₦airaland Forum

Catherine Garcia
The Week

April 6, 2020, 4:36 AM GMT+1

Public health experts and government officials agree that the U.S. government's coronavirus death toll almost certainly understates how many Americans have actually died from the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only counts deaths where the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a lab test, The Washington Post reports, and "we know that it is an underestimation," CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.


There are many reasons why the numbers are underreported. Strict criteria in the beginning of the outbreak kept many people from getting tested for coronavirus, and it's still difficult to get tested in some areas, for example. There's also the matter of false positives, and not all medical examiners have tests or believe they should conduct postmortem testing, even on people who died at home or in nursing homes where there were outbreaks. Experts also believe some February and early March deaths that were attributed to influenza or pneumonia were likely due to coronavirus.

The official death count is based on reports sent by states, and as of Sunday night, the CDC reports 304,826 confirmed U.S. cases and 7,616 deaths. The Post, other media outlets, and university researchers update their numbers more frequently, with the Post reporting on Sunday night that 9,633 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S., and at least 337,000 cases have been confirmed.

bender79:
Is it now everyday people test positive abi na dabo?

donbachi:
See governor wey him thinking faculty get departments wey dey study;humanity 101,conscience 111,love 221 and consideration 301....always putting the people first,that is wat true governance is.

arthorjnr:
There's something called immunity bro.
Survivors of first wave stand a chance of overcoming the second wave.
Second wave won't be as bad as first.

XANDERBOY85:
Is there any serious adherence to lockdown and social-distancing in Nigeria? I think what’s saving our bacon is the excessive heat and possibly the fact most Nigerians are just hardy and tough!

[i]Nigeria has added two new centres to the list of laboratories that can test for Covid-19 in the country.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed this on its Twitter handle late Saturday evening.

This brings the total number of laboratories where Covid-19 can be tested in the country to seven.

The new laboratories are located in Oyo and Ebonyi states.

Out of the two new testing centres, the one located in Oyo is said to be ready for operation, while the second one is still being set up.

This implies that as of Sunday morning, Covid-19 test can be done in six places across the country.

NCDC in its tweet said “we have expanded the number of labs with the capacity to test for #COVID19 to 6 with the inclusion of the Virology Laboratory of University College Hospital, Ibadan.

“Tomorrow (Sunday), we will be in Abakaliki to set up another lab as we quickly ramp up #COVID19 testing capacity in Nigeria.”

Nigeria previously had five molecular laboratories with the capacity to test for Covid-19. The five were located in Lagos (2), Osun, Edo and FCT.

The NCDC in a previous tweet had said[b]: “our lab teams are working around the clock to ensure rapid testing of samples from suspected Covid-19 Nigeria cases across the country.”[/b]

Testing
The new laboratories are expected to increase the number of tests done in the country and the time taken to get results of the tests.

Testing is a required prerequisite for confirmation of the Covid-19, especially in people who are asymptomatic.

The World Health Organisation has said the only way to overcome the pandemic was for countries to keep testing.

“… But to suppress and control epidemics, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace,” the WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said.

timesup234:
America prosperity is the greatest lie ever told. The United States of America is a glorified shithole country

…Impounds several commercial buses for flouting govt’s directive

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Government has taken delivery of more disinfectant equipment as part of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s aggressive efforts to combat the Coronavirus, COVID-19, in the State.

The equipment, in the custody of the state government, will be deployed to sterilize public surfaces and buses‬ against the virus.

Recall that in line with the directive of the state government on guidelines at motor parks, management of Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, Primero Transport Services, on Monday, commenced daily sterilisation of all surfaces within and around its buses and bus stops to prevent possible spread of COVID-19.

Chairman Primero, Mr. Fola Tinubu and the General Manager (Operations), Mr. Segun Anako, said the measure became necessary to compliment the state government’s effort in combating the pandemic.

According to Anako, the company is aware of the safety concerns of all Nigerians regarding the COVID 19 virus and have taken steps to ensure that “we reduce the spread as much as possible.”

Also, the enforcement team of the Ministry of Transportation, which swung into action on Thursday, impounded several commercial buses found to have flouted the new guidelines released to transport operators to guide against the spread of COVID-19.

Most offenders were caught boarding 14 passengers as against specified eight passengers by the state government.

The team carried out enforcement exercise at Iyana-Ipaja, Ogba, Ikeja, Oshodi, among others.

Meanwhile, the state House Correspondents are on ground in Marina, Lagos Island for a briefing to be addressed by Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on the update of COVID-19 in the state.

Pierced:
This same action that should he taken in Lagos.

Sanwo olu just too slow.....

NaijaRoyalty:
[s][/s]

Wale Oyewale, Ibadan

The All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has raised the alarm over the figures recently credited to Governor Seyi Makinde as a total monthly wage bill being paid to the state workforce.

The leading opposition political party in the state said the amount purportedly represent the state government’s monthly wage bill, and the staff population of N11bn and 115, 000 respectively, were bandied in attempts to cover up the brazen looting of the public treasury by the administration.

It was reported last week that the governor disclosed to participants at the Nigerian-American Business Forum in Tampa, Florida, United States that the state has 115,000 civil servants and a wage bill of N11bn per month, representing 1.4 percent of the state’s population.

In a statement in Ibadan by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo, the Oyo APC lamented what it called apparent lack of direction.

According to the statement, the PDP-led government in the state has done more harm than good to the people of the state in the last nine months.

It stated, “We had waited patiently for Governor Makinde to make a U-turn and blame his handlers for an improper briefing on this particular matter like he has always been doing since his assumption of office last year May.

“But it is apparent that the governor was on a mission to sell a dummy to do a cover-up on the palpable diversion of monies from the state government coffers into some private accounts.

“He went as far as the United States to make a disclosure of 115, 000 workforce and N11bn wage bill which he claimed to have been paying since June 2019 even when he had never mentioned this to anyone at home.

“To set the record straight, the statistics obtainable as at May 2019 is as followed: Core civil servants -10,789; TESCOM staff (teaching/non-teaching) -17,615; local government staff -12, 264; SUBEB Staff -23, 352; parastatals -2,266; NYSC corps members serving in the state, -3,403; state government pensioners -16,539, and a total wage bill of N5.2bn, including payments to all political office holders and subventions to state-owned tertiary institutions.

“It is worthy of note that monthly payments to local government council staff (12, 264); public primary school employees (23, 352) and local government pensioners (8,805) are being made directly from federal allocations to the 33 Local Government Areas.

“When did the state government commence the payment of its compressed new minimum wage to workers in the state and, is this responsible for the over N5.8bn increase in wage bill?”

Attempts to get reactions from the state government as of the time of filing this report was abortive as calls made to some officials of the state were unsuccessful.

Messages sent to their telephone lines were also not replied.
.

(Reuters) - Gabon and Ghana confirmed their first cases of coronavirus on Thursday, becoming the ninth and tenth countries in sub-Saharan Africa to register positive cases.

The region has so far been less badly hit by coronavirus than Europe or China. Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo have also registered cases.

In a statement, Gabon's government said its case was a 27-year-old Gabonese man who had returned from France on March 8.

Ghana's health ministry said its two cases were people who had returned recently from Norway and Turkey.

"These are imported cases of COVID-19. Both patients are currently being kept in isolation and are stable," the ministry said in a statement.

More than 127,000 people have been infected globally and over 4,700 have died since the virus first emerged in China late last year, according to a Reuters tally.

Sub-Saharan Africa did not confirm its first coronavirus infection until Feb. 28 in Nigeria, but experts warn that rising cases could test already fragile health systems.

seunmsg:
Your points are valid but I don’t think Fayemi is fighting Aketi’s battle. I think Fayemi is fighting for himself. Aketi and Oshiomole may not be best of pals but I don’t see Oshiomole going all the way out to stop him. He has nothing to gain from Aketi’s downfall. Aketi should seek peace with Ondo State APC members who are ganging up against him. Oshiomole is the least of his problems.

seunmsg:
Tinubu is not against Aketi’s second term bid. Aketi’s problem is local. APC members in Ondo that he worked against in the last general election are the ones against him.

Fayemi’s problem is his blind ambition to be president.

seunmsg:
Nonsense. The position belongs to the south and it was zoned to the south west. Ekiti State alone cannot decide for the rest of the south west. Ajimobi remains the National Vice Chairman of the party whether Fayemi likes it or not.