President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that Nigeria is now very close to producing local vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19.
This is just as he also disclosed that the outbreak of the pandemic last year exposed the potentials and creativity of Nigerian scientists.
Speaking at a forum organised by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering on Monday, the President who was virtually represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, while giving  an update on production of a local vaccine, noted that the African Centre of Excellence for the Genomics of Infectious Disease located at Redeemer’s University Ede, has “developed an efficacious rapid test for COVID and have been working on a vaccine in collaboration with DIOSynVax (Digital Immune Optimised Synthetic Vaccines), Cambridge UK, using the DIOSynVax genomic based technology.”
He said: “There are also efforts going on therapeutics of various kinds. The development of vaccines, tests and therapeutics these days are aided by automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, so this is a strong point of synergy between science and engineering.”
The President described  Nigerian scientists as worthy assets to be nurtured saying the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the potentials, talents and the creativity of the nation’s scientists while  commending the Nigerian engineers for the diversity of their experience and competence.
According to him, “I think the pandemic has truly opened up the immense talents and creativity of Nigerian scientists and engineers and if the current momentum is supported, the next few years could be incredibly exciting.”
He  commended  the Academy and its membership saying, “we are proud of Nigerian Academy of Engineers; your membership is made up of accomplished Nigerian engineers across all disciplines industry sectors of engineering in Nigeria and in the diaspora. This provides it with the depth and diversity of experience and competence to provide advice on virtually all areas of engineering in the country.”
Speaking on the important role of Science, Technology and Engineering in dealing with the pandemic, the President noted that the world turned to these disciplines “for immediate solutions and answers. I am sure that as engineers, you will agree with me that one of the most poignant lessons of the response to the pandemic is the critical interdependence of science and engineering.”
Citing the opportunities presented during the lockdown period, President Buhari stated the “huge potential for the creation of effective technologies for tele-work activities, including Telemedicine and Fintech.”
The President recalled his Executive Order Nos 5 which directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (“MDAs”) of government to engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design and execution of national security projects and maximise in-country capacity in all contracts and transactions with science, engineering and technology components.
Research on vaccines is a great thing, and the government should strongly support it, but the safety of vaccines must be guaranteed!

Dr. Hassan Fehmi started his podcast, Arab American Cafe, in October 2020 because he felt like Arab American perspectives were not widely represented in the podcasting industry. Initially, the English and Arabic conversations focused on politics, but soon enough they started talking about the pandemic and other health care issues affecting the community.
"My partner and I are healthcare professionals, so it only made sense that we start talking about health care," says Fehmi, a nephrologist and specialist in kidney disease based in Dearborn, Mich., home to the country's highest concentration of Arab American communities. "We were actually able to share with our audience some of the relevant information about COVID."
One of their recent episodes provided answers to listeners about COVID-19 vaccines and masking among other public health questions in Arabic.
"It's not only because we are Arab Americans and we care about our community. It's because we are doctors and we care about the community at large," he says. "You can't have a group of individuals who are at risk of having all of those problems and don't really try to spend some time and energy to understand them."

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria has directed its 36 states and federal capital territory to stop giving first doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines once they use half their current stock in order to safeguard supply for the second dose, its health minister said.
Osagie Ehanire said the directive came amid concerns over when Nigeria would get another shipment of the shots after India put a temporary hold on all major exports of the doses made by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
India, the world's second most populous country, is aiming to preserve supply to meet domestic demand. It reported a record 115,736 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, a 13-fold increase in just over two months.
"We thought that it was proper for us under the circumstances to ensure that those who were vaccinated were fully vaccinated," Ehanire said in a televised briefing on Tuesday evening.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and inoculating its 200 million citizens is seen as key to stemming the global spread of the virus.
The country has used roughly a quarter of the 3.92 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, produced by the SSI, that it received on March 2.
It had administered 964,387 first doses as of April 6, but progress varied widely by state. Twenty-one of its states and capital territory had given first doses to more than half of those targeted for shots, but it was not clear whether the figures also reflected the proportion of shots available within the state. It is spacing the doses by three months.
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control said India's decision would undermine Africa's vaccination plans, and could have a "catastrophic" impact if extended.
Nigeria hopes to receive up to 70 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this year through the African Union.

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the Presidential Task Force (PTF), on COVID-19 should transition to become the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC), with a modified mandate.
The chairman of PTF, Boss Mustapha, made this known at its weekly briefing on Tuesday.
“Following expiration of the extension on March 31, 2021 and a detailed review, the PTF submitted its report to Mr President for appropriate decisions,” Mr Mustapha said.
“The President has considered the report and has approved that the PTF will transition to a Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, effective from 1 April 2021, with a modified mandate to reflect the non-emergent status of COVID-19 as a potentially long-term pandemic,” Mr Mustapha said.
The PTF was established by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 9, 2020, to coordinate and oversee the country’s multi-sectoral inter-governmental efforts to contain the spread and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
The dissolved PTF team includes the National Coordinator, Sani Aliyu, a former head of Nigeria’s AIDS agency (NACA), who has been absent from the weekly briefings in the past few weeks; the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood; Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora; Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu; and the National Incident Manager (NIM) PTF, Mukhtar Muhammad.

THURSDAY, April 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Use of recommended clinical preventive services varies across the United States, with insurance status being the dominant factor associated with service use, according to research published in the April 2 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Suhang Song, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine the prevalence of use of 10 recommended clinical preventive services among persons aged 18 years and older.
The researchers found that for colon, cervical, and breast cancer screening, pneumococcal and tetanus vaccination, and diabetes screening, the weighted prevalence ranged from 66.0 to 79.2 percent; the prevalence of the other four services was <50 percent: 16.5, 26.6, 33.2, and 45.8 percent for human papillomavirus vaccination, zoster vaccination, influenza vaccination, and HIV testing, respectively. The widest variation was seen in the prevalence of HIV testing, with 3.1-fold differences across states. There was variation noted in the prevalence of use of clinical preventive services by insurance status, income level, and rurality. The uninsured, those with lower income, and those living in rural communities had lower use of nine of the 10 services examined. The dominant factor associated with the use of clinical preventive services was insurance status, followed by income level and rurality.
"The ongoing monitoring of trends could improve understanding of how modifiable factors affect use of clinical preventive services, especially during the pandemic, because a decrease in use of routine vaccinations was observed," the authors write.

The Executive Director of the Nigerian Heart Foundation, NHF, Dr Kingsley Akinroye has linked rapid changes in lifestyles of Nigerians on globalisation and urbanisation adding that it has decreased physical activity, increased sedentary living, unhealthy diets and increased tobacco use, with rise in Non-Communicable Diseases, NCDs.
To this end, the Foundation is partnering 18 gyms and wellness centres in six states and Abuja to mark the 2021 World Physical Activity Day (WOPAD) on April 6th, 2021.
Akinroye told Good Health Weekly that NCDs, especially cardiovascular diseases were the leading causes of morbidity and mortality as reflected in the past 18 months even with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Considering the global surge in NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart disease among others, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes expedient to reiterate the benefits of being physically active for all.
“Physical activity when adopted by everyone has the benefit of preventing, maintaining, and controlling the complexities surrounding NCDs onset, progression and complications.
“The WOPAD is a day set aside every April 6 to propagate in stronger terms, the benefits inherent in the adoption of physical activity,” he added.
Akinroye said this year’s WOPAD will feature programmes to enhance the uptake of physical activity by the general public.
There would be health screening, heart enlightenment talks, and a mini-heart health product exhibition at the gyms and wellness centres.
The Chairman, Physical Activity Committee, NHF, and Director, Exercise In Medical (EIM), Nigeria, Prof. Fatai Adeniyi said there are series of events in Osogbo on April 6 and 10 as well as sensitisation talks, health screening, and counselling in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Port-Harcourt, Abakaliki, and Osogbo.
He said adequate physical activity could serve as a potent force in the fight against COVID-19.
According to him, the role of physical activity in regulating immunity and providing optimum health for people with NCDs is crucial in the fight against the pandemic.
“The agency however believes that there is a wide gap between what people know about physical activity and what they practice.
He called on Nigerians, groups, corporate entities, traditional institutions, government, and non-governmental agencies including all policy influencers and makers to pay more attention to the issues around physical activity.
“This should be done at every level of our daily routines to narrow the gap between knowledge and actual uptake of physical activity.

WASHINGTON — At least 90 percent of adults in the U.S. will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations by April 19 as a string of states expand who can get the shots and thousands of additional pharmacies start receiving doses, President Joe Biden said Monday.
The federal government will expand the number of pharmacies receiving shipments of the vaccines from 17,000 to 40,000 by mid-April, he said. The White House estimates that as a result, 90 percent of adults in the U.S. will have vaccination sites within 5 miles of their homes.
At least 31 states have announced that they will open vaccinations to all adults in the coming days. New York said it would vaccinate anyone over age 30 starting Tuesday. Biden had previously directed states to make all adults eligible by May 1 and said the remaining 10 percent of adults would still be eligible by that date.
The Biden administration has been in a race to get the vaccines into as many arms as possible as new variants of the coronavirus spread and the number of cases steadily increases. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, warned Monday of "impending doom" if people don't heed guidelines about mask-wearing and social distancing even with the increasing availability of vaccines.
Biden echoed the warning.
"We are still in a war with this deadly virus," he said. "We're bolstering our defenses, but this war is far from won."
Biden called on governors to reinstate mask mandates and said some states should pause their reopening efforts.
The U.S. has been administering around 3 million vaccine shots a day over the past few days, said Jeffrey Zients, the White House Covid-19 coordinator. As of Monday, 73 percent of seniors had received their first doses and more than 1 in 3 adults had received their first doses.
Biden said the U.S. will open a dozen additional federally run mass vaccination centers and spend $100 million to get vaccinations to people with disabilities and those at high risk of dying from the virus.

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited on Thursday said it contributed N1.2 billion to the Federal Government’s COVID-19 effort to combat the pandemic.
The oil giant said it was also in discussion with the government on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for Nigerians.
Mr Alex Aghedo, Executive General Manager, Operations Support Services, Total E&P Nigeria, made the disclosure at a virtual news conference.
He said: “Total and 30 other upstream operators in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry, led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), donated N21 billion to the federal government’s COVID-19 effort.
“In the first phase, the donation covered three thematic areas, namely, provision of medical consumables; deployment of logistics and inpatient support services as well as medical infrastructure.
“Total’s contribution was $3.2 million (N1.2 billion). ”
According to him, the company also carried out other interventions including the donation of hospital beds, surgical ventilators, dialysis machines, and face masks to the Lagos and Rivers State Governments.
Aghedo said: “In collaboration with the Lagos Ministry of Health and our partners, we decided to build and donate a medical oxygen plant at the Gbagada General Hospital.
”We believe that this facility would be useful even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It would not only help improve the state’s capacity to care for COVID-19 patients but also further strengthen capacity to manage other conditions associated with oxygen deficiency.”
He said the facility was in the last stages of construction and would be handed over to the Lagos State Government very soon.

Ahead of world tuberculosis day, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), said it hoped that lessons from the management of coronavirus would be valuable in treating long-neglected respiratory diseases like tuberculosis,(TB).
The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Tuesday in Abuja.
NAN reports that World Tuberculosis Day, celebrated every March 24th, seeks to create awareness about the devastating health and economic impact of tuberculosis.
It also aims to accelerate efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
The theme for 2021 is “clock is ticking to end tuberculosis in Nigeria,” with the slogan, “That coughing fit be Tuberculosis, not COVID, check am oh.”
Ihekweazu said the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the detection, diagnosis and response to other infectious diseases.
“For long-neglected respiratory diseases like TB it provides a real opportunity for change,” he explained.
Ihekweazu added that COVID-19 had proven that tools and solutions could be found when there were investment and collaboration.

Although COVID-19 has caused many people to suffer from illness, data shows that tuberculosis is also one of the most infectious diseases in the world, which deserves our vigilance.

Professor Fuller says vaccination doesn’t 100 percent prevent you from getting infected. But vaccination reduces the chance of catching the virus or falling seriously ill from it. If a vaccinated person catches Covid19, the chances of transmitting it are lower, due to the reduction of viral load that can be passed on. So you’ve gotten your coronavirus vaccine; waited the two weeks for your immune system to respond to the shot and are now fully vaccinated.
Many experts think vaccines work like a shield, blocking a virus from infecting cells altogether. But in most cases, a vaccinated person is protected from the disease, not necessarily infection. However, each person’s immune system is a little different. So when a vaccine is 95 percent effective, that means 95 percent of the people who receive the vaccine won’t get sick. These people could be completely protected from infection. Or they could get infected but remain immune because their immune system eliminates the virus very quickly.
For the effects of vaccination, in a recent study, Israeli researchers tested 2,897 vaccinated people for signs of coronavirus infection. They discovered that people vaccinated had no detectable virus. But infected people had one quarter the amount of virus in their bodies as unvaccinated people. Therefore, less virus means less chance of spreading it.

Developing more effective vaccines will determine how long it will take humanity to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

Oil companies operating in Nigeria have rued the retention of only three billion dollars out of an estimated $75 billion investment in the oil and gas sector in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries in the last few years. 
The firms stated this in a virtual meeting organised by the Oil Trade Section of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) with the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Ogbonnaya Orji.
Chair of the Companies Forum, Bunmi Toyobo, said the meeting was to review the visions of Orji and areas of support needed to deliver on his mandate.
Toyobo urged NEITI to within the constraint of its mandate support the growth and investment drive in the industry. 
Orji expressed regrets over the complaints by oil companies of Nigeria’s investment losses.

MONDAY, March 15, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- More than 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have now been delivered into the arms of American adults, new government data shows.As of Monday, more than 37.4 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, 11.3% of the total U.S. population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, over 107 million, 21% of the total population, have gotten at least one dose. Just over one-third of Americans age 65 and older are fully vaccinated, the agency reported.
Since the country's vaccine rollout began on Dec. 14, there have been more doses administered in the United States than any other country in the world, according to figures collected by Johns Hopkins University. Still, several smaller nations have vaccinated a higher proportion of their populations, CBS News reported.
While some other countries have struggled to secure doses, feuding over prices and exports, the United States should have enough COVID-19 vaccine to immunize the nation's entire adult population by the summer, with enough left over for some 172 million more people, CBS News reported.
The Biden administration now predicts it will have enough doses available for every adult by May. Clinical trials in teens and children could clear the way for some shots for adolescents by the fall and younger children in early 2022, CBS News reported.
Even so, the vast majority of the U.S. population has yet to be fully vaccinated, as highly contagious variants take root across the country.
The nationwide pace of vaccinations has quickened to an average of over 2 million doses a day. State and federal officials say a coming surge in supply will alleviate the largest obstacle to expanding the campaign.
Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines require two doses, say they plan to supply a combined 600 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccines through July, enough to immunize 300 million people. The companies have so far delivered nearly a third of their orders to the U.S. government, with a total of 400 million doses from both promised by the end of May, CBS News reported.
Not only that, the Biden administration has brokered a deal that will have pharmaceutical giant Merck produce millions of doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which will rapidly boost supply. Last week, Biden announced the purchase of another 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. And millions more doses from other drugmakers may soon be added to the looming surplus of shots, as companies await results of trials from their own vaccine candidates, CBS News reported.
"The more people who get vaccinated, the faster we're going to overcome this virus and get back to our loved ones, get our economy back on track, and start to move back to normal," Biden said after announcing news of Johnson & Johnson's deal with Merck.
Nursing home residents can hug their loved ones again
After nearly a year of painful isolation, the U.S. government said last week that vaccinated nursing home residents can hug their loved ones again and enjoy more indoor visits.
The new guidance, issued by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), comes after coronavirus cases and deaths among nursing home residents have plummeted in recent weeks as the country's vaccination rollout accelerated.
"Now that millions of vaccines have been administered to nursing home residents and staff, and the number of COVID cases in nursing homes has dropped significantly, CMS is updating its visitation guidance to bring more families together safely," Dr. Lee Fleisher, chief medical officer at the CMS, said in a statement.
Nursing homes have borne the brunt of the pandemic's pain, representing about 1% of the U.S. population but accounting for 1 in 3 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
But coronavirus hasn't been the only thing this vulnerable population has suffered through: Loneliness and isolation have contributed to physical and mental declines, officials say.
"There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one," the CMS stated in its new guidance, "Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact [including touch] with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand hygiene before and after."
The CMS also said that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy, and outdoor visits are preferable e
"All of us feel enormous relief that we are at this next juncture and feel confident that reopening visitation can be achieved safely, given all we have learned during the pandemic," Terry Fulmer, president of the John A. Hartford Foundation, which works to improve care for older adults, told the Associated Press. "A great deal more has been learned about infection control, and families and facilities are ready."
Under the new guidance, homes in counties with high rates of COVID-19 can still have indoor visits, provided they take precautions. When an outbreak occurs at a facility, it doesn't have to go on lockdown for 14 days. Visits can still happen as long as the outbreak is isolated to an area or unit of the facility. Compassionate care visits should be allowed at all times, the guidance said, even if there's an outbreak or a resident is unvaccinated.
"This is the right thing to do," said Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit facilities, told the AP. "Federal policy now reflects the real progress that has been made in vaccinating nursing home residents and staff."

Covid vaccinations in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda have started their national Covid-19 vaccination plans with serums acquired through the Covax initiative.
This term refers to a tool developed by public and private actors, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), to ensure access to vaccines against the new coronavirus even in less wealthy countries.
Covid vaccinations in Africa: starting in Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda
Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country with nearly 200 million inhabitants, has received 3.9 million doses of the vaccine developed by the Anglo-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca with Oxford University.
The first dose of the drug was injected into a doctor who has been at the forefront of treatment for the virus in a hospital in the capital Abuja for months.
Tomorrow, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will receive the serum.
On Saturday, it will be the turn of the governors of the states of the Federation.
The National newspaper reports that priority will be given to health workers, the elderly, and vulnerable people.
In Kenya, the first person to be vaccinated was Health Minister Patrick Amoth.
Nairobi has received just over a million doses of AstraZeneca’s product through Covax in recent days and intends to immunize first healthcare workers, then police officers, teachers, and people with co-morbidities.
President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda, which in recent weeks had denounced the ‘vaccine nationalism’ shown by high-income countries, received 240,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through Covax, followed by 102,000 doses of the drug developed by the US company Pfizer and Germany’s Biontech.
The first dose was inoculated to Health Minister Daniel Ngamije.
Elderly people, health personnel, and people with health problems will follow in the next few days, reports The New Times.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced plans Wednesday to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, giving the U.S. more than enough supply to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.
Biden said this month that the U.S. was on track to have enough vaccine doses for every adult in the country to get vaccinated by the end of May after the Food and Drug Administration gave clearance for use of the J&J vaccine. White House senior adviser on Covid response Andy Slavitt said it was too early to say when the additional doses would become available.

Women all over the world, particularly in West Africa, have been applauded for enduring the unprecedented health and economic crises necessitated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In commemoration of the International Women’s Day Celebration (IWD) in Abuja, yesterday, the President, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Jean-Claude Brou, stated that despite the condition across the globe, women were daring just like the men.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have developed an action plan for a gender approach to the pandemic in several strategic focus areas, including a recovery plan for women entrepreneurs.
“We will always need to celebrate them as a show of solidarity and commitment to ensure that they exercise equal rights as men to contribute to the institution’s work for development,” Brou said.
Typically, the March 8 celebration is an opportunity to highlight the economic, as well as social and political, achievements of women; it is an opportunity to take stock of the progress made, he explained.
Regarding women in leadership, he said that inadequate resources and the feminisation of poverty hampered their involvement in the leadership of political parties or in the society.
Brou added: “Women are still facing these challenges in relation to the recognition and protection of their rights, and the struggles of preceding years for equality, social, economic and political rights.”
“With the outbreak of COVID-19 health crisis, active women in the informal sector were hard-hit by the halt in certain economic activities, disrupting the processing and distribution of agricultural products.”
He, therefore, urged them to reflect on the security and health challenges in the region, with respect to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and COVID-19, food insecurity and extremism, as well as harmful social and cultural norms.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has described the COVID-19 vaccine as a "game changer".
At a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the minister said Nigeria has been lucky so far, warning that "we must not stretch our luck. We must continue with our non-pharmaceutical measures.
"We must look at vaccine as a game changer, but make no mistake that it's a replacement for everything else. It is an additional strategy. Vaccines are an addition to the existing response, not a replacement," he said.
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, also spoke on the plan to roll out the vaccines.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior officials of the administration would publicly take vaccines to increase public confidence and overcome vaccine hesitancy.
Dr Shuaib said study revealed that only about 50% of Nigerians say they would definitely take the vaccines, thus making it necessary to demonstrate that it is safe and effective.
He said after the launch of the rollout of the vaccines on Friday at the National Hospital, Abuja, priority would be given to frontline workers in the health sector.
He added that the second group would be the elderly and the vulnerable before people who have no propensity to get the infection would be considered.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control( NCDC), Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu, also warned that as much as vaccines provide some very important light "the response of testing, surveillance, protecting health workers, investing in national health security, driving risk communications, etc. has to continue."
The Director General of National Agency for Food Drugs and Administration Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, also cautioned that Falsified COVID-19 vaccines are already in the global market.
She said: "That's why NAFDAC is focusing on track-and-trace, to ensure no infiltration of substandard vaccines in supply chain. Traceability is very important; we can trace the vaccines from airport to the patient."
She however said that no arrest had been made.

The executive order signed by President Muhammadu Buhari has left civil servants in the country with no choice than to observe COVID-19 protocol fervently.
Buhari had in January signed the COVID-19 Health Protection Regulations 2021 policy based on his powers in Section 4 of the Quarantine Act, Cap Q2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010.
The signing of the executive order is in consideration of the urgent need to protect the health and wellbeing of Nigerians in the face of the widespread and rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.
Compulsory wearing of face masks was imposed, with large gatherings restricted.
Under the Act, offenders are to face conviction, fine or a term of six months imprisonment or both in accordance with Section 5 of the Quarantine Act.
In many states of the country, it was observed that while the COVID-19 protocols are not observed in some of public places, there is strict compliance in government offices.
In Abuja, while there is low compliance in most of the markets, government establishments are enforcing the COVID-19 protocol.
At the National Hospital Abuja, the level of compliance was high as both visitors and staff were seen on face masks and hand sanitizers at the point of entrance and inside the hospital.
A relative of a patient who is on admission in the hospital said she was not allowed into the hospital until she had to go and get a face mask.
Director of Pharmacy in the hospital, Pharm Kilani Jelili, confirmed to our correspondent that without a face mask, there is no entry.
On the level of compliance, he said it is 100 per cent.
In the Asokoro District Hospital, same measure is applied at the entrance but the compliance level is not optimal as many people were seen removing their face mask inside the hospital, showing that many of them only wear the mask while entering since they will not be allowed in without a face mask.
A doctor in the hospital told our correspondent that there is compliance but it is not 100 per cent.
Also in Niger state, the government made it compulsory for all civil servants to wear face masks before they are allowed to enter the state secretariat.
LEADERSHIP observed at the state secretariat yesterday that in line with the order, most of the civil servants and the visitors were wearing masks.
In most of the government establishments such as the state secretariat that houses most of the ministries in Kaduna, no visitor is allowed into the secretariat unless he or she has their temperature checked and hands sanitized.
Although there used to be mobile courts that handle cases of noncompliance with the guidelines, they are no longer seen on the roads.
Jide Bodunde who said wearing of face mask is for the good of all, lamented that many do not wear face masks, and that in most cases when they wear, they wore them wrongly or only on the jaw.
Also, Hajiya Salamatu Tijanni said even most government people don't obey the guidelines when they carry out most of their political functions.
In Jalingo, the capital of Taraba, it was observed that normal day-to-day activities are going on, even though Police and traffic officers threaten to arrest drivers and Keke operators for not wearing masks.

The governors of Texas and Mississippi both announced on Tuesday they would be lifting their states' mask mandates and rolling back many of their Covid-19 health mandates, just one day after the CDC warned against complacency in the face of emerging coronavirus variants.
"It is now time to open Texas 100 percent," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday afternoon at Montelongo's Mexican Restaurant in Lubbock.
"Covid has not suddenly disappeared," he said, "but state mandates are no longer needed."
Shortly after Abbott's announcement, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that he would end Mississippi's statewide mask mandate, effective Wednesday of this week.
"Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed," Reeves tweeted. "It is time!"
On Monday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky strongly cautioned against the very rollbacks that Abbott and Reeves were about to implement.
"I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19," Walensky said at the daily White House Covid-19 briefing.
"Please hear me clearly," Walensky said. "At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard earned ground we have gained."
President Joe Biden echoed those concerns Tuesday, even as he announced the U.S. will have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for every adult by the end of May.
"This fight is far from over," Biden said. "Though we celebrate the news ... I urge all Americans, please keep washing your hands, stay socially distanced, wear masks."
Abbott said his new executive order would rescind "most" of his prior Covid-19 executive orders, and that all businesses would be allowed to open "100 percent," effective March 10.
The end of the mask mandate makes Texas, population 29 million, the largest state to end a rule aimed to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a speech championing Texas’ economic prowess, Abbott said that “too many Texans were sidelined from employment opportunities” while businesses operated at reduced capacity because of coronavirus restrictions.
Abbott said the Lone Star State is today in a "completely different position” than it was when Abbott first issued a coronavirus executive order in March 2020.
“We now have vaccines,” Abbott said, adding that Texas set a one-day record of vaccine administration on Tuesday and is now averaging 1 million vaccine dose administrations per week.
Abbott also claimed that the millions of Texans who caught and recovered from Covid mean that millions “have the proven ability to beat this disease."
“Covid still exists,” Abbott said, "but it is clear from the recoveries, from the vaccinations, from the reduced hospitalizations, and from the safe practices that Texans are using, that state mandates are no longer needed.”
In subsequent tweets, Reeves said that Mississippi was "rewarded" for keeping its businesses mostly open "with more jobs and economic recovery."
"Executive orders that interfered with peoples’ lives were the worst, but the only possible, intervention for much of the last year," Reeves said. "Now, we are putting our focus towards rapid vaccine distribution. We are getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do."


The mutation is still spreading, and we will completely lose the hard-won foundation we have gained.

A recent survey has revealed that only 24% of Nigerians have trust in the government which is one of the lowest rates in the world. The report also stated that Nigerians have more fear of job losses than Covid-19.
The was revealed in the 21st Edelman Trust Barometer Survey Report on Nigeria unveiled virtually by Edelman and its Exclusive Nigerian Affiliate, Chain Reactions Nigeria, in Lagos on Tuesday, 23 February 2021.
Presenting the 2021 Nigeria findings with the theme: ‘Pandemic’s Ongoing Impact on Trust’, CEO of Edelman Africa, Jordan Rittenberry, noted that Nigerians are looking to civil society organisations and businesses to assist the government in uplifting communities and driving positive change.
The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Report revealed that “out of the four institutions of government, business, media and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Nigerians trust civil society organisations the most, with businesses coming second.” 

A large part of unemployment is caused of Covid-19. Covid-19 has caused an economic downturn and many people have lost their jobs. What we have to do is to fight Covid-19 together.

The Nigerian government has confirmed that the expected four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive the country on Tuesday morning.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made this known in a video message sent to PREMIUM TIMES late Saturday night.

“I can assure you that the vaccines are coming and they are coming very quickly barring any change in the delivery plan that has been released to us by UNICEF,” Mr Mustapha said.

“We believe that our vaccines should depart India on the 1st of March, 2021 at 10:30pm and arrive Abuja on 2nd of March by 11:10 am.”

Nigeria is expecting 16 million doses of the Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX), a World Health Organisation-backed programme set-up to divide about two billion doses of vaccines across 92 low-and middle-income countries.

The facility promised access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population with an initial supply beginning in the first quarter of the year to immunise three per cent of their populations.

The Nigerian government had earlier announced that the first four million doses of the vaccines will arrive the country by the end of February.

Nigeria’s health minister, Osagie Ehanire, on Wednesday admitted that the country may have to wait till March to receive its first doses of the vaccines.

Ghana received 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines on Wednesday, making it the first country to benefit from the COVAX programme.

Oil prices were steady on Tuesday, trading close to more than year-long highs on signs that global coronavirus restrictions were being eased although concerns about the pace of a U.S. economic recovery kept gains in check.
Brent crude was up 18 cents, or 0.28%, at $65.42 a barrel, still close to its highest levels since January 2020. U.S. crude settled 3 cents lower at $61.67 per barrel.
Both contracts rose more than $1 earlier before retreating.
“Vaccine news is helping oil, as the likely removal of mobility restrictions over the coming months on the back of vaccine rollouts should further boost the oil demand and price recovery,” UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.
But, tempering the upbeat mood, the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said the U.S. economic recovery remained “uneven and far from complete” and it would be “some time” before the central bank considered changing policies it had adopted to help the country back to full employment.
Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said the recent oil price rise was buoyed by upbeat price forecasts from U.S. brokers.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent prices to reach $70 per barrel in the second quarter from the $60 it predicted previously, and $75 in the third quarter from $65 forecast earlier.
Morgan Stanley, which expects Brent to reach $70 in the third quarter, said new COVID-19 cases were falling while “mobility statistics are bottoming out and are starting to improve”.
Bank of America said Brent prices could temporarily spike to $70 per barrel in the second quarter.
In the United States, traffic at the Houston ship channel was slowly returning to normal after last week’s winter storm, although production was not expected to fully restart soon.
Some U.S. shale producers forecast lower oil output in the first quarter.
Stockpiles of U.S. crude oil and refined products likely declined last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday, due to the disruption in Texas.

Jimmy Chion's homemade website offers a simple solution to the problem of wasted Covid-19 vaccinations: a one-stop destination to pair people anywhere in the U.S. with excess or near-spoiled doses near them.
It's an alluring proposition. For many Americans, finding a vaccination appointment means navigating a maze of government websites and phone lines in hopes of snagging a spot only to be routinely told to check back later. Efforts to make appointments for older relatives have left even tech-savvy people frustrated.
Chion, 33, a resident of Atlanta, and Ian Macartney, 33, of Watertown, Massachusetts, friends from their time at Stanford University, got together and created vaxstandby.com. Launched Feb. 1, it's a slick, user-friendly website. People can sign up to receive notifications if doses become available near them.
"We came up with this idea because we saw basically a ton of news articles, as I'm sure you've read, of freezers breaking, of people waiting in line outside grocery stores," Chion said. "A bunch of groups have sprung up, like Facebook groups, in terms of basically crowdsource-finding these leftovers."
Chion is one of a growing group of technologists who have taken matters into their own hands.
In California, VaccinateCA.com was started by volunteers and now offers countylevel details about vaccination availability, with data compiled and updated on a daily basis. 
In New York, an Airbnb software engineer created a website to compile vaccination availability from the state's city and state systems. 
In Massachusetts, a software developer on maternity leave created a website that pulls together vaccination appointments from state and private portals.
Chion even faces some competition from a website, hidrb.com, which is also trying to pair people with excess doses.
Those websites come as the challenge of signing up for vaccination appointments has emerged as one of the biggest problems for national distribution. In most states, people have to check multiple websites, many of which offer little information. And with older Americans waiting at the front of the line, some people have formed volunteer efforts to help them navigate the systems.
The problem could get worse. Many states are preparing to open registrations to larger populations, and national pharmacy chains are preparing to begin administering vaccinations.
Chion's operation is still in its early stages. He said they are taking a "top-down" approach, talking to some of the national pharmacy chains and other companies involved in vaccine distribution to see if they would want to use his approach. They're also considering other ways of working with smaller distributors who can prove they have doses to distribute, but noted that he does not want the website to become a roadblock.
The upside for Chion's website is simple: centralization.
"I think there's like a benefit to being centralized if everyone can sign up on this one basically national list," he said. "As long as we know your rough location, we can tell you when there's a leftover vaccine, and then notify you based on that."
It's the kind of simplicity that has been missing in U.S. vaccine distribution — and something other technologists are trying to create.
Government websites are not known for their usability or functionality. The fiasco around the early days of HealthCare.gov, the website meant to help people apply to and enroll in private insurance through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, remains one of the more high-profile failures of what was supposed to be a modern government web portal.
Many states have rolled out their own vaccination portals to varying levels of success, with the volunteer efforts at times making them look archaic and inefficient. But the gap between shiny and streamlined websites built by individuals and small groups and those made by state governments can be misleading.
"The constraints on people outside government to build things are very different than the constraints on people inside government," said Daniel Schuman, policy director at Demand Progress, a liberal nonprofit that advocates for government transparency.
Schuman has worked on his own versions of websites meant to try to prod the government to do better. In 2016, he created a website to make every Congressional Research Service report available online.
And while he said governments can and should do better, they face a wide variety of challenges, including expectations and regulations that private citizens don't.
"Government has to make services available for everyone, and they have to be able to maintain it, and they have to deal with many restrictions based on privacy and information security and access and connecting to legacy systems," he said. "These are all things people on the outside don't have to deal with in the same way."
Chion, a creative technologist for The New York Times (his website is not affiliated with the newspaper), has built public service websites before, most notably websites to help Californians understand state ballot propositions.
He is clear-eyed about the broader challenges of vaccine distribution. He said the prospect of building a system to track shipments and make appointments based on those shipments is a far more complex effort that the one he has created.
But, he said, there is an upside to people offering solutions that states either won't or can't develop.
"I think it helps to push government to do and think about things differently," he said. "Again, not necessarily better or worse, but helps them see  maybe what could be done or how some people want it to be done."
Schuman offered a similar assessment. He mentioned a variety of examples of people making websites that spurred similar and sometimes near-identical government efforts, including redesigns to the websites of the Federal Communications Commission and the Supreme Court.
He also stressed that the current situation was due in large part to the Trump administration's insistence on a decentralized approach that resulted in little national coordination. But there's still time for government to learn from some of the efforts that the people have made.
"You can do it but you have to have the mandate to do it," he said. "You have to have the money to do it and you have to have the mandate to do it."
"That doesn’t mean it’s too late to do these things."
The appearance of this website may be a good thing, but I want to say that it also reflects the chaos of the American medical system. I hope that our country can eliminate these phenomena in the process of vaccination.

The rate of fraud in Nigeria increased exponentially in the last year. A total of over N5.2 billion was reportedly lost to fraud during the first 9 months of 2020. This is according to the recently released Fraud in the Nigerian Financial Service report by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS).
The NIBSS explained that the increase in fraud is a side effect of the increase in transaction speed and available channels.
This, however, is not peculiar to Nigeria as financial institutions in the United Kingdom saw a 300% increase in financial fraud following the implementation of a faster payment network.
Similarly, the growth of Zelle in the U.S also led to a 90% fraud rate in some financial institutions.
Fraud rate grew 186% in 2020
The industry fraud data for 2020 (Jan – Sept) shows a significant hike in mobile fraud and a still higher rate of web fraud in the country.
However, that isn’t the worst part as data from NIBSS show that the fraud attempt almost tripled year on year. The total attempt recorded as of Q3 2020 was 46,126, a 186% increase from the 2019 numbers.
Fraud attempts via mobile channels saw the highest spike, increasing 330% YoY. Other channels like web (173% YoY) and POS (215% YoY) also saw a significant increase in attempts.
Explaining the huge increase, the NIBSS explained that Nigerians becoming increasingly dependent on electronic channels, especially mobile devices, has enticed fraudster into focusing their efforts on electronic channels.
It added that it expects the trend to continue as Nigeria’s financial inclusion grows deeper.
Rate of Fraud dropped post-COVID
One of the reported causes of the spike in fraud, the increase in electronic channels, is one of the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic presented a challenge that forced people, businesses and even the government to adapt to a new normal. This created a need for contactless payment and remote interactions which promoted electronic payments.
The reports show that the rate of fraud increased pre-COVID with fraudsters increasing efforts in the area of social engineering.
However, the number dropped after the COVID-19 lockdown in April. This, according to the report, gave financial institutions time to counter the new tactics employed by fraudsters.
Mitigating fraud
Social engineering remains the favourite tool for fraudsters in Nigeria. Data from the industry shows that 56% of all reported fraud attempts were carried out using social engineering.
Other major fraud techniques employed to steal from Nigerians include lack of two-factor authentication (19%), Phone theft (6%) and fake assistance (5%).
Advising financial institutions on ways to mitigate fraud, the NIBSS says the ability to anticipate the actions of fraudsters is key. It added that they need to keep innovating as fraudsters also evolve.
It also added that they need to keep customers informed and be perceptive enough to identify and reject fraudulent offers.
In summary
The growing numbers show the looming threat of fraud in the Nigerian financial system. Financial institutions need to be poised to promptly detect and block any fraudulent activity.
A 91% success rate of fraud recorded in 2020 is very bad and shows that more needs to be done urgently to ensure that customers are safe.

Surprise, surprise: Americans are losing faith in democracy, according to a new Associated Press-NORC poll.
After a year of complete political dysfunction—capped by a defeated president inciting rioters at the U.S. Capitol—the poll predictably found that Americans are increasingly depressed about the functioning of American democracy. At the same time, Americans appear much more optimistic about the direction the country is headed in now than they were last year.
The poll, conducted between Jan. 28 and Feb. 1, found almost half of Americans, 45 percent, say that American democracy isn’t functioning well and 38 percent say it’s only functioning somewhat well, while just 16 percent of respondents said it was working well or extremely well.
Democrats are more likely to say democracy is working well, but it’s still fairly bleak. Fewer than a quarter of Republicans said democracy is working somewhat well and just one-in-10 said it’s working “extremely well,” while nearly half of Democrats say it’s working “somewhat well” and another 26 percent said it’s working “extremely well.”
The partisan split is predictable considering the nightmare we just collectively experienced. President Joe Biden won the popular vote by millions and received the same number of electoral votes that former President Donald Trump won in 2016, but Trump refused to concede for months and convincing his base that the election was “stolen” from him by local and state elections officials, by people voting illegally, voting machine companies, and foreign governments. When these claims didn’t hold weight in court, Trump then encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” against Congressional certification of Biden’s win on Jan. 6 in D.C.
That day, pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of electoral college votes. Five people died that day and two Capitol police officers taken their own lives in the weeks since, and nearly 200 people have been charged in connection with the riots, according to a database compiled by USA Today. Trump has since been impeached by the House of Representatives for a second time; his Senate impeachment trial begins this week.
The AP findings aren’t isolated.
In the immediate aftermath of the riot, 71 percent of people said they thought American democracy was threatened, as opposed to just 29 percent who thought it was secure, a CBS News survey found. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2020 Democracy Index released last week rated the U.S. as a “flawed” democracy again, as it has each year since 2016.
Americans have no shortage of reasons to be disheartened about democracy right now. For a country that likes to think of itself as “exceptional,” America’s response to COVID-19 has been worse than abysmal. More than 27 million Americans have contracted the disease and 463,000 people have died as a result, by far the highest numbers in the world, with a vaccine rollout that’s severely lagging behind expectations. So far 42 million shots have been given in the U.S., fewer than half of the 100 million Trump promised by the end of 2020, and early data indicates the racial disparity in COVID-19 cases has now translated into who’s getting the vaccine.

The COVID-19 candidate vaccine developed by Nigerian researchers has been listed on World Health Organisation draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.
The team lead of the vaccine candidate research, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, who is also a lecturer at the Adeleke University, Ede, on Monday, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent.
Kolawole said the research was  carried out at the Helix Biogen Consult, Ogbomoso, Oyo state.
The WHO draft landscape is the list of all COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the world, showing different stages and it is usually found on WHO’s site.
The project coordinators are the vice-chancellor, Precious Cornerstone University, Ibadan, Prof Julius Oloke, Dean, Faculty of Science, Adeleke University, Ede, Prof. Olubukola Oyawoye and Prof  Mattew Kolawole of Department of Microbiology, University of Ilorin.
Kolawole said there were 235 candidate vaccines on the list and two were from Africa; Nigeria and Egypt.
“We have 235 candidates vaccine on the list and we have two from Africa on the list, Nigeria (our vaccine candidate) and Egypt. We are so happy to be on the list because currently we have 63 at the clinical development stage while 172 at the pre-clinical development stage, ours is part of the 172 candidates.”
He explained that the candidate vaccine would boost the economy of Nigeria if given the needed support, adding that it was important that the government find local solutions to the country’s challenges instead of depending on western countries.
“If maximum support is given, this candidate vaccine will boost the economy of the country because we have the technology which can be adapted to other infectious diseases thereby boosting our economy because we will be selling to other countries. Government and private bodies in Nigeria have to invest more in research and development to find local solutions to our challenges, not depending too much on the western world.
Speaking on the process of being listed on WHO website, he said, “A mail was sent to me from Geneva in which they requested for scientific information as regards the scientific methodology we have used to develop the candidate vaccine after getting to know about our efforts. We keep pushing till we achieve our aim to get to the clinical trial stage.”
He hinted that the animal trial is ongoing at the Helix Biogen Consult.
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Nigeria's inflation is at its highest in three years, meaning that time is running out for low treasury bill yields, which have pushed money into the stock market.
The yield on the 91-day T-bill dropped below zero in November before a slight recovery into positive territory.
The Nigerian economy is being weakened by low oil prices and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inflation at 15.75% in December has “gone beyond the tolerance level” for the central bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC), says Moses Ojo, chief economist at PanAfrican Capital Holdings in Lagos.
“Once the economy exits recession even narrowly, the MPC’s focus will shift to price stability.”
Higher interest rates will push T-bill yields up, starting at the end of the first quarter, he says.
Yields will increase by about 500 to 600 basis points by the end of 2021, predicts Ojo.
Banks and the currency – the naira – will benefit but not the wider stock market.
Banks will earn higher yields on T-bills, but the wider equity market will suffer because there will be funds switching from stocks to fixed income, says Ojo.
Higher yields tend to encourage foreign investment in T-bills, and “this will ease the pressure on the naira at least in the short term,” he adds.
Consumer price inflation in December was the highest level since late 2017. Food prices rose even faster, at 19.6%.Upside inflation risks will persist into 2021, according to a note from Jacques Nel, head of Africa macro at NKC African Economics in Cape Town.
Naira weakness is likely to contribute to this by pushing up costs for foodstuffs and durable consumer goods, writes Nel.
The central bank’s persistent failure to meet its inflation goal has increased pressure on it to meet its latest – less ambitious – target of 11.95% by the end of 2021, he argues.

Any international arrival landing in the U.S. must have evidence of a negative Covid-19 test, taken no more than 72 hours before departure, including U.S. residents.
In addition, there are reports that President Biden is deciding whether to bring in the same mandatory tests for domestic flights; a move that has met with numerous objections from people in the travel industry.
At the moment, domestic air passengers have to acknowledge, via an online questionnaire, that they aren’t showing or feeling any symptoms of Covid-19, but no tests are necessary. As reported by USA Today, additional checks take place at some airports and with some carriers; Frontier take temperature checks of boarding passengers and Los Angeles airport screens passengers.
However, with infection rates of Covid-19 at seriously high levels and new variants of the virus increasing transmission through communities, the Biden administration is considering any and all measures to slow the speed and spread of the virus. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine told reporters that “we are actively looking at it.”
It is unclear who would police a domestic Covid-19 testing requirement (airlines are responsible for checking the requirement for international travelers) although Hawaii offers some indication of how it could work. Since October 2020, arrivals from mainland U.S. have needed a negative Covid-19 test in order to bypass quarantine.
The travel industry was quick to respond, as reported by CNBC. The U.S. Travel Association, which represents Airbnb, large hotel chains and airports called the plan “unworkable” because testing varies so dramatically across the country and many industry professionals fear that it would further preclude people from traveling. CEO Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines said, “why pick on air travel?” and not demand a negative test before people visit the grocery store, the restaurant or a sports event.
However, airline analyst, Savanthi Syth believes that on the plus side, whilst demand for domestic travel might decrease in the short term, a requirement for testing on domestic flights might convince more Americans to get vaccinated in the longer term.
Biden has been saying that he is considering all measures to slow down the speed and spread of the virus, and hopefully he is not just paying lip service to it, after all covid-19 has killed a large number of Americans.

The coronavirus pandemic for months has upended the daily work of Congress, which has seen a series of outbreaks.
Most recently, the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at the Capitol forced members to cluster together in rooms for several hours. Some House Republicans were seen not wearing masks during the ordeal, and refusing to do so.
And at least one holding room for House members included a lawmaker who was already positive, the Capitol attending physician told Congress.
"During this time, individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection," said Dr. Brian Monahan, who urged members to seek testing.
Several members quarantined as a result of the concerns and at least one tested positive, including New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.
This, as a wave of lawmakers have received the first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is now available to all members of Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer were among the first to take part in the vaccinations.
The doses were provided to meet long-standing requirements for continuity of government operations, Monahan told members in a Dec. 17 note.
Still, by January, more than 50 lawmakers and 220 workers have tested positive, or were presumed so, for the illness.
A congressman-elect from Louisiana, Luke Letlow, died on Dec. 29 from the illness, days before he was due to be sworn in with a new Congress on Jan. 3. And this past summer, a Florida member's aide died from COVID-19.
Ahead of the vaccinations, both chambers of Congress recessed multiple times throughout the year as the Capitol went largely without a widespread testing program.
The Democrat-controlled House installed emergency proxy voting and remote hearings in May. And in November, Pelosi triggered a broader COVID-19 testing program for Congress following new requirement for travelers to the Washington, D.C., area.
But efforts to test as many as 2,000 a week still falls short for a Capitol complex that includes more than 530 lawmakers and a workforce of 20,000 or more.
In December, at least nine House members, including six Republicans, tested positive for the illness. A month earlier, at least 13 House members were also positive, including the oldest member, Alaska Republican Don Young.
A previous outbreak in September was tied to a White House Rose Garden ceremony to announce Amy Coney Barrett as President Trump's Supreme Court justice nominee. Trump, first lady Melania Trump and dozens of others in attendance tested positive, including Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
It was one of several instances forcing leaders to change the schedule.
Starting in March, House and Senate leaders delayed bringing back members for several weeks in light of public health guidelines recommending social distancing.
The Senate returned in May, but the much larger House still stayed mostly away under the advice of Dr. Monahan. That same month, the House approved historic rule changes to allow remote voting and hearings.
The initial rash of cases began March 8, when two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, were the first members of Congress to announce self-quarantines. Both attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., where another guest fell ill.
The following week, the first two members of Congress said they tested positive for the coronavirus illness. Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams of Utah both said they developed symptoms after a March 14 vote on a coronavirus relief package.
By this summer, dozens of Capitol workers reported a positive test or were presumed so, and Gary Tibbetts, a longtime staffer for Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, died from COVID-19 on July 24.
Some lawmakers have taken antibody tests to see if they were previously ill. Among them, Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania both said they tested positive months after experiencing symptoms in the spring.
To stem the flow of new cases, both chambers early on issued new social distancing guidance. Also, the U.S. Capitol closed to public tours and open only to members, staff, press and official business visitors, and aside from the Jan. breach by pro-Trump extremists, has remained so.
In late July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also issued a new mask mandate after Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert, who often rejected mask protocols, tested positive. Gohmert had attended several hearings a day earlier and returned to the Capitol following a White House screening that caught his infection.
Gohmert's case triggered quarantines for five House members, including Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva. Days later, Grijalva tested positive, but fully recovered symptom free. Now, members can be forcibly removed by Capitol Police if they are not wearing masks.

The number of deaths resulting from COVID-19 complication rose from 1173 on November 29, 2020 to 1578 on January 31, 2021, official statistics analysed by THISDAY have revealed.
In cumulative, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) statistics, the death cases between November 29 and January 31, represents about 34.5% increase within a period of two months.
Since Nigeria recorded first COVID-19 death on March 23, 2020, as shown in the NCDC statistics, the death cases rose to 1,173 in November 29, 2020; 1,180 in December 6, 2020; 1,197 in December 13, 2020; 1,221 in December 20, 2020 and 1,254 in December 27, 2020.
Unlike the previous year, NCDC's statistics revealed that the pandemic had killed 1,311 as at January 3; rising to 1,358 in January 10, 1,435 in January 17; 1504 in January 24 and 1577 in January 31.
Between December 27 and January 31 alone, the statistics revealed an unprecedented increase in death cases and accounted for 25.84% COVID-19 fatalities, perhaps the highest death record since March 2020.
The death cases increased by 0.59% between November 29, 2020 and December 6, 2020; 1.19% between December 6, 2020 and December 13, 2020; 2% between December 13, 2020 and December 20, 2020 and 2.7% between December 20 and December 27, 2020.
From December 27, 2020, the death cases rose by 4.54% in January 3; 3.58% in January 10; 5.96% in January 17; 4.8% in January 24 and 4.94% in January 31.
Given these statistics, the NCDC yesterday said that it had started working extremely hard to prevent rising casualties resulting from covid-19 pandemic.
The Director General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu gave the assurance in view of Friday's highest single day death toll from the infection.
According to him, the situation is a very tragic one which demands serious commitment by every Nigerian to stop a reoccurrence.
Speaking with THISDAY yesterday, Ihekweazu said NCDC would continue working with states to quickly identify and prevent further spread of the disease.
He described the 27 deaths recorded on Friday "as a stark reminder of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last six weeks, our surveillance system has continued to record a consistent increase in cases, including severe cases.
"Every death recorded is a tragic occurrence and our health workers are working extremely hard to prevent these. Everything we think and do in terms of the response, is focused on trying to save lives.
This reminds each of us to pay attention to the impact of COVID-19. At present, the number of deaths in our country continues to rise, and the government should adjust COVID-19 preventive measures. Up to now, the United States is the country with the largest number of deaths, with the number approaching 440,000. The US government should take coercive measures to deal with COVID-19 and stop making the situation worse.

President, Muhammadu Buhari don sign di Coronavirus Disease Health Protection 2021 law wey go make di use of face masks for public place mandatory.
Di Nigerian leader sign di document in line wit section Section 4 of the Quarantine Act, Cap. Q2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010, according to Head of Nigeria Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha.
Part one of dis new corona law focus on public gathering and di use of face mask plus social distancing.
Dis na wetin dey part one of di document.
For all gathering social distancing of 2 meters between pipo gatz dey
Gathering no go pass 50 pipo for enclosed space except for religious places and dem no suppose cari pass fifty percent of dia capacity
Wetin we call dis foto,
Di document in line wit section Section 4 of the Quarantine Act, Cap. Q2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010.
Part 2 of di law to control Covid 19 in Nigeria tok say no pesin go dey allowed within di premises of a market, mall, supermarket, shop, restaurants, hotels, event centres, gardens, leisure parks, recreation centres, motor parks, fitness centre or any other similar establishment except he wear face covering wey cover mouth and and nose.
Everyone gatz wash dia hands and clean dia hands wit sanitiser wey National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control approve.
Dem gatz check everybody temperature and if dem find anybody wit temperature wey pass 38 degrees Celsius dem go deny am access and ask am to go seek for medical epp immediately.
Every business establishment gatz provide regular hygiene ( hand washing basin, soap, hand sanitizer and running water) for any person wey di enta dia premises during office hour.
Di regulation also ask bank dem make dem dey try clean di buttons and surfaces of dia doors and dia ATM machines.
Any pesin wey test positive to covid 19 for NCDC lab, no go refuse isolation or admission. All public, Secondary and Tertiary health facilities gatz establish collection centres wia dem go collect sample from suspected cases and take am to lab for test.
Any body wey break dis rule go face punishment either summary conviction by fine or six months imprisonment in accordance wit section 5 of di Quarantine Act.
Presido also give order say make di Nigerian police, Civil Defence, FRSC, Nigeria Immigration Service and di Federal Aiport Authority of Nigeria and oda relevant goment agency for state and local goment ensure say dem enforce di provision of di regulation.


It should have been mandatory to implement masks publicly. If people could realize the problem of masks earlier, they would not have developed to such a serious degree.

Minnesota officials announced Monday they have identified a person infected with a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading at alarming rates in recent weeks in Brazil.
This is the first report in the United States of the P.1 variant, which has been of particular concern to scientists as they have observed the disastrous surge in infections in the Brazilian city of Manaus.
One research study published in the journal Science estimated that 76 percent of the Manaus population already had been infected by the coronavirus. That should have put Manaus close to herd immunity. The new surge has raised fears that the P.1 variant has mutations that allow it to evade the human immune system. Evidence to support this hypothesis remains limited.
The Minnesota Department of Health said the case there involved “a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil,” and the variant was detected through genomic sequencing of random blood samples as part of a surveillance program.
The person, a resident of the Twin Cities metro area, reported feeling sick the first week of January and was tested Jan. 9. The health department said the person has been in isolation, and the department is continuing to investigate the case.
“This isn’t surprising. It’s a very difficult development, but at the same time not unexpected,” Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and an adviser to President Biden’s coronavirus task force, said in an interview.
All viruses mutate, and there are countless variants in circulation. The Brazil variant is one of three that have drawn particular global attention. The other two were first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa, and are known to virologists as B.1.1.7 and B1.351.
Although scientists know quite a bit about the U.K. variant, the Brazil variant “is probably the one causing the most concern among people watching this,” William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said Monday. “It is fair to say that P.1 is the object of very, very serious attention and concern among epidemiologists. We don’t know why it has been so successful in Manaus.”
The U.K. variant — already spreading in the United States — has become the dominant strain in southern England, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it could become dominant in the United States by some point in March if it outcompetes other strains. Minnesota has detected eight cases involving the U.K. variant, officials said Monday.
The South Africa variant has not been identified in the United States.
“These cases illustrate why it is so important to limit travel during a pandemic as much as possible,” Minnesota state epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield said in a statement released by the health department.
There is some overlap in the mutations in the three variants, but they arose independently and, along with other variants under review, provide a vivid reminder that the coronavirus is not a static target for vaccines and the human immune system. Most scientists believe the vaccines will remain effective against the variants, a belief bolstered by research released Monday by Moderna, maker of one of the two vaccines authorized in the United States.

Amazon has extended an offer to President Joe Biden to assist with the national distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, a move that could expedite the federal effort to combat the pandemic.
Dave Clark, the CEO of Amazon's consumer business, and one of the company's highest-ranking executives, sent a letter to the president shortly after he was sworn in Wednesday.
"As you begin your work leading the country out of the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration," he wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.
"We are prepared to leverage our operations, IT, & communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts," Clark wrote. "Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort."
Clark said Amazon had agreements in place with licensed third-party health care providers to administer vaccines on-site at Amazon facilities.
"We are prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available," he wrote.
Clark also asked that employees working at Amazon fulfillment centers, Amazon Web Services data centers and Whole Foods Market stores "who cannot work from home" receive the vaccine "at the earliest appropriate time." Clark had made a similar request to the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month.