Pandemic
African environment ministers support green recovery plan
Ministers of Environment from Africa on Friday agreed to support a comprehensive green recovery plan to boost economies and social systems aimed at building back better from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is contained in a ministerial statement issued at the end of the eighth special session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Nairobi, Kenya. Representatives of the 54 African governments re-affirmed their commitment to enhance environmental resilience as well as protect and sustainably use natural resources for the region’s development. The high-level ministerial regional conference held virtually under the theme “Enhancing Environmental Action for Effective Post-COVID Recovery in Africa”, further called to accelerate the protection and restoratio...
EU criticises ‘hasty’ UK approval of coronavirus vaccine
The European Union criticised Britain’s rapid approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, saying its own procedure was more thorough, after Britain became the first western country to endorse a COVID-19 shot. The move to grant emergency authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been seen by many as a political coup for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has led his country out of the EU and faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic. The decision was made under an ultra-fast, emergency approval process, which allowed the British drugs regulator to temporarily authorise the vaccine only ten days after it began examining data from large-scale trials. In an unusually blunt statement, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving COVID...
Centre: Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases surpass 2.16 million
The number of confirmed Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the African continent has reached 2,163,284 as of Monday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 51,708. A total of 1,831,435 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far, according to the continental disease control and prevention agency. The most COVID-19 affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia, figures from the Africa CDC showed. The southern Africa region is the most COVID-19 affected region both in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases as well as ...
US braces for continued surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalisations
As newly reported cases of the coronavirus continued to spike across much of the United States, breaking records for hospitalisations, some local leaders are moving to enact more stringent restrictions. US officials had pleaded with Americans to avoid travel and limit social gatherings as the nation entered its winter holiday season. But many appear to have disregarded those pleas over the long Thanksgiving weekend as the Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 1.2 million airline passengers on Sunday, the highest since mid-March. That number is still about 60 percent lower than the comparable day last year when 2.88 million passengers were screened, the highest ever recorded by the agency. Health officials say they are now preparing for a wave of cases over the next two or ...
Firm restates commitment to enhance financial inclusion
Nigeria-based fintech solution, NowNow, has said that it will continue to upgrade its services to attune to current realities, such that will drive economic and social growth. Founder of NowNow, Sahir Berry, while speaking on how COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the financial space recently, mentioned that Nigeria needs to strengthen its fintech space more than before. Berry stated that it was important for Nigeria to tap into the trends and prospects of fintech given the country’s large unbanked or underbanked. He added the company recognised this gap in Nigeria, which informed its investment in the space. “In 2017 we identified that one of the two big problems in Nigeria was lack of youth empowerment and financial inclusion. With a population of almost 100 million youths, we found that ac...
Naira weakens to lowest in three years
The Naira yesterday weakened to the lowest in over three years in the parallel market due to increased demand for dollars amid foreign-currency shortages. The local currency depreciated to N495 to a dollar yesterday, lowest since February 23, 2017, widening the gap with the official rate of N379.5 to over 30 per cent. The currency traded in the interbank market at 389.74 as of 4:54p.m. in Lagos. Agency reports quoted traders as alleging a groundswell of diversion of dollars, a development which heightened scarcity of the green back in the parallel market this week. There is a diversion of inflows away from official channels to the parallel market due to the gap in rates, Murega Mungai, trading desk manager for Aza Finance said in a note Thursday. The market spread has created arbitrage opp...
Nigerian government seeks new Eurobond
The federal government yesterday disclosed that it would approach the Eurobond market next year in its effort to shore up the economy, amidst cocktails of measures being put in place to douse the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. On the same day, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking at the 55th Annual Bankers Dinner organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, predicted a two per cent growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021. Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed the Eurobond plan while speaking on Bloomberg TV, explained that the decision would depend on the prevailing interest rates. She, however, did not specify the amount to be accessed from the Eurobond. The Eurobond option is ...
US Supreme Court bars New York from imposing attendance limit on houses of worship
The US Supreme Court has barred New York from imposing coronavirus restrictions on houses of worship in a ruling likely to be heralded by conservatives as a victory for religious freedoms. Services should not be treated differently from permitted secular gatherings, said the unsigned ruling, one of the first since the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett tipped the court’s balance to the conservatives. Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state, had ordered that only up to 10 people could gather at sites of worship in high-risk areas designated “red zones”. The court was responding to two applications — from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, as well as two synagogues — claiming they were singled out under the restrictions designed to limit the contagion’s spread in hard-hit New Yor...
Joe Biden urges Americans to be safe during holiday, fight coronavirus pandemic
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday pleaded with Americans to take steps to remain safe as COVID-19 cases surge on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday and pledged again to make combating the pandemic a top priority when he takes office in January. “I believe you always deserve to hear the truth from your president. We have to slow the growth of this virus. We owe it to the doctors and the nurses and the frontline workers … We owe it to our fellow citizens,” Biden said. He urged people to forgo big family gatherings, wear protective masks and maintain social distancing. “I know we can and we will beat this virus,” Biden added, acknowledging that Americans are feeling pandemic fatigue. “Life is going to return to normal. I promise you. This will happen. This will not last forever.” T...
NAFEST: Nigeria will lead the world – Senator Okorocha
Sen. Rochas Okorocha, Chairman, Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism, has expressed greater hope that Nigeria will definitely lead the world with the vast culture and tourism potential. Okorocha said this at opening ceremony of the 33rd National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) held at Rwang Pam Township Stadium, Jos, Plateau on Monday. The theme of the event was “COVID-19 and Cultural Dynamism”. The lawmaker advised Nigerians generally to keep hope alive as the COVID-19 pandemic and the ENDSARS protests which had caused lots of havoc to the nation would be forgotten issues with time. He said Nigeria was only going through a phase that would lead to greatness as some other countries had experienced in the past. He noted that the two incidences had aggravated the nation’s problems o...
Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool will not have 11 fit players without changes
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said the Premier League’s top six could be left without 11 fit players unless changes are made to protect the welfare of stretched squads. Already depleted by an injury crisis, the Reds will play three games in six-and-a-half days this week. Klopp’s men saw off Leicester City 3-0 in Sunday’s late Premier League kick-off and will welcome Atalanta to Anfield in the Champions League on Wednesday before travelling to Brighton for Saturday’s 1230 GMT kick-off. “If we keep playing Wednesday night and Saturday 12.30, I am not sure we finish the season with 11 players, all the top six or seven,” said Klopp in an impassioned interview with Sky Sports, the largest domestic rights holder of Premier League games. Under the terms of a £4.5 billion ($6 billion) deal for th...
Coronavirus vaccine breakthrough raises hopes of rapid global rollout
A coronavirus vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has shown successful results in early trials. If it is approved by regulators, the vaccine appears suitable for a fast rollout around the globe. Early analysis of trials involving 20,000 volunteers in Britain and Brazil show the vaccine is at least 62% effective after two doses. In volunteers given a different dosing regimen — a half dose, followed by a full dose — that figure rose to 90%. The average efficacy of the two dosing methods is 70%. None of those given the vaccine developed severe COVID-19 illness. Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said the recent successful trials of three different vaccines by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, represent a...
