The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to delay consideration of two major cases that are scheduled for oral argument in the coming weeks. One involves funding for former President Trump's border wall construction, and the other, the so-called "remain in Mexico" policy.
If the Supreme Court agrees to postpone consideration of the cases, as expected, at some later date they very likely will be pronounced dead as a legal matter.
The Supreme Court had allowed both Trump administration policies to continue, temporarily overriding decisions by lower courts. But President Biden has already issued executive orders pausing both the erection of the border wall, and the "remain in Mexico" policy, under which some 68,000 asylum seekers and others who crossed the border without authorization, were sent back to Mexico and told to apply for immigration permits from there.
Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on Monday filed motions asking the High Court to postpone consideration of both cases in light of the Biden administration's reconsideration of the policies at issue in the two cases.
"In light of ... recent developments," Prelogar "respectfully" requested that the court "hold further briefing in abeyance and remove" them from the February oral argument calendar. That could well mean that the two Trump policies are, for all practical purposes, dead.
The question in the border wall cases was whether Trump could get around Congress' refusal to authorize money for the border wall by using money appropriated for the Defense Department.
As for the "remain in Mexico case," it tests the legality of the Trump policy that automatically returned to Mexico asylum seekers and other immigrants from third countries who enter the U.S. by crossing the U.S./Mexico border. That policy, however, was suspended by the acting Department of Homeland Security director within hours of Biden becoming president. In suspending the Trump policy, the acting director noted that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, for now, non-essential travel restrictions would remain in place.
As in the border wall case, the Biden administration's Prelogar asked the court to postpone consideration of the case in order to allow the Biden administration to review the Trump policies and decide what changes it plans to make.





Trump immediately vetoed many of Obama's policies after he took office, and Biden immediately began to veto Trump's decisions after he took office. The political farce in the United States is a joke. Are these decisions scientific and in the interests of Americans? Who cares? Well, no one cares about the weak. I am very worried that this phenomenon will appear in our country. I hope leaders can learn from it.

We can all see the outlines of a post-pandemic world. With vaccinations ramping up in the United States and Britain, and with Israel and the United Arab Emirates racing toward herd immunity, it is easy to imagine that a return to normalcy is on the horizon. The only question seems to be: How long will it take?
But we might be seeing a false dawn. Despite the amazing progress we’ve made with vaccines, the truth is that our current trajectory virtually guarantees that we will never really defeat the coronavirus. It will stay alive and keep mutating and surging across the globe. Years from now, countries could be facing new outbreaks that will force hard choices between new lockdowns or new waves of disease and death.
The basic problem is in how the vaccine is being distributed around the world — not based on where there is the most need, but the most money. The richest countries have paid for hundreds of millions of doses, often far in excess of what they need. Canada, for example, has preordered enough to cover its 38 million residents five times over.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s 200 million people have not received a single dose of the vaccine.
Rich countries make up 16 percent of the world’s population, yet they have locked up 60 percent of the world’s vaccine supply. In a recent Foreign Affairs article, Thomas Bollyky and Chad Bown pointed out that Australia, Canada and Japan account for less than 1 percent of the world’s coronavirus cases but have secured more doses than all of Latin America and the Caribbean, which account for more than 17 percent of cases.
Even though several African countries have been used for vaccine trials, almost no sub-Saharan nation has received vaccines in any significant quantity, while 40 million doses have already been administered in rich countries. Duke University researchers say many developing countries will not be fully vaccinated until 2024, which means the virus will have years to spread and mutate. In their annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates note that low- and middle-income countries will be able to vaccinate only 1 out of every 5 people by the end of 2021. “Like it or not,” they write, “we’re all in this together.”
The problem goes well beyond public health. The International Chamber of Commerce has released a study showing that this lopsided vaccination of the world will cause global economic losses of $1.5 trillion to $9.2 trillion, of which half could be borne by the richest countries. Looking at data from 35 industries and 65 countries, the study concluded that the world economy is so interconnected that having large areas of it still suffering from covid-19 would produce bottlenecks, frictions and loss of demand that would affect everyone, everywhere. Another study estimates that for every dollar rich countries invest in vaccines for the developing world, they would get back about $5 in economic output.
Despite these realities, vaccine nationalism is actually rising, as slow supplies and bureaucratic delays in rich countries have caused politicians to demand speedy action for their populations. European nations are threatening to restrict exports of the Pfizer vaccine, and to take legal action against AstraZeneca, because of suspicions that it has prioritized delivering vaccines to Britain over E.U. countries (which the company denies). Dozens of countries have also restricted exports of medical supplies, which will seriously hamper efforts to eradicate covid-19 worldwide.
It’s entirely understandable that rich countries want to vaccinate their own populations first. But there is a way to act rationally and sensibly, without hoarding vaccines, and to make policy that will ensure the disease is eradicated faster everywhere.
Bollyky and Bown lay out an excellent plan in Foreign Affairs. They argue that the United States should use the lessons from Operation Warp Speed to ramp up production and distribution of the vaccine worldwide. It could build the same kind of international coalition that it did to tackle AIDS in Africa. There is now a global vaccination effort to help developing countries, COVAX, which provides a powerful framework for action. President Donald Trump refused to join this effort despite the participation of over 180 nations, but President Biden has reversed that decision. He could go further, using it as a platform to demonstrate the United States’ unique capacity to bring countries together around a common problem, to help raise the resources needed — and to solve the most pressing problem facing the world.

Yes, as long as the people of a country are not vaccinated, covid-19 will continue to spread, never ending. But the effectiveness of the vaccine is also worrying.

ABUJA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From hotels and schools to the navy and police force, Nigerian graduate Ene Adejo has looked for a job just about everywhere since she finished her studies eight years ago, but she is still unemployed.
“Sometimes they tell me the course I studied doesn’t relate to the job I’m applying for ... Sometimes they tell me I don’t have experience,” Adejo, 34, who studied adult education and business studies, said from her home in the capital, Abuja.
The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled youth unemployment in Africa’s largest economy, which has risen for five consecutive years to about 14%, prompting the government to launch a huge public works scheme to create jobs.
About 750,000 young unemployed people will be offered three-month placements with a monthly salary of 20,000 naira ($51) under the Special Public Works (SPW) programme.
While Adejo is not keen on the low-skilled jobs on offer, such as traffic control and road maintenance, she plans to apply anyway.
“I just don’t like being idle,” she said.
Nearly 14 million young people are out of work in Nigeria, which has one of the world’s largest youth populations, with more than a third of its 200 million people aged 24 or under, according to United Nations’ data.
While such numbers help explain government concern to tackle youth unemployment, critics say the SPW programme fails to address structural problems in the country, where oil wealth has enriched a small elite but failed to create employment.
“It’s a laudable idea but it’s like a drop in the ocean. It isn’t going to solve any problem. It’s just a short-term measure,” said Abiodun Folawewo, a professor of economics at the University of Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria.
Governments should not be providing jobs, he said, rather fostering the right conditions for businesses to thrive, in turn increasing labour demand.
“Once those things are in place, then jobs will be created. It is because those things are lacking that the government is doing this.”

Even proponents of state-led job creation initiatives have expressed scepticism about the SPW, which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this month.
Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy central bank governor who has called for some sort of mass employment scheme, said investment in major infrastructure projects was the key to providing long-term, highly skilled employment.
“I don’t find this particularly inspiring because public works schemes are far more than just casual works placements,” he said.
“Public works systems are about building railways networks, highways, mass housing, and getting lots of youth employed in those projects,” Mailafia, who ran for president against Buhari in a 2019 election, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But Labour Minister of State Festus Keyamo said the jobs scheme was an emergency measure aimed at helping as many people as possible in tandem with longer-term economic stimulus and infrastructure efforts.
“In the now, while government is doing that, how will they survive?” said Keyamo, who is leading the programme.
“While government is creating an enabling environment, the government sees a way to even lift a few people, give a few people something in the immediate. Government’s approach to fighting poverty is multifaceted,” he said.
He added that the government was considering extending the scheme beyond three months, making it an annual affair, or turning it into an agricultural programme.
‘I JUST KEEP APPLYING’
Keyamo said the scheme targets the lowest socioeconomic class with little education, but that will do little to help the millions of well-educated young Nigerians classed as underemployed - working part-time or under-using their skills.
Nigeria’s rate of youth underemployment is 28.6%, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.
Nancy Otokina, who has a masters in business administration, has worked for less than two years in total since she graduated from university in 2009. Even going back to study for her masters failed to get her a lasting job.
“I thought it would improve my prospects. That was actually my main aim of doing it,” said Otokina, 35, who has a five-year-old son.
She has held off having another child in the hope she can find a job first.
“I just keep applying and applying,” she said.
Besides questioning the short-term focus of the SPW programme, some critics including Mailafia and Folawewo said they feared the government would use it as a means of rewarding supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party.
Keyamo rejected such criticism, saying stringent measures have been put in place to make the selection process transparent and free from political bias.
While Adejo waits to see what will come of her application, she has been helping out with administrative work at her church on a voluntary basis - trying to make ends meet by reselling household goods on social media.
She said she remained hopeful that her job search would bear fruit eventually: “I still expect that I’ll get a good job. My dream is to join the military or the police.”

In less than one month, Nigeria is expected to receive 100, 000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. According to the Director-General of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, the doses are not for all Nigerians but about 50,000 vulnerable people, frontline workers and health workers. However, there have been criticisms over the expected doses and the possibility of achieving the right storage of the vaccines from the Pfizer-BioNTech version donated by COVAX facility.
Although the Federal Government claimed to have procured 2100 cubic ultra-cold chain facility in Abuja, experts are worried about the temperate nature of the country, saying Nigeria does not have adequate storage facilities to hold vaccines at the required temperature of minus 70/80 degrees Celsius required for the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccines recommended by the World Health Organisation, WHO. To them, the best vaccine option for Nigeria is to produce its own version the way it was done in India, Sunday Vanguard reports.
Towards the third quarter of 2020, there were over 140 vaccine candidates. Before December last year, the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were introduced. On the heels of that was the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. Recently, India added to the list by producing a version of the Oxford- AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines which they called Covishield vaccines. It was unveiled on January 3, 2021. This is in addition to Chinese vaccines whose efficacy was put at about 50 percent. Altogether, globally, there are about five types of vaccines for COVID-19 from different research working groups that are available for use.
But WHO has gone ahead to recommend, before now, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. And riding on that, the Presidential Task Force, PTF, and the Federal Government proposed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for Nigerians.

Pfizer's version of the COVID-19 vaccine is not suitable for storage in a climate like Nigeria, so Nigeria's vaccine supply and demand are very tight, and I only look forward to the early production of its own vaccine.

The effects of Covid-19 have worsened the plight of about 31.4 million people in the Sahel last year, with 14 million — double a year earlier — acutely food insecure, UN humanitarians said.
“This year, humanitarian needs will once again grow in the Sahel,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a release.
“Humanitarian action — food, shelter, education, protection and medical services — matters, not just because it saves lives but also because it sends the message that people care about what is happening in the Sahel.”
“Peace, good governance and development are needed to make a meaningful change in the lives of millions of people in the southern fringes of the Sahara, said OCHA.
Insecurity has increased in Burkina Faso, Mali, western Niger — the Central Sahel — where the number of internally displaced people has risen 20-fold since 2018, it said.
The humanitarian office said violent incursions in the Lake Chad Basin region continue to increase internal displacements and the need for humanitarian assistance.
Northeastern Nigeria and Burkina Faso are facing the risk of famine, according to early warning analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme.

Of the 6.3-billion-U.S. dollar appeal by OCHA to respond to needs in the Sahel in 2020, only 46 percent was raised, said the agency.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday rescinded entry bans imposed because of the coronavirus on most non-U.S. citizens arriving from Brazil and much of Europe effective Jan. 26, two officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Reuters first reported in November that the administration had been considering lifting the restrictions, imposed early last year in response to the pandemic, after winning support from coronavirus task force members and public health officials.
The restrictions are set to end under a new proclamation from Trump the same day that new COVID-19 test requirements take effect for all international visitors. The White House did not immediately comment. Trump is due to leave office on Wednesday.
Last week, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed an order requiring nearly all air travelers to present a negative coronavirus test or proof of recovery from COVID-19 to enter the United States starting on Jan. 26.
The restrictions being rescinded have barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the 26 countries of the Schengen area in Europe that allow travel across open borders.
The U.S. restrictions barring most visitors from Europe have been in place since mid-March when Trump signed proclamations imposing them, while the Brazilian entry ban was imposed in May.
President-elect Joe Biden once in office could opt to reimpose the restrictions.
Last Tuesday, Marty Cetron, director of CDC’s global migration and quarantine division, told Reuters those entry bans were an “opening act strategy” to address the virus spread and should now be “actively reconsidered.”
Airlines had hoped the new testing requirements would clear the way for the administration to lift the restrictions that reduced travel from some European countries by 95% or more.
They had pressed senior White House officials about the issue in recent days.
Many administration officials for months argued the restrictions no longer made sense given most countries were not subject to the entry bans. Others have argued the United States should not drop entry bans since many European countries still block most U.S. citizens.
Reuters previously reported the White House was not considering lifting entry bans on most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in China or Iran.

The U.K. variant of the coronavirus could become the predominant strain in the United States by March, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday.

So far, only 76 cases of the variant, called B.1.1.7, have been identified in the country, in 10 states, the CDC said.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

But the latest research, which takes into account detailed analyses of scenarios that match the current trajectories of Covid-19 cases, projects that the variant could see "rapid growth" in coming months, putting further strain on the health care system.

"We are very concerned about this variant," said Michael Johansson, one of the study's authors and co-lead of the modeling team for the CDC's Covid-19 response.

Johansson cited evidence from the U.K. that the variant may spread from person to person more readily, and noted the CDC is working to increase efforts to do more testing for such variants in the U.S.

A White House coronavirus task force report said the explosive surge of coronavirus cases in the United States in recent months might be caused by a more contagious U.S. variant of the virus. But a separate statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its researchers had not seen the emergence of a U.S. variant.
“This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges,” according to the White House task force document, which was sent to the states. “This acceleration suggests there may be a USA variant that has evolved here, in addition to the U.K. variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50 percent more transmissible.”
The CDC statement, however, was far more skeptical about that possibility. It is likely that there are many variants of the coronavirus across the globe, the statement said, but "to date, neither researchers nor analysts at CDC have seen the emergence of a particular variant in the United States as has been seen with the emergence" of variants in the United Kingdom or South Africa.
This is good news, people need good news at this difficult time, especially the mutated virus in the UK makes people more disturbing. However, in the slow and chaotic fight against the new coronavirus in the United States, at least it has not been seen that the vaccine has effectively contained the infection. From this point of view, our country and people need to understand one thing: before the universal acceptance of vaccines becomes a reality, we also need to maintain social distance and protect ourselves. None of us wants to see ourselves and our family members. The moment before the arrival of the vaccine.

As concerns have continued to mount on the place of Nigeria in the procurement of vaccines as well as the funding capacity of the country, Nigeria by January ending will receive the first 100,000 doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for 84, 655, 749 (40 per cent) of the country’s 200 million population.
Top among those to be vaccinated first are health workers in the Isolation Centres nationwide, 10 per cent of adults above 50 years of age, 17 per cent of persons with co-morbidity below 50 years and 12 per cent of other risk groups.
Other frontline workers like immigration at the airport, and personnel at testing centres, targeted uniform personnel etc. would also be prioritised for vaccination because of their exposure.
Giving a breakdown of how subsequent vaccines would be utilized, during a webinar organized by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, the Director of Disease Control and Immunisation, NPHCDA, Dr Bassey Okposen said the 100,000 doses would be utilized efficiently as each beneficiary will need a second dose after three weeks.
Okposen further explained that also States with a high burden of COVID would be given a priority.
He said: “About 70 percent of Nigerians are being prioritized for COVID19 Vaccines vaccination In 2021 and 2022 to reduce mortality and interrupt covid19 transmission in the country.
“In the year 2022, 30 percent of the country’s population (65,035,014) for additional other risk groups will be prioritised based on current epidemiology of the COVID-19 in Nigeria. So the total targets of the both years are 149,690,763 which is 70 percent of the country’s population. He said the 70 per cent population was targeted to reduce mortality due to COVID-19 in Nigeria.
“The government plans to reach 70 percent of the total population with COVID-19 vaccines by end of 2022 and the vaccines to be introduced in Nigeria would be safe and effective,” he stated.
He disclosed that already the number of health workers nationwide has been mapped out and estimated 2,116,393 persons made up of health workers/other support staff (0.44% of total populations ) and 0.56% as a contingency.
It could be recalled that the Minister of Health, Dr Osage Ehanire, had earlier stated that Nigeria needs a total of N400 billion to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s population at $8 per vaccine.

Having a vaccine at the end of the month is something to celebrate. I hope the vaccine can be popularized as soon as possible.

Dr. Abidemi Babalola, Research Fellow, Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, says governments should engage thorough breed archaeologists to meet the Coronavirus challenges.
Mr Babalola said this during an exhibition marking 60 years of excavations of archaeological materials in Igboukwu in Anambra on Wednesday.
The event held at the National Commission for Museum and Monuments, NCMMN, centre, Umudege, Igboukwu.
According to Babalola, from historical accounts, the COVID-19 pandemic which began in Wuham, China, was not the first of its kind in human history.
If governments could engage the services of archaeologists, through their expertise, they can uncover how past pandemics recorded in the past were treated.
“Such findings might help end this present problem,” the archaeologists argued.
He added that the exhibition was part of three-year-old activities on the continuation of work on Igboukwu archaeological discovery which was started 60 years ago by Prof. Thurstan Shaw.
Prof. Anslem Ibeanu, the immediate past Head of the Department of Archaeology and Tourism, UNN, also called for the establishment of radiocarbon dating laboratory in Nigeria.
Mr Ibeanu said such a laboratory would help facilitate more archaeological discoveries capable of developing the tourism sub-sector in the country.
“If the government invests in this area, it will help open the tourism industry which has the potential to provide jobs for millions of people in our nation,” he said.
Dr Emeka Okonkwo, the current head of the department, said UNN and Cambridge University, as well as other partners, were working hard to get more information on the archaeological materials found in Igboukwu.
He said efforts were on to include Igboukwu in the world heritage list, adding that more assistance was required for the accomplishment of the target.
Also, Daraojimba, co-organiser of the event, said since 2018 when he and Babalola began the project, efforts had been made to integrate the community in advancing archaeological discovery projects.
“We have visited Igboukwu community several times, engaged primary school pupils across the three-quarters of the town, with the aim of laying a basic foundation on the archaeological discovery here,” he said.
Wife of the late traditional ruler of Igboukwu, Nwakego Ezeh, thanked the Federal Government for the NCMMN centre in the area and also Prof. Shaw for pioneering Igboukwu archaeological discoveries.
Others who spoke at the event were Dr Alex Anozie, the traditional ruler of Igbo people living in Oyo State and Christian Ike, the President-General of Igboukwu community, among others.

A Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday.
Police in Grafton, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, arrested Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last week following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. A detective wrote in a probable cause statement that Brandenburg, 46, is an admitted conspiracy theorist. Charges are pending.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that a new strain of Covid-19 now circulating in the U.S. could further stress hospitals that are already overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
Colorado health officials announced Tuesday that they detected the first known case in the U.S. of the new and more infectious strain of the virus that was initially discovered in the United Kingdom. A second separate new strain first identified in South Africa may also already be circulating in the U.S. as well, CDC officials said.
“Because the variants spread more rapidly, they could lead to more cases and put even more strain on our already heavily burdened health-care systems,” Dr. Henry Walke, the agency’s Covid incident manager, said on a conference call with reporters.
Walke said the available data indicates that the new variant spreads “more easily and quickly than other strains,” but it does not appear to cause more severe disease or increased risk of death.
He noted that the individual in Colorado who was infected with the new strain of the virus did not have a travel history, which “suggests this variant has been transmitted from person to person in the United States.” He added that considering how widely the variant has spread in the U.K., the arrival of it in the U.S. “was expected.”
“Viruses constantly change through mutation and we expect to see new variants emerge over time,” he said. “Many mutations lead to variants that don’t change how the virus infects people. Sometimes, however, variants emerge that can spread more easily, like these.”
He added that “experts believe our current vaccines will be effective against” both of the new strains. Scientists are still studying how the new strains respond to Covid-19 treatments like monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma.
Dr. Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, said the assertion that the vaccines will be effective against the new variants is based on “experience with similar previous mutations.” He added that immunity induced through previous infection from a different strain is also probably effective against these new strains.
National and state laboratories around the country are conducting testing to determine whether other variants are present in the U.S. and how widely the variant that was discovered in the U.K. is spreading. He said the CDC is ramping up the national surveillance program so that it’ll be receiving 750 samples per week for sequencing.
He added that the agency is contracting with academic centers around the country to sequence samples and search for new variants locally. Those centers, he said, are in Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, Athens, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Madison, Wisconsin, and the Scripps Institute in San Diego.
“There are a lot of laboratories that have this capacity around the U.S.,” he said of testing for the new variant. “A lot of them are looking for this variant right now.”

The mutated covid virus has put tremendous pressure on the medical system. At present, all countries are studying and have not reached a conclusion. We must be alert to the spread of this mutant virus.

A Colorado man is the first in the U.S. diagnosed with a new COVID-19 mutation that United Kingdom officials recently warned was significantly more contagious, according to state officials.
The man, who lives in Elbert County, is in his 20s, with no travel history and no close contacts yet identified, state officials said in a Dec. 29 news release, adding that a news conference the next day would provide more details. The man remains in isolation, and contact tracing continues. 
That variant known as B.1.1.7 is the same one discovered in Europe earlier this month. It triggered alarm when announced by Britain’s prime minister and caused dozens of countries to ban flights from the United Kingdom, as well as strict lockdown measures in southern England. A similar variant emerged in South Africa and potentially Nigeria.
The World Health Organization has said while the variant may spread more easily from person to person, it isn’t necessarily more dangerous or deadly. A recent briefing on the mutation from England's health department noted no statistically significant difference in hospitalization or fatality rates, nor in the likelihood of reinfection.
The virus has mutated more than 1,000 times since it first appeared, and the new strain appears to be 70% more easily transmitted than the dominant strain of COVID-19, a representative for the state's coronavirus task force told The Gazette last week, adding, "we believe the vaccines will be just as effective with this variant as with others."
The COVID-19 virus likely experiences significant mutations once or twice a month, Dr. Sam Dominguez, infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital Colorado, recently told The Gazette. Coronaviruses are prone to mutations, he said, adding that the introduction of a vaccine could cause the virus to mutate.

California is now reporting the highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases per capita in the country.
Last week, the state reported the nation's fourth highest number of daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven day period, but California jumped to first place when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its case per capita tracker Saturday.
According to the CDC update from Saturday, California has reported an average of 100.5 daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, which places it comfortably ahead of second-place Tennessee, which saw an average of 89.6 daily cases per 100,000 residents over the same time period.
California's daily case-per capita figure is actually down from the 109.3 mark it was at last week, which is likely due to reporting delays caused by the Christmas holiday. For reference, Oklahoma recorded the worst spread in the country last week with an average of 151.4 daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, and Tennessee was the second-worst with an average of 138.
California's number has risen dramatically in recent weeks. To put the surge in perspective, when SFGATE last reported on California's case rate in comparison to other states on Nov. 17, the Golden State was recording 21 new daily cases per 100,000.
The Golden State is in the midst of its worst surge ever, and last week the test positivity rate — another key data point for measuring the pandemic — hit 12%. That's more than double what it was a month ago. In California's summer surge, the positivity rate peaked at 7.6%.
The state is posting the country's worst COVID-19 numbers despite a new stay-at-home order that took effect in most of the state in early December. Cellphone data suggests compliance is low, and some have speculated the state's strict restrictions contributed to the winter explosion.

California, as the largest state with the largest population in the United States, has the highest number of new covid-19 cases per day. The government can consider giving priority to vaccination in areas with severe infection to avoid more transmission.

The government also singled out Lagos, Kaduna and the capital Abuja as the new epicentres of infections adding that they accounted for more than 70 percent of all confirmed cases.
All bars, night clubs, pubs, event centres and recreational venues are to be closed. Additionally, all restaurants, including takeaways, home deliveries and drive-ins, except those offering services to restaurants are also to be closed.
All schools are to be closed and vacated by December 18 until at least January 18. Moreover, all public transport systems are supposed to ensure that the numbers of passengers they carry do not exceed 50 percent of their capacity.
The government said the number of people attending formal and informal festivity events, such as weddings, office parties, concerts and sporting activities, should not exceed 50. Only gatherings held outdoors will be allowed to have more than 50 people in attendance.
Meanwhile, religious gatherings will have their numbers restricted to less than half of the facility in use during which physical distancing and mandatory use of face masks will be mandatory.
All government staff at Grade Level 12 and below were ordered to stay at home for the next five weeks while elderly persons and/or those with pre-existing conditions were encouraged to remain at home and avoid large gatherings.
The restrictions will be in place for the next five weeks.
The government also urged the public not to undertake any non-essential local and international travel during the festive period.
On Wednesday, Namibia imposed a 9 pm to 4 am curfew effective immediately through January 13.
Public gatherings are limited to a maximum of 50 people.
Alcohol sales for on-site consumption is now allowed only between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays.
Namibia Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula says violators could face fines up to $6800 or up to 10 years in prison.
Shangula said confirmed cases in Namibia over the past week have reached levels never seen before, describing the situation as rapidly changing and deteriorating.
Nigeria has so far reported more than 78,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,200 deaths, according to data from the Africa CDC.
President Buhari said his administration was working to access and administer a COVID-19 vaccine noting it was an “important obligation that we owe Nigerians.”
Namibia and Nigeria join South Africa and Tunisia among a list of African nations that are considering or have already enacted new COVID-19 restrictions.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. government and two of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains on Monday began inoculating nursing home residents against COVID-19, among the first Americans besides healthcare workers to get the vaccine.
The vaccinations, carried out under a program led by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, are the latest effort to rein in a pandemic that has killed more than 317,000 Americans and strained healthcare systems.
California, an epicenter in the latest surge in infections, had no more intensive care unit beds available in the heavily populated Los Angeles area or in the state’s San Joaquin Valley agricultural hub, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
Newsom said California had so far not seen any cases of the highly infectious new strain of the virus that has emerged in Britain, prompting dozens of countries to close their borders to the UK.
The United States has not imposed travel restrictions from Britain in the face of the mutant strain. Three airlines, acting at the request of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have agreed to screen passengers flying into John F. Kennedy International Airport.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, said Thursday he had tested positive for COVID-19, the second Alabama congressman this month to announce a coronavirus diagnosis. 
“I immediately consulted with the Office of the Attending Physician and am currently self-isolating,” the congressman wrote in a tweet. “I am experiencing mild symptoms but otherwise I am in good spirits and looking forward to getting back to work soon.”
Rogers, first elected to the U.S. House in 2002, represents an east Alabama district that includes portions of north and eastern Montgomery County. He won re-election last month.
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, announced on Dec. 4 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolating. A statement from Aderholt’s office said he was asymptomatic. 
Two state senators — Jim McClendon, R-Springville, and Randy Price, R-Opelika — were hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year, but have recovered. At least five members of the Alabama House have had positive COVID-19 tests. 
According to BamaTracker, which compiles data on the coronavirus outbreak, over 310,000 Alabamians have tested positive for COVID-19. More than 4,200 have died. The state averaged 2,624 new cases a day over the past week, part of a surge that is straining Alabama hospitals.

Crash in crude oil price due to COVID-19 and a 35% withdrawal by three government agencies are hitting the Ecological Fund Office hard.
The Ecological Fund pays for ecological remediations and disasters resulting from environmental causes.
The permanent secretary of Ecological Fund Office (EFO) Dr. Habiba Lawal says funding is further dwindled with the 35% withdrawal by three government agencies.
National Emergency Management Agency has taken 20% of Ecological Fund's funding, National Agency for Great Green Wall draws 5% and the North East Development Commission draws 10%.
Lawal who stated this on Tuesday while interacting with journalists in Abuja, said the 35 percent being withdrawn by these agencies would have helped in utilizing more projects across the country.
She said despite the challenges, from 2015 to date Mr. President approved 247 projects which have been awarded. "Out if this number, 160 projects have been completed and handed over to the benefitting communities' while 45 have been completed but awaiting commissioning."

PORTAGE, Mich. — The first of many freezer-packed COVID-19 vaccine vials made their way to distribution sites across the United States on Sunday, as the nation's pandemic deaths approached the horrifying new milestone of 300,000.
The rollout of the Pfizer vaccine, the first to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, ushers in the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history — one that health officials hope the American public will embrace, even as some have voiced initial skepticism or worry. Shots are expected to be given to health care workers and nursing home residents beginning Monday.
Quick transport is key for the vaccine, especially since this one must be stored at extremely low temperatures — about 94 degrees below zero. Early Sunday, workers at Pfizer — dressed in fluorescent yellow clothing, hard hats and gloves — wasted no time as they packed vials into boxes. They scanned the packages and then placed them into freezer cases with dry ice. The vaccines were then taken from Pfizer's Portage, Michigan, facility to Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, where the first cargo plane took off amid what airport officials called a “jubilant” mood.
“This is a historic day,” said Richard W. Smith, who oversees operations in the Americas for FedEx Express, which is delivering 630-some packages of vaccine to distribution sites across the country. United Parcel Service also is transporting a share of the vaccine.
Helping with the transport of the vaccine has special meaning to Bruce Smith, a FedEx package handler at the Grand Rapids airport, whose older sister, Queen, died after she contracted the coronavirus in May. She was hospitalized in Georgia one day after he saw her on a video chat, and they never spoke again.
“I think she would be ecstatic to know that something that has ravaged our family — that a family member is going to be part of such a big project,” said Smith, 58, whose nephew, Queen's son, also got sick and is still undergoing therapy for stroke-like symptoms. “It is very, very important.”

The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic will send personal incomes in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, back four decades, the World Bank has warned.
While the pandemic is set to create millions of “new poor” in middle-income countries, Nigeria is uniquely vulnerable because of its precarious pre-pandemic economic situation — in which unemployment and inflation were already rising and incomes were falling — and its dependency on oil and remittances, the lender said.
Nigeria has registered 1,184 deaths from Covid-19 and a four-week lockdown hit the informal economy hard. With more than half of the country’s population unemployed or underemployed, inflation has risen sharply over the past 12 months while foreign investment has plummeted and the economy is forecast to contract by about 4 per cent this year.
If Africa’s biggest oil producer is to avoid a prolonged recession, it will have to enact a series of potentially politically unpopular reforms, the World Bank warned.
“This is not just any crisis for Nigeria . . . how it responds will set the course for the next few decades,” Shubham Chaudhuri, head of the World Bank’s mission in Nigeria, told the Financial Times. “There’s . . . an opportunity to not return to business as usual, but the risk of [the economy] unravelling is real.”
Mr Chaudhuri praised the government’s efforts, spurred by the pandemic-related economic crisis, to remove a fuel subsidy that costs the government billions of dollars a year, raise electricity tariffs and move towards a market-driven exchange rate. 
“For the first time in many years, in the last nine months, the government has made some pretty politically courageous decisions but the key is to keep the momentum on those,” he said.
But without a strong policy response, “Nigeria risks repeating the experience of the 1980s shocks, which set back Nigeria’s development progress by decades”, according to a brief shared by the World Bank.
Unlike the 2015-16 recession, which also followed an oil price slump, Nigeria cannot afford to just “muddle through”, Mr Chaudhuri said, because of the broader global economic crisis.

To strengthen SmallHolder farmers, the federal government in Nigeria has flagged off a $2bn project through the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD), according to a report by the Today Ng.
Gloria Akobundu, the National Coordinator of AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria, disclosed it in a statement earlier on Tuesday. She said that the aim is to establish strategic mitigation to promote food sufficiency and zero hunger in the country to mitigate COVID-19 effects.
Akobudu reportedly spoke on Innovative Strengthening of Smallholder Farmers Capabilities Towards Productive Land Restoration at a two-day summit/technical round table COVID-19 in Nigeria.
According to Akobudu, Nigeria spends up to $6bn per year on the importation. She also said that the project will be executed in phases at state and local government levels, including Ibom, Imo, Akwa, Nasarwa, Kaduna, Ekiti among Akobundu said the project which will be implemented in phases at the state and local government levels involves 22 pilot states including Imo, Akwa Ibom, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Ekiti states among others.
"This is a ten-year plan for food sufficiency and zero hunger in Nigeria, in our continent and ECOWAS region. We are addressing hunger with bottom-to-top approach involving local farmers, the farmers association, state and local governments, the clergy and traditional rulers across 22 pilot states ensure that grassroots poverty is eradicated, COVID-19 effects are mitigated and gainful employment provided for women and youths", she said.
She added, "President Mohammadu Buhari declared in his nine-point agenda that one of his priorities is to see youths gainfully employed and become resourceful. He assured of taking 1 million Nigerians out of poverty and this is one of the strategic moves to achieve that agenda."

California’s two most densely inhabited regions and its agricultural breadbasket will be under stay-at-home orders by Sunday night as the Covid-19 pandemic strains hospitals in the most populous US state, officials said.
Designed to kick in when intensive care units in any of five regions have little remaining capacity, the order affecting Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley will close bars, hair salons and barbershops, and allows restaurants to remain open only for takeout and delivery service.
The shutdowns, which go into effect at 11.59pm Sunday, are triggered by an order announced Wednesday by Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
The San Francisco Bay Area will also go into lockdown on Sunday night, under a different set of orders announced Friday by officials there.
“We know that people are tired of the stringent measures, but they are the only weapons we have to combat the virus,” said Dr Maggie Park, public health officer in San Joaquin County, in the state’s hard-hit farming region.
More than 25,000 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in California on Friday, officials said on Saturday, a record since the pandemic began. The state also recorded 209 deaths, bringing the total to 19,791, officials said.
Overall, the US saw a record 228,407 new cases on Friday, and 2,568 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
More than 100,900 people were hospitalised with the disease in the US as of Friday. That number grew by about 22% over the past 14 days, the Reuters tally showed, but the growth rate has slowed from an increase of 47% over the previous 14 days.
California’s statewide orders, which kick in whenever a region has less than 15% capacity available in its intensive care units, allow critical infrastructure to stay open, including schools that have obtained waivers allowing them to hold in-person classes.
Dental offices will also remain open.
The orders have been criticised by some Republican politicians who say closing small businesses and ordering people to stay mostly at home will do more harm than good.
Critics also decry decisions by several Democratic politicians, including Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, to dine in an expensive Napa Valley restaurant that was legally open but at a time when the virus was surging and officials were urging people not to socialise over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Government lockdowns do not reduce cases or stop spikes,” Republican State Assemblyman James Gallagher, who represents a district north of Sacramento that is not yet affected by the shutdown, said in a press release after Newsom announced the regional plans.
The US death toll currently stands at almost 279,000. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation now projects nearly 539,000 Covid-19 deaths by April 1, even as vaccines start to become available.
Joe Biden, a Democrat who defeated Donald Trump in the November election, has said that upon taking office on Jan 20 he will enact mask mandates where he has authority, such as federal buildings and for interstate travel.

The Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday announced 145 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
The NCDC announced this via its verified website.
The new infections take the total number of cases in the country to 67,557.
The agency noted that seven states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) reported new infections.
According to the public health agency, 227 persons have recovered and have been discharged from different isolation centres across the country.
The NCDC said that some of the persons who recovered and were discharged included 97 persons in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria’s COVID-19 recoveries increased last week compared to the previous week.
From Nov. 22 to 28, the 48th week of the pandemic in the country, a total of 935 patients recovered and were discharged, compared to 885 who were discharged in the previous week.
According to NCDC, Lagos State recorded the highest number of cases followed by FCT, Kaduna, and Plateau with 49, 34, 34, and 11 respectively.
Other states were, Oyo, 7; Bayelsa, 5; Taraba, 4; and Sokoto, 1.
The health agency said that as of Nov. 30, 2020, 145 new confirmed cases were recorded in the country.
The NCDC noted that till date, 67,557 cases have been confirmed, 63,282 cases discharged, and 1,173 deaths recorded in 36 states and the FCT.
The agency said that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), was activated at Level 3, and have continued to coordinate the national response activities.
NAN recalls that Nigeria has so far tested 756,237 persons since the first confirmed COVID-19 case was announced on Feb. 27, 2020.

LOS ANGELES — More than 7,400 people are hospitalized for the coronavirus in California, the state’s highest number yet.
The state reported 7,415 coronavirus hospitalizations on Sunday, citing the most recently available data from the previous day. More than 1,700 of those patients were in intensive care units. California’s previous record was 7,170 in July.
As of Sunday, California has had nearly 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 19,000 deaths since the pandemic began. The state reported around 15,600 new cases on Saturday.
Counties statewide are preparing for stricter COVID-19 restrictions that will take effect Monday amid surging cases and Thanksgiving travel. Health officials are preparing for a wave of cases in the next two or three weeks that could be tied to holiday gatherings.

The United States is living in the most dangerous public health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic, and health experts say it doesn't look like the coronavirus will be slowing down anytime soon with the arrival of the holiday season.
The US reported 2,046 deaths Wednesday -- the highest one-day coronavirus death toll the country has reported since early May, Johns Hopkins University data shows.
The country also hit a new daily hospitalization record, with 89,954 people currently hospitalized for Covid-19, according to the Covid Tracking Project. This is the 16th straight day that figure set a record for the pandemic.
"I worry that the Thanksgiving Day surge will then just add into what will become the Christmas surge, which will then make this one seem as if it wasn't so bad," said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an ensemble forecast Wednesday that projects between 294,000 and 321,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by December 19.
"We have to understand we're in a very dangerous place. People have to stop swapping air," Osterholm said. "It's just that simple."

(CNN)The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday cast an ominous sign ahead of the holidays, noting that the latest surge in coronavirus cases nationwide is mainly being driven by people without symptoms gathering indoors.
"The real driver of this epidemic now is not the public square," Dr. Robert Redfield said in an interview with Fox News. "It really is driven by the silent epidemic -- the asymptomatic infections largely in individuals between the ages of say 12 and 35."
Redford noted transmission patterns are now very different from those seen in the spring in major metropolitan areas because transmission this time around is occurring when people take off their masks and gather in homes.
These silent carriers spreading the virus come as US coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue surging to new heights. As of Tuesday, there are at least 12.5 million cases nationwide and more than 259,000 people have died in the US since the pandemic's start -- more than any other country by far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
"In some areas, we are going to see the health care system overwhelmed," Redfield said. "This is why, again, the vigilance in the mitigation steps is so important to keep those health care systems from going over the top in terms of being able to maintain their resilience -- not just to serve people with Covid, but to serve (people) without Covid."
Hospitalizations are at harrowing highs. More than 85,800 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals Monday -- the 14th straight day this count set a pandemic record, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospital systems around the country have been warning their staffing and ICU bed capacity are being stretched thin. Pennsylvania's top health official warned Monday the state could run out of ICU beds within a week.

The United States is in the midst of an “absolutely dangerous situation” as the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen, Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health, said Wednesday.
Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are both up 25% week over week, “and that is not going in the right direction,” said Giroir, who leads the government’s Covid testing effort.
“Right now, we are in an absolutely dangerous situation that we have to take with the utmost seriousness,” he said Wednesday on MSNBC. “This is not crying wolf. This is the worst rate of rise in cases that we’ve seen in the pandemic in the United States and right now there’s no sign of flattening.”
Giroir said recent news that both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines could be more than 90% effective is “very positive,” but neither vaccine will help to immediately end the ballooning U.S. outbreak now. More than 1,000 Americans are now dying of Covid-19 every day, on average, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Giroir said more restrictions “in most places,” especially the limiting of indoor dining and indoor bars, will be necessary. He added that “we know that local or state mask mandates tend to work.”
However, he noted that not all businesses will need to be closed. And he pointed to Europe as evidence that the direction of an outbreak can be reversed while keeping K-12 schools open. With surging Covid numbers across Europe, a number of countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Germany, implemented new restrictions on households and businesses, but kept schools open.
“Vaccines are around the corner,” Giroir said, adding that this is “really crunch time.” Americans should be doubling down now on public health measures that slow the spread of the virus.

The Canada-U. S. border is set to remain closed well into December.
A federal source speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly confirmed the 30-day rollover of the closure that was set to expire on Friday.
Visits such as vacations, day trips and cross-border shopping excursions have been forbidden since March in an effort to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The mutual restrictions have been jointly extended on a monthly basis by the two countries ever since they were first imposed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the ban won't be eased until there is clear evidence the COVID-19 pandemic is slowing in the United States, which is it is clearly not.
The U.S. is setting daily records for new cases and hospitalization rates, and the death toll is tracking toward 250,000.
The travel ban does not apply to those who must cross to ensure the continued flow of goods and essential services, including truckers and hospital staff.
Canada has also added certain exemptions to reunite extended family members.
American states and cities are also imposing rigid new restrictions on bars and restaurants as health officials urge caution before the Nov. 26 Thanksgiving holiday.
U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, continues to stonewall his duly elected successor, Joe Biden.
Biden, who is trying to implement a strategy to battle the virus, says Trump's refusal to co-operate with his transition team could result in even more U.S. deaths.
Biden says the two sides need to co-ordinate on a plan to distribute promising new COVID-19 vaccines so they can be deployed as soon as they're ready.

Financial services regulators have their work cut out, amid heightened cybercrimes and credit risks reinforced by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, thereby triggering fears of solvency in Nigeria’s banking sector.

Such fears notwithstanding, the regulators – the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have reassured stakeholders that there is no cause for alarm, as they are constantly devising strategies to remain ahead of fraudsters and cybercriminals.
Specifically, the NDIC insisted that “The Nigerian Banking System is not under threat of systemic crisis. Prompt and decisive interventions by the regulatory authorities have provided countercyclical buffers for the economy and the financial system.”

Giving the assurance at a just-concluded workshop for journalists, which ended the weekend in Kaduna, the Director, Bank Examination Department, NDIC, Dr. O. O. Babatolu, also said the regulators Continue to build resilience in the financial system by implementing proactive policies.

Babatolu, who spoke on, “Risk Management Strategies for the Banking Industry to Deal With a Pandemic or Crisis,” listed other measures taken to foster financial system stability.

They include to ensure enhancement to bank’s risk management and governance, ensure proactive crisis management and effective resolution, facilitate orderly evolution of market infrastructure for liquidity buffers and non-performing loan (NPL) resolution, and ensure compliance with rules and regulation; including the integrity of reporting

He added that banks are encouraged to institute strong corporate governance and risk management practices and active consumer education all of which are aimed at engendering confidence in the financial system by the banking public.

However, the regulators agreed that the new normal brought about by the COVID-19 has impacted consumer experience, trust, and confidence in the banking sector, as banks scaled down operations in compliance to safety guidelines and protocols, leading to services and customer traffic diverted to alternative e-channels (ATM, internet, POS/Web, etc) and an attendant spike in frauds and cyber-attacks/threats.

In regards to consumer protection against such threats, the CBN stressed the need for more investment in research to sustain innovation, to address the associated consumer risks, and enhance the regulatory process.

“It’s gotten worse and it’s gonna get worse,” the Northeastern state’s Democratic governor said in an interview with MSNBC.
As total U.S. infections crossed the 11 million mark – just over a week after hitting 10 million – states across the nation reimposed restrictions to stem the resurgent virus that is straining many healthcare systems.
Dr. Alexander Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, said hospitals in Missouri could run out of capacity in two weeks as cases in the Midwestern state continue to rise.
“If this continues, we’re absolutely going to need more staff, more help, more of everything to deal with the crush of patients that we see coming at us,” Garza told CNN on Monday.
Forty U.S. states have reported record increases in COVID-19 cases in November, while 20 have seen a record rise in deaths and 26 reported record hospitalizations, according to a Reuters tally of public health data.
The latest seven-day average shows the United States is reporting more than 144,000 daily cases and 1,120 daily deaths, the highest for any country in the world.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday ordered a ban on in-person high school and college classes as well as indoor dining service for three weeks starting on Wednesday as increasingly cold weather drives people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.
She banned public events at concert halls, casinos, movie theaters, skating rinks and other venues. In-home gatherings will be limited to 10 people from no more than two households.

The Democratic governor warned that without aggressive action her Midwestern state could soon suffer 1,000 COVID-19 deaths per week.
“We are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date,” Whitmer told a news conference. “The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action.”
Another Democratic governor, Washington state’s Jay Inslee, announced a one-month ban on indoor services at restaurants and gyms, and a reduction of in-store retail capacity to 25%.

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed disclosed that Nigeria is seeking a $750 million loan from the World Bank to help combat the effects of the pandemic on Nigeria’s economy.

This was reported by Channels TV after the Minister attended the inauguration of the Federal Steering Committees of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (N-CARES) program in Abuja on Friday.