₦airaland Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, informed state media on Tuesday that he had contracted the novel coronavirus. Peskov, 52, said the last time he had met with Putin in person was more than a month ago.

Russia’s prime minister, culture minister and construction minister have also tested positive for the virus. “I am receiving treatment,” Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency TASS. Russia’s novel coronavirus caseload surpassed 230,000 on Tuesday to become the world’s second-largest, behind the United States, according to comparative data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Although Russia’s caseload has been rising by more than 10,000 per day for the past week, officials have noted a slight decline in the growth rate as regions seek to lift lockdown quarantine measures that have devastated the economy.

Putin, who has been working remotely for a month to avoid contracting the disease, announced this week that a nationwide non-working period intended to curb the infection rate would end on Tuesday. Putin has tasked regional officials with determining when to lift stricter quarantine restrictions at the local level.

Russian domestic economic activities have declined by one-third since late March, according to Federal Government statistics announced last week. Russia has been conducting about 170,000 coronavirus tests per day, Putin said in a video chat with senior officials on Monday.

Russia plans within the next two weeks to “practically double the number of tests, bring them to 300,000 per day,” Putin said in comments carried by state news agency TASS. Russia has conducted nearly six million coronavirus tests, according to a federal monitoring service that publishes daily statistics.

More than half of Russia’s confirmed cases, 120,000, have been in the capital and largest city, Moscow, which has lockdown quarantine measures in place until the end of this month, with residents warned to stay at home unless absolutely necessary.

The pandemic has strained Russia’s health care system, with overcrowding at medical facilities throughout the country. (dpa/NAN)

The Federal Government has said the extract of the plant used for the herbal drug produced by the Republic of Madagascar for the prevention and cure of coronavirus (COVID-19), grows in the country. The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said this on Monday in Abuja, while answering questions, at the 29th joint national briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19.

According to him, the herbal drug will be subjected to analysis by the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) to determine its efficacy and safety before it can be adopted for the treatment of COVID-19. “We are going to get samples of the herb of the botanical product for analyses and also probably use that opportunity to speak with the health authorities there particularly the scientific community on how they use it. We will also give it to the research community here with us to examine and see what they can do with it.

“We understand that it is something called Artemisia Annua, which also grows here. But we would like to get that sample and compare it with the strain here to know if they are exactly identical or similar and then see what properties it has. “It will be subjected to analysis to find out what works in there and how it works and is used in getting a cure. All countries around the world are interested in finding a cure and we are not different; So, we will look at all options and promises that have been made.

Before we give any of these medicines to our people, we will make sure they are actually safe and that they work,” Ehanire said. He also said that government will continue to encourage local producers of personal protective equipment (PPE), as it prefers local ones to their foreign counterparts. He said, “Some Nigerian manufacturers of PPEs have made presentations to us and shown us samples of what they can make. We have sent those samples to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to look at it to see if they are well constructed and if the materials used are good.

“Once we have the go-ahead, we definitely prefer local production of personal protective equipment to foreign ones because they are fast and quick, and also because they create jobs and stimulate the economy. We give preference so local manufacturers.” Daily Trust reports that the Madagascar President, Andry Rajoelina, had officially launched a locally produced medicine he believes can prevent and cure patients suffering from COVID-19 ailment.

The drug was developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research and branded COVID Organics.

* Constituents react

Barring any last-minute changes, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who was released from a correctional facility in Kuje, Abuja on Friday is set to resume at the Senate tomorrow, Daily Trust reports. It could be recalled that the former Abia State governor was jailed in December 2019 over allegation of misappropriation of Abia’s state funds to the tune of N7.6 billion during his tenure; between 1999 and 2007.

He pleaded not guilty. The lawmaker, who represents Abia North in the Senate under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), heaved a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court, last Friday, quashed the judgement of the lower court that convicted him to a 12-year jail term.

Kalu and co-defendants, Slok Nigeria Ltd and a former Director of Finance of the Abia State Government House, Jones Udeogu, had challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Lagos to conduct the trial after the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, who was elevated to the Court of Appeal, returned to conclude the proceedings.

At the Supreme Court, the justices held that the judge had no jurisdiction when he convicted Kalu as the fiat he was given to conclude the trial was inconsistent with the provision of the constitution that a judge of the court of appeal cannot “descend” to also be a judge of the Federal High Court. After his conviction, Kalu, who is the Senate Chief Whip, continued to enjoy all his entitlements, including salaries while in prison even without performing any legislative duty.

The Red Chamber had said that despite his conviction, Kalu remained a serving lawmaker until he has exhausted all legal options available to prove his innocence of the case. “There is no provision in the constitution that says the seat of any senator facing prosecution or convicted at a lower court should be declared vacant,” the former Senate spokesman, Senator Godiya Akwashiki, had said.

In Kalu’s absence, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi Sabi (APC, Niger), the Deputy Chief Whip, held sway. A source close to Kalu said the lawmaker is most likely to resume at the Senate on Tuesday, “since he has been released from prison.”

Kalu had said, immediately after the apex court pronouncement, that he looked “forward to rejoining my colleagues in the Senate as soon as possible” after a five-month incarceration at a correctional centre.

The lawmaker, in a statement he signed, said his stay in prison had taught him invaluable lessons about the country, its people, the justice system and the true meaning of love.

He vowed to fight for the correction of Nigeria’s criminal justice system where over 70% of the prison inmates’ population was made up of people awaiting trial.

Security agents in Kaduna State have successfully tracked down two COVID-19 patients who earlier fled their homes after they tested positive to the virus, State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Amina Mohammed- Baloni has confirmed. Dr. Baloni said the two suspects; a male and female have been moved to the state government isolation centre for treatment.

Daily Trust reports that the state government had earlier raised alarm that the two patients had absconded after health officials notified them of their test results and were on their way to convey them to an isolation centre. Two COVID-19 patients abscond in Kaduna The two patients had been in isolation pending receipt of their test result and according to the state government had been duly informed on Friday that they had tested positive.

She had stated that the patients had both ”switched off their phones and remained incommunicado once they were informed of their positive test results.”

The commissioner encouraged all residents to take precautions and protect themselves and their families from Covid-19 and stressed that, ”persons who get infected should note that Covid-19 is not a death sentence, persons who receive treatment promptly have a higher chance of defeating the disease.”

”Twelve persons have so far been discharged in Kaduna State after receiving treatment and our health professionals are working hard for the recovery of other patients, ” she assured

The Dan Iyan of Kano who is the district head of Dawakin kudu, Yusuf Bayero, has died in the early hours of Sunday.

Yusuf was said to have died after a protracted illness. A source in the Kano emirate confirmed his death. He is a younger brother to late emir of Kano, Ado Bayero and an uncle to current emir of Kano Aminu Ado Bayero.

The late Dan Iyan Kano had held various positions with the then Kano Native Authority (NA) and he was a onetime parliamentary secretary in charge of Kaduna affairs.

Yusuf was turbaned in 1993 as Dan Iyan Kano by the the late emir of Kano Ado Bayero.

Yusuf has been buried in Kano state according to Islamic rites.

Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti says the state has recorded three new cases of COVID-19.

The governor broke the news in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Saturday night, warning that residents needed to be more cautious about the pandemic. ” We got information from NCDC tonight that three more persons tested positive to COVID-19 virus ” Two are contacts of the medical doctor still in our care, and another person who sneaked into the state before he was quarantined

” This underscores the need for extra vigilance,” he tweeted. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that with these new cases, the state’s confirmed cases had risen from the initial 12 to 15.

A resident of Katsina, who also sneaked into the state on a visit to her husband working in Oye Ekiti, was later discovered to be a carrier of the virus, thereby increasing the cases in the state to the initial 12. The Commissioner for Health, Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, had broken the news in Ado Ekiti.

Yaya -Kolade also disclosed the intention of the government to provide a COVID-19 testing laboratory in the state to improve testing capacity.

The commissioner said this had become necessary as more positive cases were being recorded. (NAN)

Bvertafor:
Tor how dem go do nah

Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole have killed several Boko Haram Terrorists and destroyed some of their logistics facilities at Parisu in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno State.

According to a statement signed by Coordinator, Defence Media Operation, Major General John Enenche, the air strike was conducted after intelligence reports revealed that the terrorists had resumed use of the settlement as a staging area to launch attacks against nearby troops’ locations. He said recent aerial surveillance missions had also shown significant terrorist activities in the area whilst identifying some compounds housing the fighters and their logistics items.

Enenche said the Air Task Force dispatched its fighter jets to attack the location hence the Nigerian Air Force jets took turns to engage the target area with bombs and rocket strikes which resulted in the destruction of some of the structures as well as the killing of several terrorists.