Eleven people were killed and 98 injured on Sunday in a train accident in Egypt’s Qalioubia province north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement. The train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when four carriages derailed at 1:54 p.m. (1154 GMT), about 40 kms (25 miles) north of Cairo, Egyptian National Railways said in a short statement. The cause of the accident is being investigated, it added. More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province, the health ministry said. The derailing is the latest of several recent railway crashes in Egypt. At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured in March when two trains collided near Tahta, about 440 kms (275 miles) south of Cairo. Fifteen people were injured this month when t...
On the wall of St. Joseph’s Church hangs a black-and-white photograph with a caption remembering when the Italian parish of Seriate gave 270 people emergency “hospitality” last year – coffins of the dead from COVID-19, sometimes up to 40 at a time. The hosts were Father Mario Carminati, 65, and Marcello Crotti, 46, who opened up the church to give the deceased a dignified temporary place of rest so they would not have to wait in a warehouse for burial or cremation. “For me it was a nightmare, but I didn’t have the opportunity to think about it a lot because when you find yourself in the middle of an emergency you have to rush and act according to your instinct,” Carminati, the senior priest in Seriate, said. A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic in northern Italy was spiralling and the provinc...
A Radiation and Clinical Oncologist, Dr. Tessy Ahmadu, has decried inadequate facilities for cancer treatment in the country. Ahmadu, who is also the Head of the Oncology Department, Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abuja, said this in an interview with newsmen on Friday in Abuja. She said rather than blaming the spate of cancer on inadequate expertise in the country, inadequate facilities should be held responsible. According to her, the country has trained oncologists and specialists handling cancer cases. “We have a population of over 200 million but we have less than 10 functional radiotherapy machines in the country,” the medical doctor said. Although Ahmadu said that there were enough experts in the country, she noted that they could still be more than the present number. She said that ...
Hospitals in Brazil’s main cities are reaching capacity, health officials have warned, as the country recorded the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll over the past week, triggering tighter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state. Intensive care wards for treating COVID-19 patients have reached critical occupancy levels over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical center Fiocruz. In Porto Alegre, the largest city in southern Brazil, there are no free intensive care units (ICUs), and occupancy has also hit 100% in two other state capitals, Fiocruz reported. The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a record 2,286 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, as new infections rose by 79,876. With more than 270,000 deaths, Brazil’s pandemic death toll over the past y...
Legendary highlife singer, Pa Chris Ajilo, who composed and sang what has become the Lagos anthem, “Eko O Gba Gbere,” has died at the age of 92. David Ekanem, the singer’s caregiver, said Pa Ajilo had been battling malaria since last week. He died in a hospital this morning at 10:30 am Ekanem said, “What happened is that he had malaria last week, so, we gave him malaria medication. The malaria persisted, and as there was no improvement after three days, we rushed him to a hospital at Ilesha, but there was no bed space. “I took him to two hospitals at Ile-Ife as well, but there were no bed spaces there; so, I had to take him back home. A doctor was attending to him at home. Yesterday, I noticed that there was no improvement, so, I had to rush him to another hospital at Ilesha. I was there w...
The Senate has directed its committees on Health, Trade and Investment and Customs to investigate the manufacture, importation and policy guidelines for syringe and needles in the country. Consequently, the committee is to invite the Federal Ministry of Health, Trade and Investment, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and manufacturers of syringe and needles as the committee carries out the investigation. These resolutions were sequel to a motion sponsored by Sen. Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC-Kwara) and cosponsored by Sen. Sadiq Suleiman (APC-Kwara) during plenary on Thursday. The upper chamber also directed the ministry of health to provide explanation on the policy for the procurement and utilisation of syringe and needles by federally-owned, state and private hospitals and agencies of the ministry....
Rumble in Edo as governor runs government without cabinet
Precisely 129 days into his second tenure as governor of Edo State after his election on September 20, 2020 and inauguration on November 12, 2020, Godwin Obaseki, has not formed his cabinet. This has generated some flaks from different quarters, including the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), constitutional lawyers, political analysts, public commentators, residents among others. While others feel that Obaseki has not committed any crime or breached any law, others believe that he is running a one-man administration and must go ahead to form his cabinet. They argued that going by Section 192 of the 1999 Constitution, the governor is obliged to form a cabinet, saying this is a circumvention, which the state House of Assembly should take action on. Obaseki had said that his ...