resume, adding that “the whole thing is a shit show.” Geiger says that “the next six months may be more painful than the last six months, and maybe the next six months after that are even more so,” and adds that if he’s right about the timeframe, there will be “massive amount of bloodshed, bankruptcies, and won’t be good for the majority of the industry.” His reasoning is that there are “probably 20″ hurdles that need to be solved before it resumes, include the vir...
PTF decries continued refusal by hospitals to treat patients for fear of coronavirus
The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 (PTF) has decried the continued refusal by medical institutions including federal tertiary institutions to receive and treat patients for fear COVID-19. PTF lamented that this development has resulted in several unfortunate and avoidable fatalities. Meanwhile, the PTF will conclude its assessment on the impact of the measures put in place and further recommendations would be submitted to the President for a decision within the next seventy hours. Chairman of PTF and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who disclosed this at the daily Press Briefing in Abuja, noted that Nigeria is having more deaths from non-attendance to other diseases than even COVID 19 adding that the reason for the greater emphasis on COVID 19 is ...
Ogun confirms 25 new coronavirus cases
The Ogun State government has confirmed 25 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 178. A statement on the official Twitter page of the state government on Wednesday said the 25 patients have been quarantined across the treatment and isolation centres in the state, as contact tracing continues. “As at 20th May, 2020, the NCDC announced that 25 COVID-19 cases had been confirmed in Ogun State, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 178.” “The 25 patients have been quarantined across the Treatment and Isolation Centres in the State, as contact tracing continues. “The State has now discharged a total of 69 patients who tested negative to the virus and are now back with their families. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC...
Zamfara denies recording 10 new coronavirus cases
Zamfara Government on Tuesday said the figure of 10 new COVID-19 cases in the state announced on Monday by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) was wrong, as the state had only recorded two new cases. Alhaji Yahaya Kanoma, the state Commissioner of Health told newsmen in Gusau that the state government had alerted the NCDC of the error and demanded that it be rectified. “We were shocked and bewildered by this latest figure from the NCDC which said 10 new cases were confirmed when we know it was only two. “Our records have shown that when results from the center returned, we had a total of 76 cases made up of 45 discharged persons, 26 in isolation and five dead, so we didn’t know where NCDC got the additional eight. “We approached the center which could not give a convincing explan...
Presymptomatic coronavirus patients can contaminate environments – study
Coronavirus was detected on several surfaces in hotel rooms where two presymptomatic Chinese students were quarantined before being diagnosed with the disease, according to a study released on Monday. For the study, published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers in China examined the hotel rooms of the two students, who returned to China from studying abroad on March 19 and March 20. They did not display any virus symptoms at the time and were transferred to a hotel for 14 days of quarantine. On the morning of the second day in quarantine, they remained presymptomatic but both tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized. About three hours after they tested positive, the researchers sampled various surface...
Raymond Dokpesi Jnr asks NCDC to provide his coronavirus test results
Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr, has recovered from coronavirus. Newsmen report that the founder of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, and two of his grandchildren also recovered from coronavirus on Thursday and were discharged from the University of Abuja Treatment Centre. Announcing the improvement in his health in an appreciation letter published on ait.live on Friday, the young Dokpesi said officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control called him on Thursday night to inform him that he tested negative for coronavirus, adding that two other family members have also recovered from the infection. He noted that while receiving treatment at the Abuja isolation facility, he started feeling well when the combination of azithromycin, chloroquine and zinc w...
NASC: Farmers to access 81,000MT seeds during lockdown
The Director-General of National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), Dr Philip Ojo has said that Nigeria has about 81,000 metric tons of seeds during this COVID-19 lockdown period. Dr Ojo who said this during a Webinar press conference with journalists noted that the seeds would ensure that agricultural activities were not disrupted as a result of the lockdown imposed across the country as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19. He said efforts were being made by the Council and relevant agencies to ensure that seeds reach the farmers in the grassroots amid the COVID-19 lockdown. “The National Agricultural Seeds Council is doing all within reach to ensure that seed sector-related activities are sustained and promoted even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic for Nigeria to be able to have a c...
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...
