₦airaland Forum

The federal government has denied receiving $5.6billion for Covid19 donations from anyone or cooperate Organisations to cushion the effect of the disease in the country.
The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning Clement Ikanade Agba who rose to the defence of the government on Thursday in Abuja said he was reacting to social media publications by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) accusing the government to have received and mismanaged the total sum of $5.6billion.
According to Agba, the government introduced a stimulus of N2 trillion into the economy because it knew that with covid, the country will shut down like the entire world, insisting that the money was basically drawn from the special account and financial institutions.
“They are saying that the country received a donation of $5.6billion dollars. That is incorrect,” Agba said.
“Nigeria did not receive a donation of $5.6billion to take care of Covid19. What happened was that as a result of shortfall in Revenue due to Covid19 where there was disruptions in supply and the pandemic also led to a reduction in the price of crude.
“Because of the demand issue OPEC had to reduce production of the various member country and Nigeria was not left out.
“We have the capacity of producing 2.5million barrels a day, but we were restricted to 1.4million barrels which affected Revenue and the price came as low as 12 dollars per barrel, so we needed to look for funds to ensure that we augment the budget to meet up with stimulating the economy.
“There are basically two sources of funding the 2.3trillion. The first 500billion have to come from special account which we embedded in the revised budget and the other 1.8billion.
“we also have programs to be financed by the financial sector and we have negotiated a 5percent interest rate with one year morotorium just to ensure that we are able to grow agriculture, look at the MSMEs, support the aviation sector and we also made some provision for the states.
“Off course you know that some states have some bail out funds, some went borrowing, we had to stop the repayment both for the principal and the interest.
“From the 500billion which came from the Budget we have released about 288billion to deal with those issues and some of it revolves around infrastructure.
“They are not things we do in a day, when the work is complete we pay the balance.
“This involves creation of assess roads in rural areas along the agro corridors to help food security because study have shown that about 40 to 60 percent of food produced is lost.
“Because of high food loses we think creation of assess road from the market is pertinent, we have about 377 rural roads currently ongoing across 266 rural communities.
“On the health side where we are also trying to build resilience, before now a lot of samples have to be taken out of the country for diagnosis because we didn’t have molecular laboratories. The country had just two but we are currently building 52 molecular laboratories in 52 federal medical centers and teaching hospitals.”

TEXAS, USA — COVID-19 came with pain, loss, devastation and at the same time, several hate crimes.
Last March, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act was brought to life by a few U.S. Senators.
"The bill is written to address any hate crime against anyone that has nexus with COVID-19," said Matt Manning with Webb, Cason and Manning, P.C.
He said the slang that surrounds COVID-19 has become dangerous for some Americans.
"The way it's been referred to has created an uptick in violence to certain people, against the Asian population which is why it's extremely problematic," said Manning.
92 Senators voted yes while six voted against the bill. One of them being Texas Rep. Ted Cruz.
"He's accusing the Democrats of trying to use this legislation to muzzle people and prevent them from talking about the fact that the COVID-19 virus came out of China," said Dr. Bill Chriss, a political analyst.
But that's not the purpose of the bill.
"The democratic response is 'We're not talking about that -- we're talking about the relation against Asian Americans,'" said Chriss.
For the Asian American Pacific Islander Committee out of Texas A&M Corpus Christi, the change for a better tomorrow with less hate starts with us.
"The standard of Democracy," said Rishi Raj with the AAPI committee, "If we change, our representation changes and that changes policy and that bring us towards a society that is fair and just".
The bill made it to the next step, but still needs a few more to officially be passed.

To this end, she will be hosting a meeting tagged; ‘Financing Safe Schools: Creating safe learning communities on Tuesday’, with a view to deepening education and creating safe learning communities across the country.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, international projections estimated that children missing out on five months of education would collectively result in $10 trillion in lost future incomes.
The Minister noted that a number of critical issues need to be addressed in comprehensive strategies to facilitate sustained safe schools, safe education and a sustained future for Nigeria’s next generation.
Thus, the dialogue will bring together State Governors, the Nigerian Governors Forum, National Economic Council, members of parliament, National Security Adviser and Security Chiefs, Ministry of Education, multilateral institutions, donors, civil society and private sector representatives, including Nigerian Economic Summit group (NESG); to address the urgent issues which are stopping the safe education of children.
Among others, the dialogue aims to re-engage senior policy makers including State Governors, National Security Advisers, the Ministry of Education and others to take a stand, acknowledge the emergency and commit to taking actions to reverse the current trend in numbers of out of school children.
More so, the meeting demands that stakeholders, especially security agencies and human rights organisations, develop cross-sectoral strategies to implement the Safe Schools Declaration, including developing strategies with students and teachers to make it safe for children to return to school and build confidence in the education system.
She added that Nigeria currently faces a socio-economic crisis born out of an education crisis.
“As a result, history of poor education provision has been exacerbated by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, and conflict across the country has led to over 13 million children being out of school- the highest rate of out of school children in the world.
“Out of school children” are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and critically are ‘fundamentally ill-equipped’ to positively contribute productively to the economy.
Providing the basis for the gathering, she cites a wide range of understandings: “The World Bank has coined the term ‘learning poverty’, which measures quality and quantity of learning in developing countries. Recent studies show only 20 percent of children in the North East of Nigeria who complete primary school can read.”
“Education is critical to Nigeria’s future given almost 44 percent of Nigeria’s population are between the ages of 0-14. The World Bank estimates that COVID-19 may have increased learning poverty from 53 percent to 63 percent in countries like Nigeria. The impact of out of school children in Nigeria is a structural impediment to Nigeria achieving the SDGs.
“The impact of conflict on education is especially stark for girls with lower literacy rates across the country for females of 12 percent compared to males. Yet, reports on girls education predict that making sure girls complete secondary education could boost developing country gross domestic product (GDP) by 10 percent and a return of investment of $2.8 for every $1 invested in girls education.
According to her, the combination of multi-dimensional attacks (in the North Eastern region) and the on-COVID-19 crisis means an urgent multi-dimensional approach is needed.

As the Nigerian government gives its component states a condition to halt new COVID-19 vaccinations, only about 50 per cent of ‘eligible’ Nigerians have been vaccinated, an official said. Those vaccinated are, however, less than one per cent of the country’s estimated 200 million population.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said on Friday that only about half of the ‘eligible’ Nigerians have been vaccinated with the Oxford- AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr Shuaib, while speaking at a press briefing, said the number represents 1,071,346 people considered eligible to receive jabs of the vaccine.
“As of today, April 16, 1,071,346 representing 53.2 per cent of the eligible persons targeted with the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered their first dose in this vaccination phase,” he said.
“These are the people who have their information already uploaded on our database, while others are awaiting upload, potentially due to network problems and the high traffic of those coming in to take their shots at the same time.”
Having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines in early March, Nigeria commenced vaccination beginning with healthcare workers who are often at the risk of exposure to infections being the first responders to patients.
The 3.94 million doses is part of an overall 16 million doses planned to be delivered to Nigeria in batches over the next months through COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to free vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population.
Nigeria on March 21 received another 300,000 doses of the same vaccine from telecom giant, MTN. On Tuesday, April 6, the government of India also delivered 100,000 doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
The COVISHIELD is a brand of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s health minister says the nation will still hit its COVID-19 vaccination targets, even as it pauses the use of the Johnson & Johnson shot amid concerns over blood clots. 
South Africa’s mass-inoculation campaign was dealt the setback following word that six women in the United States developed a blood clotting disorder after receiving the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. One person died. Nearly 7 million doses have been administered in the United States.    
This is now the second time that South Africa has had to shift gears in its vaccination campaign. In February, just days after receiving its first shipment of vaccines, authorities jettisoned plans to use the AstraZeneca product amid reports that it did not protect against the variant of the coronavirus that is most prevalent in South Africa. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease.    
And now this, said Dr. Zweli Mkhize, the nation’s health minister. So far, he said, more than 290,000 South African health workers have been given the vaccine, with no reported blood clots. Nevertheless, he told officials, South Africa will pause the program until everyone is sure the vaccine is safe.       
“Based on their advice, we've determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated,” he said to parliamentarians via webinar on Wednesday. “… I call for calm and patience as we ensure that we continue to be properly guided by science and ensuring the safety of our people as we roll out the vaccine campaign.”     
Mkhize says he hopes deliberations on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s safety will last only a few days and will not lead to complete withdrawal of the product.   
He says the news about the vaccine is disappointing as mortality rates from the coronavirus appear to be declining, and South Africa will soon receive a total of 30 million doses of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine. South Africa has more than 1.5 million confirmed cases, giving it the highest burden on the continent.    
But, he said, the bigger battle — the one he hasn’t been able to discuss until now — is the behind-the-scenes fight South African officials have waged with pharmaceutical giants. Both Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, he said, have asked for what he described as “difficult and unreasonable” guarantees from South Africa and other nations.    
"I can also assure you that we have not been sleeping on the job,” he said. “The fact that we previously did not disclose before parliament the blow-by-blow details of the intense negotiations is because we’re prioritizing the closing of those agreements in order to secure the vaccines we require for us to reach population immunity." 

After reading some news reports, it is found that people who have been injected with J & J vaccine have thrombotic symptoms. Many people will express concern. What is the reason? Johnson & Johnson should carefully study whether the vaccine developed is really harmful, otherwise no one dares to vaccinate.

The coronavirus is disrupting the availability of a fast food staple, with ketchup packets in short supply at eateries across the United States.
The single-serve packs are in high demand as shared use of the bottled version is being discouraged. The surge in take-outs and deliveries is another factor.
Prices of ketchup packages have risen 13 percent from January last year, before the pandemic took hold.
A Wall Street Journal report says, "Restaurants are trying to secure the tabletop staple after COVID-19 upended the condiment world order."
Kraft Heinz, which has nearly 70 percent of the US market, is planning to catch up with demand by raising production by 25 percent to more than 12 billion packs a year.

The negative impact of COVID-19 involves all walks of life. In fact, not only the food supply chain has been damaged, but many other areas are in short supply. I can only pray for an early recovery.

With high unemployment rates, inflation, ongoing insecurity in various parts of the country, and the COVID-19 pandemic on its issue list, the last thing Nigeria needs is a doctors’ strike. 
But that is exactly what happened on Thursday as the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) began an indefinite strike to protest poor working conditions and pay. 
Resident doctors in Nigeria are medical school graduates training and working as specialists, and make up almost half of all working doctors in the country. This is the third time the doctors have gone on strike in the past year. 
This also comes as the country rolls out vaccines, acquired via the COVAX Facility — led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — to frontline health workers and the elderly, before the rest of the population.



The state should safeguard the legal rights of doctors and provide them with good working conditions and salaries. COVID-19 is still a great threat to people, and we cannot do without doctors now.

There have been increasing concerns about the future of the print media in Nigeria. The mounting worries also rubbish claims that business losses in the sector are largely due to the global pandemic. Victor Ifijeh, seasoned journalist, reportedly laments: "To say that the print is seriously challenged is an understatement. To say that it is in decline is putting it mildly. In the words of a commentator, the print media is dying slowly."
For Bayo Onanuga, another industry veteran, the emergence of digital media disrupted and drastically decreased the value of print editions. "Globally, newspapers in print are becoming anachronistic and with the way technology is driving the industry, many journalists will soon be jobless if they do not adapt quickly to the phenomenally-changing environment," Onanuga recently opines.
Reuben Abati, veteran columnist, attributed print media survival challenges to declining advertisement and readership. "Given the poor state of the economy, many businesses have had to cut down the amount that they spend on newspaper advertising and rationalise the options available to them in terms of reach and impact. Government departments and civil servants of old who used to buy newspapers have had to cut their budgets for such purpose. Circulation figures have, therefore, dropped," Abati, stresses, in a recent post in ThisDay.
As experts predicted, many professionals in print edition space, in Nigeria, have lost or are at the verge of losing their jobs, mostly through no fault of their own. According to Adekunle Samuel Ayeni, CEO, BHM Group: "... Tabloid journalist earns less than $100 per month, where most newspapers owe up to six months' salaries, and TV stations pay tokens for wages... "
Femi Soneye, Publisher, Persecondnews, also reportedly notes that "the parlous state of the economy had caused thousands of journalists to lose their jobs due to permanent shut down of their organisations, while others are being owed one or two years salaries." A recent online report, further stresses: "As we speak, the industry and professionals are facing a different kind of torture. This time around, not by any political office holder, but by a looming recession that has befallen the industry... ."
Regrettably, some print media owners and professionals in Nigeria, perhaps to stay afloat are accused of engaging in unethical practices, including cutting corners on due diligence as well as setting unrealistic revenue targets for their marketing teams. "But to keep ad money coming, some outlets have had to develop political affiliations and connections with companies and other interest groups. This guarantees a steady stream of revenue but at the cost of editorial independence," notes a report, recently published in techcabal.
Ayeni, cited above, agrees, noting that "the media scene is a mess and the public relations industry in Nigeria is a beneficiary. Driven by a news conference and press release culture, PR pros in these parts have mastered how to speak the language of envelopes. For decades, they have connived with poorly remunerated reporters and struggling publishers to fill papers and magazines with promotional content that scarcely catches the interest of the readers."
The increasing job losses are clearly a global phenomenon but the challenges, in advanced economies, are largely attributed to recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, Press Gazette recently reports: "News publishers have been furloughing staff, cutting wages and suspending print titles to cope with collapsing advertising and print sale revenues brought on by the pandemic." A report, cited in Pew Research Centre, also partly reads: "Layoffs continue to pummel U.S. newspapers. Roughly a quarter (27 per cent) of papers with an average Sunday circulation of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs... "
[ALSO READ] FG activates N240bn ADB facility for tech, creative sectors
But, the good news coming from advanced economies is that print media are now seeing appreciable success in their subscription model. There is equally clear-cut commitment by government, individuals and corporate organisations to sustain some of the platforms.
In the US, Rick Edmonds, media business analyst, notes in Poynter: "After years of hesitation about whether journalism merited support, community foundations are beginning to team up with big national outfits like the Knight Foundation and Lanfest with grant to bolster coverage. For-profit papers are among the recipients."
Edmonds also recalls that The Stranger, a weekly in Seattle, received donations, ranging from $3 to $10,000, after an urgent plea to the public to keep its print edition alive. The Fund for Investigative Journalism, Fundacion Gabo, Facebook Journalism Project are reportedly some of the opportunities created by corporate bodies to help in alleviating financial pressures on media organisations and professionals.
The Nigerian government is equally offering to salvage the print media sector. However, the proposed gesture might be described as a flicker of hope. Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, reportedly assures: "I have been in contact with leadership of newspapers to get a solution to the ailing economy of the newspapers and the entire media industry."
Mohammed also maintains: "As soon as we get the terms of reference, we would announce the membership and the terms of reference." The leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in recent tweets, also calls on banks operating in the country to disburse loans to the media to help them in averting the spate of job losses already being recorded among journalists.
Meanwhile, the critical times are clearly far from over. It, therefore, cannot be over-stressed that the times call for out-of-box-thinking on the part of print media owners and professionals in Nigeria. Print contents consumers remain sovereign. There must be consistent efforts in tracking and responding perfectly to their preference. The operators must also continue sourcing for and offering advertisers fresh and unique ways of deriving appreciable values from their media investments.
Advertisers, on the other hand, must not mostly be concerned about attracting customers while cutting costs. This is actually the perfect time for them to sustain their long-built and cozy relationship with the print media. Advertisers must equally provide irresistible baits that will compel readers to read print editions as well as stick to their brand offerings.

Access Bank has been driving its revenue growth through retail expansion, driven by a strong focus on consumer lending, payments and remittances, as well as customer acquisition at scale, writes Obinna Chima
It is no secret that achieving revenue growth in an earnings-constrained and ever-increasing competitive environment remains a major challenge for traditional banks globally.
The situation was further worsened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which has also led to an increased incursion by financial technology (fintech) players into the financial services segment.
According to a report by Deloitte, a global professional services firm, as the low interest rate regime and new regulations continue to strangle traditional sources of risk-based and fee income, many once-attractive customer relationships are generating less revenue, causing some to become unprofitable.
With this, many bank executives are finding that the old tried-and-true strategies for organic market share and revenue growth are not sufficient anymore.
Owing to this, they have continued to deepen their retail banking strategies and fine-tuning their products to laser in on the remaining attractive opportunities. One of such banks is Access Bank Plc.
Its consumer lending business has seen 60 per cent growth in digital lending volume and value. Access Bank has been driving its revenue growth through retail expansion, which has grown consistently across all income lines, driven by a strong focus on consumer lending, payments and remittances, digitalisation of customer journeys, and customer acquisition at scale.
It has also maintained strong capital levels despite investments for growth and has accumulated capital over time.
The bank under the leadership of Herbert Wigwe is currently in hot pursuit of its legacy debts which runs into billions of naira from recalcitrant debtors of former Diamond Bank Plc which it acquired few year ago.
It is currently locked in court battle with Seplat Chairman, ABC Orjiako, Seplat, its allied company, Cardinal Drilling Services over an $85 million by Cardinal. There are other high profile debtors are not happy with the vigour and resolve to recover the debts and are fighting back. But that has not deterred the leadership of the bank to remain focused on recovering the debts.
Its recently released financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2020, showed that despite a challenging economic and regulatory landscape, the bank beat analysts and stakeholders' expectations.

Millions of Americans have been vaccinated against Covid-19, and more are getting vaccinated every day. But that doesn't mean the US can let its guard down, health officials say.
More than 100 million people in the United States have received at least one dose, according to a tweet from Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the White House's Covid-19 data director. Almost 4 million doses have been administered since Thursday, marking a record-high seven-day average of nearly 3 million doses per day, Shahpar said.
Almost 40% of American adults have received at least one dose, with more than 1 in 5 adults fully vaccinated, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Friday's White House Covid-19 briefing.
But she still has her concerns, she said.
"We are at 64,000 new Covid cases today and our numbers continue to increase," Walensky said. "I still continue to worry that with 80% of the population unvaccinated, that we have a lot of work to do to control this pandemic."
Walensky urged Americans to continue using the "mitigation strategies we know work," like wearing masks and keeping a social distance.
"Getting more people vaccinated as quickly as possible and taking prevention measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 is the path out of this pandemic and back to our everyday activities," Walensky said.
White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients echoed that sentiment, telling reporters, "We are working to put this pandemic behind us as fast as we can, but we're not there yet. So we need everyone to do their part."
In a news conference Friday, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said cases were rising in the state and warned residents to stay vigilant.
"I know we're all fed up with a pandemic, physical distancing and mask wearing, but we are in the last few miles of the marathon," Brown said. "We have come so far, run so hard and we are close to the finish line. Don't let the vaccines and the sunny spring weather give us a false sense that we're in the clear, because we're not."

Iwobi opens up on Covid-19 isolation and is ‘ready’ for Nigeria’s Afcon qualifier against Lesotho
Alex Iwobi has revealed his readiness for Nigeria’s 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
The Everton star was recently cleared for the encounter by the Confederation of African Football after testing negative for the coronavirus.
The midfielder did not feature in Nigeria’s 1-0 victory over the Republic of Benin in Friday’s Afcon qualifying game after testing positive for Covid-19.
Iwobi has appreciated the support he has received so far from the president of Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, his teammates, coach and other crew members of the Super Eagles.
“I want to say thank you to everyone showing me love and support during this difficult time,” Iwobi told the NFF media channel.
“Your love has been quite overwhelming and I really appreciate it. I have to respect the Fifa and Caf protocols by isolating in my room.
“I mean it wasn’t easy especially knowing when you have no symptoms and you are okay but the main thing is that I am healthy and ready to go for the last game.
“I will like to say a big thank you to the NFF president [Pinnick], he took me like a son, made sure I was able to isolate comfortably.
“Also a thank you to my teammates, to the staff, the coach, they are always checking up on me and made sure I was okay. I am ready to go for the last game let’s see if we can stay unbeaten. Up Super Eagles!"
Iwobi has been a key member of the Super Eagles since making his debut for the side in 2015 after switching his allegiance from England.
The midfielder has made 44 appearances for the West African country, scoring nine goals, amid other dazzling performances.
Iwobi will be expected to help the Super Eagles extend their lead at the top of the Group L table.
The versatile midfielder has three goals in the qualifiers and now has a chance to increase his tally against the Crocodiles.
The Super Eagles have already sealed their place in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled for Cameroon.
They finished third at the last edition of the continental tournament in Egypt, behind winners Algeria and runners up Senegal.

The minister, who acknowledged receipt of the PTF letter, however, stated that “I am, therefore, to bring this to your notice and dispel any possibility of COVID-19 vaccines being available for sale or being administered by any unauthorised institution.
“To prevent the importation of fake vaccines, kindly note that the Nigeria Customs Service has designated the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as the only Point of Entry (PoE) for imported COVID-19 vaccines.”
He then called the attention of chief medical directors and medical directors of federal tertiary health institutions to the fake COVID-19 vaccines destined for Africa, noting that it had been arrested in China.
Meanwhile, competent sources in the ministry confirmed the information to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
One of the sources said: “the ministry issued a circular to inform the medical directors of federal hospitals about the fake vaccines.
“It is just to let them (medical directors) know that fake COVID-19 vaccines are on the way to Africa but is not in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is not even taking vaccines from China, so there is no way fake vaccines can get into the country because it is only the Federal Government that is authorised to import COVID-19 vaccines for now”.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria suspended the airline Emirates from flying into or out of its territory last week after the carrier imposed additional COVID-19 test requirements on passengers from the country, the aviation minister said on Monday.
Emirates said last week passenger flights to and from Nigeria had been suspended until further notice in line with government directives, but did not give details.

Cheap flights, cheap hotels and the chance to party in a place with lots of sunshine and virtually no Covid-19 restrictions have created a “perfect storm” amid the pandemic in South Florida, Miami's mayor warned Monday.
And local officials are bracing for more spring break mayhem like the kind that occurred over the weekend in Miami Beach when the crowds grew too big and too wild and police cracked down hard, he said.
“There's no doubt that Miami, and the Miami area, and the state are probably one of the most open states in the entire country,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, said on MSNBC.
“That's created sort of a perfect storm where you have people that can come to Miami. It's very inexpensive. I've been told some of the flights are $50 and even the hotels are very inexpensive. So, it's been a very difficult mix of inexpensive flights, inexpensive hotels and being known as probably the most open place in the country.”
Suarez spoke out a day after city leaders on the other side of Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach voted to extend an 8 p.m. curfew in the South Beach entertainment district to the end of this month and possibly into the middle of April.
“We're obviously preparing ourselves for the possibility that there may be spillover from some of these actions that are taken in Miami Beach with the early curfews and the early shutting down of the causeways of people entering Miami Beach, so we're prepared for that,” he said.
Suarez's concerns about a deluge of spring break visitors from afar who are unwilling to wear masks or practice social distancing — and are not required by local authorities to do so — have been echoed for weeks by public health experts.

Nigerian’s Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Monday announced the immediate resumption of catering services onboard domestic and international flights.
The services were suspended at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of measures to limit the spread of the virus.
While catering services were suspended, passengers were offered bottles of water as replacement by some airlines.
Mr Sirika while speaking at the weekly briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 explained that the latest decision was taken in consideration of businesses that have been adversely affected by the suspension.
He noted that the procedures for resumption of the services would be revealed by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and will be in line with international practices.
“Recall that at the beginning of the pandemic, we stopped catering on-board our flights,” he said.
“So, the PTF has decided that this catering service resumes immediately while the process and procedure will be communicated to the airlines via NCAA in due course.”
The minister also noted that the government was committed to the reopening of Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt airports for international flights.
He said a simulation exercise would be conducted prior to the opening to ascertain the level of preparedness.
“Regarding the Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu that we announced their opening, those dates are sacrosanct,” he said.
“The Kano airport scheduled to commence flight on the 4th of April 2021 as scheduled will continue and a simulation exercise is scheduled to take place a few days before the flight resume operation.”
Mr Sirika earlier announced that Enugu airport will be reopened for international flights on May 3, Kano airport on April 5 and Port Harcourt airport on April 15.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in March 2020 ordered the suspension of international flights to limit the spread of the virus and halt imported cases.
While domestic flights were also suspended, they resumed in September 2020. The Nigerian government later approved the reopening of International flights in batches beginning with Lagos and Abuja international airports.
Nigeria has recorded over 160,000 COVID-19 cases and over 2,000 deaths from the virus. However new daily cases have been low for the past three weeks, suggesting the country has gone past the worst phase of the virus.

Does the resumption of airline meals indicate that the worst is over for our country, which is great news!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have assured there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab after several countries suspended roll out over blood clot fears.
The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in,  said no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting.
“Yes, we should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine”, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, stressing that any concerns over safety must be investigated.
Currently,  about 10 European countries have suspended the vaccine’s use, following claims of a blood clots associated with its usage.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused use of the vaccin as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.
Italy and Austria have banned the use of jabs from separate batches of AstraZeneca, and Thailand and Bulgaria said this week they would delay rollout.
While no cases of blood clots have been reported so far in India,  the health  authority said it will carry out a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects from the AstraZeneca shot next week.
The review is taking place as a matter of abundant precaution”, the Hindustan Times daily reported, quoting NK Arora from the Indian covid task force
In Spain, at least five regions said they had suspended use of AstraZeneca vaccines from the suspect batch banned by Austria as a precautionary measure.
But several other countries, including Australia, said they would continue their roll-outs as they had found no reason to alter course. Canada also said there was no evidence the jab causes adverse reactions.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA on Saturday assured Nigerians that the AstraZeneca   vaccine  is safe, advising people to get vaccinated.
Kwara NMA Chairman, Prof. Baba Issa, gave the advise while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, in response to a question raised about the vaccine.
“It depends on the vaccine that they are taking, but the one we have in Nigeria made by AstraZeneca company is known to be safe and efficacious.
“That is why Nigeria has keyed into it and the Kwara Government has taken delivery of some doses of this vaccine.
“So I’ll advise people to take it, it is safe and it is very effective”,  Issa said.
Issa pointed out that when many people get vaccinated and become immune to the disease, Nigerians will develop herd-immunity.
“Herd immunity is resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population that is based on pre-existing immunity of a high proportion of individuals as a result of previous infection or vaccination”, he said.
Issa also advised that those vaccinated against the disease must continue to observe all COVID-19 protocols, such as physical distancing, wearing of facemasks and washing of hands.
He added that though the number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Kwara was not enough, more was being expected, adding that the target was to vaccinate as many people as possible.
He, however, explained that the current batch of COVID-19 vaccine was expected to cover healthcare workers and front-line workers in the country.
Prof. Tanimola Akande, former President of the Association of Public Health Physician of Nigeria (APHPN) said the vaccine was safe while confirming that he had already been vaccinated.
He said he felt no pain after taking the vaccination.
Also, Mustapha Katibi, the state representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), attested to the safety of the vaccine, saying that it was safe and effective.

Vaccination could offer a glimmer of hope for people who are still enduring symptoms weeks or months after recovering from COVID-19.
Somewhere between about 10% and 30% of people who catch COVID-19 end up with long-term symptoms referred to colloquially as long-COVID or long-haul COVID. Although most of the people with lingering problems had a bad bout with the disease, some barely had any symptoms at all.
A new theory is emerging, though still preliminary, that getting a COVID-19 vaccine could help some of these long-suffering people. 
In a survey of nearly 600 people who self-reported lingering symptoms after COVID-19, 47% saw no difference after vaccination, 39% improved after getting a vaccine and 14% felt worse. The survey was conducted by Survivor Corps, a grassroots group of people with long-term COVID-19. 
Their most common lingering symptom was fatigue, which was reported by nearly everyone and lasted 100 or more days. Other frequent long-term symptoms included shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise or be active, diarrhea, headache and loss of smell and/or taste.
It's biologically plausible that vaccination could help address some of these symptoms, said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of epidemiology and immunobiology at Yale, who developed the theory. 
It may be that their bodies still harbor particles or pieces of the virus that causes that causes COVID-19. The vaccine could theoretically stimulate their immune system to hunt down these remaining bits and clear them away so they can no longer cause inflammation.
"We know that the vaccine elicits very robust antibodies that can bind to the virus and viral remnants and clear it," she said. 
Iwasaki said it would be terrific if this works, because that would make vaccination a "cure" for many people with lingering symptoms. "Get rid of the source and that's it."
But that's probably not the whole answer.
It might also be that in some people, a COVID-19 infection pushed their immune system into overdrive. For them, a vaccine might provide only temporary relief, toning down this overresponse while the vaccine is circulating in the body, but not addressing the underlying problem.
But even in this case, knowing that would be important, Iwasaki said, because it would suggest that treatment to turn down an immune over-reaction, could be helpful.
"We really need to study their immune system," she said.

It is often said that the COVID-19 virus has brought irreversible change in working practices and lifestyle, and that the main beneficiaries are the likes of Alphabet, Apple and Facebook as well as mobile network operators (MNOs). This has been corroborated in Nigeria's national accounts, where we see that the only sector to have delivered robust growth through COVID-19 has been information and communications. It grew by 11.1 per cent y/y in 2019, which it managed to push up to 12.9 per cent last year. (Finance and insurance achieved 9.4 per cent in 2020 on the back of strong loan book expansion in the first half under regulatory pressure.)
We can see the change in data from the Kenyan Central Bank. When we compare April-December 2020 (life with COVID) with July 2019-March 2020 (pre-COVID), we find a 10 per cent decline in the value of card transactions. For obvious reasons, the fall in point of sales transactions was still lower.
Digital has been the predictable winner: the number of registered digital bank accounts rose by 11 per cent relative to the pre-COVID period and the cash transferred through mobile bank agents at more than twice the pace. We note that the central bank reacted smartly to COVID in March (2020) by cutting the fees, and increasing the upper limit on transactions.
The operating environment for MNOs has been more challenging in Nigeria. They were told to halt the sale of SIM cards in December. All new cards must now be linked to national identification numbers (NINs) by 06 April. We had thought that perhaps one reason for the measures was to collect revenue from a soft target but have been persuaded otherwise. The link, which already exists in Kenya, has security implications since the NIN is required for the issue of a passport, opening of bank account and voter registration.
From the operators' perspective, the best we can say is that the process is finite, that it is proceeding well according to the regulator and that it affects all players in the industry. More generally and again helped by the COVID, Nigeria has seen good volume growth and investment activity across the technology segment, notably in fintech. Two Nigerian payment platforms (one since acquired by US interests) diversified into e-commerce last year, and we read in the local media that another two are in the process of following their example.
The tech sector has been boosted across the world by COVID: we work from home, talk to our colleagues and clients virtually, follow webinars, attend e-school and support e-commerce for our food, clothing and entertainment. Once we are free (not of COVID-19 but the restrictions put in place to control it), we will revert to some of our old habits such as going to the cinema and eating at a restaurant.
Nonetheless, there has been an underlying shift in behavioural preferences. This has been more marked with the young, who dominate in Nigeria and other emerging economies. The challenge for the tech sector is to broaden access to its products. A minority in Nigeria does not have access to a mobile, often for reasons of connectivity, and a more substantial minority is unbanked. Another result of COVID-19 has been a rise in poverty levels, estimated by the World Bank at more than 15 million Nigerians, which adds to the formidable task of the tech companies.

Jack Lew, former United States Secretary of the Treasury described a budget as "not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations". Unfortunately, Nigeria's health budget has poorly reflected the values and aspirations of its citizens.
Healthcare financing in Nigeria has so far been inadequate to cater for the health needs of Nigerians, as the budgetary allocation for health has barely exceeded 7% of the nation's total annual budget. In 2021, the total allocation to the health ministry plus statutory transfers is less than 5% of the nation's annual budget. This is contrary to the Abuja Declaration which called for the allocation of a minimum of 15% of the national budget to health. The pattern of health financing a government utilises in financing the healthcare budget determines how health services will be rendered to the citizens. Additionally, it also determines how and whether the country will be able to achieve universal health coverage and improve the socioeconomic development of the citizenss. There is an uneven allocation of finance and facilities at the three tiers of the healthcare system in Nigeria, primary, secondary and tertiary.
On December 31, 2020 President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2021 budget into law which was themed a budget of economic recovery and resilience. The budget could have not been better themed considering the toll on the world economy inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the urgent need for increased investment to strengthen the health system especially at the primary healthcare level, to respond to the pandemic and other daring health issues, some budget lines were reduced and others remained underfunded. It is worrisome that the national family planning budget declined from N1.2 billion in 2020 to N1.06 billion in 2021.
Why exactly is this a cause for concern? At the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, Nigeria committed to increasing its Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) by 2% every year to achieve 36% by 2018 in order to avert 31,000 maternal deaths and 1.5 million child deaths and save more than 700,000 mothers from injuries or permanent illness due to childbirth. However, according to the 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the total CPR for any method is 17% among women of reproductive age, with 23.6% unmet need for family planning.
It is obvious that the 2012 commitment and the national family planning blueprint target has not translated to tangible results at the national level. However, there has been appreciable improvements at the sub-national level. NDHS 2018 has shown that Gombe State made an impressive increase in CPR from 4% in 2013 to 17% in 2018, which represents a significant increase of more than 400%. This progress could be linked to the political will demonstrated by its leadership in providing a policy framework that supports task-shifting and task-sharing, where community health extension workers (CHEWs) are engaged in the provision of injectable contraceptives in the communities.
This is similar to the practice in Rwanda. Community-Based Provision (CBP) of Family Planning Services by Community Health Workers (CHWs) is one of the key approaches implemented to increase the accessibility and uptake of family planning services, which include not only counseling but also provision of contraceptive methods such as contraceptive pills, injectables, cycle beads and condoms.
It was introduced in 2010 as a component of the national community health policy and the family planning policy in the country.
The revised National Family Planning Blueprint (2020-2024) plans to achieve a Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) of 27% by the year 2024. This represents a projected 3% annual growth from the present national mCPR of 17%.
To achieve this feat, what should be done?
First, government at all levels must commit to a sustainable financing for healthcare delivery, especially in the procurement of family planning commodities. This must reflect in yearly budgets. Also, beyond budgeting, efforts must be made to ensure that budgetary allocations for family planning are released on time. Between 2018 and 2021, only N2.7bn was allocated for counterpart funding for family planning commodities, of which only about 55% has been released. For the first time, two local government areas (Funakaye and Nafada) in Gombe State allocated and released funds for family planning from their health budget in 2020.
Second, from the Gombe State example, other state governments should embrace the task-shifting and task-sharing policy, and establish a community-based distribution of injectable contraceptives and other family planning commodities using community health extension workers. With this programme, these critical cadre of health workers will be able to reach underserved populations with family planning services. There should be sustained budgetary allocations of operational costs for the community health workers to deliver these services.
Third, all stakeholders including civil society organisations, traditional and religious leaders must lend their support to raise awareness and address myths and misconceptions, to improve family planning uptake. This can be facilitated through both Christian and Muslim perspectives of family planning.
It is a fact that health prevention is better and cheaper than treatment. The cost of providing care for unwanted pregnancies outweighs the cost of modern contraception. According to WHO's analysis, for every additional dollar spent on providing family planning services, USD 2.2 dollars is reduced from the cost of pregnancy-related care in developing countries.
It is clear then that family planning is a cost-effective best buy for development. The federal government should urgently consider an additional allocation for family planning in a supplementary budget for 2021, to help maintain the gains we have made, and reflect the values and aspirations of Nigerian families and all those working to provide family planning services.

A handful of countries in Europe are shying away from the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Demark, Norway and Iceland said Thursday they would halt its use while European drug regulators examine the possibility of a link to blood-clotting issues. They emphasized that they were just being cautious and that there is no evidence of any causal link, and global health authorities confirmed support for the vaccine.
Bulgaria joined those countries on Friday, saying it would temporarily suspend inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine after the death of a woman a day after she received a shot (her autopsy found no traces of blood clots). And Thailand delayed its rollout of the vaccine, which was to begin Friday. The Democratic Republic of Congo has also delayed its rollout, Reuters reported.
Germany, France, Poland and Nigeria have said they would continue to administer the vaccine.
A senior adviser to the World Health Organization, Bruce Aylward, stressed in a news briefing on Friday that the W.H.O. had “great confidence” in AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The vaccine has been authorized for use in more than 70 countries, but not the United States, where it is still going through clinical trials.
A shortfall in the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine has fueled tensions within Europe and with European Union allies. AstraZeneca has asked the Biden administration to let it send unused American doses to the E.U.
Here’s what else were learned this week:
A new study found that older people managed to stay happier during the pandemic. During the study, those over 50 — independent of income or education, in national samples — experienced more positive emotions in a given day and fewer negative ones. The results of the study also helped answer an age old question: Do people somehow develop better coping skills as they age? They seem to.
An analysis of electronic medical records in California found that nearly a third of people who experience long-term symptoms from the coronavirus had not had any symptoms from their initial coronavirus infection through the 10 days after they tested positive.
Of over 200,000 people who were tested in city school buildings in New York City from October to December, only .4 percent of tests came back positive for the coronavirus, a remarkably lower virus transmission compared with the citywide rate of positive test results. Even when cases were detected, only .5 percent of school-based contacts who quarantined contracted the virus.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-olu, on Wednesday, revealed that the state may begin to adminster the COVID-19 vaccines from Federal Government from tommorow.Sanwo-Olu stated this when the Head of Mission and the World Health Organization, (WHO), Representative for Nigeria, Doctor Walter Mulombo to paid him a courtesy visit at Lagos House, Ikeja.
The governor also said it is committed to building an enduring relationship with the WHO to provide quality healthcare service to its citizens.
Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos State Covid-19 Vaccines steering Committee had designed a level of strategy and an elaborate process to ensure it was administered well while calling for more support of the WHO as well as other international health institution.
Earlier in his remarks, the Head of Mission and the WHO’s Representative for Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo commended the Sanwo-Olu’s administration for being proactive in its contribution and excellence response system on making Nigeria polio free as well as its second to none efforts in Africa at containing COVID 19 while imploring health workers to key in to the role out of the vaccines in order to revive the economy of the Nigeria.
Lagos State took delivery of five hundred and seven thousand stock of the AstraZenaca covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday.

All eligible Nigerians must enlist for COVID-19 vaccinations, the country’s president has said after taking the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab live on television.
President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were given the vaccine in the capital Abuja on the second day of Nigeria’s immunization drive on Saturday.
The event was televised as “a demonstration of leadership and faith in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines,” according to the president.
“I have received my first dose and I urge all eligible Nigerians to do the same so that we can be protected from the virus,” said Buhari, advising citizens to only get vaccinated at authorized designated centers.
“The vaccine offers us hope for a safe Nigeria that is free of this coronavirus.”
Nigeria’s COVID-19 case tally is now above 158,000, including 1,954 deaths and over 137,000 recoveries, according to latest figures from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Buhari called on all state governments and political and religious leaders to play their part in making the vaccination drive a success.
The president said Nigeria has received 4 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and will be getting more shipments in the near future.
He explained that the government plans to vaccinate at least 70% of the country’s over 205 million population in 2021 and 2022.

The governors of the 36 states of the federation will today meet to discuss modalities for the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines that arrived from India on Tuesday.
THISDAY gathered that the governors would be briefed by officials of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) as well as the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the pandemic.
Over 3.9 million doses of the vaccines that arrived from India would be distributed to the states after the governors and officials of the PTF have agreed on the modalities for the distribution.
It was gathered that the governors would be relying on the states' experience in the eradication of the polio vaccines in the distribution of the vaccines.
The states, it was gathered, would ensure that they have the refrigerating facilities that would keep the vaccine in moderate temperatures that are suitable for the efficient performance equivalent of a temperate region.
THISDAY also gathered that the sub-committee of the National Economic Council (NEC) set up to discuss the shortfall in the revenue met yesterday, where the governors raised questions over the declining revenue profile presented by the NNPC.
According to a source privy to the meeting, who spoke to THISDAY, the governors raised queries for the NNPC to explain the shortfall on the revenue accruing from the sale of crude oil.
He explained that the NNPC officials at the meeting were not forthcoming on how and why the nation is witnessing shortfalls from the sale of crude oil despite reports of an increase in the sale of crude oil.
Representatives of the Nigeria Governors' Forum had two weeks ago met with the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over the shortfall of revenue accruing to states.
The meeting according to the secretariat of the governors was at the instance of the last NEC headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN).
It is expected that the NEC sub-committee's recommendations will form the decision of the federal government on how to address shortfalls of revenue in the states.

Nigeria on Friday started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Cyprian Ngong, a senior registrar at the National Hospital, became the country’s first person to receive the vaccine in the capital Abuja.
President Mohammadu Buhari and his vice president are scheduled to receive their doses on Saturday, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said in a statement.
Kayode Fayemi, chairman of Nigerian Governors' Forum, disclosed on Thursday "governors of the 36 states of the federation and their deputies will take the vaccine on March 10”.
A total of 3.94 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine were shipped into the country on Tuesday.
The West African country has a population of over 200 million people, according to the country's 2006 national census.
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control on Friday said the country recorded 709 new cases, pushing the total number of confirmed cases to 154,671.

Academy invites 181 eminent scholars in medicine, healthcare as foundation fellows

Towards promoting excellence in medical research, human health and welfare, the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria (AMSN) has invited 181 eminent and outstanding scholars who have made landmark contributions in medicine and health care as foundation fellows.
Chairman Board of Trustees, AMSN, Dr. Sonny Kuku, and the President, Prof Oladapo Ashiru, in a statement, said after thorough deliberations and due diligence, the proposed foundation Fellows have been drawn from all over the country and abroad. They consist of Fellows from the Basic Medical Sciences (27 Fellows), Basic Clinical Sciences (28 Fellows), Clinical Sciences (89 Fellows), Dental Sciences (18 Fellows), and Emeritus Fellows (19). All Fellows are entitled to the use of FAcadMedS after their names. The names of the Fellows are on website at www.acadmeds.org.
According to the statement, the Academy of Medicine Specialties believes the outstanding experts would be able to provide academic and professional leadership. In all the various health and medical challenges facing the country and enhance health and welfare and contribute to the science, art, theory, and practice of medicine in the country.
It noted that the inaugural and ceremonies committee consisting of the chair, secretary, and representatives of each section in the Academy would be announced shortly. They would plan the logistics and other protocols for the formal inauguration.
AMSN noted: “The Federal Government of Nigeria Companies and Allied Matters Act 0f 1990, on June 11th, 2019, approved the AMSN. The objectives, among others, are to promote excellence in medical research and education and promote the application of research in Medicine and the enhancement of human health and welfare.
“The Academy is a merit-based one. Members shall be persons qualified to practice Medicine or Dentistry or non-medical practitioners in other related medical sciences. The Academy is both an honorific membership and a policy research organisation.
“Its members, elected based on their outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service, serve without compensation in studies and other activities on matters of significance to health. Election to active membership is both an honour and a commitment to serve in Academy affairs.”

DAKAR, Senegal — Nearly 4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, the third and largest delivery so far to an African country by the global COVAX initiative, which was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have fair access to vaccines.
The COVAX program shipped 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, from Mumbai to Abuja, according to a joint statement from UNICEF, which is working in partnership with the World Health Organization, GAVI, which is an international vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with more than 200 million residents, and it recently experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases. As of Tuesday the West African nation has recorded a cumulative total of 156,017 cases, including 1,915 deaths.
Tuesday’s delivery is part of a first wave of vaccines arriving in Nigeria that will continue in the coming days and weeks, the statement said.
“After a year of disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, today we celebrate the efforts being made in getting the vaccine to Nigeria. With more than 150,000 Nigerians infected with the virus and over 1,800 lives lost, the path to recovery for the people of Nigeria can finally begin,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative. “This is a very significant occasion -- the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines into Nigeria is critical in curbing the pandemic. The only way out of this crisis is to ensure that vaccinations are available to all.”
The COVAX program is expected to deliver around 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa in the first quarter of 2021, in the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Nigeria is among 92 countries worldwide that will receive vaccines for free through the COVAX initiative. Another 90 countries and eight territories have agreed to pay for doses.
The COVAX initiative, however, has been hampered by the severely limited global supply of doses as well as logistical problems that delayed the global distribution of the vaccines. The long-awaited program has fallen short of hopes it would quickly ensure vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people.
Ghana begins its vaccination campaign Tuesday, after being the first country to receive COVAX vaccines last week with a delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Its inoculation campaign from March 2 to 15 will take place in 43 districts that are the epicenter of the pandemic there.
Ivory Coast, which received 504,000 doses last week, began giving shots Monday in the commercial capital Abidjan.
“This is a landmark moment for the country and the COVAX facility’s mission to help end the acute phase of the pandemic by enabling equitable access to these vaccines across the world. We are glad to see Nigeria is amongst the first receiving the doses from COVAX,” said Thabani Maphosa, managing director for country programs at Gavi, the vaccine alliance.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is expected to ask President Joe Biden to consider sharing part of the U.S. coronavirus vaccine supply with its poorer southern neighbor when the two leaders hold a virtual summit on Monday, U.S. and Mexican officials said.
Biden is open to discussing the matter as part of a broader regional effort to cooperate in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but will maintain as his “number one priority” the need to first vaccinate as many Americans as possible, a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Lopez Obrador has been one of the most vocal leaders in the developing world pressing the richest countries to improve poorer nations’ access to the vaccines. He has called the current distribution system “totally unfair.”
“We fully expect that to come up,” the White House official said when asked whether Lopez Obrador was likely to raise a request for shared vaccines when the leaders hold their first virtual meeting since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
A Mexican official said Lopez Obrador would ask for a loan of the U.S. vaccine supplies, to be paid back when vaccines that Mexico has contracts for are delivered later in the year.
Lopez Obrador’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Mexican media outlet Proceso, Lopez Obrador raised the issue with Biden in a January call shortly after his swearing-in.
The agenda for the summit, to be held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns, is also expected to include migration, the thorniest bilateral issue, together with law enforcement cooperation and economic development plans for southern Mexico and Central America, the U.S. official said.
Mexico had a testy relationship with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, though Lopez Obrador, an often abrasive leftist, forged a mutually beneficial partnership with the Republican president as they worked to stem migration from impoverished Central America.
Biden has been undoing what his White House has called “draconian” Trump-era immigration policies that closed off routes to asylum in the United States, while trying to curb an increasing flow of new undocumented arrivals until the system for legal migration is overhauled.
Seeking to turn the page on Trump, the White House official said Biden was determined to move away from the former president’s “governing by tweet” and re-establish more traditional contacts.
The official made clear that while Biden is focused on “getting jabs in the arms” of Americans, the United States recognizes the need to forge a strategy to assist its neighbors since national borders cannot seal it off from the pandemic.
“Once we actually get the pandemic under control, the economic recovery is one where we’re going to have to eventually open our borders,” the U.S. official said. “But we cannot open our borders if Canada and Mexico have not similarly addressed the pandemic. So collaboration with Mexico is a top priority.”
While Biden has increased funding for international efforts to combat COVID-19, he could face political fallout if he moves too fast to ship vaccines to other countries when the United States is ramping up but still struggling to meet domestic needs.
Mexico’s inoculation program has been delayed by slow shipments, despite agreements with international drugmakers meant to purchase doses for the country’s 126 million people.
With Pfizer Inc deliveries running behind schedule, Mexico has scrambled to fill the gap, landing initial deliveries of Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinovac.
The government has given a first shot to just over 1.8 million people, or 1.4% of the population. Mexico has had more than 185,000 COVID-19 deaths and more than 2 million coronavirus infections.
Another source of U.S.-Mexican tension was a now-dropped U.S. drug investigation into former Mexican defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos. The U.S. arrest of Cienfuegos in October ruffled feathers in Mexico, which retaliated with restrictions on U.S. drug enforcement operations.
Asked whether Mexico had reduced security cooperation, the White House official said: “What we have found is that our collaboration and communication with Mexican law enforcement continues.”
Lopez Obrador has also told the United States not to meddle in Mexican energy policy, reflecting a view that the new U.S. administration would seek to defend investor interests as Mexico moves to change rules in favor of state power and oil companies.
Despite some investors’ view that the policy shift could violate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, the White House official said “it’s not clear whether there’s been a violation of USMCA” while insisting any differences could be worked out “within a context of respect.”

The U.S. government is taking new steps to speed up releases of unaccompanied children to parents or other sponsors as the Biden administration grapples with a growing number of underage migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, earlier this month reversed a policy put in place by former Republican President Donald Trump that allowed U.S. authorities to rapidly expel migrant children caught at the border without their parents. The expulsion policy is still in place for most migrants, including families and individual asylum seekers.
In January, U.S. Border Patrol caught 7,300 unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally, the highest number of arrests in the month of January in at least a decade and up from 4,500 a month earlier.
Children apprehended at the border are now subject to a process outlined in U.S. law and standard before Trump’s order: they are held briefly in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and then transferred to government shelters before being released to their parents or other adults in the United States. From there, the children can pursue their claims for asylum or other protection in immigration court, some with help from lawyers or sponsors.
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reopened an emergency shelter in Texas and is also considering reopening a controversial facility in Florida, a sign of the scramble to find housing for the children. Shelter capacity was greatly reduced due to coronavirus social distancing, and existing facilities are close to full.
HHS, which oversees shelters for migrant children, is in the process of switching to a new database that could cut hours or days from the time it takes to perform background checks for sponsors, said a department official who requested anonymity to discuss internal operations.
The department on Wednesday sent out new guidance to shelter operators saying they could pay for transportation for unaccompanied minors, including flights, in cases where sponsors cannot pay. Previously, providers needed special approval for that step.
The Biden administration also withdrew this week a Trump administration proposal that advocates said would have kept children in government custody for longer periods of time.
The proposed Trump changes set a firm deadline for sponsors to submit information to prove their relationship to the child or risk being denied custody, which advocates said could have resulted in more kids stuck in shelters.
The proposal was just “another way that the Trump administration was trying to frustrate the reunification process,” said Jennifer Podkul from the nonprofit Kids in Need of Defense, which provides legal representation for children.
The Biden administration simultaneously proposed its own changes this week to several forms used related to custody requests by potential sponsors of unaccompanied children.
As part of the changes, which could go into effect after 60 days, HHS would no longer ask sponsors for their Social Security numbers on the forms.
Such questions could discourage immigrant relatives living in the country illegally from coming forward to claim a child.

Germany, once a pandemic model, is stumbling through a second wave. A debate rages over who will be the next F.D.A. chief at a critical moment.New York City has fewer than 1,000 Covid-19 first doses on hand because of shipment delays caused by snowstorms across the country, the city reported on Saturday. (An earlier version of this briefing failed to note that the number applied to first rather than overall doses.)
The delays brought the city’s “entire vaccination effort” to a “standstill,” Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, wrote on Twitter.
Vicious winter weather has snarled vaccine deliveries nationwide. The White House estimated that the weather had created a backlog of six million doses, and pleaded with local officials to extend hours at vaccination sites and schedule additional appointments. The bad weather has slowed two vaccine shipping hubs — a FedEx center in Memphis and a UPS site in Louisville, Ky. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency said this week that more than 2,000 vaccine sites were in areas with power outages.
In Texas, where millions of residents lost power during this week’s powerful storm, state health officials said that more than 100,000 first doses and 300,000 second doses that were supposed to be delivered this week were still waiting to be shipped to Texas from out-of-state warehouses, citing data from the federal vaccine tracking system. The missed doses are expected to be delivered during the first half of next week.
In the Houston area, some vaccination sites began reopening at the end of this week. A mass FEMA vaccination site at NRG Park will open for the first time on Tuesday, and is expected to vaccinate 42,000 people per week, Lina Hidalgo, chief executive of Harris County, said on Thursday.
Mr. de Blasio said on Friday that New York City had delayed scheduling up to 35,000 first dose appointments because of the shortage.
Despite the delays, New Yorkers whose appointments had not been canceled by their providers were able to get their shots over the weekend. And New York State is still scheduling appointments for new mass vaccination sites opening in Brooklyn and Queens on Wednesday in partnership with FEMA.
State officials said that they had received 40 percent of their vaccine allocation for the week, and that they expected the remainder would be distributed on Sunday.
The new sites, at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and York College in Queens, are open to residents of only select ZIP codes and are intended to increase low vaccination rates in communities of color. ZIP code data released on Tuesday showed drastic disparities between vaccination rates in whiter areas of New York City compared with predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said in a statement on Friday that he expected the FEMA sites would have “a dramatic impact on some of our hardest hit communities.”

Doctors say a woman in Michigan contracted Covid-19 and died last fall two months after receiving a tainted double-lung transplant from a donor who turned out to harbor the virus that causes the disease — despite showing no signs of illness and initially testing negative.
Officials at the University of Michigan Medical School suggested it may be the first proven case of Covid-19 in the U.S. in which the virus was transmitted via an organ transplant. A surgeon who handled the donor lungs was also infected with the virus and fell ill but later recovered.
The incident appears to be isolated — the only confirmed case among nearly 40,000 transplants in 2020. But it has led to calls for more thorough testing of lung transplant donors, with samples taken from deep within the donor lungs as well as the nose and throat, said Dr. Daniel Kaul, director of Michigan Medicine’s transplant infectious disease service.

Two people who flew into Hawaii from Louisiana were arrested last week after allegedly trying to bribe their way out of the state’s required Covid-19 precautions.
One of the personnel who screens incoming travelers at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu alerted authorities after it happened Friday, according to Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety and the state's attorney general’s office.
Johntrell White, 29, allegedly told the screener he would offer her $2,000 if she allowed him to pass by without the mandatory quarantine. Then Nadia Bailey, 28, allegedly added that she would throw in an added $1,000 if the screener allowed both of them to go through without quarantining.
Neither traveler had a valid pre-test or Covid-19 exemption, authorities said.
White and Bailey were arrested for bribery and sent back home, according to a release from the office of Hawai’i Gov. David Ige. Court records were not available for either White or Bailey on the Hawaii State Judiciary records search.
Public records for White did not include a phone number and it is unclear if he has retained an attorney. Bailey did not immediately return a phone call from NBC News on Thursday.
Travelers arriving in Hawaii are required to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of their arrival in order to avoid the mandatory 10-day quarantine, according to the state’s Safe Travels Hawai'i program. They are also subject to a temperature screening on arrival.

Florida is famous for its oranges, but Gov. Ron DeSantis of late has been busy turning his lemon of a Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan into lemonade.
The first few weeks of the rollout of vaccinations in December were chaotic across the country after the Trump administration in essence left it up to governors to figure out how to get needles into the arms of as many people as possible.
DeSantis was harshly criticized after he chose to ignore federal guidelines and give priority to senior citizens over essential workers. County phone banks were deluged with calls, computer systems crashed, and long lines of elderly people waited overnight outside vaccination centers for first-come, first-served shots.
DeSantis was in Miami this month when a trio of Cuban exiles who took part in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion 60 years ago got their first shots, and he used the occasion to rail against communism. And a few days before that, DeSantis showed up at a Jewish center north of Miami, where he called Holocaust survivors who got their Covid-19 shots "inspirations for so many people."
That a savvy politician like DeSantis would use the vaccine for political gain with two key Florida voting blocs is no surprise, said Michael McDonald, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida. "That's what politicians do," he said.
But the fact that it took more than a month before DeSantis was able to tout the distribution of vaccine doses speaks to how little help governors got from the federal government early in the rollout, experts said.
"Just as they did during the early days of the pandemic, the Trump administration left the distribution of the vaccines to the states, and the result is this patchwork approach we see from state to state," said Asher Hildebrand, a public policy professor at Duke University and former chief of staff for Rep. David Price, D-N.C. "We shouldn't let the governors off the hook, but managing a massive distribution effort that balances efficiency with equity is very hard to do."
Aubrey Jewett, an associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, said DeSantis' decision to vaccinate seniors and his recent appearances with Cuban and Jewish voters were made with an eye on the election next year, when he hopes to win a second term.
"Second, he is trying to garner some positive publicity for his administration in the fight against Covid-19 to counteract some of the criticism he has faced for not taking the health risk more seriously and overseeing a chaotic system where many seniors have faced difficulties in getting a vaccine," Jewett said.
The DeSantis administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment about vaccination efforts.
As of Tuesday, Florida had administered 2.6 million doses of vaccine, a rate of 12,141 per 100,000 people, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine tracker. By contrast, West Virginia has the country's top coronavirus vaccination rate, at 18,045 per 100,000 people.
Philip J. Palin, one of the world's top experts on getting supplies to survivors of catastrophes, said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who won office as a Democrat and then switched back to the GOP, used resources already available in the state to vaccinate more residents.
"Some states have been much better than others at exploiting their pre-existing assets," said Palin, a veteran government consultant and author of "Out of the Whirlwind: Supply and Demand After Hurricane Maria."
West Virginia has a highly vulnerable but much smaller population than Florida, and it has been able to tap its "community pharmacies and pre-existing black lung programs" to get the shots out, Palin said.
In Washington, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has also been tapping local resources, although in this case the resources are Microsoft and Starbucks, which are helping with logistics and technology.
"We are removing as many impediments as possible to Washingtonians' getting vaccinated. We are going to deliver every dose that comes into our state," Inslee said. "We will still be dependent on the federal government for doses, but we are doing everything we can once it gets here."
Hildebrand said reaching out to Starbucks and Microsoft "shows ingenuity and creative utilization of available resources."
"But it's also an indictment of the federal government's response that governors have to lean on the private sector to get this done," he said.
States like West Virginia, Connecticut, New Mexico and Alaska got off to good starts administering vaccine doses, while states like Iowa and Missouri have lagged, Hildebrand said.
"But the reasons for that go beyond leadership and what works in West Virginia won't necessarily work in New York or Florida," he said by email.
None of this is happening in a vacuum, Hildebrand said. Every governor must operate within the specific and sometimes cumbersome laws of their states. And governors who have managed previous crises are in better positions to respond effectively to this one.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina "spent most of this first term responding to hurricanes, which helped him manage the current crisis calmly and competently," Hildebrand said.
Vaccine distribution problems have also dented the reputations of governors like Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a popular Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state who prides himself on being an adept manager — and who has gotten bipartisan praise for his pandemic response.
Among other things, Baker was slow to realize that seniors were having trouble navigating the state's website, and he belatedly opened a 500-person call center to help them make vaccination appointments, The Boston Globe reported.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats in states hit hard by the pandemic, have also been bedeviled by distribution issues. At one point, Cuomo floated the idea of buying vaccine doses directly from Pfizer after he complained that the Trump administration had failed to deliver enough doses to his state.
"It's easy to beat up on Gov. Cuomo or Gov. Newsom for insisting on prioritizing first responders and then having the backtrack to include other groups after realizing that sticking to strict categories was slowing the distribution down," Hildebrand said. "But in both cases the lessons learned speak to the challenges of managing an effort of this scale (and, in particular, the difficulty of balancing efficient distribution with equitable distribution)."