₦airaland Forum

Nigerian artist Olufela Omokeko carefully arranges fresh peppers on wooden boards hanging in a bare room. Instead of providing spice in a meal, he wants them to encourage people to obey measures that will stop the spread of the coronavirus.
His pieces, comprising of red, yellow and green peppers mounted on boards and tomatoes hanging from nets, will rot during the lifespan of the exhibition in Lagos. The decay reflects the food wasted during lockdowns last year, said the 30-year-old artist.
"I created this art space as a reflection of the scarcity... and numerous challenges that we experienced at the early stage of the pandemic," Omokeko said.
Lockdowns were imposed from late March until early May last year in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, and the capital, Abuja. The restrictions, coupled with a ban on nationwide interstate travel, disrupted supply chains which led to widespread hunger, while food rotted in fields or at depots.
"I don't want us to go back to that stage again and my only advice is for the masses to use their face masks just to avoid another lockdown," he said.
He fears authorities may enforce more restrictions as the country grapples with a second wave of COVID-19 infections that has seen the number of cases rise sharply in recent weeks.
Public health officials have repeatedly warned that Nigerians are failing to heed guidance on observing social distancing and wearing masks. Many opt to wear masks around their chin, rather than over their mouth and nose.
Omokeko hopes the sight of his rotting peppers, oozing liquids and giving off a pungent smell, will provide a visceral warning of what may happen if safety advice is ignored.
"I'm not wasting this material," he said. "I'm using it to raise the consciousness of the masses."

Senior Nigerian officials said earlier that the country was hoping to get more than 40 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover one-fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme in 2021
The World Health Organization (WHO) has assured Nigeria that it will support the country to procure, distribute and administer Covid-19 vaccines.
Walter Kazadi Mulomboo, WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, told a press briefing in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Saturday that Nigeria and other Africa countries were not disqualified from accessing Covid-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility, the WHO-led initiative for equitable global access to coronavirus vaccines, to meet the urgent vaccination needs of developing countries.
The assurance was a response to rumours that the WHO disqualified Nigeria from Covid-19 vaccines based on the country's inability to meet the standard requirement of storing the vaccines at the required -70 degrees Celsius.
Senior Nigerian officials said earlier that the country was hoping to get more than 40 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover one-fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme in 2021.
The WHO is supporting all countries to access the vaccines as quickly as possible, Mulomboo told reporters.
According to him, all countries on the continent are expected to start accessing the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine by the end of February, noting that the vaccine is under WHO review for emergency use listing and the outcome is expected soon.
"Of all the 88 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses allocated to African countries for the first phase, Nigeria has received by far the largest allocation, with 16 million doses," he said.
Also at the press briefing, Faisal Shuaib, director-general of Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), said that several factors were considered in allocating the small quantity of vaccines in the initial stage to COVAX countries.
These include the mortality rates from Covid-19, the number of new cases, the trend in the number of cases, the population of countries and the availability of the appropriate cold chain equipment, Shuaib said.
He said the country's national strategic cold store equipment is "ready for any type of vaccine that is allocated to us."
According to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, the most populous African country registered 1,588 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 139,242 and total deaths to 1,647.

The UK Nigeria Tech Hub has partnered with Ventures Platform and Startupbootcamp AfriTech to launch the iNOVO Accelerator Programme for innovative Nigerian edtech, agritech, and healthtech startups that have created solutions to challenges created due to the pandemic.
Honey Ogundeyi, Country Director of the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub provides insight into the launch of the new programme. 
 “With the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, there’s a need to support promising early-stage startups who are driving innovative solutions to address problems caused by Covid on some of the Hub’s core areas – health, agriculture, and education”. She also stated that “through the iNOVO programme, entrepreneurs will gain digital and entrepreneurship skills needed to scale their businesses.” 
The fully digital programme will accelerate 10 early-stage startups in Nigeria in the edtech, healthtech, and agritech sector along with granting 100 early-stage startups life-time learning access to its digital Accelerator Squared platform. 
Applications can be completed online.
Access to the platform provides the 100 selected early-stage startups with an abundant resource of modules that cover the foundation to build a successful startup. 
Hosted over three-months, the accelerator’s 10 selected startups will receive capacity building, lean startup training, mentorship, and support to rapidly scale their products and business models. Selected startup founders will engage directly with the SBC AfriTech and Ventures Platform team, dedicated Entrepreneurs in Residence, mentors, investors, and industry experts. 
Participating startups will gain exposure to a large group of potential investors. In addition, the 10 selected participants will also receive legal support from Sidebrief, credits from Amazon Web Services, and credits from Msg91.

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have not been spared from the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Articulating a policy response to the impact of COVID-19 requires understanding how and which households have been impacted and if households may have been able to rely on or move into specific activities that may act as a buffer in crises. Governments of five SSA countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda), in collaboration with the World Bank, are implementing several rounds of COVID-19 high-frequency phone surveys (HFPS) to monitor the socioeconomic implications of the pandemic. Agriculture is one of the focus topics included in these surveys. The sample included in the HFPS were interviewed face-to-face in 2018/19 as part of the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) project, making comparison possible. Given that HFPS data collection coincided with the 2020/21 pre-harvest season, this piece focuses primarily on pre-harvesting using data collected from April-August 2020.
The data show that agriculture continues to be the main source of livelihood of smallholder households in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the share of households involved in agriculture increasing since the start of the pandemic. Prior to the outbreak, 76% of Nigerian households were involved in agriculture (either crop or livestock farming), but the share has increased to 84% since the start of the pandemic. Similarly, in Malawi and Uganda, 91% and 79% of households are involved in agriculture now, compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 84% and 76%, respectively.
These changes are products of the net effect of households moving into and out of agriculture; in most cases, entries are larger than exits, with the exception of livestock in Uganda. In general, the share of households that have entered into agriculture since the start of the pandemic is higher than those exiting. For instance, in Malawi, about 9% of households who were not involved in agriculture before the pandemic are doing so now, compared to about 2% that have stopped. Similarly, the share of Nigerian households who have gone into agriculture is higher (12%) than those exiting (4%).
At the subsector level, the share of households that have gone into crop farming appears higher than those that have exited. About 16% of Ethiopian households that were not involved in crop farming before the pandemic are doing so now, compared to about 3% are not cultivating crops in the 2020 agricultural season. In Nigeria, about 19% of households who did not own/raise livestock pre-pandemic are doing so now, compared to about 15% that owned/raised livestock last year but are not doing so after the outbreak. In Uganda, however, we find more households exiting livestock production (17%) than those entering (10%). Across countries, the percentage of households going into livestock production appears higher than those transitioning into crop farming. This can possibly be explained by the seasonal nature of crop production compared to livestock farming.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ten moderate Republican U.S. senators urged President Joe Biden on Sunday to significantly downsize his sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package to win bipartisan support as Democrats in Congress prepared to push ahead with his plan this week.
A top White House economic adviser signaled willingness to discuss the ideas raised by Republican senators who floated a $600 billion alternative but said the Democratic president was not willing to compromise on the need for a comprehensive bill to address the public health crisis and economic fallout.
“He is open to ideas, wherever they may come. ... What he’s uncompromising about is the need to move with speed on a comprehensive approach here,” Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “A piecemeal approach ... is not a recipe for success.”
It was unclear whether the outreach by 10 of the 50 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber would shift plans by congressional Democrats to take up legislation in the coming days. Biden and fellow Democrats are seeking to make use of their control of the House of Representatives and Senate to move quickly on the president’s top goal of addressing the pandemic.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said his chamber would begin work on it as early as this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would complete a preliminary step before the end of the week.
Congress enacted $4 trillion in COVID-19 relief last year.
Passage of the new relief legislation not only would impact Americans and businesses reeling during a pandemic that has killed about 440,000 people in the United States but also offers an early test of Biden’s promise to work to bridge the partisan divide in Washington.
Biden, who took office Jan. 20, has proposed $160 billion for vaccines and testing, $170 billion for schools and universities, and funds to give certain Americans a $1,400 per-person stimulus check, among other provisions.
Some Republicans have questioned the overall price tag, while others urged more targeted measures, particularly over the direct payments to individuals.

The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnibe Mamora, has assured that COVID-19 vaccines, when received in Nigeria, would be subjected to scrutiny by relevant authorities before usage.
The minister made this known in Abuja on Thursday while on a facility inspection tour of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD). Mamora said the scrutiny was necessary, because the vaccines were being produced under emergency conditions, adding that countries were required to sign indemnity before receiving the vaccines.
He also said that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) would subject the vaccines to thorough scrutiny to ascertain their safety. While commending the management of NIPRD for its efforts in developing safe and local pharmaceutical products, he noted that research and development remained important in promoting the good health and economic wellbeing of any nation. He then called on stakeholders to collaborate more with NIPRD in its bid to develop local medicinal products and achieve its other mandates. “Vaccines are being used under emergency condition and they will be subjected to scrutiny in Nigeria; NAFDAC will have to examine them thoroughly before usage. “All over the world, management of disease conditions and ill health revolves around new technologies and good medicines. “Nigeria has since recognised the important role of research and development in the push to promote good health, wellbeing and economic development. “The country has developed policies, institutions and programmes that support scientific research and development, like NIPRD. “I call on development partners, foundations and philanthropic organisations to collaborate more with NIPRD in its bid to make Nigeria self-sufficient in medicine production,’’ he said. Earlier, the Director-General of NIPRD, Dr Obi Adigwe, commended the minister for the ministry’s efforts at checking the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Adigwe said NIPRD was established to enhance the development and commercialisation of pharmaceutical raw materials, drugs and biological products, using indigenous natural resources. He said that the institute had pioneered research and development of various medicines using local plants. He therefore, called for improved funding to enable the institute deliver more on its mandate. “Prioritisation and adequate funding of the sector are still suboptimal. Partners, such as philanthropic organisations and development partners are yet to align to government position,’’ he said. He then called on all stakeholders to support NIPRD in its efforts at combating COVID-19 and other critical health issues.

THE discomfiting reality of Nigeria’s emergent food crisis was poignantly brought home recently by the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Doyin Salami. He revealed during the National Economic Outlook for 2021 organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria that the country spent a whopping N1.85 trillion to import food for nine months during the closure of its land borders. Salami blamed the flooding that ravaged parts of the country in 2019 as the critical factor responsible for the development, noting that “climatic concerns are undermining agricultural output with 2.5 million farmers being impacted by flooding in 2019.” Between April and September 2019, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding said flooding claimed cumulatively, the lives of 95 people (including 17 females and 31 children), 45 people were injured with an estimated 722,741 people displaced and 351,236 others in need of humanitarian assistance in Nigeria.Food crisis occurs when local production cannot meet domestic demand. It is every nation’s worst nightmare. Given the established nexus between food security and national security, this is a very worrying but avoidable scenario, underscoring the inability of the country to feed its 206 million people. The United Nations says, “Agriculture, including fisheries and forestry, remains a primary livelihood source for 86 per cent of the world’s rural population, providing jobs for an estimate of 1.3 billion smallholders and landless workers.” Sadly, in Nigeria, agriculture continues to decelerate, growing at 1.7 per cent year-to-date, while consumer-sensitive sectors like manufacturing and distribution continue to contract, in double digits, Salami lamented.
Contrary to official claims, this disclosure particularly laid bare the inefficacy of the border closure policy of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Citing economic losses and illegal arms/drugs trade, Nigeria had abruptly shut its land borders with the Benin Republic in August 2019. Not satisfied with the outcome, it extended the ban to the land trade with all its other neighbours in October, a tactic that reverberated around the sub-region. Additionally, it prohibited fuel supply to petrol filling stations within 20-kilometre radius of its borders. However, in December 2020, the President ordered the reopening of the country’s land borders in Seme, Illela, Maigatari, and Mfun, following strident criticism from stakeholders. In particular, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria deemed it “a negation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement’s liberalisation agenda,” which Nigeria had ratified as a member-state.
It surely calls for concern that, as Salami said, “Despite border closure, our national import of food amounted to N1.85 trillion between January and September 2020 – a 62 per cent increase when compared with the same period in 2019. This suggests a weakness in our ability to feed ourselves and raises the need to consider review of intervention policies in agriculture.”
With COVID-19 pandemic, Islamist terrorism and murderous Fulani herders ravaging the land and spilling blood, all  the signs point to a significant fall in domestic agricultural output.  It is trite that a nation that cannot feed itself will not be able to undertake the more taxing job of securing its citizens and protecting itself from threats to its territorial integrity and/or exert any meaningful weight in the comity of nations. Nigeria’s case is despairing and pathetic and should be reversed. From 2016 to the first half of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that the country spent N54.51 trillion importing manufactured goods, mostly food and agricultural goods. Within the period, agricultural goods import gulped N38.24 billion, while manufactured goods import gulped 19.51 billion. The effect of this on the value of the national currency and economy as a whole is telling.
With the added security challenge, evidenced in seemingly endless Fulani herdsmen’s destruction of farmlands with their rampaging cattle, as well as killing of farmers in the South and North-Central, rural banditry and Boko Haram attacks in the farming communities in the North-West and North-East, the country is sadly walking the path of imminent hunger. It is inevitable therefore that agricultural production will suffer immeasurably, leading to recourse to greater food imports with dire consequences on a recessed economy. This demands an urgent action by the government at all levels.
Data from the NBS and the Central Bank of Nigeria published in the International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management indicated that Nigeria spent over N40 trillion on food imports in 21 years, between 1990 and 2011 to meet domestic consumption. This translates to food imports of an average of N1.92 trillion per year and N1 billion every day. The data further showed that the annual food import bill was in multiples of five times of export. This is unacceptable for a country blessed with a youthful population and endowed with huge cultivable land. Statistics showed that in the last four to five years, the agriculture sector’s contribution to GDP hovered between 22 and 25 per cent. In 2017, it hit an all-time low of 21 per cent contribution to GDP. It is also estimated that while American families spend only 16 per cent of their budget on food, their Nigerian counterparts spend 73 per cent of their budgets to eat.
What is required is a combination of well-thought-out policy measures and pragmatic actions by the government to address the situation, especially at the subnational level. For one, the various governments should be more deliberate in implementing policies and programmes that will engender rural development to stem the rural-urban drift that has depleted the farming population in the rural areas. Life in the vast agrarian communities of the country is at best cruel and brutish with deplorable and inaccessible roads, lack of electricity and non-existent storage facilities.
State governments should be challenged to the imperative of engendering rural development to give a fillip to agricultural productivity to stave off the looming food crisis. An expert at PwC, an audit and consultancy firm, Oladele Oladipupo, said the level of agricultural yield in the country owes largely to the absence of concentration on the agriculture value chain, despite Nigeria’s vast arable land. So far, only about 34 million hectares out of the 82 million hectares of the nation’s arable land, representing 41 per cent, are under cultivation. In all, there are 92 million hectares of land in the country.
THE discomfiting reality of Nigeria’s emergent food crisis was poignantly brought home recently by the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Doyin Salami. He revealed during the National Economic Outlook for 2021 organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria that the country spent a whopping N1.85 trillion to import food for nine months during the closure of its land borders. Salami blamed the flooding that ravaged parts of the country in 2019 as the critical factor responsible for the development, noting that “climatic concerns are undermining agricultural output with 2.5 million farmers being impacted by flooding in 2019.” Between April and September 2019, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding said flooding claimed cumulatively, the lives of 95 people (including 17 females and 31 children), 45 people were injured with an estimated 722,741 people displaced and 351,236 others in need of humanitarian assistance in Nigeria.
Food crisis occurs when local production cannot meet domestic demand. It is every nation’s worst nightmare. Given the established nexus between food security and national security, this is a very worrying but avoidable scenario, underscoring the inability of the country to feed its 206 million people. The United Nations says, “Agriculture, including fisheries and forestry, remains a primary livelihood source for 86 per cent of the world’s rural population, providing jobs for an estimate of 1.3 billion smallholders and landless workers.” Sadly, in Nigeria, agriculture continues to decelerate, growing at 1.7 per cent year-to-date, while consumer-sensitive sectors like manufacturing and distribution continue to contract, in double digits, Salami lamented.
Contrary to official claims, this disclosure particularly laid bare the inefficacy of the border closure policy of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Citing economic losses and illegal arms/drugs trade, Nigeria had abruptly shut its land borders with the Benin Republic in August 2019. Not satisfied with the outcome, it extended the ban to the land trade with all its other neighbours in October, a tactic that reverberated around the sub-region. Additionally, it prohibited fuel supply to petrol filling stations within 20-kilometre radius of its borders. However, in December 2020, the President ordered the reopening of the country’s land borders in Seme, Illela, Maigatari, and Mfun, following strident criticism from stakeholders. In particular, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria deemed it “a negation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement’s liberalisation agenda,” which Nigeria had ratified as a member-state.
It surely calls for concern that, as Salami said, “Despite border closure, our national import of food amounted to N1.85 trillion between January and September 2020 – a 62 per cent increase when compared with the same period in 2019. This suggests a weakness in our ability to feed ourselves and raises the need to consider review of intervention policies in agriculture.”
With COVID-19 pandemic, Islamist terrorism and murderous Fulani herders ravaging the land and spilling blood, all  the signs point to a significant fall in domestic agricultural output.  It is trite that a nation that cannot feed itself will not be able to undertake the more taxing job of securing its citizens and protecting itself from threats to its territorial integrity and/or exert any meaningful weight in the comity of nations. Nigeria’s case is despairing and pathetic and should be reversed. From 2016 to the first half of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that the country spent N54.51 trillion importing manufactured goods, mostly food and agricultural goods. Within the period, agricultural goods import gulped N38.24 billion, while manufactured goods import gulped 19.51 billion. The effect of this on the value of the national currency and economy as a whole is telling.
With the added security challenge, evidenced in seemingly endless Fulani herdsmen’s destruction of farmlands with their rampaging cattle, as well as killing of farmers in the South and North-Central, rural banditry and Boko Haram attacks in the farming communities in the North-West and North-East, the country is sadly walking the path of imminent hunger. It is inevitable therefore that agricultural production will suffer immeasurably, leading to recourse to greater food imports with dire consequences on a recessed economy. This demands an urgent action by the government at all levels.
Data from the NBS and the Central Bank of Nigeria published in the International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management indicated that Nigeria spent over N40 trillion on food imports in 21 years, between 1990 and 2011 to meet domestic consumption. This translates to food imports of an average of N1.92 trillion per year and N1 billion every day. The data further showed that the annual food import bill was in multiples of five times of export. This is unacceptable for a country blessed with a youthful population and endowed with huge cultivable land. Statistics showed that in the last four to five years, the agriculture sector’s contribution to GDP hovered between 22 and 25 per cent. In 2017, it hit an all-time low of 21 per cent contribution to GDP. It is also estimated that while American families spend only 16 per cent of their budget on food, their Nigerian counterparts spend 73 per cent of their budgets to eat.
What is required is a combination of well-thought-out policy measures and pragmatic actions by the government to address the situation, especially at the subnational level. For one, the various governments should be more deliberate in implementing policies and programmes that will engender rural development to stem the rural-urban drift that has depleted the farming population in the rural areas. Life in the vast agrarian communities of the country is at best cruel and brutish with deplorable and inaccessible roads, lack of electricity and non-existent storage facilities.
State governments should be challenged to the imperative of engendering rural development to give a fillip to agricultural productivity to stave off the looming food crisis. An expert at PwC, an audit and consultancy firm, Oladele Oladipupo, said the level of agricultural yield in the country owes largely to the absence of concentration on the agriculture value chain, despite Nigeria’s vast arable land. So far, only about 34 million hectares out of the 82 million hectares of the nation’s arable land, representing 41 per cent, are under cultivation. In all, there are 92 million hectares of land in the country.
Also, state governments should provide incentives in the form of credit facilities and extension services to rural farmers to encourage investment in agriculture and prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a severe food crisis.


We are under the threat of COVID-19. We cannot give up on ourselves. I hope that our government can work with us to find a solution to the food crisis.

Teachers in Chicago public schools voted against returning to in-person classes, the Chicago Teachers Union announced Sunday.
Monday was supposed to mark the first day of school for a large number of the teachers, while students were expected to be back in the classroom Feb. 1, according to NBC Chicago. The union said in a statement that 71 percent of teachers voted to continue remote instruction as they wait for vaccinations to become available.
The teachers union said its members "chose safety" as it spars with the district about how and when to return to the classroom.
"We are not negotiating class size, benefits or staffing; we are bargaining for minimal risk of COVID-19 infection, and minimal risk of death," the union said.
Fewer than half of teachers in the nation's third-largest school district showed up when they were ordered to return to school early this month, citing high community transmission and unsafe working conditions.
Some, in protest, taught remotely outside on school grounds despite freezing temperatures.
Janice Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, said at a news conference Jan. 5, "We cannot sit back and allow this generation to falter because of made-up reasons around why we can't do reopening."
The school system has asserted that it is following medical data and recommendations from the state Public Health Department, and it has said tens of thousands of city's 360,000 students want to be back in the classroom.
"There's no doubt we all want to return to in-person instruction," the union said in its statement Sunday. "The issue is CPS' current unpreparedness for a return to in-person instruction, and the clear and present danger that poses to the health of our families and school communities."

The number of coronavirus patients requiring oxygen to survive surged fivefold at one of the main hospitals in the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos, as a second wave of the pandemic hits the nation’s biggest city. Demand for oxygen increased to 350 six-liter cylinders per day from 70 cylinders at the Yaba Mainland Hospital, state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said Tuesday in an emailed statement.
“This is projected to more than double to 750 six-cylinders before the end of January 2021,” he said. Lagos had 41,374 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Jan. 17. A total of 227 infected people have been admitted to isolation centers, while another 9,213 persons are receiving care at home, said Akin Abayomi, the state’s commissioner for health. The state has opened discussions with vaccine manufacturers, according to the statement. “In the meantime, we are developing a strategy that will articulate the criteria, guidelines and regulatory framework for providing and monitoring vaccinations in Lagos,” the governor said.

The Lagos State Government has further extended the work-from-home order to all state public servants on Grade Levels 14 and below from Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, to Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu gave the directive in a circular signed by the Head of Service, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola, in Lagos on Saturday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the circular was issued to members of the State Executive Council and all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Sanwo-Olu said that the extension was to curtail the spread of the second wave of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the state. He, however, said that the directive would exclude essential duty workers, as well as first responders.

He enjoined all public servants to stay safe and keep adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, in order to rid the state of the pandemic in the shortest possible time. “Additionally, accounting officers are to ensure strict compliance with all extant directives aimed to guarantee physical/social distancing in the workplace; through weekly preparation of Duty Rosters as considered germane to the effective service delivery of respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies. “All Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies are urged to observe the contents of this Circular for acquiescence and give it the deserved service-wide publicity,” he said.

The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has objected to the reopening of the universities, even as it makes its next line of action known today in Abuja.
Its General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, who spoke yesterday with The Guardian, explained that reopening the ivory towers without providing the means for them to meet COVID-19 protocols on campuses would expose both students and workers to unmitigated deaths.
His words: “There is no way universities can reopen now without the availability of COVID-19 protocols. Most of these institutions do not have the wherewithal to sustain safety practices such as hand sanitisers, running water and soap and face masks. Above all, how can they ensure physical and social distancing in crowded classrooms? The hostels are over-crowded and most offices are so small that it cannot contain many students. Where does the government expect the universities to get money to provide all these?
“I know that most Nigerians want the universities to reopen, but must we throw our children and university workers under the bus to achieve this? To NASU, safeguarding the health of both workers and students is paramount. Before the universities can reopen, government should set aside some money for each university to put the necessary infrastructure in place first.”
On the ongoing protests by members of NASU and Senior Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Adeyemi hinted that the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of both unions would be meeting in Abuja today to unveil the second phase of the exercise.
“I am aware that the JAC of both NASU and SSANU will be meeting in Abuja on Thursday (today) to unveil the next stage of the struggle. The JAC will receive reports of the protests nationwide and evaluate. After the evaluation, a decision will be taken. I must commend our members nationwide for their patriotism and dedication that led to the success of the protests.”
He added that by the characterisation of the current administration, a simple protest for a few days would be insufficient to arouse their responsiveness.
“We are aware that this government is not easily responsive to its responsibilities. We are aware that it will take more than three days’ protest for them to respond to our agitations. If the academic staff union can do seven months strike, we are ready to go on as long as it takes. We know we are not doing sprint but long-distance race. For us, the welfare of our members is very paramount and we are ready to defend and promote their welfare,” Adeyemi stated.

New York on Monday authorized doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to a new category of people, including teachers, police officers and firefighters, as the state edges closer to meeting its weekly vaccination goal.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that New York had administered 259,000 doses of the vaccine last week — the first time since the start of the vaccine roll out in December that the number of doses given out surpassed 200,000. The state receives about 300,000 vaccine doses each week.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that New York has only administered about 36 percent of the 1.2 million doses it has gotten, highlighting an ongoing struggle between the state and local municipalities to agree on distribution plans.
Also eligible for the vaccine this week are public transit and safety workers and people over 75. Appointments are required. The ability for more people to get shots comes as New York City expands vaccination sites in Brooklyn and the Bronx to operate 24 hours, seven days a week, with other boroughs to follow suit.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has become one of the first Nigerians to take the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Atiku took the vaccine in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a tweet by a member of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Media Team, Abdulrasheed Uba, said the former vice president had become one of the first Nigerian leaders to take the COVID-19 jab.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had in December 2020 tweeted about the vaccine being expected in Nigeria.

A more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has swept through the United Kingdom has been reported in at least five states in the United States, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said in an interview to the Washington Post on Wednesday. “We have now seen that same U.K. virus in the U.S. in at least five states and I would be surprised if that doesn’t grow pretty rapidly,” Collins said, adding that it doesn’t however seem to be more severe.
Last week, Reuters reported that Florida became the third known U.S. state to identify such a case, with two other cases identified in Colorado and California.
Scientists have said newly developed vaccines should be equally effective against both variants.
The NIH director said he expects immunizations to be done through pharmacies soon as the country grapples with a surge in cases, with the number of vaccinations falling far short of early targets.
He said in the interview that at least 80-85% of Americans should receive the vaccine to reach "herd immunity". (/3opexFt)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered more than 4.8 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed more than 17 million doses. (Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Aviation stakeholders have cautioned the Federal Government against imposing a fresh ban on international flights as part of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 new strain.
As an alternative, the aviators urged the government to give priority to on-arrival rapid COVID-19 tests for passengers at the nation’s entry ports.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had in the week begun the implementation of new guidelines for travellers coming from South Africa and the United Kingdom, where the new strain has been discovered.
The Senate Committee on Aviation also hinted that the FG was considering a complete ban on flights coming from the two countries, among others.
A member of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), Olumide Ohunayo, said he was not in support of another ban on foreign flights as long as the guidelines set by the NCAA were still adhered to.
Ohunayo said what the government lately did was to increase surveillance and strict observation of passengers.
“The protocols are still the same. That of the United Kingdom and South Africa is 96 hours. You are also required to have a fly permit. Although people are clamouring for a total ban of flights, I am not in support of the total ban. In order to ensure that the airlines comply, an additional fine of $3,500 has been imposed on airlines on each passenger that violates the protocol. I think these guidelines are good for now and we have to increase surveillance,” he said.
Aviation Security consultant, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), said Nigeria had been on this path at the onset of the pandemic. “Often, we take a knee jerk or copycat approach rather than making an effort to take initiatives that are original to us. Why not behave the way the South Koreans and Chinese did? (We should) be original.
“We may restrict other nationals, but can we refuse our nationals from returning home especially during a national celebration season as Christmas or any of the Eids? My suggestions were modified from what I said earlier in March; redistribute all the foreign airlines to the four or five international airports, and none of them must go to more than once in the four or five except those from the same country like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
“We have about 30 foreign airlines coming to Nigeria. It, therefore, means each of the international airports would be having six foreign airlines flights. The aim is to be able to effectively and efficiently test, trace and track any infected passenger. Each airport must have testing centres and adequate skilled manpower in sufficient numbers to do the testing 24 hours at the airports for the arriving Nigerian nationals.
“We do not expect many nationals of other countries to be trooping now out of their countries into ours. We can ban those except in essential government demands. My worry about possible government ban on foreign airlines is to begin creating suspects in another approval for evacuation flights that give corrupt earnings to the foreign airlines and government officials in the embassies and the ministries but put excessive financial burdens on the Nigerian nationals, who will be required to be paying thousands in dollars or thousands for a single way ticket. We need to watch out so we don’t fall into the same temptations we found ourselves during the first wave of the pandemic,” Ojikutu said.
Travel expert, Sunday Olumegbon, reckoned that there were more avenues to prevent further spread of the virus, than placing a ban on international flights.
Olumegbon said, besides the revenue that international flights bring into the country, the government should intensify awareness and screening at international entry ports.
He said the situation in the UK once again reinforced the urgent need for coordinated recognition of systematic testing of travellers.
“Governments must cooperate to put recognised testing capacity in place so that borders can remain open to the vast majority of healthy passengers. COVID-19 is likely to be with us for some time. So, rather than travel bans, governments must adopt more flexible and practical policies to manage the risks in a way that enables people to safely work and travel. 
“Test, test and test again has been the mantra of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for almost a year now, and we implore governments to act on this advice. I’m surprised that our port health authorities are still following the old routine of just filling forms, telling travellers to pay and go for tests within seven days. Other countries, including Cameroun, are conducting tests at the airports and on arrival. That is the way to go,” he said.

The California Public Health Department issued a request for blood donations Saturday as the state struggles through a "surge in Covid-19 cases." 
Some context: The state hit a grim milestone Friday as it reported 585 Covid-19 related deaths, the highest on record.
Additional health care staffing, including National Guard members and health care providers from the US Army and Air Force, have been mobilized to provide assistance to overrun hospitals.  
Note: These numbers were released by the California Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real-time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The Nigeria tech space was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the year. However, this did not stop the ecosystem from hitting highly impressive milestones.
While ride-hailing startups suffered a stall in operations due to lockdown restrictions in major states including Lagos and FCT, sectors such as e-commerce and logistics benefited hugely from the pandemic.
In terms of investments this year, Nigerian startups closed more funding rounds than those in any other country on the African continent. The year also saw a boom in crypto operations across Nigeria.
Despite inherent challenges, the Nigerian tech ecosystem has continued to progress remarkably. Here, we take you through the biggest wins scored by the Nigerian tech space in 2020.

A Boston doctor with a shellfish allergy had a serious reaction to Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine and has recovered after he was allowed to use his allergy autoinjector, health officials reported.
The man, Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, who has a severe shellfish allergy, according to NBC Boston, received the vaccine Thursday and was then observed post-vaccination, as is standard, Boston Medical Center said in a statement.
"He felt he was developing an allergic reaction and was allowed to self-administer his personal [allergy autoinjector]. He was taken to the Emergency Department, evaluated, treated, observed and discharged. He is doing well today," the statement said.
Sadrzadeh's allergic reaction is reported to be the first from the Moderna vaccine, according to The New York Times.
The Times reported that at least six people have developed anaphylaxis after they got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The two vaccines have similar ingredients, according to The Times.
A spokesman for Moderna told The Times that the company does not comment on individual cases.
Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncology fellow, said his tongue and his throat began to tingle after he got the injection, according to The Boston Globe. He then began to sweat and go pale, and he felt cold, The Globe reported.
Sadrzadeh called it the worst allergic reaction he's had since he was 11 years old. By Friday, he had recovered.
Although it's unclear what ingredient may have triggered Sadrzadeh's reaction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that people who have had "severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine" should "not get that specific vaccine."
"If you have had a severe allergic reaction to other vaccines or injectable therapies, you should ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. Your doctor will help you decide if it is safe for you to get vaccinated," it says.
The most common side effects of the Moderna vaccine have been fatigue, headache and muscle pain, NBC Boston reported.
More than 1.9 million people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest data from the CDC. More than 9.5 million doses have been distributed.

More than 1 million people in the United States have received an initial dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, a milestone achieved 10 days after vaccines were first administered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
The first approved vaccines in the nation were developed separately by companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and went to health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities. On Sunday, a CDC advisory committee recommended that people ages 75 and older and front-line essential workers be next in line to receive the vaccines.
The growing number of vaccinations comes as the Trump administration said it will buy an additional 100 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine, ensuring that every American who wants to be vaccinated can be by June. This comes on top of the 100 million doses already purchased by the U.S. government.
"There is currently a limited supply of Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S., but supply will increase in the weeks and months to come," CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a statement. "The goal is for everyone to be able to easily get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as large enough quantities are available."

Countries around the world were shutting their doors to Great Britain after a possibly more infectious strain of the coronavirus was detected.
Congress struck a deal Sunday on a nearly $900 billion Covid-19 relief package that includes a new round of direct payments and help for jobless Americans, families and businesses struggling in the pandemic.
The agreement includes stimulus checks of up to $600 a person based on income, a federal unemployment insurance bonus of $300 per week, over $284 billion more in loans for businesses struggling to pay rent and workers, vaccine distribution funds and $82 billion in funding for colleges and schools. It also includes the Democrats' priority of $25 billion in rental assistance and an extension of the eviction moratorium.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom was increasingly isolated on Monday as countries around the world rushed to shut their doors to the island nation after a possibly more infectious strain of the coronavirus was detected there.

The U.S. on Wednesday reported the highest number of new cases of the coronavirus and the most COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began.
As of 1:30 a.m. Thursday, more than 3,600 Americans died Wednesday from complications of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking coronavirus infection data.
Data from the COVID Tracking Project revealed more than 230,000 new coronavirus infections and showed 113,090 Americans were hospitalized with the virus — a number that's been on the rise since Dec. 6.
Revelations of yet another spike in new reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths comes the same week the U.S. began the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccination program and surpassed 300,000 deaths from the virus.
It also comes on the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday, when many Americans gathered with family and friends against health officials' warnings. Authorities are concerned about a similar spike following the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
"We are still at a dangerous and critical part of this pandemic and tens of thousands of American lives are at stake really every week," Adm. Brett P. Giroir, assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, said on CNN's New Day Wednesday. He reminded Americans to wear masks and to maintain social distancing.
He added, "If you do that, we're going to be in really good shape. But if you don't, we're going to have thousands of more casualties in this country that we can avoid."

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria expects to receive its first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in January, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday, but officials do not yet know which one they will get.
Africa’s most populous nation has not been as hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic as others on the continent such as South Africa, but it warned last week of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said that Nigeria has a working group in place to handle vaccines, and is working with the COVAX programme backed by the World Health Organization.
“We have 200 million citizens. We need to have a way to be able to get enough to be able to take care of our citizens.”
Nigeria is in talks with vaccine manufacturers as well as teams in Britain and Russia, Ehanire said, adding that the United Arab Emirates was introducing the country to the makers of a Chinese vaccine that UAE officials had tested.
Nigeria does not at present have many facilities that can store the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, which must be kept at minus 70 Celsius, Ehanire said.
While the Nigerian government is looking into the cost of additional ultra-cold freezers, it would aim to secure a vaccine that not only worked well but had a “good cost of storage and cost of delivery”, he added.
Nigeria had 74,132 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,200 deaths as of Wednesday.

Although we have been less affected by COVID-19 before, the second wave of epidemic infection is about to break out. I hope that the government can introduce vaccines as soon as possible for all people to vaccinate, so as to better fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A $908 billion bipartisan COVID-19 relief plan set to be introduced in the U.S. Congress as early as Monday will be split into two packages in a bid to win approval, a person briefed on the matter said.
The plan’s highlights were made public on Dec. 1, but the authors now plan to divide them into two proposals that could be voted on separately, the source said.
One will be a $748 billion measure, which contains money for small businesses, the jobless and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The other will include some key sticking points: liability protections for business and $160 billion for state and local governments.
The leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
One of the sponsors of the $908 billion plan, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, said earlier on Sunday it would be introduced formally on Monday.
“The plan is alive and well and there’s no way, no way that we are going to leave Washington without taking care of the emergency needs of our people,” Manchin told Fox News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on Sunday for 30 minutes with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “to discuss the latest developments on the omnibus and COVID talks,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill wrote on Twitter.
“The speaker reiterated her view that a compromise on the liability issue should be found that does not jeopardize workers’ safety,” Hammill said.
Also on Sunday, House No. 2 Democrat Steny Hoyer suggested his party might be willing to accept a coronavirus relief deal without the state and local aid that Democrats have been insisting should be part of it.
Congressional negotiators have been trying for months to reach agreement on a new coronavirus aid bill, after Congress approved $3 trillion in relief earlier this year.
Leading lawmakers would like to attach the COVID-19 aid package to a massive bill funding the government that needs to be done by Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, suggested last week scrapping aid to state and local governments - a Democratic priority that many Republicans oppose - as well as liability protections for business - a Republican priority opposed by many Democrats - in order to break the stalemate.
But top Democrats rejected that idea last week, saying that dropping new aid to state and local governments would put at risk the jobs of police, firefighters and other frontline public workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. airlines would receive $17 billion for four months of payroll support under the $908 billion plan, while public transit systems would receive $15 billion and there would be $4 billion for airports and $1 billion for passenger railroad Amtrak, the sponsors said on Dec. 1.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits jumped to a near three-month high last week as mounting new COVID-19 infections led to more business restrictions, further evidence that the pandemic and lack of additional fiscal stimulus were hurting the economy.
The weekly unemployment claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, followed in the wake of data last week showing job gains in November were the smallest since the recovery started in May. Labor market distress is eroding demand, keeping inflation tame.
“Mass unemployment continues to weigh on economic growth and demand,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “If Congress continues to sit on its hands without voting on a new relief package, the plight of the nation’s unemployed is going to grow darker by the hour.”
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits surged 137,000 to seasonally adjusted 853,000 for the week ended Dec. 5, the highest since mid-September. The weekly increase was the largest since March, when the nation was battered by the first wave of coronavirus infections. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 725,000 applications in the latest week.
Unadjusted claims vaulted 228,982 to 947,504 last week. Economists prefer the unadjusted number because of earlier difficulties adjusting the claims data for seasonal fluctuations due to the economic shock caused by the pandemic. Including a government-funded program for the self-employed, gig workers and others who do not qualify for the regular state unemployment programs, 1.4 million people filed claims last week.
Jobless claims hit a record 6.867 million in March. They are above their 665,000 peak during the 2007-09 Great Recession.
The United States is in the throes of a fresh wave of coronavirus infections, with more than 15 million confirmed cases. Daily COVID-19 deaths reached 3,253 on Wednesday, boosting the U.S. total since the start of the pandemic to 289,740, with a record 106,219 people hospitalized.
New strict stay-at-home orders went into effect in California this week, affecting about three-quarters of the nearly 40 million people in the nation’s most populous state.
Other states and local governments have also imposed restrictions on businesses, which economists expect to lead to layoffs during winter, especially without additional pandemic relief money from the government.

As Christmas nears, the U.S. has yet to see the worst from the coronavirus outbreaks driven by people traveling and congregating for Thanksgiving, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday.
“That should be sometime probably next week or a week and a half,” Fauci told The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council summit in regard to when the United States could expect “the full brunt” from the virus coming off the Thanksgiving holiday season.
“And then we’re going to enter into the Christmas season, again with more traveling and with more congregating at family and social gatherings. So we’re in for a very challenging period,” Fauci said.
The U.S. is now reporting a record 201,154 Covid-19 cases daily, based on a weekly average, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That figure is an increase of more than 25% compared with a week ago.
The nation’s hospitals are also reporting a record number of patients — 102,148 people — sickened with Covid-19, a sign that the outbreak is growing more severe, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic.
Fauci has previously warned that the U.S. could see a “surge upon a surge” of Covid-19 cases following Thanksgiving and heading into Christmas. The month of December could be a time of “precarious risk” as some people begin shopping for Christmas gifts in stores and host ill-advised parties for New Year’s Eve, he said last week.
Covid-19 cases were already on the rise before Thanksgiving when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against traveling for the holiday. Despite those warnings, more than 3 million people traveled through the nation’s airports, marking the busiest travel weekend since lockdown orders hit in mid-March. The CDC now advises that people avoid traveling and gathering through the winter holidays.
The worsening outbreak has spurred some state and city leaders to implement more restrictions to prevent overcrowding their intensive care units.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that the state would impose a stay-at-home order on regions if their hospitals’ available ICU capacity fell below 15%. Last week, Fauci said that parts of the country could see more temporary restrictions like those in California.
However, the U.S. hasn’t adhered to those measures uniformly, which is “really extraordinarily frustrating,” Fauci, who will join Biden’s team as an advisor once the president-elect is sworn in, said.
“Trouble is, you go to different parts of the country and even when the outbreak is clear and hospitals are on the verge of being overrun, there are a substantial proportion of the people who still think that this is not real. That it’s fake news or that it’s a hoax,” Fauci said Tuesday.
“It’s extraordinary,” he said. “I’ve never really seen anything like this.”


A covid-19 incident made the United States a world topic. In such a bad environment, American citizens can still pretend to be indifferent. I really admire it. It seems that the United States is not trying to curb the spread of covid-19, but how to make hospitals retain more patients. I can't imagine.

Nigeria's largest airline Arik Air has made 300 of its staff redundant because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Today Ng.
The airline reportedly said in a statement on Friday that the company has not been able to generate wholesome revenue in times of rising costs as the pandemic has caused limitations in the maintenance and operations of planes.
Adebanji Ola, the public relations and communication aide of Arik signed the statement and said a total of 300 employees are redundant to the current operations.
Ola also mentioned that the company has reached to impacted union leadership to arrange a redundancy package for affected workers. The statement read, "the leadership of the impacted unions has been contacted to negotiate a redundancy package for the affected staff. It is important to note that over 50 percent of Arik Air's workforce of over 1,600 staff have been on furlough in the past six months on a base allowance. Decisions to let go of staff is naturally a difficult decision. Arik Air wishes the impacted staff well in their future endeavors".
The airlines in Nigeria didn't operate for six months during the COVID-19 lockdown.
As Azam Air reportedly sacked six pilots in November "due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry".

A sweeping new review of national test data suggests the pandemic-driven jump to online learning has had little impact on children's reading growth and has only somewhat slowed gains in math. That positive news comes from the testing nonprofit NWEA and covers nearly 4.4 million U.S. students in grades three through eight. But the report also includes a worrying caveat: Many of the nation's most vulnerable students are missing from the data.
"Preliminary fall data suggests that, on average, students are faring better than we had feared," says Beth Tarasawa, head of research at NWEA, in a news release accompanying the report.
"While there's some good news here, we want to stress that not all students are represented in the data, especially from our most marginalized communities."
Until now, estimates of learning loss have been just that — estimates or projections, based on the kind of academic backsliding schools see after a long summer. This report offers the clearest picture yet of the impact that the past eight months of disruption have had on student learning.
The data at the heart of NWEA's report come from what's known to teachers and children alike as the MAP Growth test — a check-in assessment used to measure kids' math and reading skills that's generally given three times a year, in fall, winter and spring.
While millions of students took these MAP tests in the winter of 2020, few took them again in the spring as schools raced (and many struggled) to provide learning online. But this fall, nearly 4.4 million children did take the test, either from home or back in a classroom. And the results give researchers a vital new data point: a measure of where students are right now.
Tarasawa and her research team studied the data a few different ways. First, they compared students' performance this fall — in, say, third-grade reading — with the performance of a different group of students who took third-grade reading in the fall of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
Tarasawa tells NPR that with this method of comparison, the results in reading were "relatively optimistic" because "kids on average are performing similarly to how [other children] did pre-pandemic." In math, the current pandemic class of students performed about 5 to 10 percentile points lower than the pre-pandemic comparison group — what Tarasawa describes as a "moderate" drop.
In addition to comparing two different groups of students, researchers also studied students' individual growth over time, looking at where they were when they took the MAP test in the winter of 2020 and comparing it with where they are now, in the fall of 2020.
"We saw, on average, students showed growth in both math and reading across the grade levels in almost all grades," says Tarasawa. "Most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since COVID started."
In short, students kept learning when schools shifted online; they just didn't learn quite as much in math as they likely would have if there had never been a pandemic.
Mitigating the learning loss that is happening will still require patience and a thoughtful approach, says Aaliyah Samuel, NWEA's executive vice president of government affairs and partnerships.
"Addressing the unfinished learning is going to be a matter of time. We really need to be thinking about the supports and interventions for kids over at least a two- or three-year runway."
Depending on the depth of learning lost, school districts could consider a range of options, including extending the school year or even enlisting a volunteer tutoring corps.

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has announced plans to reduce case fatalities of the Covid-19 pandemic by focusing on improving the capability to manage the virus.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, during the daily Joint National Briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 in Abuja.
The Minister said that the ministry plans to increase its capacity to battle the disease through personnel supervision.
He said, “We hope to reduce case fatalities by strengthening our capacity to manage cases, but it is only possible if persons test themselves early. All cases, whether home-based or institutional are to be supervised by medical personnel. This is particularly  important, given the threat posed by the spiralling rate of infection in countries with which Nigeria has strong political, business, social, and family relations.”
He urged Nigerians to cut off travel to high-risk countries, as the travel rate determines the risk the ministry could contain with.
“There is a correspondingly high volume of travel between Nigeria and those countries, which is what also determines the risk. I also urge all Nigerians to cut off all travels, especially international travels, most especially travels to high risk countries, except it is very urgent.”
He stated that it might take Nigeria a while before securing the vaccines, even though the country had started the process of securing access to a vaccine.
“Although we are positioning our country for access to the Covid-19 vaccine, it may still take a while for countries to access it and for all citizens to be vaccinated. It is, therefore, more realistic that we adopt preventive measures which have proven to be successful in controlling the pandemic,” Ehanire added.

A new government report says the U.S. is still missing nearly eight coronavirus infections for every one counted.
By the end of September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates that as many as 53 million Americans had been infected. That is just under eight times the confirmed cases reported at the time.
Previously, the CDC estimated that one of every 10 infections were being missed.
The latest CDC calculation is meant to give a more accurate picture of how many people actually have caught the virus since the pandemic began. Of the 53 million estimated infections, the CDC says about 45 million were sick at some point and about 2.4 million were hospitalized.
"The CDC estimates that 1 in 10 infections are missed" is perhaps the most shocking news of the 2020 for Americans! The truth is that there are a lot of people who don't care, and as President Trump said, it's just a little bit bigger than a flu. I hope our government doesn't let our efforts over the past year be in vain.

The General Services Administration has ascertained that President-elect Joe Biden is the "apparent winner" of the November 3 election. President Donald Trump, who had refused to concede the election, said Monday that he is directing his team to cooperate on the transition but is vowing to keep up the fight.
The move clears the way for the start of the transition of Trump's administration and allows Biden to coordinate with federal agencies on plans for taking over January 20.
An official said administrator Emily Murphy made the determination after Trump’s efforts to subvert the vote failed across battleground states, most recently in Michigan, which certified Biden's victory Monday.
"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official —including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision," Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden.
Trump tweeted shortly after her letter was made public: "Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good ... fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same."
Earlier Monday, retiring Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who has repeatedly called for the transition to begin, released a new statement saying that Trump should "put the country first" and help Biden's administration succeed.
"When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do," Alexander said.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio on Monday called for the head of the General Services Administration to release the money and staffing needed for the transition. Portman, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also said Biden should receive high-level briefings on national security and the coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.
Alexander and Portman, who have both aligned themselves with Trump, joined a growing number of Republican officials who in recent days have urged Trump to begin the transition immediately. Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also urged a smooth transition, saying in a statement Monday that "at some point, the 2020 election must end."
Separately, more than 100 Republican former national security officials — including former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte — said in a statement that Trump's refusal to concede and allow for an orderly transition "constitutes a serious threat" to America's democratic process. The officials signing the letter worked under four Republican presidents, including Trump.
The statement called on "Republican leaders — especially those in Congress — to publicly demand that President Trump cease his anti-democratic assault on the integrity of the presidential election."
Among those signing the letter from business leaders were Jon Gray, president of the Blackstone private equity firm; Robert Bakish, president and CEO of ViacomCBS Inc.; Henry Kravis, co-chief executive of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., another private equity giant; David Solomon, CEO at Goldman Sachs; and George H. Walker, CEO of the investment firm Neuberger Berman and a second cousin to former President George W. Bush.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech will file for emergency authorization of their coronavirus vaccine on Friday, a landmark moment that signals that a powerful tool to help control the pandemic could begin to be available within weeks.
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech will file for emergency authorization of their coronavirus vaccine Friday, a landmark moment that signals that a powerful tool to help control the pandemic could begin to be available within weeks.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at a briefing Thursday afternoon. “Ten months into this novel pathogen hitting our shores … Now, Pfizer’s partner BioNTech has announced that tomorrow, they intend to file for emergency use authorization at the FDA.”
Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that the companies could file for emergency authorization for their vaccine within days. The vaccine candidate has been shown to be 95 percent effective in a large clinical trial, and the companies have gathered sufficient safety data to support an application, with no major safety problems.
The next step is an exhaustive regulatory review of the vaccine candidate by career scientists at the Food and Drug Administration. An independent advisory committee will hold a public meeting to review the evidence, probably in the second week of December.
Pfizer is working to manufacture 50 million doses of vaccine this year — enough for 25 million people to take the two-dose regimen. Half of those doses have been committed to the United States.
Moderna, a biotechnology firm working on another vaccine candidate, is about a week behind Pfizer and is expected to file for emergency authorization soon.