Vaccine
Femi Falana raises alarm over planned commercialisation of coronavirus vaccines
Naijaloaded The Alliance for Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond, a coalition of labour and civil society groups being led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has urged Nigerians to resist any attempt by health workers to commercialise Covid vaccines expected in the country anytime soon. ASCAB Deputy Chairman, Sina Odugbemi, stated this on Tuesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme monitored by newsmen. Odugbemi said, “When it (vaccine) comes in, people may want to trade with it and there may be preference for the high and mighty. We should anticipate these things and put in place machinery to ensure that we scale the hurdle because the Nigerian factor will come into play when the vaccines come in. “There will be special preference. In fact, health offi...
Coronavirus: Concern grows over potential superspreader event during US Capitol riot
Concerns are mounting about the health of lawmakers and other people in the Capitol last week, after the first member to test positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) since Wednesday’s chaos, said she believed she was exposed in a crowded hiding place with hundreds of other legislators. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., tested positive on Monday while experiencing mild symptoms, and said in a statement that she believes she caught the virus from her fellow lawmakers while hunkering down as Capitol Police struggled for hours to contain a Trump-inspired mob attack on the Capitol. Lawmakers were trapped in a room near the Capitol with hundreds of others, in some cases for hours, where at least one person who later tested positive for the coronavirus was present. The Office of the Attending P...
Joe Biden receives second dose of coronavirus vaccine on camera
Joe Biden on Monday received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on camera, as part of an effort by the President-elect’s incoming administration to reassure the country of the safety of the vaccines. Biden was administered the shot in his left arm by Ric Cuming, chief nurse executive at ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, according to Biden’s transition team. The President-elect said he would be announcing his plan to “get the entire Covid operation up and running,” including the necessary costs, on Thursday. Biden said he had a meeting with members of his team later Monday afternoon. Biden said he was “not afraid of taking the oath outside,” and that his team has been getting briefed, when asked if he had any fears about taking the oath of office...
Nigerian government lists conditions for states to access coronavirus vaccines
The Federal Government has listed conditions for states to meet before the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine being expected wt the end of January would be released to them. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a webinar tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”, at the weekend, said no vaccine will be release to states until facilities such as cold chains are in place. According to Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, NHPCDA, Kubura Daradara, the vaccine must be administered within five days of receipt for it to remain potent, and only the states that show commitment would receive the doses when available. She added that the 100,000 doses would be administered to 50,000 people, because each person has to take a secon...
Nigerian government begs residents not to reject coronavirus vaccines
Federal authorities have appealed to Nigerians not to be hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it gets to Nigeria. Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, and head of Nigeria’s primary healthcare agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, made the appeal at the PTF briefing on Thursday in Abuja. Nigeria intends to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme, the PTF had earlier announced. The initial vaccines would come as part of Nigeria’s plan to inoculate 40 percent of the population in 2021 and another 30 per cent in 2022, with 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arriving by the end of January 2021. The COVAX scheme was set up to provide vaccines to poorer countries including Nigeria whose 200 million people and poor ...
Atiku Abubakar receives coronavirus vaccine
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has received Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Thursday. Confirming the news, Publisher of Ovation magazine, Chief Dele Momodu, displayed Atiku’s picture when he was administered the vaccine by a medical practitioner. Though Dele did not mention the place Atiku took the vaccine but information reaching newsmen said it was in Dubai. In one paragraph sentence, Dele wrote: “Former Vice President The Wazirin Adamawa ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR receives Pfizer Covid-19 jab vaccination…” Former Vice President The Wazirin Adamawa ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR receives Pfizer Covid-19 jab vaccination… pic.twitter.com/286BCmBqHD — Dele Momodu Ovation (@DeleMomodu) January 7, 2021 Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has recorded 1,664 new COVID-19 ca...
Russian coronavirus vaccine trials begin in UAE as cases rise
Abu Dhabi has started Phase III clinical trials of Russia’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine, known as Sputnik V, amid a surge in infections in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi’s media office said on Thursday. The human trial, announced in October before the recent rise in cases, is initially seeking up to 500 volunteers to be vaccinated at a hospital in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Two doses of the vaccine will be given, 20 days apart, to volunteers, the statement said. Participants will have to be 18 years or older, have not previously been infected with COVID-19 or participated in other COVID-19 vaccine trials, it said. The UAE is also conducting Phase III trials of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). The UAE has approved the vaccine and it is a...
Minister: Nigeria expecting vaccine from China
The Federal Government has opened talks with the Peoples Republic of China to have access to COVID-19 vaccines for the citizens, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said on Tuesday. This is as both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on establishment of inter-governmental committee to coordinate aspects of cooperation between both countries. The MOU was signed by Onyeama and the Chinese State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi in Abuja on Tuesday. The Chinese Foreign Minister is on a two-day working visit to Abuja. Briefing reporters after their bilateral meeting, Onyeama said at this point when countries were discovering vaccines and China being one of them, Nigeria was engaging the country in the area of access to the vaccine. “We have...
World Bank predicts 4% global economic growth, 1.1% for Nigeria in 2021
ABS-CBN The World Bank says global economy is expected to grow by 4 per cent in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year. It said this in a statement issued in Washington D.C. on Tuesday at the presentation of the January 2021 Global Economic Prospects. It added that the said recovery would likely be subdued unless policy makers moved decisively to tame the pandemic and implement investment-enhancing reforms. The bank also said that growth in Sub-Saharan Africa was forecast to rebound moderately to 2.7 per cent in 2021, while Nigeria’s growth was expected to resume at 1.1 per cent. For the region, it said that while the recovery in private consumption and investment was forecast to be slower than previously envisioned, export growth was expe...
Egypt to probe four coronavirus deaths due to alleged lack of oxygen
Egyptian prosecutors opened an investigation into the deaths on Sunday of at least four coronavirus patients at a public Egyptian hospital, after a video of nurses struggling to keep the patients alive was shared widely on social media. The governor of Sharqia province denied allegations by a relative of one of the patients that the deaths were caused by a lack of oxygen at the government-run intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients. Governor Mamdouh Ghorab said the patients died because they suffered chronic diseases in addition to the virus. The relative, who also filmed the video, offered no immediate evidence to back up their claim that the hospital ran out of oxygen. Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with more than 100 million people, is facing a surge in confirmed v...
ABC: California nurse tests positive over a week after receiving Pfizer coronavirus vaccine
A 45-year-old nurse in California tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiving Pfizer Inc’s coronavirus vaccine, an ABC News affiliate reported on Tuesday. Matthew W., a nurse at two different local hospitals, said in a Facebook post on December 18 that he had received the Pfizer vaccine, telling the ABC News affiliate that his arm was sore for a day but that he had suffered no other side-effects. Six days later on Christmas Eve, he became sick after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit, the report added. He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue. He went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for COVID-19 the day after Christmas, the report said. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San...
Egypt to probe four coronavirus deaths due to alleged lack of oxygen
Egyptian prosecutors opened an investigation into the deaths on Sunday of at least four coronavirus patients at a public Egyptian hospital, after a video of nurses struggling to keep the patients alive was shared widely on social media. The governor of Sharqia province denied allegations by a relative of one of the patients that the deaths were caused by a lack of oxygen at the government-run intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients. Governor Mamdouh Ghorab said the patients died because they suffered chronic diseases in addition to the virus. The relative, who also filmed the video, offered no immediate evidence to back up their claim that the hospital ran out of oxygen. Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with more than 100 million people, is facing a surge in confirmed v...