₦airaland Forum

Nigeria’s government approved $16.94 million to set up oxygen production plants in 38 sites to help treat Covid-19 patients. This comes after Lagos State governor disclosed that oxygen demand in the state, which is the epicentre of the pandemic, has risen by 500 per cent. Dr. Yahya Disu, Head of Risk Communication at the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control; NCDC joins CNBC Africa for more.

WASHINGTON — On his second day in office, President Joe Biden signed 10 executive orders to ramp up Covid-19 vaccinations, expand testing and reopen schools as he outlined a detailed plan to tackle the pandemic.
Biden's team began warning weeks ago that they saw the outgoing administration's covid-19 vaccine plan as subpar, and since he took office on Wednesday, the new president has moved quickly to implement a new framework for getting vaccines into arms.
As part of the plan, the new administration will increase the number of vaccination sites by creating federal community vaccination centers in stadiums, gymnasiums and conference centers staffed with thousands of additional workers, some of them from federal agencies and the military, as well as first responders. Biden said there should be 100 of those centers next month.
"We didn't get into this mess overnight and it is going to take months to get it turned around," Biden said, warning the country will likely top 500,000 deaths next month. "But let me be equally clear, we will get through this, we will defeat this pandemic."
Biden's 198-page plan also looks for ways to speed vaccine production, including using the Defense Production Act, shoring up the supply chain and releasing more of the federal government's reserves. Biden encouraged all states to start vaccinating people 65 and older, along with certain essential workers, including teachers and grocery store employees.
Biden's team says the Trump administration focused solely on the distribution of the vaccine but failed to plan for actual administration, leaving the job of getting shots in arms up to state and local governments. Biden has set an ambitious goal of giving 100 million shots in 100 days — picking up the pace from the 17 million shots the Trump administration recorded in a little over a month
“What we’re inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined,” said Jeff Zients, Biden's Covid coordinator, on a call with reporters.
Administration officials think they have the supply and resources to meet the goal, but they said they will need funding from Congress to expand vaccinations to the wider population, increase testing and help schools reopen. Biden is asking for more than $400 million for the pandemic response as part of a $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
"While we will urgently execute the strategy, we do need Congress to act — and act quickly. Congress must provide the necessary funding in the Covid relief package, the American Rescue Plan, that the president will soon be sending them," said Zients.
Biden's new CDC director Rochelle Walensky warned that Americans shouldn't expect a vaccine timeline that was promised by the Trump administration.
In a TODAY Show interview Thursday, Walensky said the shots won't be available for the general public at retail pharmacies, like the flu vaccine is, by late February, as former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Guthrie last month.
"We are going to, as part of our plan, put the vaccine in pharmacies. Will it be in every pharmacy in this country by that timeline? I don't think so," Walensky said. "I don't think late February, we're going to have vaccine in every pharmacy in this country."
Biden also signed an executive order Thursday to require people to wear masks in airports and on airplanes, trains and maritime vessels and to mandate that international travelers have tested negative for Covid-19 before they depart for the U.S. and quarantine upon arrival.
Biden's coronavirus team said that because of a lack of information-sharing by the Trump administration during the transition, it is only beginning to get its arms around the state of the vaccination program. Officials have just begun to evaluate the supply and production schedule to figure out how much vaccine they can release while being able to ensure enough is left for people to get their second doses, Zients said.
Biden has said he wants the majority of K-8 schools to open in his first 100 days. To help make that happen, he signed a presidential memorandum Thursday reimbursing schools for additional cleaning, protective equipment and other costs associated with getting students back to the classroom using disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It also direct his administration to develop new reopening guidelines.
Biden directed agencies to use their powers, including the Defense Production Act, to accelerate production of items in short supply, and he will direct FEMA to increase the federal reimbursement from 75 percent to 100 percent of the cost for National Guard, personnel and emergency supplies needed to create vaccination centers.
"This is a wartime undertaking," Biden said.
The administration said it will begin holding regular public briefings led by scientists and increase the amount of data being shared publicly, including metrics around race, the capacity of the health care system and vaccine supplies.
"The federal government should be the source of truth to the public to get clear, accessible and scientifically accurate information about Covid-19," Zients said. "We will be honest, transparent and straightforward with the American people to rebuild that trust."
Biden issued more than a dozen executive orders and memorandums in his first hours in office Wednesday, undoing many of the hallmarks of President Donald Trump's tenure and beginning to make his own mark on how the U.S. will respond to its multiple crises. Aides have said more executive actions are expected in the coming days and weeks.

PROVIDENCE — President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to get 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the states during the first 100 days of the incoming administration is feasible — and will have a significant effect in controlling the pandemic in the U.S., hardest hit of all countries, Brown University School of Public Health dean Dr. Ashish Jha said on Tuesday.
The two vaccines available now, from Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech, require two doses for maximum effectiveness. A rollout of 100 million more doses would protect 50 million more people.
“It's going to take work. It's not going to be straightforward, but I think it's very doable,” Jha said during the weekly taping of the “COVID: What Comes Next” podcast, available from The Providence Journal and the USA TODAY NETWORK.
But Jha, one of the world’s leading pandemic experts, said he remains concerned about coronavirus variants that have emerged. He listed the four that have been identified so far.
“There's what's called B117 or the U.K. variant,” Jha said. “There's the South Africa variant. There's a new variant identified in Brazil. And then maybe there's a fourth variant identified in Los Angeles. The question is: do they all matter, are they all necessarily much more contagious? There's no doubt at this point that the U.K. variant is really bad. It's much more contagious and it's here in the United States. We don't know about the South Africa and Brazil variants and whether they're here in the United States. And then there’s the L.A. one.”
That mutation, he said, has only recently been discovered.
“We don't know enough about it” yet, Jha said. “We don't know if it's more contagious. We don't know if it's more dangerous. I think we're going to know more in the next week or two. So the one I'm most worried about is the U.K. variant because I know about it. It's in the United States and it is clearly much more contagious.”

A California hospital is facing a potential $43,000 fine from county health officials for alleged delays in reporting a Covid-19 super-spreader event linked to an inflatable Christmas tree costume.
Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente on Tuesday denied any delay in reporting the Covid-19 cases connected to a Christmas party at its San Jose Medical Center's emergency department.
"The suggestion that we are anything other than forthcoming with our reporting is inaccurate," Kaiser Permanente said in a statement to NBC News, adding it has "maintained consistent communications with multiple state and local agencies regarding COVID-19 cases at our facilities."
The fine issued on last Tuesday is $1,000 for each delayed report of a positive case, but since early January the number of infections connected to the Christmas event has ballooned from 43 to over 90.
As of Tuesday, county health officials said that they have counted 77 staff and 15 patient cases connected to the event. One staff member died.
The Santa Clara County Department of Public Health said it was was unaware of the first 43 cases until news reports last week.
"Kaiser Permanente failed to report any of these cases in the County’s Worksite Case and Contact Reporting Portal as it is required to do by the Public Health Order issued on Oct. 5," the department said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Kaiser Permanente said the inflatable Christmas tree costume — while still not definitively linked to the outbreak, county health officials clarified — was an innocent gesture that "only sought to lift the spirits of those around them during what is a very stressful time."
The organization said they are reviewing the Santa Clara County citation and will respond before the deadline on Friday.
According to the California Department of Public Health, Bay Area hospital intensive care units are over 95 percent full as of Tuesday.
In recent days, as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rapidly approaches 3 million in California alone, Governor Gavin Newsom has received increased criticism for a slow rollout of Coronavirus vaccines in the state.

With nine days left before President Trump's term comes to an end, the House of Representatives is forging ahead with plans to try to remove the president from office over his role in his supporters' violent attack last week on the U.S. Capitol.
On Monday, House Democrats filed an impeachment resolution charging Trump with inciting an insurrection. A vote is expected this week, likely on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the House is also moving forward with a resolution calling on Vice President Pence to invoke the Constitution's 25th Amendment, relieving Trump of his duties until his term ends next week.
Timing on the Senate side on impeachment is more uncertain, but a senior Democratic aide told NPR that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is exploring options for getting the chamber to act sooner.
25th Amendment resolution
During a pro forma session Monday morning, House Democrats attempted to pass the 25th Amendment measure by unanimous consent. But unanimous consent only works if there is no objection, and as expected, a Republican did object: Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia.
On Tuesday, the House is expected to debate the measure and hold a full floor vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she's asked Pence to respond within 24 hours. Pence has made no indication that he's planning to invoke that authority.
Then Democrats would proceed with the impeachment process, which would come more than a year after they impeached Trump for his role in the Ukraine affair.
The article of impeachment
House Democrats' article of impeachment cites both Trump's incitement of his supporters on Wednesday and his call to Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump encouraged the official to "find" enough votes to overturn the election in the state.
"President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government," the Democrats' impeachment resolution states. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government." As of Sunday evening, more than 200 House members had signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution.
On Sunday, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested it could be months before the impeachment measure, should it pass, is sent to the Senate — a move that would enable the upper chamber to begin acting on President-elect Joe Biden's early legislative agenda and confirm his Cabinet nominees before undertaking a trial.
On Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the No. 2 Democrat in the House, told reporters on Capitol Hill that he would like to send the impeachment measure to the Senate as soon as possible, although ultimately that decision rests with Pelosi.
Given the timeline and required action from the Senate, removing Trump from office before Jan. 20 is unlikely — if not impossible. However, Schumer is looking into using emergency authority that would let him and Republican leader Mitch McConnell call the Senate back early for a trial, a senior Democratic aide said.
If the Senate vote doesn't happen before Trump would leave office anyway, Trump could still be at risk of being barred from future office.
White House spokesman Judd Deere has called the impeachment effort "politically motivated" and said it would "only serve to further divide our great country."
Biden responds
Biden was asked about impeachment on Monday and said his first priority is to pass another stimulus bill. He shared he had spoken earlier Monday with senators, who discussed the possibility of splitting days between an impeachment trial and confirming Biden's nominees and passing more economic relief.
Asked if Trump engaged in sedition, Biden replied: "I've been clear that President Trump should not be in office. Period."
On Friday, Biden had said the decision whether to pursue impeachment was Congress' to make.
Trump's actions prompted immediate calls for his removal from both political opponents and some Republicans once considered allies. But even those who criticize Trump are not in agreement over whether impeachment is the best approach.
GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota told NPR's Rachel Martin that while he believes Trump "deserves a greater than average share of the blame" for the rioting at the Capitol, he also puts the blame on the political rhetoric in the country that he says has built up over a long time.
"[We should ask] in this moment, what is the right thing to do for the country? And it may well be that impeachment could create far more division, and that a different accountability mechanism would be more appropriate."

Hard-hit California will carry out mass coronavirus vaccinations at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and other sites as officials look to ramp up the distribution of doses this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.
The sites also include Petco Park in San Diego, where the Padres play, and the state fairgrounds in Sacramento. Vaccinations could begin this week, Newsom said, and more mass vaccination sites are expected in the future.
“We recognize the current strategy isn’t going to get us where we need to go as quickly as we need to go,” he told reporters.
Less than 800,000 vaccinations have been administered so far, though the state is aiming to vaccinate another 1 million people by the end of this weekend, he said.
The sites are being opened as California continues to record more new coronavirus cases than any other state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Newsom said the surge appeared to be easing slightly, as the state last week saw the smallest increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations that it’s seen weeks.
Still, most intensive care units across the state remained at or close to capacity, he said.

During the first coronavirus lockdown, I appealed for the government to insist that telecommunications firms make educational resources exempt from data charges to save a generation of Nigerians from having their education permanently disrupted by COVID-19.
With a new and more contagious strain of the coronavirus apparently identified in Nigeria, and infections rising across the nation, that appeal has become even more urgent.
In the past week, Nigeria has reported a 52% increase in cases of the coronavirus.
The head of Africa’s disease control body, the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, has also confirmed that new and more contagious variant of the disease seems to have emerged in Nigeria.
When the emergence of such a highly-contagious mutant strain of Covid-19 was confirmed in the UK it was a matter of weeks until the government once again closed down schools to control the spread of the disease.
Even if widespread school closures do not become necessary in Nigeria as a result of our new variant it is highly likely that more and more Nigerians will keep their kids off school in order to keep them safe in the coming weeks.
And our nation cannot afford future generations to experience yet more disruption to their education.
A couple of weeks ago, the internationally influential British newspaper the Financial Times published an editorial calling Nigeria “a failed state”.

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. – The pharmacist suspected of intentionally spoiling 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine at a Wisconsin hospital because he believed they were unsafe was released from jail Monday, after a prosecutor indicated he's not positive the vaccine was actually destroyed.
Steven R. Brandenburg, 46, of Grafton, had concerns the vaccines could change people's DNA, an unfounded claim that has been debunked. His estranged wife said in a divorce record that in early December, he brought her a water purifier and 30-day food supply because the world was "crashing down" due to government cyberattacks and power grid shutdowns.
Last week, she said she no longer felt safe around him, and a court commissioner temporarily ordered the couple's children not stay with Brandenburg.
Brandenburg was arrested last week and had been ordered held on a probable cause statement from Grafton police that he likely committed two felonies – first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and criminal damage to property.

The announcement of the implementation of new SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) registration rules by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) mid-December 2020 is ordinarily a routine exercise by the supervising Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
It was hinged on the need to “improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process.” But coming at a time of the second wave of COVID-19 infections in Nigeria, and the anxiety consequently being generated, the public was understandably apprehensive.
The apprehension was accentuated by the tying of the new SIM registration with the possession of the NIN (National Identification Number) managed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). Unfortunately, procuring a National Identification Number has been a long, windy and nightmarish process that many Nigerians have endured and condemned in the past few years.
The ministry and all agencies concerned with this directive ought to be more mindful of its adverse effect on checking the spread of Coronavirus, aside from the direct inconvenience, even suffering, that Nigerians are bound to go through. These phenomena are already manifesting. It is imperative of the relevant government agencies to modify the arrangement of upgrading SIM cards registration to meet with the acceptable standard.
The thought of having to queue, be captured and registered by NIMC sends jitters down the spine of hapless Nigerian, because countless man-hours are wasted in a process that may not be conclusive within a reasonable period owing to logistics problems, and sometimes, corruption in the process. Immediately after the announcement, registration centres filled to the brim foreclosing the possibility of adhering to COVID-19 protocols. The process needs not to be so. In other climes, such NIN registration is seamless and painless for the citizenry.

It is no news that many economies including Nigeria are currently in recession. In reality, the year 2020 has been eventful, chiefly with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Its impact has continued to have a severe impact on businesses, households, and economies globally and one of its consequences is inflation. Even though inflation is a concept that affects all of us; but most importantly high inflation could be hostile to economy and business especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). With a persistent inflation, businesses and households usually perform poorly, and expectedly, more money is paid for the same goods and services. This has been the troubling trend in Nigeria in recent times, where high price increases have been recorded in transportation, food cost, household needs, raw materials, pharmaceutical products, health care, motor cars, vehicle spare parts, equipment, and in prices of services amongst others. Admittedly, inflation erodes our value of money and also erodes the purchasing power of all of us. Therefore, the nexus of impact of inflation is the specific focus of this piece. However, it was mainly instigated by the continuous rise in the level of inflation rate in Nigeria in recent times. The consequences and impact of inflation (price instability) in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. Key amongst the consequences of inflationary pressure is the persistent decrease in the purchasing power of citizenries especially at a time when the economy is in recession and pandemic is ravaging.
Inflation is simply seen as a persistent rise in the general price level of the broad spectrum of goods and services in a country over a long period. Largely, when prices of energy, food, commodities, goods, and services go up, it hurts all of us and hardship is heightened. A major driver of Nigeria’s headline inflation has been the consistent rise in food cost. Agreeably, the inflation rate is determined by calculating the percentage change in a price index such as consumer price index (CPI), wholesale price index (WPI), and producer price index (PPI), etc in an economy. The commonly used metric is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the change in income a consumer needs to maintain the same standard of living over time. That is, the CPI is the economic measure that tracks changes in the cost of living over time. It is simply a more acceptable means of measure of inflation or price movements in an economy.
Therefore, because CPI is available on a more frequent basis, it is mostly in use for monetary policy purposes even by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) when determining inflation rate. The Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that the headline inflation rate in Nigeria rose for a fifteen-straight month to 14.89% in November 2020 from 14.23% in October 2020 meanwhile as against 13.71% recorded in September 2020. With this metric, the 14.89% rate is the highest recorded in the country since March 2018 which is over a two-year high and is a cause for concern.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that badly needed direct Covid-19 relief payments were being paid out as early as Tuesday night as a measure to increase the payments to $2,000 from $600 is stalled in the Senate.
"@USTreasury has delivered a payment file to the @FederalReserve for Americans' Economic Impact Payments. These payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week," Mnuchin announced in a pair of tweets. "Paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow," he added.
He said that beginning later this week, people expecting to receive payments can check their statuses at its Get My Payment page.
Mnuchin said the Treasury Department and the IRS were "working with unprecedented speed" to get the checks out. "These payments are an integral part of our commitment to providing vital additional economic relief to the American people during this unprecedented time," he said in a statement.
Under the terms in the bill, individuals who made up to $75,000 in 2019 will get up to $600. Married couples who earned up to $150,000 will get up to $1,200. Filers listed as "head of household" who earned $112,500 or less will also get up to $600. Families will also get an additional $600 — up from $500 in the spring — for each dependent under 18 years old in their households.
Senate Democrats failed earlier in the day in their bid to quickly increase the payments to $2,000 — which President Donald Trump has been urging.
"$600 IS NOT ENOUGH!" Trump tweeted Tuesday.
Trump began complaining about the size of the direct payment checks after Congress signed off on them as part of a $900 billion Covid-19 relief package last week.
Mnuchin proposed the $600 checks and negotiated the stimulus package on Trump's behalf with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Trump's complaints led him to drag his heels in signing the bill, resulting in the temporary lapse of some unemployment benefits. Trump relented and signed Sunday, but he maintained his call to up the payments.
The House passed a bill Monday to sign off on higher payments, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to pass in the Senate on Tuesday using a mechanism known as unanimous consent. The bid failed when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., objected.
Democrats are pushing McConnell to put the House bill up for a standalone vote in the coming days.

He outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the weaknesses of education systems around the world and might have increased Learning Poverty rate by 10 points, from 53 per cent to 63 per cent in low and middle-income countries like Nigeria, a recent report by the World Bank has said. The report was titled “Realising the future of learning: From learning poverty to learning for everyone, everywhere.” Also, with about 43.6 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated population of over 150 million between the ages of 0-14, no fewer than 30 million Nigerians could be affected. This is inclusive of over 13 million Nigeria’s out-of-school children, the highest in the world. Learning Poverty is defined by the World Bank as the inability to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10, adding that when a child cannot read, it further impedes his/her ability to succeed in school and beyond.

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy and culture, especially in poor areas.

(CNN)The sad part about the thousands of Americans that will die in the coming weeks of the coronavirus pandemic is that they don't have to have to happen, according to one health expert.
"Every death that we're talking about this afternoon is preventable," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Thursday. "None of this has to happen.
"We have the ability to stop these deaths, getting vaccines out, keeping masks on, social distancing. We just have to get everyone to hang in there a few more weeks."
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 328,000 people in the United States have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day average of deaths is rising in 22 states when compared with the prior seven-day average.
Experts fear holiday gatherings will bring another surge of cases, followed by another surge of hospitalizations, followed by another surge of deaths.
"We can still save lives," Hotez said. "No one has to lose their lives over the next few weeks and months. It's a tough message to get across, though."

The new coronavirus strain that was first detected in the United Kingdom could already be circulating in the United States without notice, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
“Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation,” CDC said in a statement. “Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected.”
The new variant is currently being referred to as “SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01,” CDC said. It became prevalent across southeast England in November and reportedly accounts for 60% of recent infections in London, the agency said. CDC said it doesn’t know why the new strain of the virus emerged, but it could have been “by chance alone.”
“Alternatively, it may be emerging because it is better fit to spread in humans,” CDC said. “This rapid change from being a rare strain to becoming a common strain has concerned scientists in the UK, who are urgently evaluating the characteristics of the variant strain and of the illness that it causes.”

To cushion the effect of COVID-19 on small and medium businesses, especially with the second wave of the pandemic, a media and tech organisation in Lagos, Pop Central TV, has empowered businesses with free advertising grants on its station.
According to the station’s Chief Executive Officer, Yinka Obebe, COVID-19 has created challenges for SMEs, which was why Pop Central TV introduced the SME Ad Grant to support small businesses in Nigeria, with free advertising slots on its DSTV Channel 189.
“COVID–19 is not just a health crisis. The pandemic has put millions of SMEs at the risk of being forced out of business in Nigeria. SMEs and their workers have been hit hardest.
They face the crisis of trying to survive daily. While the Nigerian government and multinationals are taking steps to minimise the harsh effects of Coronavirus on businesses, much more is needed from privately owned indigenous companies, as well as supporting SMEs.”
Obebe said the SME Ad Grant aimed at giving better visibility in Nigeria and across Africa for their products and services, as they navigate through the current pandemic. “Pop Central is partnering with Faya, an Adtech company that unifies trade media advert inventory, to disburse grant to SMEs.
“About N388m worth of free advert grant would be made possible to verified SMEs that have been duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria.”

The Federal Government has revealed that Nigeria has signed up with the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi and manufacturers for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine.
According to a report from News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this disclosure was made by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Enahire, while addressing the press at State House after the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The minister said, “We have signed up with the World Health Organisation and Gavi for access to vaccines immediately they are available. But you know that these vaccines are new and are in packets and the producers are not given any indemnity.
“These countries where these vaccines are manufactured, have of course, given themselves the priority to serve themselves; serve their own citizens first and we hope that the pressure from the WHO and Gavi will be able to get reserves for other countries that are not manufacturing and they will be able to attend to what will be signed up to.
“We signed up for advanced market participation in Covax; so, if we will be able to get our own, I think it will be in January. But there are two types of vaccines; there are those that have to be in ultra-deep freezers – the MRA type of vaccines; that is the freezer that must give you Minus 80 per cent type of degree.’’
Going further, Ehanire pointed out that there is a type that has to be in the deep freezer of minus 20 degrees and another type that can be in minus two degrees refrigerators. The one in regular refrigerators would be easy as they were available in Nigeria.
He said, “The one that will be in Minus 20 refrigerators is also going to be possible because we also have the freezers here but the one that will be in ultra-cold freezers, we hardly have ultra-cold freezers in this country and to receive and store in those ultra-cold freezers will require that you purchase the ultra-cold freezers.
“So, we are working on the cost; which one shall we get first? Obviously, the one we can afford; remember that we have 200 million citizens; we need to have a way to be able to get enough to be able to take care of our citizens.
“So, that means we must be able to get the vaccines that work well, with good cost of storage and cost of delivery; that is the one we will like to get as soon as they are available. We also had bilateral discussions with manufacturers; some of them have written to us that they want to have discussions with us.’’
Ehanire said the ministry was looking at multiple sources and have had a conversation with United Arab Emirates.

Sandra Lindsay, a Black nurse at New York's Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was one of the first people in the United States to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
She did it, according to an interview with the nurse featured in a New York Times report, to "inspire people who look like me."
That's not surprising. Black nurses have long provided selfless and invaluable care in service to communities made vulnerable by infectious disease, racism and poverty. They are indispensable, and enabling their access to COVID-19 vaccines has a multiplier effect in keeping Black communities healthy.
The fact that her inoculation was nationally televised is even more beneficial.
I’ve had the privilege of serving a predominantly Black population as a family physician on the Near East Side of Columbus, Ohio for the past 19 years. I’ve seen firsthand how COVID-19 has become a stress test for the community.
I treated an emergency medical technician who developed prolonged illness after selflessly volunteering to perform screening tests for the disease. I've watched an essential worker in his 30s who was a former Division 1 college football player struggle on a ventilator and then spend four weeks in the ICU on dialysis.
Nationally, Black people are 1.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.8 times more likely to die as compared with white people.
As president of the National Medical Association — an organization of Black physicians — I see how the development of a vaccine that the majority of Black America doesn't trust (according to a September poll from Pew) has become a stress test of the nation's ability to defeat this pandemic.
Operation Warp Speed has resulted in the development of this vaccine at a rate that is unprecedented, further giving pause to a community that already has plenty of reason to be cautious about medical treatments promoted by the U.S. government. For four decades, the government experimented on Black men who were told they were getting treated for syphilis, but in fact were not. This Tuskegee Experiment was started by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1932.
In fact, initial reports of COVID-19 infection and death were lacking when it came to race and ethnicity data. And although that improved, many demographic reports remain incomplete. Being poorly counted nationally despite differences in infection, hospitalization and death led to the demand that race and ethnicity be thoroughly collected and reported. As it became more evident that Black people and communities of color were being disproportionately affected by COVID-19, people from these same communities were not prioritized for diagnostic testing.

Testing has found Covid-19 infections in the U.S. in December 2019, according to a study, providing further evidence indicating the coronavirus was spreading globally weeks before the first cases were reported in China.
The study published Monday identified 106 infections from 7,389 blood samples collected from donors in nine U.S. states between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17. The samples, collected by the American Red Cross, were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing to detect if there were antibodies against the virus.
“The findings of this report suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the paper said.
Reports of a mysterious pneumonia spreading in Wuhan, China, first emerged in late December 2019. After multiplying rapidly throughout the city in the following weeks, the disease spread across the globe, with the first U.S. case emerging on Jan. 19.

The revelations in the paper by researchers from the CDC reinforce the growing understanding that the coronavirus was silently circulating worldwide earlier than known, and could re-ignite debate over the origins of the pandemic.
It’s not the first evidence showing the virus could have existed or infected people outside China before 2020. A patient in France was found to have contracted the virus after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms at the end of December, contradicting official statistics showing Covid-19 reached the country from people returning from Wuhan at the end of January.
The CDC study indicated there were isolated infections in the western part of the U.S. in mid-December. Antibodies were also found in early January in other states before the virus was known to have been introduced to those places.
The scientists indicated it’s unlikely that the antibodies developed to curb other coronaviruses, as 84 samples were found to have neutralizing activity specific to SARS-CoV-2.
They also noted it wasn’t possible to determine the magnitude of infections on a state or national level based on the samples, or whether the cases were locally transmitted or travel-related.

More recent similar studies have shown that the new crown virus has spread to countries around the world before the outbreak in Wuhan. Scientists still need to do more research, which will help us find the process of virus evolution and spread, and help us take better measures to prevent epidemics.

As we all know and have experienced, COVID-19 has been a huge disruption generally this year and the travel industry has been hit so badly. There are several impacts of COVID-19 on Nigerian Travelers and Folasade Opaleye the CEO of Apeiron Global, a leading travel consulting agency in Nigeria will be sharing insightful detail. One major impact of COVID-19 is limited access to some countries. According to Wikipedia, as of 02 July 2019, Nigerian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 45 countries and territories, ranking the Nigerian passport 98th in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley Passport Index.
However, that number had shrunk in no time. Here are a few countries open to Nigerian Travelers: UAE, South Africa, Tanzania, Kanya, Maldives, Ghana, Tanzania, UK, US, Turkey, and a couple of others.
Another major impact is the burden of conducting the COVID-19 test multiple times. Apart from the time and stress, the financial implication is also something that has increased the average cost of travel as it’s now a mandatory requirement in most countries globally. Some of the above-mentioned countries do not require travelers to have the test result before departing Nigeria. However, should travelers be flying certain airlines, the test result is a major requirement.
Also, according to the NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control), All travelers arriving in Nigeria must have tested negative for COVID-19 by PCR in the country of departure pre-boarding. The PCR test must be within 120 hours before departure and preferably within 72 hours pre-boarding.
A repeat PCR test is also conducted 7 days after arrival. Bear in mind that these tests are not free. Here is a good example; Traveling to Dubai via Emirates, a Negative PCR Test Result which costs N 50,400 is required. Before departing Dubai back to Nigeria, another Negative PCR Test which costs about 250ED is needed to board. In the same light, before boarding, it is mandatory to schedule and pay for the third test which is to be done within 7days after arrival. This costs another N 50,400.

Nigerian Bible translators with one of the world's leading translation organizations have suspended Bible translation projects in 30 languages and are requesting help.
Bible translation has been halted in the African nation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism, and economic collapse, reports Worthy News.
In Nigeria, more than 500 languages are spoken. Mother-tongue Bible translators in the area say they have had to stop work on their current projects.
Wycliffe Associates currently facilitates 796 Bible translations worldwide.
"This year, as COVID-19 ravaged Nigeria, they have suffered in tragic new ways, says Wycliffe Associates president and CEO Bruce Smith.
Smith says the government lockdown in Nigeria due to COVID-19 has resulted in significant losses of income for residents.
"In areas of serious poverty, national Bible translators and their families found themselves facing hardship and hunger, more painful than anything they had ever known," he says.
Wycliffe Associates says terrorism has also contributed to the halt on translation work.
Jihadist Fulani herdsmen have led attacks against Christians during the pandemic. 18 people were killed in the town of Miango in a single month, and 25 were killed in the local government area of Kajuru.
In early September, two communities in southern Kaduna state were attacked. A 45-year-old pastor and two other men were killed while seven others were abducted.
Smith calls the situation a "living nightmare for so many families, as agents of evil have abducted more than 1,000 children in recent years.
"They’ve attacked Bible translators directly, too — burning workplaces and destroying equipment."
Wycliffe Association hopes to relocate their national translators to a safe location by the organization and provided with technology and equipment to resume their work on Bible translations.
"In their world of danger and deprivation, [Nigerian Christians] cling to the Scriptures,” Smith says. “There is nothing else solid, no other place of comfort, of strength, of refuge."

Blood plasma donated by COVID-19 survivors in the United States is helping develop treatments to fight the disease.
Early this year, scientists identified COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) — blood plasma from people who have already cleared the virus — as a potential treatment. CCP is often rich in antibodies that when transferred to a patient with COVID-19 may help the recipient fight the virus.
The U.S. Department of Defense began collecting the plasma in mid-April and by mid-November had surpassed its goal of collecting 8,000 to 10,000 units. The ongoing military campaign has collected 10,745 units to help fight the disease. Roughly 3,000 survivors have donated plasma in the effort.
“I congratulate you for achieving thousands of units in such a short amount of time — that is no small feat,” Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Norquist said in a November 16 statement hailing both the donors and collectors of the plasma. “It is a testament to your hard work to conduct daily collections at blood donor centers and your willingness to venture into hot spots for mobile blood drivWhile researchers are still studying the use of CCP, Norquist reports, early findings show that CCP is “safe and promising” as a potential COVID-19 treatment. Collecting and researching CCP as a treatment for COVID-19 is part of wide-ranging U.S. efforts to end the global pandemic. Through Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration is investing billions of dollars to accelerate the development, clinical trials, manufacture and distribution of vaccines.
The U.S. government has supported numerous COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including three that appear to be highly effective in clinical trials at preventing COVID-19. As many as 300 million doses of a vaccine could possibly be delivered by the end of 2020, Norquist said.