WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden said that it will be difficult for the United States to reach herd immunity, at least 75% of the population inoculated against the coronavirus, by the end of this summer.
“The idea that this can be done and we can get to herd immunity much before the end of next -- this summer, is -- is very difficult,” Biden told CBS news in an interview.
As of Sunday morning the United States has administered 41,210,937 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 59,307,800 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Senate were poised on Thursday to take a first step toward the ultimate passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, in a marathon “vote-a-rama” session aimed at overriding Republican opposition.
Senate Democrats need to pass a budget resolution to unlock a legislative tool called reconciliation, which would allow them to approve Biden’s proposal in the narrowly divided chamber with a simple majority. The House of Representatives approved the budget measure on Wednesday.
Most legislation must get at least 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to pass. But the chamber is divided 50-50 and Republicans oppose the Democratic president’s proposal. Reconciliation would allow the Senate’s 48 Democrats and two independents to approve the relief package with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Senate Democrats and the Biden administration have left the door open to Republican participation but have said they want comprehensive legislation to move quickly to address a pandemic that has killed more than 450,000 Americans and left millions jobless.
“Seeing long lines of people waiting to get food around the country is something we should never see in the United States,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” program.
“This is really an urgent need. And we need to act big. We need to make sure that we provide a bridge so that people aren’t scarred indefinitely by this crisis,” she said.
The Democrats’ march to add more assistance to last year’s $4 trillion in coronavirus relief could be complicated by the impeachment trial of Republican former President Donald Trump, which is set to begin next week and could distract from the legislation.

Over the past week, 75 Nigerian health workers have tested positive for the new coronavirus strain detected in the country, an official said late on Monday.
Many patients visiting hospitals were found to be unaware of their COVID-19 status, making healthcare workers particularly susceptible to infections, according to Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Addressing a news conference in the capital Abuja, he urged health workers to be extremely responsible for their personal protection.
With the new strain causing a surge in infections over the past month, Ihekweazu said authorities are working to boost testing in Nigeria and will provide more rapid diagnostic test kits to medical facilities across the country.
The Nigerian government aims to vaccinate 70% of the country’s over 200 million population by the end of the year, another official said on Tuesday, according to local media reports.
The statement was made by Boss Mustapha, who is heading Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He said the government will also make coronavirus tests mandatory for citizens traveling out of the country.
The NCDC update on Tuesday showed 676 more infections and 21 fatalities were recorded in Nigeria over the past day, raising the total to 131,918, including 1,607 deaths and 106,275 recoveries.

It’s a good thing retired nurse Judy Schneider kept her hospital scrubs.
Less than two years after she said farewell to her job at a North Carolina hospital, she is back in them -- and on the front lines of the pandemic -- giving people shots of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I didn’t think anything would make me want to come back,” Schneider, who retired in 2019 after 29 years of working as a nurse at UNC REX Healthcare in Raleigh, North Carolina, told NBC News. “But then Covid happened, the vaccine rollout happened, and I realized I could help. After months of being quarantined, it’s exciting to be able to help.”
Schneider, 65, said she had planned to travel the world. But for now, she said, the world can wait.
“This is the best nursing job I’ve ever had,” she said while on a break from her post at Rex’s vaccine center, where she works some 15 hours a week. “The people coming in for the vaccines are hospital workers and they are so happy, so thrilled, to be getting it. That makes it fun.”
Across the United States, there are many more former nurses like Schneider who have put their retirement plans on hold and answered the call of service.
“It’s a historic moment,” Schneider said. “It’s public service. It’s a skill I can share.”
In a bid to speed up the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines by making sure there are enough qualified people available to administer the shots, the Department of Health and Human Services has amended the rules so that any physician or registered nurse can do so in any state or U.S. territory.
That includes health care providers whose licenses or certifications have expired within the past five years, as long as they were in good standing “prior to the date it went inactive,” according to the HHS.
“To respond to the nationwide public health emergency caused by Covid-19, the Biden administration is broadening use of the PREP Act to expand the vaccination workforce quickly with additional qualified health care professionals,” acting HHS Secretary Norris Cochran said. “As vaccine supply is made more widely available over the coming months, having additional vaccinators at the ready will help providers and state health departments meet the demand for vaccine and protect their communities more quickly.”
In Florida, where the vaccine rollout has been chaotic at times, Broward County has started enlisting retired nurses, doctors and other health care workers to help dole out doses.
“With the vaccine, we’re going into probably our biggest endeavor so far,” said Dr. Warren Sturman of the county's Medical Reserve Corps told the NBC affiliate in Miami. “Mass vaccinations for a pandemic is something that has always been on our mission statement, something we have always thought about. This is right in line with what we were planning for years, hoping to never have happened, but planning for it."
In Maryland, the TidalHealth Peninsula Regional hospital in the city of Salisbury sent out word to retired nurses that they needed help and within days "six nurses who had worked a combined 241 years immediately stepped forward to volunteer their time, administering vaccinations in five-hour shifts multiple days a week," Maryland Matters reported.
On Long Island, dozens of retired New York nurses have answered the call to help, Newsday reported.
"We’re suddenly doing something we weren’t doing previously," Dr. Aaron Glatt, chairman of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital, told the newspaper. "In this era, it’s not like you have a ton of staff available to do all the work that needs to be done. We want to make sure we can do all the vaccinating we have to, and at the same time not take away from patient care."

On January 27, 2021, fear gripped the Benue State Government House, as Governor Samuel Ortom tested positive for COVID-19.
This was disclosed by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, in a statement issued on Wednesday.
He stated, “This follows the test results of most of the Governor’s close aides who also returned positive in the last few weeks.
“Though the Governor has not shown any symptoms of the disease, he has already commenced treatment as prescribed by medical personnel.”
As the fear over the second wave of coronavirus pandemic thickens, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong tested positive for COVID-19 on December 17,2020.
This was disclosed by the Director of Press and Publicity to the governor, Dr Makut Macham, in a statement on Thursday.
According to Macham, the governor took the test along with members of his family while his result came out positive but that of others were negative.
On December 12, 2020, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu tested positive for Coronavirus after he went into isolation a day before.
On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, Ekiti state governor, Kayode Fayemi disclosed that he tested positive to Coronavirus but recovered on August 01, 2020, after he spent 11 days in isolation centre.
Also, on August 09, 2020, in a tweet on his verified handle @kfayemi, he announced that his second COVID-19 test had returned negative, and that means he is totally free from the virus.
The governor of Abia state tested positive for coronavirus, it was announced on June 08, 2020.
Ikpeazu directed the deputy governor to act on his behalf.
Ikpeazu’s result came out negative following his test on May 30. However, he submitted another sample on June 4, which turned out to be positive.
On Saturday, July 4, Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. This makes him the 6th Governor to have tested positive for the virus that has infected over 11 million and killed no less than 532,000 people globally. 
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El- Rufai was the first governor confirmed to have been infected and recovered in April. 
Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, was also infected in March and was reported to have recovered on the 9th of April. 
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, announced that he tested positive on 30th, March, 2020 and his recovery was reported on the 5th of April. 
Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, tested positive last week on June 30th and Delta’s Ifeanyi Okowa announced that he and his wife had tested positive on July 1.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday temporarily blocked a move by new U.S. President Joe Biden to halt the deportation of many immigrants for a 100-day period, a swift legal setback for his ambitious immigration agenda.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, an appointee of former President Donald Trump in the Southern District of Texas, issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the policy nationwide for 14 days following a legal challenge by Texas.
The Biden administration is expected to appeal the ruling, which halts the deportation freeze while both parties submit briefs on the matter.
Biden promised on the campaign trail to enact a 100-day moratorium on deportations if elected, a proposal that contrasted sharply with the immigration crackdown promoted by Trump, a Republican.
After Biden took office on Wednesday, the top official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo that ordered a pause on many deportations to enable the department to better deal with “operational challenges” at the U.S.-Mexico border during the pandemic.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state would face irreparable harm if the deportation freeze was allowed to go into effect. Paxton, a Republican, said it would increase education and healthcare costs as more immigrants remained in Texas illegally.
Paxton also said it went against the terms of an enforcement agreement Texas brokered with the Trump administration less than two weeks before Biden took office.
Tipton said in the order on Tuesday that Texas had “a substantial likelihood of success” on at least two of its claims, including that the deportation freeze violated a federal immigration law stating that authorities “shall remove” immigrants with final deportation orders within 90 days.
The judge also found it likely that Texas would succeed on its claim that the Biden administration “arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its previous policy without sufficient explanation” when it issued the moratorium.
Paxton praised the ruling in a statement, saying a deportation moratorium would “endanger Texans and undermine federal law.”
Approximately 1.2 million immigrants in the United States have final orders of removal, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Reuters.
As of Jan. 16, ICE was holding around 6,000 detainees with final deportation orders, the spokeswoman said.
The number of detained migrants has dropped sharply during the pandemic, falling by roughly two-thirds.
During Trump’s presidency, Democrat-led states and other opponents of his immigration policies were able to thwart or delay many initiatives through legal challenges. Texas is expected to contest Biden’s agenda in a similar fashion.
Kate Huddleston, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which filed a brief in support of the Biden administration, criticized the Texas lawsuit in a statement after the ruling.
“The administration’s pause on deportations is not only lawful but necessary to ensure that families are not separated and people are not returned to danger needlessly while the new administration reviews past actions,” she said.

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) – Whether Jean-Jacques Rousseau mis-credited the words to Marie-Antionette in Confessions or not, Nigeria is happy to supply a modern-day princess who has earned the title of Her Royal Spite-tress without controversy.
And unlike Antionette reputed to have tossed the infamous pate, “Let them eat cake”, out her window when the mass of ordinary people in France were dying for breadcrumbs, her Nigerian cousin travelled thousands of miles to find her groove.
Ebele Obiano is the wife of Willie, governor of one of Nigeria’s five south eastern states, with a long list of grievances against the Federal Government.
Let’s be clear. Anambra is not one of the basket cases in the south east, even though it has a wretched reputation for nasty politics. In the last seven years, Governor Willie Obiano, building on the solid work of his predecessor, the legendarily “stingy” Peter Obi, has managed to raise the performance of the state in competitive public examination and agriculture.
But in less than two years, a second episode of extravagant indiscretion by the governor’s wife now casts a long shadow over the legacy of the state’s first family.
The commissioned and published video of the governor’s wife sitting in the “owner’s corner” of her jeep and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in the US while coronavirus-related deaths are spiking back home makes Antionette look like a saint.
Ebele Obiano took care to ensure her jab was not just medical tourism at its ludicrous best. It was also a calculated fashion statement. There she was ensconced in her 4X4, in brown pants and a black-sequins blouse, with a reporter on the deck to capture the historic event for posterity. It was a Nollywood moment. 
As the tape was rolling in faraway Houston, Texas, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was reporting more COVID-19 infections back home and the number of the dead was climbing. You would think that the wife of a public official who truly has the interest of her people at heart but could do nothing to improve their safety, would, at least, do nothing to compound their misery.
It’s hardly so with government officials and their families. It’s a global plague, but somehow, Nigerian officials always manage to squeeze themselves into notoriety’s reserved list. In October, thousands of angry mobs broke into warehouses across the country to help themselves to large amounts of foodstuff and staple which could have been distributed at the height of the government-imposed lockdown but were left to rot, while huge supplies were diverted or weaponised for politics.
Anambra, where Ebele Obiano’s husband is governor, was one of the worst hit states by the “palliatives riots”. Protesters estimated at 2,000 broke into a warehouse in the state capital and, in a moment of genius lacking in the French Revolution, helped themselves to bread, noodles, grains and whatever else they could find.
If there was a vaccine strongroom anywhere in the country today, after watching the video of Ebele Obiano’s designer vaccination, distraught citizens might be obliged to ask themselves why they shouldn’t breach the storage.
Ebele Obiano is not a stranger to controversy. She once spotted a pair of crystal-studded Gucci glasses estimated by some to be worth only $2,755 or the equivalent, at current prices, of three years’ minimum wage in the country.
To be fair, the governor’s wife was wearing something much plainer than Gucci – and perhaps cheaper – on the day she took vaccination in Houston.

The rumors began circulating early in the day: Several hundred extra doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were being made available to the general public, regardless of eligibility.
Hundreds of New Yorkers flocked to the Brooklyn Army Terminal vaccination site Thursday, only to find the shots were not actually available.
"I was willing to drop everything and head to a location where there was a small chance that I might be able to get vaccinated," said Bill McBain, 36, of Brooklyn, who waited in line for 30 minutes with more than 500 other people until police officers informed them there were no extra doses. "I don’t blame myself or anyone in that line. We had hope."
New York City, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., has been plagued by vaccine distribution stumbles, just like nearly every part of the country. From supply shortages to registration issues, a string of mishaps have impaired rollout efforts across the five boroughs.
Though demand for the vaccines is high in New York, there is no guarantee a dose will be available for someone who is eligible, which includes health care workers, people 65 and over and those working in certain professions, such as emergency services and teaching.
The state’s Covid-19 website says vaccines are “very limited,” and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday in an interview with WNYC that the city is expected to run out of vaccines by next week because of supply constraints.
“I’m telling you, at this rate, there will not be any doses available in New York by next week,” he said. “If we don’t get a serious supply, we’re going to have to freeze the appointment system. That would be insane after all the progress we’ve made.”
De Blasio’s administration has blamed some of the bottlenecks on Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and city and state officials have bickered openly over the lags in distribution. Earlier this month, Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, said during one of de Blasio’s news conferences at City Hall that the state’s overly restrictive guidelines meant thousands of vaccine doses were going unused.
Cuomo subsequently widened the state’s eligibility rules, but problems remain. Residents have complained about buggy registration websites and long lines at vaccination sites.
Howard Stein, an 81-year-old Manhattan resident, stood in line for several hours to receive his first shot on Tuesday in the Bronx. Stein said staff members at the vaccination site were friendly and helpful, but there were no chairs, and several seniors resorted to sitting on the floor while they waited.
"I spent three hours on line, and if you're dealing with a population that is 75 and older, they ought to have chairs," he said. "That's just a long wait for elderly people."
Stein said his wife, who received her first dose on Jan. 8, had a similar experience at a vaccination site in Valhalla, just north of New York City.
"That was a state-run facility, but it also took a couple hours," he said, adding that while he feels "pleased as punch" that he and his wife received their first shots, he has some anxiety about what the supply shortages could mean for their second doses.
McBain, who waited in line in vain at Brooklyn Army Terminal, said he heard about the supposedly available shots from a friend who is a nurse practitioner. Despite the confusion, he does not regret trying to score a vaccine early, he said, adding that he has Type 1 diabetes and has been concerned about complications associated with Covid-19.
The rumors offered a glimmer of opportunity for his life to return to normal, McBain said.
“I think it’s representative of where we, as a community, are in this pandemic,” he said in a Facebook message.
More than 337,000 doses have been administered in New York City so far, according to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Late last month, de Blasio said he wanted to get 1 million New Yorkers vaccinated in January, and the city had set a goal of administering 150,000 shots a week. Those milestones may soon be out of reach until additional doses are secured.
Mount Sinai said this week that it was forced to cancel some vaccination appointments because of low supply.
“If our supply increases, we hope to be able to reschedule and open up appointments again soon,” the hospital said in a statement.

Mr. Trump left the White House shamelessly, leaving President Biden with a lot of trouble. Who can remember what he once said? The United States has the best vaccines, and there are enough vaccines to defeat the new coronavirus immediately. Well, it seems this is a joke.

Besides being the first president to get impeached twice, Donald Trump will have a stain on his legacy with arguably longer-lasting consequences: He's about to become the only American leader in a century with more than 400,000 deaths from one event on his watch.
The USA is expected to cross that somber threshold soon, likely by Monday, yet another reminder of how poorly the nation with the world's largest economy has fared during the coronavirus pandemic. The current COVID-19 death toll is about 396,000.
Not since Woodrow Wilson was in office during the 1918 flu pandemic – which killed about 675,000 in this country and 50 million worldwide – had a president overseen the loss of so many American lives.
That total is fast approaching the 405,000 U.S. fatalities from World War II – thousands of them recorded when Harry Truman was president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April 1945 – to rank as the third-deadliest event in the history of the republic. About 618,000-750,000 were killed in the Civil War of 1861-1865.
Many public health experts and historians blame the Trump administration for the extent of the COVID-19 devastation.
“What’s so troubling about this loss of life is it was preventable,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “This is an infectious disease we knew how to prevent, and as difficult as it is, far easier to solve than defeating Nazi Germany. And yet, we did not mount a response to wage war against this virus as we have in these other situations.”
Thomas Whalen, an associate professor at Boston University and an expert on the American presidency, is even harsher in his assessment. Whalen cited reporting by journalist Bob Woodward, who taped Trump on Feb. 7 acknowledging how dangerous the virus was even though he repeatedly downplayed its severity publicly.
“He has, you could say, blood on his hands,” Whalen said of Trump. “He knew this was a threat and really did not do what was necessary to respond to it in a thoughtful and resourceful way.”Besides being the first president to get impeached twice, Donald Trump will have a stain on his legacy with arguably longer-lasting consequences: He's about to become the only American leader in a century with more than 400,000 deaths from one event on his watch.
The USA is expected to cross that somber threshold soon, likely by Monday, yet another reminder of how poorly the nation with the world's largest economy has fared during the coronavirus pandemic. The current COVID-19 death toll is about 396,000.
Not since Woodrow Wilson was in office during the 1918 flu pandemic – which killed about 675,000 in this country and 50 million worldwide – had a president overseen the loss of so many American lives.
That total is fast approaching the 405,000 U.S. fatalities from World War II – thousands of them recorded when Harry Truman was president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in April 1945 – to rank as the third-deadliest event in the history of the republic. About 618,000-750,000 were killed in the Civil War of 1861-1865.
Many public health experts and historians blame the Trump administration for the extent of the COVID-19 devastation.
“What’s so troubling about this loss of life is it was preventable,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “This is an infectious disease we knew how to prevent, and as difficult as it is, far easier to solve than defeating Nazi Germany. And yet, we did not mount a response to wage war against this virus as we have in these other situations.”
Thomas Whalen, an associate professor at Boston University and an expert on the American presidency, is even harsher in his assessment. Whalen cited reporting by journalist Bob Woodward, who taped Trump on Feb. 7 acknowledging how dangerous the virus was even though he repeatedly downplayed its severity publicly.
“He has, you could say, blood on his hands,” Whalen said of Trump. “He knew this was a threat and really did not do what was necessary to respond to it in a thoughtful and resourceful way.”

s were canceled amid outbreaks among players and a growing number of cases across the country.
They include a requirement that players and staff of visiting teams can’t leave their hotel or interact with non-team guests. Players are also prohibited from getting to the arena more than three hours before game tip-off, can only elbow or fist bump and must wear face masks on the bench at all times. 
The NBA can also require players and team staff to undergo five consecutive days of twice-daily Covid-19 testing if there are positive cases.
Since starting its 2020-21 season, the NBA has faced numerous positive cases among players, who are no longer confined to the bubble the league used during its playoffs over the summer.
In the playoffs bubble, players and league personnel were required to undergo daily testing, had to wear masks and were isolated from the outside. While it proved successful at keeping out Covid-19, many players spoke about the challenge of being isolated from families, friends and their homes and adopting a bubble model for the entirety of the league’s regular season wasn’t pursued.

The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has warned Nigerians against complacency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic as vaccines may not arrive the country as soon as expected.
He made this known while speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday.
Represented by the Director, Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Adebimpe Adebiyi, he said the government is working hard to get the approved vaccines to fight the virus.
“We are working very hard to get vaccines for our people. It may not come soon enough, therefore we need to be alive to get the vaccines when they come,” he said.
He said this is to underscore the importance of compliance with non-pharmaceutical measures as advised to reduce transmissibility of the virus.
Although Mr Mamora said the vaccines may not come soon, the Nigerian government earlier said the country will receive at least 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said a letter announcing this allocation in the first phase of the delivery of the vaccines is expected from the COVAX facility during the week.
“In the first phase through the COVAX facility, we expect to receive approximately 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and bioNtech vaccine by the end of January,” he said.
Mr Shuaib also said the country is expecting ‘free’ 42 million doses of vaccines in the second phase through the COVAX facility, an initiative run by the vaccine alliance, GAVI, to ensure equitable access to a COVID vaccine.
He said the second phase will be “a combination of all the available approved vaccines currently in the market.”
He, however, said these vaccines will cover only about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s over 200 million estimated population.

The United States has invested more than $10 billion in Operation Warp Speed to fast-track SARS-CoV-2 vaccines from conception to market in 1 year. The result is 11 candidates reaching the final stage of Food and Drug Administration testing — a phenomenal improvement over past development timelines. Indeed, two SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are already available to Americans.
Given this level of investment, skill, and good fortune in developing a vaccine, it will be tragic if we fail to curtail the virus because Americans refuse to be vaccinated. Despite widespread suffering from Covid-19, credible surveys indicate that the proportion of the U.S. population willing to be vaccinated has fluctuated from 72% in May to 51% in September and 60% in November; of the 39% of respondents who indicated that they probably or definitely would not get the vaccine, only 46% said they might be open to vaccination once others start getting it and more information becomes available.1
These findings underscore the tremendous undertaking facing vaccine communication teams, who must persuade many of these people to be vaccinated if we’re to achieve the vaccination rate — as high as 80%2 — needed to return to normalcy. Even then, 100% of people who said they would “definitely or probably” get vaccinated must follow through, and 100% of people who said they didn’t plan to but could change their mind must be persuaded and motivated to act. Vaccine promoters will have to be creative in marshaling their resources and broad-minded in considering tools for addressing this enormous challenge.3
The slow adoption of even the most beneficial new product is unsurprising to researchers who study the diffusion of innovation.4,5 From electrifying homes to developing personal computers, history has shown that “if you build it, they will come” makes a terrible marketing plan.
As with many disruptive trends and the innovations they spawn, Americans’ attitudes toward Covid-19 and related health behaviors have been shaped by a complex combination of information, relative benefits, and social identity.6,7 Consider that although the use of face masks was promoted on the basis of strong relative benefits (high efficacy of slowing viral spread and low cost), what predominated in many peoples’ decisions about masking was its symbolic relationship to political identity.8
So how should we promote vaccination? The data surrounding vaccination are still evolving, and different vaccines may come to market. The likely mixed messages about these products’ safety and efficacy (even if they reflect small relative differences arising from clinical trial design) may exacerbate the challenge of vaccine adoption. Add to this the interaction of attitudes toward the virus and vaccines, and it’s clear that we will need myriad communication strategies to ensure widespread vaccine uptake.
Any successful marketing strategy will be multifaceted.9,10 Consumer research and behavioral economics suggest 12 key strategies for an effective vaccine-promotion effort (Table 1). Not all strategies are equally actionable for all health agents, who range from leaders of federal agencies to leaders of local clinics; different actions are best suited for different players (Table 2). But by combining relevant strategies for various persuasive tasks, we can develop a comprehensive plan, incorporating multiple actions and tactics to promote vaccine adoption. The tactics used can be prioritized according to each population’s degree of vaccine hesitancy (Figure 1). We believe that the following elements should be considered in a national strategy and reinforced by local public health officials and individual clinicians.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 218 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances.
Coronavirus Cases globally  : 84,899,639: Deaths: 1,842,222: Recovered: 59,992,249.
Here we provide updated information on cases in Asean, comprising new cases, total cases, new deaths and total deaths.
Brunei
Brunei had +0 new cases, has a total of 157 with 3 deaths.
Cambodia
There has been +1 new positive case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Cambodia.  The tally is at 379. No deaths. Total recovered at 362.
Indonesia
The country reported +7,203  new infections, taking the totals to 758,473 infections with +226  new deaths, bringing total to 22,555 deaths.
Laos
The country reported +0 new case recorded, total at 41. No deaths.
Malaysia
The country reported  +2,295 new cases, taking the total to 117,373,  with +9 new deaths, total deaths at 483.
Myanmar
Myanmar reported +574 new cases, taking total to 125,616 and +14 new deaths, total is at 2,711 deaths.
Philippines
The Philippines recorded  +1,097 new cases, bringing the total to 476,916  with +5 new deaths, bringing total 9,253 deaths.
Singapore
Reported +33 new cases, taking the total to 58,662 and 0 new death, tally now 29 deaths.
Thailand
Reported +216 new cases, total at 7,379, +1 new death, total deaths stands at 64.
Vietnam
Vietnam’s Ministry of Health had +8 new cases and a total of 1,482 cases, no new death, total remains at  35.

After the Florida Department of Health didn’t issue a Covid-19 report in recognition of the New Year holiday yesterday, today an additional 31,518 Covid-19 cases were reported in the state, according to data from the department.
There are 1,354,833 total Covid-19 cases in the state, the Florida Covid-19 data dashboard showed.
There were also 220 new coronavirus related deaths reported on Saturday, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 22,210, according to the state's health department.
According to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, there are currently 6,701 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the state.
Note: These numbers were released by Florida’s public health agency and may not line up exactly in real-time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria faces oxygen supply challenges to treat coronavirus patients in parts of the country and unacceptable laboratory delays as case numbers rose to the highest recorded in a single week, health authorities said on Tuesday.
The new warnings from Nigerian officials come as the resurgent virus strikes across much of the world, bringing greater case loads and hospitalisations.
"There is an on-going review of the chain for the supply of medical oxygen for our medical facilities across the nation," said Boss Mustapha, chairman of Nigeria's coronavirus task force, naming the capital of Abuja as an area of concern.
Labs' "inability to function optimally has resulted in unacceptable levels of delay in receiving results," he added, calling on Nigeria's state governments to reopen all laboratories, ensure prompt testing and keep open treatment centres. "This is not helping our national response."
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has recorded few coronavirus cases compared to others on the continent. Since the beginning of the pandemic, officials count 84,811 as of Tuesday evening, with 1,264 deaths.
South Africa, with a population little more than a quarter of Nigeria's, has recorded 1 million cases.

“It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.
NAIROBI, Kenya — 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 during a major holiday season.
“It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. 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 would analyze more samples.
“Give us some time...it’s still very early,” he said.
The identification of the apparent new variant was based on two or three genetic sequences, Nkengasong said, but that and South Africa’s alert last week were enough to prompt an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week.
The variant in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, was found in two patient samples collected on Aug. 3 and on Oct. 9 in Osun state, according to a working research paper seen by The Associated Press.
Unlike the variant seen in the U.K., “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 virus 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.

The second wave of COVID-19, essentially of a new strain, has begun hitting some countries, including Nigeria
Amidst high concerns of the rapid spread of the new variant of coronavirus found in the United Kingdom (UK), the Nigerian government is yet to take a decision on international flight restrictions.
Scientists at the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), in the late hours of Monday, said the new variant has already been found in Nigeria.
Following warnings from the UK government that the new variant of the virus seemed to be spreading much faster than previous kinds, more than 40 countries have banned travel arrivals from the UK.
India, Pakistan, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong joined European countries in suspending travel from Britain.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman also closed their borders completely.
France also shut its border with the UK for 48 hours, meaning no lorries or ferries can leave from the port of Dover.
But Africa's most populous country seems to be taking too long to arrive at a decision, a proof that the country failed to learn from its previous mistake.
"A lot of discussions is still going on around the calls for the restriction of international travels due to the discovery of new strains of the virus in certain countries," Boss Mustapha, the Chairperson of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, said at a briefing on Monday.
"The PTF, Aviation and health authorities including the WHO are assessing the situation closely and would take a position as soon as cogent scientific basis are established."

Enugu State Government on Sunday, began the 2020 Christmas carnival with a praise and worship amidst observation of the COVID-19 protocol.

The carnival was last held six years ago.

The praise and worship held on Sunday featured gospel singers such as Chinyere Udoma, and Evangelist Chidi Ibenado and the Enugu Choral Group.

The scripture readings were taken by the state governor, Mr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the state Chief Judge, Justice Priscilla Emehelu, and a former Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji.

Other activities for the weeklong carnival include performances by artists such as Davido, Flavour, Phyno and Patoranking, masquerade festival, fashion and fitness day.

In a sermon, an Anglican priest, Ven. Emeka Ezeji, urged Nigerians not to lose hope over the prevailing economic challenges and the coronavirus pandemic but to trust in God.

Members of the state Committee on COVID-19 were on hand to ensure that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) protocols were observed to guard against the second wave of the COVOD-19 pandemic.

The state government ordered the use of face masks before entry into Michael Okpara Square, the venue of the carnival after it was decontaminated by the State Fire Service.

Prof. Emmanuel Obi, the Commissioner for State Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Emergency Committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, directed that anyone entering into the venue of the event must wear a face mask.

According to Obi, nurses will use hand-held thermometers to monitor body temperature at the entrance adding that ambulances were already on ground at the venue.

He urged residents of the State to take responsibility, prevent the spread of disease during this Yuletide season.

The Health Commissioner said, ”for medical advice and questions, people should call the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre Number on 08182555550 or 09022333833.

Health officials are administering the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine in Indigenous communities across the U.S., one of the populations most vulnerable in the pandemic.
About 68,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses will initially be distributed among the population, the Indian Health Service said last week. Doses began to arrive this week and will first be given to the elderly and health care workers.
"We are so happy I can't even describe it," said Dr. Dakotah Lane, medical director of the Public Health Department and a Lummi Nation member, according to the Associated Press.
The coronavirus ravaged American Indian communities even after tribal governments implemented numerous control measures. Tribes ordered closures, roadblocks, universal testing and curfews but cases continued to rise.
Native Americans already faced health care inequities before the pandemic and are four times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19. Historically, Indigenous populations in economically developed countries contract vaccine-preventable diseases at much higher rates.
The Navajo Nation has been hit especially hard. The nation of 170,000 has recorded 20,000 coronavirus cases and at least 731 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
"The arrival of the Pfizer vaccine is a blessing for all of our people, including the doctors, nurses, and many other health care warriors," Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement. "I truly appreciate all of the health care workers who are dedicating themselves to fight COVID-19 and save lives."
Tribes can select their preferred distribution method between the federal Indian Health Service or state health agencies. In some cases the state agencies have more trust within tribal communities, according to AP.
The Indian Health Service is an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and maintains a health service delivery system for 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives across 37 states.
American Indian populations were disproportionately affected by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus outbreak. Kailee Fretland, an Indian Health Service hospital pharmacist at the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota, helped design the vaccine distribution plans in an effort to avoid the same problem, according to AP.
"We went back and we reflected on what happened with H1N1," Fretland said. "The tribes were often not prioritized and we wanted to make sure that that did not happen with COVID."
MPR reports that Minnesota tribal nations were among the earliest to receive the vaccine and credit their careful planning for distribution.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in quarantine after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, the State Department said Wednesday.
“For reasons of privacy, we can’t identify that individual,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.
Pompeo has been tested for the virus and is negative, the statement said. But “in accordance with CDC guidelines, he will be in quarantine,” the statement said. “He is being closely monitored by the department’s medical team.”
The statement did not say when or how Pompeo came into contact with the infected individual.
'Smooth transition':Despite election results showing Biden win, Pompeo said he expects 'transition to a second Trump administration'
President Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that was closed to the press, but Pompeo wasn't expected to attend. The secretary has no public events on his schedule for the day.
Dozens of administration staffers and White House visitors have contracted COVID-19, which has infected nearly 17 million Americans and killed more than 304,000. More than a dozen people, including Trump and first lady Melania Trump, tested positive after attending a Rose Garden ceremony in late September at which Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

NEW YORK — More Americans have been getting flu shots this year, apparently heeding the advice of health officials fearful of a flu and coronavirus double pandemic, public health officials said Wednesday.
But the flu vaccination rate for Black children is down, fueling worries that Black Americans may be turning away from shots.
“It’s certainly a point of concern,” said Dr. Ram Koppaka of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which posted new flu vaccination data Wednesday. “We’ll monitor this over the coming weeks very closely.”
So far there’s been little flu going around, CDC officials say.
But a push for vaccinations is considered especially important this year. The coronavirus is filling hospital beds in some parts of the country, and officials want to reduce any additional patient traffic that would further stress the health care system.
Flu vaccine manufacturers are producing a record 194 million to 198 million doses for the annual season, a big jump from the 175 million for last flu season.
A survey conducted in early November found that 49 percent of U.S. adults had been vaccinated, up from 44 percent who had gotten flu shots by the same point in 2019, the CDC said. But the same survey suggested more than a third of adults do not intend to get a flu shot this season.
The CDC report came out the same day a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that only about half of U.S. adults said they would get a coronavirus vaccine. It found that white people were twice as likely as Black people to say they would get vaccinated.
A different CDC survey found that 48 percent of U.S. kids were vaccinated against flu at the end of November — the same as last year. Vaccination rates in white and Hispanic children didn’t change much. But they fell in Black children, to 33 percent from about 44 percent the previous November.
Koppaka, an associate director in the CDC’s Immunization Services Division, said it’s not clear why, but it underscores the need for health officials to work with communities of color and build more trust in vaccination campaigns.

More than 1.4 million children under the age of 19 have tested positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. since the pandemic started earlier this year, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
New data released this week shows that as of December 3, 1,460,905 children have tested positive in this country, representing more than 12% of total reported cases at that time.
In August, children under 19 made up 9% of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
During the last two weeks of November, there was a 23% increase in the number of children who tested positive for the coronavirus, going from a total of 1.183 million in mid-November to 1.460 on December 3.
Children still make up a small number of the country’s hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19; ranging from 1-3% of hospitalizations depending on the state, and 0-.23% of all COVID-19 deaths.
Last week, the AAP released guidance on returning to youth sports during the pandemic. They encourage children to wear cloth face coverings at all times “for group training, competition, and on the sidelines.”

Abuja – When Regina Otokpa, an Abuja-based journalist, co-authored a newspaper article on poor observance of mask-wearing and physical distancing directives in Nigeria, it caused some buzz.
Reaction to the report was swift. Government officials reinforced warnings against disregarding the preventive measures, while medical personnel voiced satisfaction that awareness had been created among policymakers: health workers are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection, and in Nigeria more than 2000 health workers have been infected by the disease.
“The report caused quite a stir because it helped stakeholders identify loopholes that could cause more harm rather than flatten the COVID-19 curve,” says Otokpa who covers health and business for the paper.
She is among the country’s reporters who have turned an investigative spotlight on the Nigerian response to the pandemic and are helping to create awareness of the disease, which has so far infected more than 67 000 people and claimed 1173 lives.
At the onset of the pandemic misinformation and rumours were rife in Nigeria. Outlandish claims ranged from COVID-19 causes such as 5G wireless technology to lemon tea as a viable therapy. Rumours circulating on WhatsApp that the disease was a ruse by some to spread fear and divert funds meant to fight the virus was especially hard to debunk, says Ayodamola Owoseye, a reporter with an Abuja-based paper.
Early in the outbreak, it was difficult to find experts to turn to, Owoseye says, as most researchers had little understanding of the virus. Yet, there were volumes of unverified information online. Some people turned away from her reports altogether, she remembers. “People became scared and stopped reading the news. They claimed it was affecting them psychologically."
To help counter misinformation, the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Nigeria has trained national journalists, focusing on the principles of public health reporting that include information accuracy, data sourcing and verification. The training also aimed to help change people’s behaviour in the face of COVID-19.
The Organization has supported the work of more than 100 reporters across Nigeria since March to understand and relay technical terms and educate the public about the pandemic. WHO also provides real-time information on COVID-19 response and prevention. In Abuja alone, 50 journalists have been trained and another 100 in the north-east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
WHO continues to collaborate with the media to debunk false information. Staff from the Organization also participate in national radio and television programmes to speak about the pandemic.
Nigerian newsrooms are using different approaches to fight misinformation. Some directly address the rumours by producing lists of fake information along with write-ups debunking them. Others have fact-checking teams for in-depth verification.
At Dubawa, the fact-checking arm of Premium Times, a major Nigerian newspaper, reporters have been publishing reports to counter rumours and address people’s worries on COVID-19, using creative tools like graphics and videos. Dubawa is the first such initiative in the country and works to fight false news and deter propagators of misleading information.
“We journalists should keep reporting about COVID-19 so that people will be aware that it's not yet time to celebrate,” says Bukola Afeni, a reporter with Newsday, an online publication, referring to a declining number of in-depth reporting on the pandemic.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has issued a public health advisory to all members of the public to exercise caution as they celebrate the upcoming festivities – Christmas and New year.
The Commission said that it is fully aware that the yuletide season affords a number of people an opportunity to celebrate with their families and friends and as well for people to travel to visit their loved ones or attend events, but cautioned that everyone has to make necessary adjustments in social interactions in line with the reality of the pandemic to limit the spread of Covid-19.
According to the commission, “Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Nigeria, just over 67,000 Covid-19 cases have been reported with just over 1,000 deaths. Most of the confirmed cases and deaths have been in urban/semi-urban cities and towns and the risk of spread remains.
“The Covid-19 virus does not spread on its own, it spreads when people move around. This means that by traveling across countries and cities, there is a higher risk of transmission, especially to rural areas where the existing health infrastructure is already weak.”
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has continued to rise across several countries globally. Nigeria is not an exception, with the recent spike recorded in the number of confirmed cases in some major cities.
In the first wave of infections, the economy was paralyzed with lockdowns that lasted for months, and the country cannot afford a second wave which could be more catastrophic.

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has said that improving the capacity to manage COVID-19 cases is the strategy to reduce case fatalities in Nigeria, according to a report by Nairametris.
Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, reportedly disclosed the plan on COVI-19 by FMOH in a daily Joint National Briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) in Abuja.
He said that to reduce the case fatalities the health ministry is planning the battle through personnel surveillance.
He quoted, "we hope to reduce case fatalities by strengthening our capacity to manage cases, but it is only possible if persons test themselves early. All cases, whether home-based or institutional are to be supervised by medical personnel. This is particularly important, given the threat posed by the spiralling rate of infection in countries with which Nigeria has strong political, business, social, and family relations."
He urged the citizens to avoid traveling to countries with high COVID-19 risk.
"There is a correspondingly high volume of travel between Nigeria and those countries, which is what also determines the risk. I also urge all Nigerians to cut off all travels, especially international travels, most especially travels to high risk countries, except it is very urgent", he said.
While talking about the permanent cure via vaccine he drew the focus on the process of ensuring access to the vaccine but that might take a while he said.
Ehanire added, "although we are positioning our country for access to the Covid-19 vaccine, it may still take a while for countries to access it and for all citizens to be vaccinated. It is, therefore, more realistic that we adopt preventive measures which have proven to be successful in controlling the pandemic,"
There are still many cases around the world, one after another, so we can only strengthen our ability to handle cases in order to reduce the number of deaths.

Charter flights bringing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to the United States from Belgium began on Friday, the start of what the Federal Aviation Administration calls the first "mass air shipment" of a coronavirus vaccine.
There are no authorized coronavirus vaccines in the U.S. yet, but preparations for distribution are ramping up. Under FDA rules, vaccine cannot be shipped to actual administration sites until it was been either licensed or authorized by FDA.
Pfizer's vaccine is anticipated to be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration by mid-December. 
While it can't be delivered to doctors, vaccine can be pre-positioned at distribution sites to allow for quicker delivery once it is authorized, which is what began on Friday.
Operation Warp Speed, the White House-led initiative to develop and distribute vaccines, plans to begin the first vaccine deliveries within 24 hours of FDA authorization.
Pfizer has two plants making its COVID-19 vaccine, one in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and one in Puurs, Belgium.
In a statement Sunday, Health and Human Services confirmed that shipments were coming from Europe. 
"Operation Warp Speed leaders are aware of and facilitating vaccine shipments coming to the U.S. from Belgium. In an effort to minimize the potential risk to delivery and distribution, we are unable to provide specific details regarding where vaccines are produced and stored," the statement read.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday the charter flights on United Airlines were to position doses of the vaccine for quick distribution should it be authorized.
Pfizer has a distribution site in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, where its vaccine is being stored. There may also be other sites around the nation where the vaccine will be stored prior to authorization.

(CNN)Dr. Anthony Fauci's final pre-Thanksgiving plea is to keep any indoor holiday gatherings as small as possible as the country endures record numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations and daily cases, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday.
With the US seeing unprecedented numbers of recorded infections now, he said he's worried about how much the virus will spread in holiday celebrations -- and what the pandemic will look like in three weeks when those new infections will have manifested.
"What we don't want to see is yet another surge superposed upon the (current) surge ... which we'll realize three (to) three and a half weeks from now" if people aren't careful, Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC.
Public health officials have generally urged Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving only with members of the same household, or at least gather outdoors, to avoid further virus spread. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommended last week that Americans should not travel for Thanksgiving.
Those warnings come as medical staff around the country say they've struggled to keep up with the surging number of hospital patients.
More than 88,000 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals nationwide on Tuesday, the 15th straight day that figure set a record for the pandemic, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The federal government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a plan Wednesday to deliver acute hospital care at home and relax regulations on surgical care outside of hospitals as part of an effort to increase care capacity as coronavirus hospitalizations surge around the nation.
The centers will make it possible for vulnerable people to access critical non-coronavirus care without entering a setting where they may be exposed to the virus.
"We're at a new level of crisis response with Covid-19," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. "With new areas across the country experiencing significant challenges to the capacity of their health care systems, our job is to make sure that CMS regulations are not standing in the way of patient care for Covid-19 and beyond."

Nigeria recorded 155 new cases of COVID-19 and one death on Sunday, new data by the country’s infectious disease agency, NCDC, has shown.
With the latest update, Nigeria’s COVID-19 caseload has increased to 66,383, keeping it fifth among African countries hit hardest, behind Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa.
The total death toll is now 1,167.
The 155 new cases are reported from 12 states – Lagos (60), Katsina (37), Kaduna (35), FCT (6), Ogun (4), Edo (3), Kwara (3), Rivers (2), Kano (2), Jigawa (1), Oyo (1), and Taraba (1).
With 60 new infections on Sunday, Lagos further stretched its lead on the number of infections to nearly 23,000, about a third of the country’s total.
For the fourth consecutive week, Nigeria’s new weekly COVID-19 infections have increased, PREMIUM TIMES’ review of official data shows.
The increasing figures show the possibility of Nigeria slipping into a second wave of the pandemic like some countries of the world.
The NCDC has continually warned the populace not to think the virus has been defeated, urging everyone to adhere to the safety protocols.
The increase in new cases came amid a 27 per cent increase in the number of tests carried out last week.

While Nigeria continues to fight an unknown disease, suspected to be yellow fever, the number of daily coronavirus cases continues to rise.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the West African country recorded 236 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of infected people to 65,693.
According to the NCDC, the last time Nigeria recorded a death from the coronavirus was last Friday when one patient died, taking the tally to 1,163.
The 236 new coronavirus cases were reported in 14 states, including Lagos 142; Ogun 19; Kaduna 15; Federal Capital Territory 14; Imo 14; Rivers 14; Plateau 6; Katsina 3; Ekiti 2; Jigawa 2; Oyo 2; Cross River 1; Kano 1 and Taraba 1.
We must continue to observe basic public health and safety measures to reduce the spread of the epidemic. We cannot ignore the epidemic like the United States, because the epidemic will have a devastating effect on a large number of people.

President of Dangote Industries Limited and Africa's biggest philanthropist, Aliko Dangote, has urged all operators in the private sector to commit one per cent of their profits to fund the health sector challenges in Nigeria, to enable the country tackle crisis like the coronavirus pandemic successfully.
Dangote noted that such an allocation, which would be separate from the corporate tax usually paid to the government, would improve needed funding to boost the nation's ailing health sector, as Nigeria continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The renowned entrepreneur made these suggestions while responding to questions posed to him by a moderator Francine Lacqua during the virtual Bloomberg New Economic Forum (NEF), at a session titled, "Cross-Sector Mobilisation in Times of Crisis: Public Health Perspective."

Other speakers alongside Dangote, who made their remarks at the Bloomberg NEF session hosted by the Dangote Group included, Founder and Chief Executive of Flagship Pioneering and Co-founder and Chairman of Moderna, Dr. Noubar Afeyan, and Co-founder and Chief Strategist at Partners in Health Care, Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, USA, Dr. Paul Farmer.
Responding to a question from Lacqua on if funding was one of the main barriers to actually dealing with health crisis effectively, Dangote replied, "Yes, I agree with you. It is more to do with funding. Like what we are doing in Nigeria as a foundation (Aliko Dangote Foundation), we are trying to sponsor a bill to our Congress where we want them to impose a tax. This is a separate tax, not a corporate tax, of maybe about one per cent of all our profits, in the private sector, so that they will fund health.

"And I think it is the only way; we cannot just leave government alone. Government alone cannot fund health. So we the foundations, the private sector and then the government, we have to actually work together to make sure that we fund health. You know, it is a very, very important sector and without a healthy population, there is no way you have a healthy economy."
In his remarks on the COVID-19 pandemic and its ravaging impact on African health and economic sectors and the role played by the private sector, Dangote noted that, "for us here in Nigeria, mostly in Africa, the COVID-19 is really an eye-opener because when you look at it, we have two impacts. One is the human impact, the other one is the economy.