I had an outstanding balance of N7, 000 to pay for the second term school fees for my son before reopening of schools for the third term after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The school fees for the third term is N20, 000; it was supposed to be N28, 000, but parents pleaded because of the lockdown and so it was reduced to N20, 000.
“Now that schools have reopened for the first term in the second wave of the pandemic, the school has refused to re-enroll him as it is asking us to pay the outstanding school fees. But we don’t have money now because I lost my job in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 lockdown,” a parent, Mr Anthony Okede, told Nigerian Tribune when asked why his child was not in school.
Emmanuel Okede, Okede’s son is one among the millions of children out there whose parents? might not be able to pay their school fees to keep them in school because of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their sources of income.
The World Bank and experts have equally raised the alarm over possible drop in school enrolment and school-attending children as a result of the negative and devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of efforts to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on the education of Nigerian children, the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation recently organised a web seminar (Zoom webinar) on the global pandemic, with the theme. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Education.
The Executive Director, Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, Dr Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, speaking at the event, called on stakeholders to support the under privileged students to learn amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
She equally called on government at all levels not to exclude children from hard-to-reach areas in learning during the post-COVID-19 era.
According to her,“A report of a study that was done in 2001 shows that about 17 million children are in public schools; whereas less than two million are in private schools in Nigeria. These are the children that will determine the direction and the fate of this country.
“Therefore, it is in our best interest to look at them and see how they can be helped. There are children from homes that have no smartphones, no Internet connectivity, and no electricity most of the time, and whose parents will probably not be able to help them with online teaching,” Awolowo-Dosumu said.
Speaking in the same vein, Professor Banji Oyeyinka said COVID-19 had exacerbated the widening opportunity divide between the wealthiest and the poorest together with the increasing difficulty in attaining the anticipated income convergence.
His words: “According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO),? the COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents. Closure of schools and other learning spaces have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population, up to 99 per cent in low and lower-middle income countries.
“The crisis is exacerbating pre-existing education disparities by reducing the opportunities for many of the most vulnerable children, youths, and adults–those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities, and forcibly displaced persons to continue their learning.”
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remind all travelers that beginning January 26, all air passengers two years of age or older arriving to the United States must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test or proof of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding. This order applies to both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens. For more information about the testing requirement, visit: Requirement for Proof of Negative COVID-19 Test or Recovery from COVID-19 for All Air Passengers Arriving in the United States | CDC .
U.S. citizens should reconsider non-essential travel abroad. Those that must travel abroad following the implementation of this order should carefully consider the following:
You could have difficulty accessing a test. Testing availability and turnaround times vary widely around the world. Check the U.S. Embassy website for your planned destination(s) for information about testing options. What plan do you have to ensure you can get a test that meets the requirement in order to come home on time?
You could test positive and have to stay abroad. Many individuals infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 are asymptomatic and unaware they carry the virus. If you test positive, you will not be able to return home as planned. What plan do you have in case you cannot come home for several weeks? Where will you stay? How will you finance your stay?
You could have difficulty accessing or financing medical care. Travelers should be aware that the availability and quality of healthcare varies around the world, and that private health insurance may not cover expenses incurred abroad. Will your health insurance cover your hospitalization or other medical expenses abroad? Do you have travel insurance that covers medical evacuation to the United States, and does it include COVID-19 as a covered item?
The Department and the CDC continue to strongly recommend U.S. citizens reconsider travel abroad, and postpone all non-essential travel. If you must travel overseas, you should review the entire State Department Travel Advisory for your destination(s) on travel.state.gov and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (http://STEP.state.gov) to receive important updates from the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. You should obtain travel insurance that will cover medical
evacuation, including for COVID-19, to the United States, in the event you become seriously ill. We also urge those contemplating travel abroad to review CDC’s country-specific travel recommendations and their overall guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic, available at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html . U.S. citizens abroad should also closely monitor guidance from local public health and immigration authorities at their location.

Looking at aviation industry, especially after the lockdown and then of course, the high season travel during the Christmas and the New Year period and now, we are in the low season mid-January, the traffic is still there and my estimate of the aviation industry or outlook in the year 2021, is that it is going to be very good. We will see a lot of growth in the capacity of the airlines. That is because if you look at 2020, especially immediately after the lockdown, most airlines were a bit skeptical in bringing out capacity for the local market. Fortunately for the airlines, our prediction after the lockdown that people would be a bit scared to fly didn’t come through because people were very confident in flying despite the COVID-19.
So, the demand in seats was high and that actually cumulated in high prices of tickets, which I predicted in the beginning of 2020. Where tickets for Lagos-Abuja were being sold for at about 90,000 one-way for economy. So that shows that the demand for it was high. The passengers were willing to travel and the capacity was not there. So, based on that what I predicted for 2021 is that there will be growth of capacity, there will be new entrant into the market and then those airlines that are already in the market will try and increase their capacity.
There will be a decrease in the price of tickets, but it is not going to decrease to pre-COVID-19 era, it will still decrease, but not to pre-COVID-19 era. So, as far as the industry is concerned, we will see growth in capacity, there will be new entrant, and there might be some collaboration among airlines because I can see that domestic airlines are now comfortable with collaborating with one another to make sure that they protect their passengers and then increase their revenue. Also on the infrastructure, the federal government has paid a lot of attention on the airport infrastructure, which is very good. Most of the airports are being completed and that will also stimulate some growth in the aviation industry.
But the effect of COVId-19 on the aviation sector globally and Nigeria also will be with us for the next five to 10 years. This is because some airlines have already retired airplanes that cannot fly again. Now, some professionals also in the aviation industry have already left the aviation industry and they might never come back. So, it is like we have an opportunity to press the reset button, especially we in Nigeria where our aviation industry was already struggling. So, we can now press the reset button and take the advantage of a restart and move forward with the world, while the aviation industry is being brought back to its normal speed globally.
In Nigeria, of course, we are going to experience the shortage of capacity in the first quarter, but like I said, the capacity will be growing and the passenger traffic definitely increase, especially with the new vaccine that is coming in. Internationally, passengers will travel because I am very sure they will make vaccine available for travellers, just like what we have with the yellow fever vaccination, what they call the yellow card. I believe that is what is going to happen; probably the third or fourth quarter of the year, where they will say before you travel you must have your vaccine. So, that will also result to a lot of travel within the year. But it is looking very good with passenger growth especially domestically. And, of course, the federal government also giving the stimulus package for aviation is also a welcome development. It will assist the airlines to set their foot on the recovery part.

Background
Emergency situations, including epidemics, increase incidence of violence against women, especially intimate partner violence (IPV). This paper describes specific scenarios of IPV reported by women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria to provide insight for policy and programmatic efforts.
Methods
This paper draws on seven de-identified case reports from organisations serving women experiencing IPV as well as media coverage of IPV cases in Nigeria, between April and May, 2020.
Results
In most cases, reports identified IPV that was occurring prior to the lockdown, but increased in severity or involved new types of violence during the lockdown. The case scenarios included descriptions of many forms of IPV commonly reported, including physical, economic, psychological and sexual violence, often concurrently. Several women also reported threats of being thrown out of their homes by perpetrators, which threatens women’s ability to protect themselves from exposure to COVID-19, but could also leave women stranded with no access to transportation, social services, or other resources during the lockdown. Several women also reported IPV that involved custody of children, as well as IPV that disrupted women’s income generation. IPV was also reported in relation to economic stressors associated with the lockdown. Reports highlight how the lockdown disrupted women’s social support, hindering accessibility of formal and informal sources of help.
Conclusion
The lockdowns in Nigeria may have inadvertently placed women already experiencing partner violence at risk for experiencing more severe violence, new challenges to cope with violent experiences, and other forms of violence, including violence that used the lockdown as a way to threaten women’s security and ability to protect themselves from the virus. Hence, there is need for innovative approaches to support victims, with emphasis on ways in which perpetrators of IPV may be using the threat of COVID-19 to further gain power and control over partners.

Results
Seven cases of IPV were identified through IPV service organizations and media searches. The case scenarios included descriptions of many forms of IPV commonly reported, including physical, economic, psychological and sexual violence, often concurrently. There were also reports of threats to evict women from their home, and in two cases, women were locked out of their houses in the middle of the night. Notably, losing housing security during a pandemic lockdown threatens women’s ability to protect themselves from exposure to COVID-19. It also has the potential to leave women with no access to transportation, social services, or other resources during the lockdown. Several women also reported IPV that involved custody of children, as well as IPV that disrupted women’s income generation. IPV was also reported in relation to economic stressors associated with the lockdown. Reports highlight how the lockdown disrupted women’s social support, hindering accessibility of formal and informal sources of help. (See Table 1 for a summary of each case of IPV identified).

In the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus, a more contagious mutation of the pathogen that was first identified in the United Kingdom late last year has since been found in the United States, and federal health officials have recently voiced concerns that the variant – known as B.1.1.7 – could become the dominant strain in the U.S. by March.
Thankfully, at this time, experts are confident that existing coronavirus vaccines should be effective in protecting against the strain, and, for now, it isn’t thought that the variant causes more severe illness or is transmitted in a different way than COVID-19 – meaning mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing, among other preventive measures, should still work.
Additionally, the much-discussed antiviral drug Remdesivir, which became the first FDA-approved treatment for COVID-19 last fall, should be effective against new strains, the Gilead Sciences CEO recently said.
Colorado was the first U.S. state to identify the mutation, though it has since been discovered in numerous other states, including New York, California, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana. Last week, Minnesota health officials announced five cases of the B.1.1.7 strain.
According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 90 cases of the variant have been identified across the U.S. so far. Read on to see which states have reported cases of the variant.

The U.S dollar was up on Thursday morning in Asia, continuing a rebound from near three-year lows against major peers, as investors await U.S. President-elect, Joe Biden’s plans for further stimulus measures.
As at press time, the U.S. Dollar Index which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies inched up 0.05% to 90.4020.
The U.S President-elect, Joe Biden, is scheduled to reveal his plans for “trillions” of dollars in further COVID-19 stimulus programs shortly.
Currency traders are betting that such measures will lead to faster economic recovery to aid U.S. Treasury yields, in turn, giving the U.S dollar the long-needed support.
What you should know
The U.S. Dollar Index tracks the American dollar against a basket of other major currencies (like the Japanese yen, British pound sterling, Swedish Krona, and Euro). Individuals hoping to meet foreign exchange payment obligations via dollar transactions to countries in Europe and Japan, would need to pay fewer dollars in meeting such obligations.
What they are saying
Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at Axi, in a note to Nairametrics, spoke on the macros that could weigh on the safe-haven currency in the near term.
“The US dollar has stabilized after weakness that was prompted by some unsurprising pushback on tapering by US Federal Reserve speakers. And while the FED is unlikely to taper before H2 ore even 2022, the “Taper Talk Genie” out of the bottle, and the magical spirit will linger over price action for months to come as well as prominently feature in the Fed debate this year, as inflation should make a strong comeback – at least temporarily.
“In the meantime, there will be more than enough US data disappointments to keep dollar bulls nose ring to pen. At the same time, Fed Chair Powell will probably also sound very cautious tonight (US time) and dismiss any reducing stimulus notion.
“Despite US yields falling after well-received US bond auctions, some EURO weakness continues to linger in the market. Moves earlier in the week were a broad US dollar short trade getting stopped out, but that appears to have run its course.”
What to expect
It looks like a more general Euro weakness is setting in amid dovish comments from the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde. The ECB seems to be more attentive to the FX impact on inflation and very carefully monitoring exchange rates.

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with how fast it’s spreading across Nigeria is an indicator that the country is still far from defeating the virus. From November 2020, the number of infections gradually began to rise, and by mid-December, the numbers rose to over 1000 new cases daily.
Following the first wave, Nigerians were urged to adhere to the COVID-19 safety guidelines, but with about 1270 new cases recorded as of 12th December 2021, it appears that many citizens have thrown caution to the wind.
Although the government has stated on several occasions that there isn’t going to be another lockdown, the second wave of the pandemic has begun to play a major role in other aspects of decision making.
One of such instances is a statement from the government about shutting down train services if all protocols are not followed. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi expressed his thoughts saying, “…Kaduna to Abuja, we convey 4,000 passengers a day. Imagine that about 20 percent have COVID, they can transmit to the entire passengers.” If this happens, those who rely on train services for their daily/weekly commute would be gravely affected alongside businesses and other stakeholders.
Another decision influenced by the pandemic, is the resumption date for universities and schools. The government, in light of the rising cases has begun to review the resumption date of 18 January, 2021. The Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu has said that the initial date was just a working target which is subject to constant review, depending on the happenings in the society. “We looked at the rising figures and thought we should take another look at it. On the January 18th, 2021 date for school resumption, we are reviewing it,” he added. Already, university students have been home for 9 months owing to lockdown measures and a strike action launched by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Overall, learning at various levels have also been distorted by the pandemic.
While another lockdown isn’t in view just yet, the second wave of the pandemic has proven that it can still affect Nigerians in more ways than one. Thus, since it is impossible to know what new decisions may arise as a result of the pandemic, the only option is to follow the COVID-19 safety measures and hope that the number of new cases begins to reduce.
Follow COVID-19 safety measures to minimize cases of infection.

Di non academic staff dey para on top di sharing formula of di 40 billion earned allowance moni wey goment promise to pay dem and ASUU togeda. While ASUU dey collect 75 percent of di moni, dia share na 25 percent.
Di Joint Action Committee (JAC) of di two unions explain give say di protest na against di sharing formula of N40 billion earned allowances wey goment recently approve and non-implementation of di agreement wey dem also reach wit goment for 2009.
Dis protest ontop goment failure to honour one agreement wit di unions dey come just barely three weeks afta ASUU, di umbrella union of Nigerian university lecturers, suspend nine-month strike ontop di same agreement for December 2020.
Di protest dey happun a day afta Nigeria Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu say di goment dey see how to review alias pospone di 18 January , 2021 resumption date.
Di protest go last for three days from today to Thursday 14 Janyary 2021 and e go happun for each branch. Dis one mean say dem fit no enta street go demonstrate.
Di minister say goment decision na sake of di COVID-19 case wey di rise nyafu-nyafu for di kontri.
Di problem here be say all di hope wey university student get say dem go las las go back to school afta di nine months strike by ASUU don dabaru sake of dis new development dem.

The Managing Director of Cloudflex Computing Services Limited, Aderemi Adejumo has urged federal government to enforce local policy on cloud computing to safe cost and boost the economy.
Adejumo, revealed that Nigeria losses $450 million yearly to the adoption and usage of foreign cloud computing services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others which Nigerian banks, financial institutions and relevant agencies subscribe to on a regular basis.
The expert, who made the statement while speaking on a radio programme in Lagos tagged, “Financial Matters”, sponsored by the Fidelity Bank Plc on Hot FM 93.3 Lagos, noted that Nigeria losses such a huge amount to the foreign land despite the formulation of Nigerian Cloud Computing Policy which meant to address capital flight, among other issues that retard the nation’s growth in the area of cloud computing system and services.
Speaking on the programme, Adejumo said: “Cloud computing has no boundaries, it has no borders. I believe that here in Nigeria, Cloud computing is worth about $500 million a year, and 90 per cent of that is actually spent outside Nigeria, that is the biggest challenge we have.
“NITDA (National Information Technology Development Agency) at a time had the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy (Isa Pantami) as its DG, and under his leadership, they created what was called Nigerian Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP), but it wasn’t enforced.
“Also, my criticism about the policy is that it doesn’t address the core issue and the core issue is data localisation. What I mean by that is that their focus is MDAs using the cloud that was their focus.
“But not the localisation of data and I say If you take the industries that are being regulated or affiliated to the Nigerian Authorities, you have got CBN, PenCom, NAICOM, NNPC, so anybody that is related to that should be under those laws and jurisdiction because they related to Nigerian economic success.
“Let’s say $500 million is being sent out of the country rather than being spent within the country, and this is so, because if you are on Cloudflex, you pay in Naira but if you are on AWS (Amazon Web Services), you pay in Dollar, so, that precious resources that are going out could be avoided.
“So, that is core and the biggest issue. For me it is great that you have former DG of NITDA, who has the great understanding now as the Minister, so greater power and wider responsibilities. I know there is a lot they are trying to do because they have many issues with right of way, issue of connectivity, issue of improving things and Cloud computing is one aspect of it, it is interwoven and if you succeed with this, you will then succeed with other things.”

Airspace around the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, one of the nation's busiest, was closed Monday after a controller tested positive for Covid-19.
The airport's Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility was cleaned after a controller tested positive, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The center handles inbound and outbound air traffic at the airport and others, and controllers there were working out of DFW's center tower, the agency said.
The FAA's website had listed a ground stop around 6:30 p.m., and it was lifted about an hour and a half later, the airport said.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport warned that flights would be impacted. An FAA website had shown gate hold and taxi delays of around an hour.
It's the second time in a week that Dallas-area airports were affected by cleaning at an FAA facility following Covid-19 cases. The earlier case involved the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center.
Earlier Monday, flights were delayed at some Florida airports after an FAA facility near Jacksonville needed to be cleaned after an employee tested positive for Covid, an agency spokesperson said.
The FAA's Jacksonville Center was back in operation at 6 p.m., but it "implemented traffic management programs" starting at 4:20 p.m.
Airports in Tampa, Palm Beach and Jacksonville all tweeted warnings of delays or cancellations due to the temporary closure of the air traffic control center.
The number of people flying in the U.S. increased over the holidays, although it remained far below normal years.
More than 1.32 million people were screened Sunday, according to Transportation Security Administration checkpoint numbers. That number is the highest in a day since March.
Health officials have warned of a possible surge in coronavirus cases after holiday travel and gatherings, and several states have reported cases of a Covid-19 variant that is believed to be more transmissible and was first detected in the United Kingdom.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a new national lockdown in England, citing the new variant. The measures are similar to the lockdown imposed last March, and include asking the public to stay at home and leave for only limited reasons.

WASHINGTON: Two top US health officials on Sunday disputed a claim by President Donald Trump that federal data on Covid-19 cases and deaths in the US is overblown, and both expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinations is picking up.
“The deaths are real deaths,” Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC News’ This Week, adding that jam-packed hospitals and stressed-out healthcare workers are “not fake. That’s real.”
Fauci and US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, defended the accuracy of coronavirus data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after Trump attacked the agency’s tabulation methods.
“The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the US because of the @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump, a Republican who leaves office on Jan 20 after losing a bid for a second term to Democrat Joe Biden, has frequently downplayed the severity of the pandemic. He has also scorned and ignored federal recommendations for containing the spread.
More than 20 million people have been infected in the US and nearly 347,000 have died — or one out of every 950 US residents — since the virus first emerged in China in late 2019, according to the CDC.
“From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers and I think people need to be very aware that it’s not just about the deaths,” Adams said. “It’s about the hospitalisations, the capacity.”
Fauci and Adams expressed optimism that the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus is accelerating after a slow start.
More than 4.2 million people have been inoculated since Dec 14 with one of two vaccines, far short of the Trump administration’s goal of 20 million by the end of 2020.
“We wanted to get to 20 million, but some glimmer of hope is that in the last 72 hours, they’ve gotten 1.2 million doses into peoples’ arms, which is an average of about 500,000 a day,” Fauci said.
“We are not where we want to be. There’s no doubt about that. But I think we can get there.” He said he believed that the number of daily vaccinations could be expanded to 1 million and called for “a real partnership” between the federal and state governments.

Another new variant of the coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, Africa's top public health official said Thursday, but he added that further investigation was needed.
The discovery could add to new alarm in the pandemic after similar variants were announced in Britain and South Africa, leading to the swift return of international travel restrictions and other measures just as the world enters a major holiday season.
"It's a separate lineage from the UK and South Africa," the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in that country -- Africa's most populous -- will be analyzing more samples.
The alert about the apparent new variant was based on two or three genetic sequences, he said, but that and South Africa's alert late last week were enough to prompt an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week.
The variant was found in two patient samples collected on Aug. 3 and on Oct. 9 in Nigeria's Osun state, according to a working research paper seen by The Associated Press.
Unlike the variant seen in the UK, "we haven't observed such rapid rise of the lineage in Nigeria and do not have evidence to indicate that the P681H variant is contributing to increased transmission of the virus in Nigeria. However, the relative difference in scale of genomic surveillance in Nigeria vs the U.K. may imply a reduced power to detect such changes," the paper says.
The news comes as infections surge again in parts of the African continent.
The new variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. While the variant transmits quickly and viral loads are higher, it is not yet clear whether it leads to a more severe disease, he said.
"We believe this mutation will not have an effect" on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant.
South Africa's health minister late Wednesday announced an "alarming rate of spread" in that country, with more than 14,000 new cases confirmed in the past day, including more than 400 deaths. It was the largest single-day increase in cases.
The country has more than 950,000 infections and COVID-19 is "unrelenting," Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said.
The African continent now has more than 2.5 million confirmed cases, or 3.3% of global cases. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, Nkengasong said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.

Nigerians should do all to avoid another round of lockdown in 2021 that could impact more adversely on the economy, Chief Jude Emecheta, the Managing Director, Anambra Signage and Advertising Agency (ANSAA) has said.
Emecheta said in Awka on Sunday that ANSAA could only realise 15 per cent of its revenue projection of N1 billion in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and EndSARS protest.
He said that the agency could not enforce revenue collection or prosecute defaulters because businesses and government institutions could not operate for about six months.
According to him, the pandemic had serious negative impact on the ANSAA component of Anambra revenue projections in 2020.
“For six months we did not step into the field to work; you know normally people don’t want to pay, so we need to go and remind them, if possible force them to pay.
“When we wanted to go out the young boys came with EndSARS and after one month of the protest, the Police which provide protection for citizens did not work for another one month. In all we lost eight of the 12 months in the year.
“Government also announced reliefs for Nigerians including tax and levy holiday for businesses, so for ANSAA it was a serious revenue shock, we fell far short of our projections.
“We targeted one billion naira, but I am afraid if we actually made N100 million,” he said.
Emecheta said the economic recovery path of Nigeria should not be interrupted with another lockdown, adding that this could eventually lead to long term recession.
He said that the authorities should view the COVID-19 era as a reality and brace up for effective management of the pandemic while keeping the economy running.
“My honest view is that there should be no lockdown in 2021, people should be allowed to go about their normal businesses and anybody who falls sick of COVID-19 should go to hospital and be treated like every other patient.
“They should leave the economy open. With more lockdown, people would not be able to pay for COVID-19 treatment. Those who are sound in the family should go and fend for those who are down,” the signage agency’s boss said.

(CNN)Researchers studying the new UK strain of the coronavirus think it likely arrived in the US in mid-November, and that many people in the United States could already be infected.
"If I had to guess, I would say it's probably in hundreds of people by now," said Michael Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. "It's very possible it's arrived multiple times in multiple places."
"Imagine the amount of infected travelers leaving London -- that's been increasing exponentially," said Trevor Bedford, associate professor in the vaccine and infectious disease division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
British scientists have traced the new strain's earliest known appearance back to September 20 in Kent, a county southeast of London.
Worobey and Bedford say they estimate the virus would have arrived in the US in mid-November.
Both scientists, as well as others around the world, have scoured genetic sequences of coronavirus in the United States to see if any match up with the UK variant. So far, they haven't found any, but they say that's likely because the US surveillance system isn't catching them.
Health officials agree.
"You really need to assume that it's here already, and certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it is already here," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday.
"It could be in the United States, and we might not have yet detected it," Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir said Monday.
The UK coronavirus variant has not been identified through sequencing efforts in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a scientific brief posted on its website Tuesday.
However, it says, only about 51,000 of 17 million US cases it has tallied have been sequenced — less than half a percent.

Nigeria has confirmed 501 new coronavirus cases and three related deaths amid a resurgence in infections for the past few weeks.
The new numbers bring the tally to 78,434 cases, including 1,221 fatalities and 68,303 recoveries, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Sunday.
Infections count was relatively low between August and November but cases started rising early December, reaching a record daily high of 1,145 on Dec. 17.
To contain the spread of the virus, the government of Africa's most populous country issued new guidelines for businesses.
Since the risk of spread of the novel virus is higher in confined spaces, it mandated face masks and temperature checks at workplaces, and called for restricted physical meetings, and limited attendance in offices.
"This advisory is extremely important for workplaces & businesses, as the risk of spread of #COVID19 is higher when people gather indoors. There has been an increase in cases in office settings," said NCDC Director General Chikwe Ihekweazu.
About a new COVID-19 variant in the UK, which is said to be more transmissible, he said Nigeria is studying data and await additional guidance from the WHO.

Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday asked the U.S. government to prioritize essential workers including its warehouse, grocery store and data center staff for receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The request shows how the country’s second-biggest private employer, with 800,000 workers in the United States, considers the vaccine important to keeping its staff safe and its facilities open. The U.S. National Retail Federation made a similar request on the industry’s behalf Wednesday as well.
Administration of the vaccine began Monday in the United States, following emergency-use authorization last week. Early doses have been set aside for healthcare workers and nursing home residents.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the company supports giving the vaccine to healthcare professionals and that essential workers should come next, in line with a government vaccine playbook from October. His letter was addressed to the head of an advisory panel at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called ACIP.
“We request that ACIP continue to prioritize these essential workers who cannot work from home, like those working at Amazon fulfillment centers, AWS data centers and Whole Foods Market stores, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time,” he wrote. Amazon owns the grocery chain Whole Foods and operates the cloud computing business AWS.
The letter was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

I think it's right to give priority to those who can't work from home. We can't give up anyone. Because we are a team.

A county health official in Arizona tested positive for Covid-19 after an apparent outbreak within the department.  
Dr. Theresa Cullen, the health director for Pima County, tested positive on Tuesday, the county announced Wednesday. The apparent outbreak infected 11 employees, it said, adding that all staff members who work at the main building were being offered testing and would work remotely while the location was being cleaned. 
“This just goes to prove that when there is substantial community spread of the virus like we’re experiencing now throughout the County, the virus can get into your homes and places of work any number of ways no matter how vigilant you are being with your precautions,” said County Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia in a news release.
Protesters held a demonstration at the health department last Thursday over its Covid-19 measures. Many of the participants were not wearing masks and came in close contact with staff members, the department said.
Contact tracers have not determined the source of the outbreak, and the county said at least one health department employee had tested positive before the protest. 
Roughly 300 Pima County employees have contacted Covid-19 since February, and more than 60 of those cases have occurred in just the past two weeks, according to Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. More than 8,000 Pima County residents have tested positive for the virus in the past week, according to county testing data.

When in the month of April this year, Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic expert expressed concerns about second wave of COVID-19, one may not be wrong to opine that his advice was not heeded in this part of the world, particularly as he raised his concerns in faraway USA. It is not an exaggeration to say that ignoring health warning on Covid-19 issued by reputable health experts in faraway countries is unarguably erroneous and inadvisable as the impact of the pandemic is on global environment, and which invariably includes Nigeria as a constituent of the global community.
Poland’s fear then was hinged on the fact that as States looked toward beginning to reopen their economies, there could be possible second wave of Covid-19 that may emerge later in the year and make for an even more dire health crisis.
Ostensibly buttressing his view, Poland said, "This is an area where, as somebody who studies these viruses and as a vaccinologist, I have grave concerns. When you think about this COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., it started in mid to late February, so we were in fact past our influenza epidemic. It's unlikely that will happen this fall. Rather, we will have, in an overlapping fashion, influenza epidemics and COVID-19 recurrence occurring.
One problem with that potential scenario, he says, is that the symptoms of the flu and COVID-19 overlap nearly exactly.
"The second (concern) is the tremendous surge in demand on the medical system, and the third will be the anxiety around that. Do we really close everything down again and do what we've just been through over the last several months?"
"What's really going to be key is to encourage everybody of 6 months of age and older, which is the national recommendation, to get a flu vaccine and in this case to get it as early as it's available, not wait until December and January."
To see us as being prepared to ward off the second coming of covid-19, it is expedient for those that have deep pockets among us to limit all non-essential domestic and international travels. This is especially important for intending travelers to countries recording a high number of Covid-19 cases.
In the same vein, it is essential we wear face mask that covers the nose and mouth frequently when in public settings, such as marketplace, office, schools, religious settings etc. Similarly, we should always ensure we maintain physical distance of at least 2 meters from others in public settings even as we should make it a habit to frequently wash our hands with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer when hands are not visibly dirty and running water is not readily available.
In the same nexus, we should always avoid direct contact with people, particularly through hugging and handshaking. Not done with the foregoing safety tips, we should always cover our mouth and nose properly with a tissue paper, or elbow when sneezing and/or coughing, and in that light dispose the tissue properly, immediately after use and wash our hands.
The foregoing, though just few among other tips, when strictly observed, will no doubt go a long way in keeping anyone safe from the deadly pandemic, and it is only then can one be considered to be prepared for the second coming of Covid-19.

Nigeria plans to vaccinate 20 million people against the novel coronavirus, the country’s health minister said Thursday.

Osagie Ehanire said at a press conference that the government will receive 20 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.​​​​​​​

Ehanire said health sector employees will be vaccinated first, then the vulnerable and those with chronic illnesses.

"We have hope to vaccinate as many people as possible, but we want to start with 20 million doses of the vaccine first,” he said.

The West African nation has recorded at least 70,500 COVID-19 cases and 1,184 fatalities, while more than 65,000 patients have recovered from the disease.

Although the earliest cases of coronavirus were first identified in the United States this past January, the findings of a government study published Monday suggest that people may have first been infected in December.
The conclusion reached by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bolsters prior evidence that the virus may have begun spreading across the globe earlier than first believed — including one earlier model from researchers at Northeastern University that projected more than 100 people in Boston had likely been exposed by mid-February.
But the new study suggests that the virus may have been present earlier than that.
“Some reports have suggested the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into the [United States] may have occurred earlier than initially recognized, though widespread community transmission was not likely until late February,” scientists wrote.
To determine whether antibodies from SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — were present prior to the first identified case in the United States, researchers tested archived samples from 7,389 routine blood donations collected by the American Red Cross.
“Serologic testing has been previously used to estimate introduction of viral infections into populations, including for HIV,” scientists wrote.
The samples analyzed were gathered by the organization during the period from Dec. 13, 2019, through Jan. 17, 2020, from donors who lived in nine different states: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Of the more than 7,000 samples tested by scientists at the CDC, 106 — or 1.4 percent — had evidence of infection, according to the study.
“These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may have been introduced into the United States prior to January 19, 2020,” scientists wrote.
But the study also found “detection of reactive antibodies” in the specimens tested, indicating that the virus may have surfaced even earlier.
For instance, there was potentially cross reactivity with human coronavirus infection other than SARS-CoV-2, according to the study.
Based on data collected, however, scientists wrote, “at least some of the reactive blood donor sera could be due” to previous infection from the virus.
Scientists addressed other limitations of the study as well, including the fact that none of the sera can be considered “true positives.” Furthermore, the donations included in the report “may not be representative of all blood donors or donations in these states and the findings may not be generalizable to all blood donors during the donation dates reported here,” scientists wrote.
As a result, population-based estimates or inferences on the magnitude of infections on a “national or state level” cannot be made, according to the study.
Additional studies involving the analyses of human specimens are needed to “further corroborate the present findings,” which detected the presence of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 as early as mid-December 2019, scientists wrote.
The CDC is continuing to partner with both federal and non-governmental partners “to conduct ongoing surveillance using blood donations and clinical laboratory samples for SARS-CoV-2 infection in multiple sites,” across the country, according to the study.


It is undoubtedly very important to find out the source of COVID-19, but we cannot draw inferences based on just one piece of evidence. More importantly, whether people say that it originated in China or the United States, Italy, or any other country, our focus should be to use it to conduct more in-depth research on the virus, not to blame. What we need is unity and cooperation.

As governments in countries hit hardest by COVID-19 prepare vaccination programmes against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), other nations face a more uncertain future. In Africa, for example, the pandemic continues to grow, but heterogeneously. Cases are rising sharply in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, and South Africa. But in Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, WHO reports only 1173 deaths from COVID-19. Although data are sparse, the first wave of the pandemic seemed to peak in early August. Numbers of COVID-19 deaths declined through September, but the disease has been stubbornly persistent since then, burning slowly through communities throughout the continent. As of Dec 1, WHO reports 1·5 million cases and 33 573 deaths from COVID-19.
Despite the diversity of the pandemic in Africa, and the fact that many countries appear to have been spared the human calamity that has afflicted so many nations elsewhere, the continent still needs a vaccination plan. COVID-19 is a global health emergency that demands a global solution. No community is safe from SARS-CoV-2 unless all communities are protected. Further national lockdowns to drive down the prevalence of the virus will not provide a permanent answer to the epidemic threat. With tens of millions of Africans plunged into extreme poverty by COVID-19, further mandates to shut down economies will precipitate humanitarian and health crises.

Divisions are emerging among top U.S. officials over when the country’s first Covid-19 vaccine will be authorized — and who should be at the front of the line to get vaccinated.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, and others have suggested vaccination of Americans could begin by the end of next week. In their scenario, the Food and Drug Administration will authorize emergency use of a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech almost immediately after a Dec. 10 meeting of an advisory committee, which is expected to recommend authorization.
But the head of the FDA center responsible for any such authorization said in a presentation to patient groups last week that it may take several days or even “a few weeks” after the advisory committee meeting before his office gives the vaccine a green light.
“You may have heard in the media that it will be a few days. It’s possible that it could be within days, but our goal is to make sure it is certainly within a few weeks,” said Peter Marks, who heads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The remarks by Marks, who did not respond to a request for comment from STAT, were first reported by CNN.
Separately, STAT has learned that senior leaders in the Trump administration’s coronavirus response are pressing for adults 65 years old and older to be given first access to the vaccine. That approach contradicts the position of a committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy; the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has signaled for months that it will recommend health care providers be at the front of the vaccination line.

It is a good thing to cause most people to be vaccinated. The elderly and children can be given priority. After all, their bodies are relatively fragile. This is the time to concentrate on the development of vaccines, not the time to disagree.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning recently held the 26th National Economic Summit (NES#26) Group Conference, themed: “Building Partnerships for Resilience”.
The summit held virtually and physically at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and was attended by the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of NESG, Mr Asue Ighodalo, said the focus of the summit is primarily on building partnerships for resilience of Nigeria’s households, businesses, and the general economy.
“This became important due to the pandemic and its far reaching health and economic consequences. The restiveness of our huge youth population, a population growth rate that exceeds our rate of economic growth and development; the high rate of unemployment and underemployment as well as the resultant high levels of poverty in our economy.”
Prof. Osinbajo, who delivered the opening remark on behalf of President Buhari, remarked that the theme is quite appropriate at this time in the history of the nation, as vital partnerships are quite critical lessons to be learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized the need for both public and private sectors to work together to transform the economy and build a fair and just society.

Americans flocked to airports before the Thanksgiving holiday, even as the COVID-19 pandemic rages and after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pleaded with them not to travel.
More than 1 million air travelers passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports Friday and Sunday for only the second and third time since the pandemic began, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Sunday was the single-busiest day at airport checkpoints since March. Saturday, the travel numbers neared a million, bringing the three-day total to more than 3 million passengers.
And the crowds are likely to grow. Next Sunday is likely to be the busiest day of the holiday period. 
The flock of weekend travelers came a day after the CDC issued its warning against holiday travel. During a news briefing Thursday, Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, said the agency recommended "against travel during the Thanksgiving period."
"The tragedy that could happen is that one of your family members is coming to this family gathering and they could end up severely ill, hospitalized or dying. And we don’t want that to happen," he said as the number of national COVID-19 cases ticks up. "These times are tough."

Solid waste management is an important public health service because it helps to prevent the transmission of disease. It also has a social significance: piles of uncollected waste in cities are an embarrassment to authorities and can create a political backlash from residents.
But many residents make their living from unmanaged waste. About a million waste pickers are estimated to operate in Nigerian cities. They depend on collecting and recycling waste, thus giving it a value. In doing so they are also performing an environmental health service. Yet their contribution has not been recognised officially and they are not protected from hazards.
Though Nigeria approved a national solid waste management policy earlier this year, it does not provide a plan to include the large informal sector. An inclusive policy is one recognising and involving informal waste workers in solid waste management while also yielding improvements in their lives and waste management performance.
The importance of doing so has become even clearer in the COVID-19 pandemic. With little or no personal protective equipment, waste workers are often exposed to hazards. Those in the informal sector are particularly vulnerable to disruption of their livelihoods and risks to their own health, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.

President-elect Joe Biden has laid out his plan to pull the economy back from the brink as Covid-19 cases snowball — but while economists say he is unlikely to get much of his policy wish list from the Republican-led Senate, there are still a number of areas where he could make progress.
Biden had a virtual meeting Monday with the CEOs of big companies, such as General Motors, Microsoft and Target, along with a number of labor union heads. Observers said it was striking that his ensuing speech led with an overview of the meeting and an emphasis on the cooperative spirit — especially because big business and big labor don't typically see eye to eye.
Philip Harvey, a professor of law and economics at Rutgers University School of Law, said that could indicate how Biden will approach the challenge of winning bipartisan support for a significant stimulus bill or other Democratic priorities.
"What it's going to take is a lot of outside pressure. That's where the references to the meeting they had with industrial and labor leaders come in," he said. "What's really going to help is if large-business leaders start making calls to Republican Congress members and put pressure on them. It remains to be seen whether that will work, but I think it's the strategy he's going to have to pursue."
Biden quickly pivoted to a broad overview of his pandemic strategy, touching on developing a centralized testing and tracing strategy that was never implemented by President Donald Trump; public health directives that even Republican governors who initially resisted implemented them are now embracing, such as mask mandates; and the preparation of a vaccine distribution system when one or more of the ones being tested become available.
"I was encouraged to hear President-elect Biden stress getting the transmission of the virus under control," said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.
Biden stressed the need to help unemployed workers and cash-strapped families, many facing dual child care and health care crises. He laid out a post-crisis plan that followed the script of the economic platform he ran on, with a focus on eliminating socioeconomic barriers to training and education for students and workers; growing renewable energy, manufacturing and technology; and investing in infrastructure and technological research and development.

Political observers said Biden's long history in Washington and his personal relationships with key lawmakers give him a unique opportunity to break the partisan logjam that has characterized recent attempts at pandemic relief.

Michigan, Washington and California are the latest US states to bring in strict measures to try to curb the spread of Covid-19, as cases top 11 million.
High schools and colleges are to halt on-site teaching while restaurants are prohibited from offering indoor dining in Michigan from Wednesday.
Indoor restaurant dining is also banned in Washington State, and gyms, cinemas, theatres and museums will close.
And much of California will return to its most severe restriction level.
On average, more than 1,000 people a day are dying with the virus, and the overall death toll is close to 250,000. Hospital admissions have also reached record levels.
The Trump administration struck an optimistic note on Friday, saying it hoped to distribute 20 million doses of an approved vaccine in December, and for each month after that - although vaccines have yet to get official approval.
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President-elect Joe Biden said on Monday that "people may die" because of the White House's refusal to facilitate a presidential transition and coordinate with the Biden team for a vaccination campaign. The lack of cooperation is "totally irresponsible", he said.
On Monday, in a major new development, US drug company Moderna said its Covid-19 vaccine was nearly 95% effective according to early results.
A similar announcement earlier this month about another vaccine - from the companies Pfizer and BioNTech - sent stock markets soaring amid hopes that life could return to normal next year.
Mr Biden celebrated the developments, but cautioned that distributing a vaccine to Americans is "a huge, huge, undertaking".
Even without coordination between the president and the president-elect, aides to Mr Biden have said his team would nonetheless start talking to vaccine manufacturers.
The U.S. government should really open its eyes to see what other countries are doing, and study hard. Those who died are so pitiful, because the government's ignorance lost their lives. Not everyone can enjoy the same medical treatment as Trump.

Public health officials in the United States announced more than 152,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the first day over 150,000 since the pandemic began — an alarming record that came just over a week after the country first experienced 100,000 cases in a single day.
The pandemic has risen to crisis levels in much of the nation, especially the Midwest, as hospital executives warn of dwindling bed space and as coroners deploy mobile morgues. More than 100,000 coronavirus cases have been announced nationwide every day since Nov. 4, and six of the last nine days have broken the previous record.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 also set a record on Thursday, climbing to 67,096, according to the Covid Tracking Project. It was the third straight day of record numbers, and the figure has doubled in just five weeks.
Deaths are rising, too, with more than 1,000 on average each day.
In Illinois, where more than 75,000 cases have emerged in the last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker suggested that he could soon impose a stay-at-home order.
“We’re running out of time and we’re running out of options,” said Mr. Pritzker, who scolded local officials in parts of his state for disregarding mask rules and restrictions on businesses.
Case numbers are trending upward in 46 states and holding relatively steady in four. No state is seeing cases decline. Thirty-one states — from Alaska and Idaho in the West to Connecticut and New Hampshire in the East — added more cases in the seven-day period ending Wednesday than in any previous week of the pandemic. Vermont, Utah and Oregon were among at least 10 states with single-day case records on Thursday.

There are indications that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has pushed households further below the poverty line, due to the increase in unemploymentrate resulting from the impact of the pandemic.

In its COVID-19 Impact Monitoring round 5, September 2020 report, released yesterday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said: "Individuals from across the consumption distribution have been affected by the crisis but the reduction in the share of people working was largest for the poorest consumption quintile.

"Among working-age individuals in households in the lowest consumption quintile, the share working dropped from 79 percent prior to the COVID-19 crisis to 70 percent in September 2020. This relatively large drop has potentially serious implications for the depth of poverty in Nigeria, as households that were already poor before COVID-19 may be pushed further below the poverty line."

According to NBS, conditions observed in the labour market in round 5 of the survey showed that the economic precariousness in incomes and consumptions observed in previous rounds of the survey continued during the review period.

It stated: "In August 2020, 67 percent of households reported that their incomes were lower than a year before, while in July 2020 around 69 percent of those households that experienced shocks since the outbreak of COVID-19 reported reducing their food consumption (alongside other negative coping strategies).

"Since Round 5 suggests that the share of people who are working is lower than before the crisis especially for women and for the lowest quintile and that workers have been switching between different sectors, it appears that Nigerian households' incomes and consumption remain precarious."

On gender inequality, the bureau said: "The share of women who were working dropped more than the share of men who were working between the pre-crisis period and September 2020, suggesting that the COVID-19 crisis may be entrenching gender inequality in the labour market.

"In July/August 2018, 82 percent of working-age men and 72 percent of working-age women were working, but these shares dropped to 78 percent and 65 percent respectively by September 2020."

Meanwhile, C & I Leasing Plc led the gainers chart rising by N0.41 per share to close at N5.51 per share, followed by Cadbury Nigeria Plc gaining N1.00 per share to close at N11.00. Cutix Plc garnered 19 kobo per share to close at N2.09. Julius Berger followed as it rose by N1.75 per share to close at N19. 25 per share.

The head of the General Services Administration has yet to recognize the incoming Biden administration — a delay that could have consequences for the president-elect's plan to move swiftly on the coronavirus.
More than 48 hours after media outlets projected that Joe Biden had defeated President Donald Trump to win the White House, GSA chief Emily Murphy had yet to sign the letter of "ascertainment" — a previously mostly noncontroversial process since the passage of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. Signing the paperwork when a new president is elected triggers the release of millions of dollars in transition funding and allows an incoming administration access to current government officials.
Murphy was appointed to the job by Trump in 2017.
With the ascertainment delayed, the Biden transition team has been prevented from meeting with officials heading Operation Warp Speed and other Trump administration coronavirus efforts.
"America's national security and economic interests depend on the federal government signaling clearly and swiftly that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power," a Biden-Harris transition spokesperson said Monday in a statement.
The Biden transition official said Murphy's hold-up could also affect the Biden team's access to classified information for incoming national security officials; access to secure locations for private discussions about personnel, budget and policy issues; and access to the $6.3 million of congressionally appropriated funds designated for transition activities, office space and equipment.
Asked later Monday whether Biden's team might take legal action to force the GSA to recognize the transition, a Biden transition official said: "Legal action is certainly a possibility. But there are other options, as well, that we are considering."
Chris Lu, who led President Barack Obama's transition in 2008, said: "Close cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations is always important, but it's especially critical when the country is facing a public health crisis and an economic recession.
"It's time for Donald Trump to put the national interest above his political interest," he added.
There has been little controversy around such paperwork after previous elections, and this marks the most significant delay since 2000, when the outcome of the election between George W. Bush and Al Gore hinged on a Supreme Court ruling during the Florida recount dispute.
The GSA did not indicate Monday when the paperwork would be signed. Trump has refused to concede the election, promised legal battles and said he would ask for a recount in Wisconsin. It appears as of now that no legal challenges have been filed that could overturn Biden's Electoral College victory.
"An ascertainment has not yet been made. GSA and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law and adhere to prior precedent established by the Clinton Administration in 2000," a GSA spokesperson said, pointing to the transition from President Bill Clinton to Bush.