Tests
Nigeria threatens to ban flights from UAE, Netherlands
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has threatened to ban flights from the UAE and The Netherlands as a reciprocal action. The task force said the Ministry of Aviation and its relevant agencies have been mandated to take the necessary reciprocal measures as may be permissible under the laws and other international obligations expected to be discharged against Emirates airlines operating from the UAE and other airlines from The Netherlands. Mr Boss Mustapha, the Chairman of PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, disclosed this at the routine briefing of the committee in Abuja on Monday. Mustapha said: “For over a month, Nigeria has been engaged with the authorities of the UAE and The Netherlands over pre-departure testing requirements passengers should meet before ...
Victor Osimhen returns to training ahead of Bologna clash
Victor Osimhen has returned to full training ahead of Napoli’s Serie A game against Bologna at Stadio San Paolo on Sunday. The 22-year-old suffered head trauma after landing awkwardly on the turf following a collision with Cristian Romero in his side’s defeat to Atalanta on February 21. The forward spent the night in the hospital and underwent several tests but has been cleared of any damage to his head. The Nigeria international missed Napoli’s clash against Granada in the Europa League as well as their league games against Benevento and Sassuolo. The Parthenopeans have now confirmed the Super Eagles forward has rejoined the rest of his teammate in preparation for their league game against Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men “Osimhen did the whole session with the team,” read a statement from the clu...
Minister: Nigerians who received coronavirus vaccines abroad must get tested upon arrival
The minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, says Nigerians who have received COVID-19 vaccines abroad will still be required to take polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests upon arrival in the country. Speaking on a Channels TV programme on Monday, Mamora said receiving the vaccine is not a license to disregard the already established COVID-19 travel protocol. “The protocol is there already. They need to produce evidence of taking a PCR test within the estimated time limit before boarding and the test certificate and when they come into the country, they would need to go into isolation and on the seventh day, they take the PCR test. “Having been vaccinated does not absolutely say that you can’t get the infection. What the vaccine guarantees is that if you get the infection, you are...
Coronavirus: Nigeria records 18 more deaths, 645 new infections
A total of 1,831 deaths have now been recorded from COVID-19 in Nigeria after 18 more people died on Saturday, health authorities have said. The 18 deaths on Saturday indicated a significant increase from the eight fatalities recorded on Friday. Nigeria also reported 645 new infections on Saturday, increasing the total number of known cases in the country to 151,553. This is according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Saturday night. Low testing figures in many states has limited Nigeria’s ability to determine the true extent of the spread of COVID-19. A recent general fact sheet published by the NCDC showed that Kogi, Cross River and some other states were not conducting enough tests. More than two-third of the over 151,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeri...
Facebook to test cutting back on political posts in the News Feed
Facebook plans to test how people respond to seeing fewer posts about politics in the News Feed. Starting this week, Facebook will “temporarily reduce” political posts for a “small percentage” of people in Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia, with a test in the US following some weeks later. The tests will continue for the next few months. The experiment comes in response to feedback Facebook has (somehow just now) heard that “people don’t want political content to take over their News Feed,” Aastha Gupta, product management director at Facebook, wrote in a blog post this morning. The goal is to improve the News Feed by “finding a new balance of the content people want to see.” Gupta says that political content only makes up about 6 percent of the typical News Feed right now in the US. Nonethele...
Archbishop Kaigama: Why Nigerians are afraid to accept coronavirus vaccine
File Photo Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, His Grace Most Revd. Ignatius Kaigama, on Sunday, said many Nigerians are afraid to accept the COVID-19 vaccine because they believe that the health crisis was being manipulated by some people. Kaigama, who stated this in Abuja during his homily at St. Jude’s Parish Zuba, however, urged Nigerians to disregard insinuations that the vaccine was not medically safe and affordable. He said, “Even though many today will seriously question facts about COVID-19 and fear that there is manipulation by some people, we know that the disease is real. “People very dear to us have died of coronavirus disease. There is no doubt that our world is currently sick, ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The fear today is that the menace of Coronavirus will continue to be w...
PTF: Nigeria records four cases of UK coronavirus variant strain
Mr Boss Mustapha, Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said Nigeria recorded four cases of COVID-19, B117 variant strain, first reported in the UK. The PTF chairman made the disclosure at national briefing on Monday in Abuja. Mustapha said; “over the last few weeks, the PTF had been closely following the rising number of infections reported daily in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions. “Similarly, our scientists have been sequencing the variants of the virus. “There have been reports of cases with the B117 variant strain first reported in the UK, found in Nigeria. Three of these were in travelers out of Nigeria and one in a resident,”. He also stated that the daily statistics for Nigeria as at January 24, 2020 showed that cas...
NOA advises Nigerians to disregard conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccine
File Photo The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has advised Nigerians to disregard conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines and the various rumours being attributed to them. Director-General of NOA, Garba Abari, gave the advice in a statement, made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday. Abari, while responding to insinuations of the possible use of the vaccines as population control and DNA altering measure, debunked the idea. He said that no vaccine would be allowed into Nigeria or administered to Nigerians without the approval of appropriate authorities. “Whatever vaccine coming into the country must be thoroughly tested and approved by relevant Nigerian authorities,’’ he said. He said the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as the agency responsib...
Anambra records 89 new coronavirus cases
Anambra State has recorded 89 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in its second wave, bringing the total confirmed cases in the state to 169 as of January 13, C-Don Adinuba, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, has said. Mr Adinuba, in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Awka, urged the citizens of the state to shield themselves from the COVID-19 pandemic following the second wave in Nigeria. He said the need to repeat the precautionary call was as a result of a considerable increase across the state, with 453 confirmed cases and 334 persons discharged. According to him, it is a worrisome situation with the state having recorded a total of 14,267 tests done. He appealed to the public to comply with all precautionary measures in order to sustain the health safety m...
Golden Eaglets qualify for WAFU U17 Cup semi finals
Nigeria reached the semi finals of the WAFU U17 Cup Tournament ongoing in Lome, Togo on Tuesday evening after Group B pacesetters Cote d’Ivoire hammered the Black Starlets of Ghana 3-1 at the city’s Stade Municipal. Five-time world champions Nigeria, who lost by the odd goal to the Ivorians on the opening day of the competition and were forced to a 1-1 draw by the Starlets at the weekend, needed a favour from the Ivorians to progress to the knockout stage. And the Ivorians obliged. The Baby Elephants raced into the lead after only nine minutes and consolidated at 2-0 as the match wore on. But the Starlets, themselves two-time champions of the world, pegged back their neighbours to leave Nigeria’s chances on the wire. The Eaglets and their Ghanaian counterparts had both scored through penal...
Minister: Tests on NYSC members confirm coronavirus is everywhere in Nigeria
The Federal Government says it has further confirmed from results of tests conducted on prospective National Youth Service Corps members confirmed that no part of the country was free of COVID-19. The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja at a briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. “We safely and comfortably drew this conclusion because corps members are mobilised from all the states of the country for each of the orientation camps,”the Minister said while warning that increasing cases of COVID-19 are imposing enormous burden on the nation’s health facilities. He said that the 18,699 active COVID-19 cases were stretching health facilities. “With the increased number of confirmed cases, the number of active cases ha...
Lagos shuts airport bridge indefinitely
The Lagos State Government on Sunday announced the closure of the Airport Bridge at Toyota on Oshodi/Isolo Expressway indefinitely. This follows the inferno that recently occurred on the Apapa Oshodi Expressway as a result of a PMS loaded tanker exploding in a fireball from collision with another truck, with the structure of the Airport Bridge at Toyota on Oshodi/Isolo Expressway has been affected. “The bridge therefore has to be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic movement to enable the State Government conduct structural engineering tests on the bridge,” said Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde. He announced alternative routes for use by motorists pending the outcome of the tests and the reopening of the bridge to traffic. “Motorists from Mile 2 to Cele on Apapa-Os...
