U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared reluctant to let people who have been allowed to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds apply to become permanent residents if they entered the country illegally.
The justices heard arguments in an appeal by a married couple from El Salvador who were granted so-called Temporary Protected Status of a lower court ruling that barred their applications for permanent residency, also known as a green card, because of their unlawful entry.
The case could affect thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the United States for years. President Joe Biden's administration opposes the immigrants in the case. The dispute puts Biden, who has sought to reverse many of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, at odds with immigration advocacy groups and some of his fellow Democrats. read more
A federal law called the Immigration and Nationality Act generally requires that people seeking to become permanent residents have been "inspected and admitted" into the United States. At issue in the case is whether a grant of Temporary Protected Status, which gives the recipient "lawful status," satisfies those requirements.
Some justices suggested it might be a stretch to interpret the law as deeming the plaintiffs "admitted."
"They clearly were not admitted at the borders, so is that a fiction, is it metaphysical, what is it? I don't know," conservative Justice Clarence Thomas asked.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan also cast doubt on whether the law broadly considers people who the government categorizes as "non-immigrants," including those with Temporary Protected Status, as having been legally admitted.
Some justices suggested that the law's meaning is not so clear cut.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Justice Department lawyer Michael Huston, "If you're asking us to find the better reading of the statute, we should go by its terms: Those people have been admitted."
Foreign nationals can be granted Temporary Protected Status if a humanitarian crisis in their home country, such as a natural disaster or armed conflict, would make their return unsafe. There are about 400,000 people in the United States with protected status, which prevents deportation and let them work legally.
The case involves Jose Sanchez and Sonia Gonzalez, who live in New Jersey. They have four children, the youngest of whom was born in the United States.
The couple twice entered the country illegally: in 1997 and 1998. After a series of earthquakes in 2001, the United States designated El Salvador as covered under the Temporary Protected Status program. The couple received protection under the program that same year. U.S. officials rejected their 2014 applications for green cards because they had not been lawfully admitted.
They sued in federal court, saying that those with lawful status, including Temporary Protected Status recipients, are deemed to have been lawfully admitted, and may apply for permanent residency. Last year, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the couple.
Besides El Salvador, 10 other countries have such designations: Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

Eze Samuel Ohiri, former chairman of Imo Council of Traditional Rulers, on Wednesday, urged Nigerians not to entertain fears about safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, have recommended that America suspended the Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, after six cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot was reported. The cases were reported among women between the ages of 18 and 48 years, and the symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination. Ohiri, a medical laboratory graduate and also chairman of HI-TECHDIAGNOSTICS LIMITED, manufacturers of Diagnostic Test Kits, however, told NAN in Abuja, that both Johnson & Johnson and the Astrazeneca vaccines were safe for humans. “The U.S. Government has taken this action just out of an abundance of caution. It is prudence to make sure that the risk, if any, is not significant.

The United States has stopped Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, although there are only 6 cases of this blood clot. The government should give full consideration to the safety of vaccines, and the people's concerns are not unfounded.

Certain statistics would irk the average Nigerian. One of them is that Nigeria is the country with the largest proven gas reserves in Africa and 9th largest reserves in the world, yet the country imports about 70% of its Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
LPG, which is known to be able to tackle clean cooking challenges, power vehicles and machinery, serve as a component for industrial production, and agricultural processes and provide a key component for refrigerators. Also, a vibrant LPG market is certain to provide jobs for millions of Nigerians.
One would wonder why, with the enormous benefits to be had from LPG, Nigeria has a largely untapped LPG market and seems hardly bothered about it, while it continues to import LPG from other countries- including from Trinidad and Tobago.
Various problems trail Nigeria’s LPG market. Primarily, there are the key problems that typically pervade the country’s oil and gas industry, like lack of infrastructure and an uncertain regulatory and policy framework. Other specific challenges include the continuous subsidies allocated to kerosene, a close and much dirtier alternative to LPG for cooking.
With kerosene being subsidised, and LPG having significant importation costs as well increased costs resulting from the LPG infrastructure gap, the end-user price for LPG is not attractive. One report by the Nigerian LPG Association reveals that Nigeria spends over $1 billion per annum on kerosene subsidies.
Apart from kerosene, we see wide usage of coal and firewood as cooking fuels. A United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) report reveals that Nigeria has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world as a result of burning wood as fuel.
This is not surprising, as research by the Clean Cooking Alliance shows that 94% of Nigerians (about 181 million people) do not have access to clean cooking and still continue to use dirty fuels for cooking.
Another challenge facing the domestic LPG market is the issue of standardisation of LPG cylinders, which are the most common means of storing LPG. With substandard cylinders flooding the market, safety concerns remain on the rise. Added to that, with a lax regulatory environment for procurement, route to market and consumer outlets for LPG in Nigeria, the concerns are further exacerbated.
Investments in LPG are needed to drive the market and make it more available domestically. However, investors will remain wary until the legal and policy framework for the market is standardised. There is no doubt that a significant investment gap exists for LPG in Nigeria.
According to the Programme Manager in charge of LPG Penetration and Implementation at the Office of the Vice President, Mr Dayo Adesina, “The federal government is targeting the consumption of five million tonnes of LPG by Nigerians in 2023, a project that requires about $750 million worth of LPG transport and retailing infrastructure across the country to achieve.” In order to make this happen, however, policy, regulation and investment have to meet.
While the National Gas Policy so neatly identifies the challenges the domestic LPG market is facing with possible solutions, the challenges still remain four years later. No one will invest in building jetties, distribution storages, LPG plants or depot terminals when the roads for trucking are bad, the railway systems are yet to materialise or the alternative fuel source is still heavily subsidized. The government needs to be very active in creating an enabling environment for any investment to thrive.
The government promised under the National Gas Expansion Plan to deliver at least one million autogas vehicle conversions by the end of 2021. At least half of these vehicles will be LPG-powered, so investment is needed to build autogas filling stations and other infrastructure, but the doing business and regulatory framework have to be favourable.
Additionally, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) should work closely with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to establish effective monitoring on gas cylinder production and/import throughout the LPG value chain to ensure substandard products are removed. This will improve the safety of LPG usage and positively affect perception on customers’ side. This may involve banning consumer ownership of gas cylinders as once proposed by the Federal Government, and transiting to market ownership. In urban areas, States should put in place mechanisms for gas reticulation, as that will both ensure safety and ease of use for consumers.
The director of LPG Summit Group, Neasa Haplak, at the Annual LPG International Conference in 2019 indicated that “with the 2019 demand of about one million tons per annum (mtpa), and growth projection of about two mtpa for 2020, Nigeria remains one of the fastest-growing LPG market in the world.”
With such a ready market and the many advantages LPG has for our economy and environment, the case for significant policy and regulatory support for the industry is made.

To ensure the effective tax administration across the country, tax managers from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are scheduled to meet in Abuja on April 19, this year, with technology experts and other stakeholders on ways to drive the digitalisation of the nation’s tax system.

The one-day a hybrid event – planned for physical and virtual participation (via zoom) – scheduled for between 9am to 5pm, is an initiative of the Nigeria Governors ‘Forum (NGF) intended as a measure to further reform the tax system for effectiveness to ensure optimum revenue mobilisation in the country.

According to a statement by the NGF secretariat in Abuja, the summit will “bring together service providers, researchers, and tax authorities from the 36 states and the FCT to share lessons critical for driving tax digitalisation in Nigeria’’.

“Lessons will focus on practical in-country and international experiences that have worked. The session will close with a consensus of actions to take forward, with the support of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, the World Bank and the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD).”
“The long-term goal of the event is to support the scale up of modern, taxpayer-friendly and technology-driven revenue administrations in all States of the federation that will be capable of providing world-class services, characterized by efficient, paperless operations, and equipped with ICT-enabled risk-based enforcement to optimize revenue mobilization in the country.”

Speakers include Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director, Nigeria, Western and Central Africa Region; Tijjani Mohammed, Deputy Director for Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service; Rajul Awasthi, Senior Public Sector Specialist, World Bank Nigeria; Fabrizio Santoro, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) and Annemarie Groenewald, Head, ERP Revenue Stream, City of Cape Town.

By the schedule of events, Awasthi is expected to provide perspective on the rise of digitalization and how the Nigerian tax system (both tax policy and administration) is leveling up relative to comparable jurisdictions.

Santoro will be speaking on technology and digitised data in tax administration in relation to experiences from sub-Saharan Africa; while Groenewald is expected to provide participants with experience, from Cape Town, of practical insights on the digital transformation journey – include perspectives on e- services, payment services and utilities.

Also scheduled to make presentations are Soobhash Sonah, Director, Information Systems Department, Mauritius Revenue Authority; Engr. Adeoye Fadebiyi, Managing Director, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, and Dennis S. Chinseu, Director of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Blantyre City Council, Malawi.

African banks that have raised their loan-loss provisions to reflect the impact of Covid-19 may be best placed for a quick recovery once the worst of the pandemic is over, analysts say.
Research from McKinsey says that in South Africa and Kenya, banks have already increased loan-loss provisions by more than 200% since 2019 and so may see improved results in 2021. But McKinsey argues that banks in Nigeria may still need to further increase provisioning levels in 2021.
We spoke to local analysts who picked out possible winners in losers in each of these three markets.

MIAMI — The state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to demand cruise ships be allowed to start sailing immediately, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday.
DeSantis said the no-sail order is outdated and hurts the state as the industry generates billions for the economy and employs tens of thousands of Floridians.
“We don't believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data,” the Republican governor said at a news conference at the Port of Miami.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines last week for companies on how to respond in the event of Covid-19 cases but has so far not lifted its no-sail order.
The CDC shut down sailing last March when several coronavirus outbreaks were tied to ships worldwide, prompting ports to reject docking plans and leaving some passengers and crew members to navigate for an extended time.

Another coronavirus variant has emerged in the United States, a so-called “double mutant” strain detected for the first time in California, news outlets reported.
The San Fransisco Chronicle reported that one case of the emerging strain, which originated in India, was confirmed in the Bay Area by the Stanford Clinical Virology Lab through genomic sequencing. Lab director Dr. Benjamin Pinsky told the newspaper the lab is screening seven other presumptive cases. The results from those tests should come back early this week, according to the Chronicle.
Pinsky explained to ABC7 the strain is called the double mutant variant because it contains “two somewhat well-described mutations.
“In the spike protein of the virus, this includes the L452R mutation, which is found in the California variant, and then it has a mutation in another position, E484, that’s found in the South Africa and the Brazil variant,” he told the news outlet.
According to the Chronicle, the confirmed case of the emerging variant is a patient in the Stanford Health Care clinic. The infection likely occurred in Santa Clara County, the newspaper reported.
Health officials in the county told the Chronicle they aren’t monitoring the new strain yet as it hasn’t made it onto the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of variants of concern.
The identification of the new strain in the United States comes as concerns mount about the increasing number of variants of COVID-19 across the country and the world. Most of the strains the CDC has listed as being of concern are linked to the increased spread of the virus and reduced antibody protection against it.
“Viruses constantly change through mutation,” the CDC explains on its website. “A variant has one or more mutations that differentiate it from other variants in circulation. As expected, multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been documented in the United States and globally throughout this pandemic.”
The agency’s listed strains of variants of concern include B.1.1.7 from the United Kingdom, P.1 from Brazil/Japan and B.1.351 from South Africa as well as B.1.427 and B.1.429 from California.
A surge in the P.1 variant on Cape Cod led Massachusetts to initially top all U.S. states in its number of confirmed cases of the strain. However, Florida and Illinois are now leading the commonwealth, with the Bay State reporting 58 cases of the Brazil/Japan variant as of Tuesday, CDC data showed.
Massachusetts is also reporting 712 of the U.K. strain and 12 of the one from South Africa, according to the CDC.
The double mutant variant sounds a bit scary. I hope that no worse virus variants will appear. We can no longer bear more damage.

Almost a month after Nigeria commenced the vaccination of its citizens against COVID-19, over 800,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.
As of Thursday evening, 818,865 eligible Nigerians have been vaccinated, an update by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) shows.
The Nigerian government had said it plans to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.
Nigeria commenced COVID-19 vaccination on March 5 having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to free vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population. The vaccination started with healthcare workers.
The country also received another 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from telecom giant, MTN, as part of the latter’s contribution to Africa.
COVID-19 vaccination has since commenced in all states across the country except for Kogi which is yet to receive doses for the vaccines.
Kogi, which has reported only five cases since the onset of the pandemic, was not supplied with doses of the vaccines due to lack of storage facility.
Latest Data
According to the latest update, Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria, has vaccinated 152,261 people; making it the highest in the country.
This is followed by Ogun with 51,608, Kaduna-49,759, Kano-39,818, Katsina- 38,476 and Bauchi- 34,795
The states with the lowest number of vaccinated people are Abia- 1,874 and Taraba with 2,760 people vaccinated so far.
As of Wednesday night, Nigeria has recorded 162,891 COVID-19 cases and 2,057 deaths, according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).


Our government had planned to implant the COVID-19 virus vaccine for 109 million people within two years. From the current data, I think this can be achieved.

Covid-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the United States last year, surpassing accidental deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.
Only heart disease and cancer caused more deaths.
What's more, the pandemic accelerated the U.S. death rate.
"In 2020, about 3.3 million deaths occurred in the United States. Overall, this represents a 16 percent increase in deaths from 2019," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a news briefing Wednesday. Covid-19 deaths accounted for roughly 11 percent of deaths in 2020.
The report, from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, was based on death certificate data from January through December. Heart disease — long America's No. 1 killer — was the cause of approximately 690,000 deaths last year, according to the report. About 598,000 deaths were linked to cancer.
Covid-19 was listed as a cause of death or contributing cause on approximately 375,000 such documents in 2020. (As of Wednesday, that number had risen to more than 540,000.) A small percentage listed Covid-19 as the only cause of death, while more than 97 percent listed Covid-19 along with other health problems.
A similar report from the CDC last year lead to concerns and even conspiracy theories that Covid-19 was not the true cause of death in the vast majority of cases.
But experts said those deaths would not have occurred had Covid-19 not made the victims' underlying conditions worse.
"From a physician who has taken care of these patients and signed way too many death certificates, I can tell you for a fact that patients died because of Covid-19," said Dr. Hugh Cassiere, director of critical care services at Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at North Shore University Hospital, part of Northwell Health, on Long Island, New York.
"These are people with underlying medical conditions, who, if they had not developed Covid-19, would still be alive," Cassiere said.
It has been well established that underlying health problems, such as obesity, kidney disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, put a person at risk for severe outcomes of Covid-19.
A CDC study published this month found that nearly 80 percent of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the U.S. were classified as either overweight or obese.
The new CDC report also confirmed that Covid-19 created a "plausible chain-of-event condition," meaning the infection directly caused other conditions, such as pneumonia or respiratory failure, listed on the death certificate.
"Overall, 70 percent to 80 percent of death certificates had both a chain-of-event condition and a significant contributing condition or a chain-of-event condition only," the report's authors wrote.
Covid-19 death rates were higher among people over 85, men and racial and ethnic minorities, such as Hispanics, Black people and American Indian or Alaska Native populations.
"We continue to see that communities of color account for an outsized portion of these deaths," Walensky said. "Among nearly all of these ethnic and racial minority groups, the Covid-19-related deaths were more than double the death rate of non-Hispanic white persons."
Such inequity data "should give all of us pause," said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. "It really is devastating."
And the true number of Covid-19 deaths may be much higher. "Limited availability of testing," the report's authors wrote, "might have resulted in an underestimation of Covid-19–associated deaths."
As we all know, Covid-19 caused a large number of deaths in the United States. Therefore, taking necessary measures to control the spread of the epidemic is an effective means to reduce deaths due to the epidemic.

COVID-19 vaccinations are on the rise in the U.S. — and so are coronavirus cases.
After a plateau lasting several weeks, the number of cases is once again on the increase in parts of the country.
New cases, test positivity rates and hospital admissions are creeping upward. An increase in daily COVID-19 deaths is likely to follow, health officials say.
Calling it a race between vaccinations and variants, Ashish Jha, a public health policy researcher and dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, tweeted: "Well, despite phenomenal vaccination rates, variants pulled ahead this week."
According to a daily report from the White House COVID-19 team, more than 410,000 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the U.S. this past week — a 9% increase from the previous week. More than 33,000 people were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 this past week, representing a 2% increase.
The number of new cases and hospitalizations per day is still far lower than an all-time peak in mid-January, when the U.S. recorded around 250,000 new daily cases. Still, the current trend in cases raises concerns among health officials that the U.S. could see a fourth surge in coronavirus infections as states discard masking mandates and some members of the pandemic-fatigued public flaunt mitigation measures.
"There is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation," said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, at a press conference March 26. "This is not the time to let down our guard. We need to follow the public health guidance, wear a mask, socially distance, and get a vaccine when it's your turn."
Cases are rising in a number of pockets around the country. In Michigan, the increase in coronavirus cases is landing people in their 30s and 40s in the hospital at rates similar to the winter surge — around 60 people each day — according to reporting from NPR affiliate Michigan Radio. Detroit, New York and Philadelphia were among several cities that saw accelerating case counts this past week.
Health officials warn that the country is now facing a more difficult foe than in earlier stages of the pandemic — strains of the coronavirus have mutated to spread more easily and to possibly cause more severe disease. According to a tally maintained by the CDC, these so-called "variants of concern" have shown up in every state and are increasingly dominant in the places where they have emerged.
"We're watching it very closely," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, at a press conference March 26, "We're worried about the increase."
The rise in cases and variants is happening at a time when the COVID-19 vaccination campaign is also reaching new heights. A third of the total U.S. population has received COVID-19 vaccines, and President Biden set a new goal at his press conference on Thursday of getting at least 200 million jabs into arms in his first hundred days. Health officials say that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — meaning at least two weeks have passed since they received the last shot — are largely protected against severe illness and less likely to spread the virus to others.
Until a large proportion of the population has been fully vaccinated, however, health experts say the public should adhere to mitigation measures — such as masking, physical distancing and improving indoor ventilation — to protect their own lives and those of their companions.
"We're so close to vaccinating so many more people," Walensky said at a press briefing March 22, referring to an anticipated surge in vaccine availability. She sees the situation in Europe, where countries are locking down again and reintroducing restrictions in response to a rapid rise in cases, as a warning.
"We just don't want to be at this rapid uptick of cases again, and that is very possible that that could happen," she said.

Dickinson State University in North Dakota has a plan to encourage students to get their Covid-19 vaccinations: Students who have been fully vaccinated will receive a pin or a bracelet that will exempt them from the campuswide mask mandate, university administrators announced this week.
The Dickinson vaccination incentive is voluntary. On Thursday, Rutgers University in New Jersey said it would require its more than 71,000 students to be vaccinated to attend fall classes on campus. Students who are studying only remotely won't have to be vaccinated, and there will be medical and religious exemptions, the university's president, Jonathan Holloway, said in a statement.
Rutgers may be one of the first large universities to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations, if not the first, and other colleges are likely to follow.
"I'm just starting to hear discussion about mandating vaccines, and everyone I've talked to has said that they are leaning in the direction of mandating vaccines not just with the students, but with faculty and staff, as well," said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Some universities reached by NBC News said they don't yet have clear plans for vaccination requirements.
A spokesperson for the University of California president's office said that "at this time, we do not anticipate making the Covid-19 vaccines mandatory." The University of Notre Dame said "no decision has been made" about a mandate for students returning in the fall. The University of Michigan won't require vaccinations for students "at this time." At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, vaccinations aren't required "at this time."
"The University encourages eligible students, faculty and staff to receive a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to them," Robert A. Blouin, UNC-Chapel Hill's executive vice chancellor and provost, said in a statement.
But encouragement may soon change to something stronger as vaccine supplies increase.
Crowds of young spring break partyers have put a renewed and urgent focus on the role college-age and young adults are going to play in getting the pandemic under control in the U.S. On Wednesday, Chicago's health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, said people ages 18 to 39 are driving the city's most recent surge in cases, reminiscent of the fall surge.
Vaccinating older teens and young adults is important, experts said, even if the age group is at low risk for severe Covid-19. Already, Alaska, Arizona, California, North Dakota, Ohio and a growing number of other states have expanded or will soon expand vaccination eligibility to everyone 16 and older.

In today’s edition of The Morning newsletter, David Leonhardt writes:
Bruce Sacerdote, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, noticed something last year about the Covid-19 television coverage that he was watching on CNN and PBS. It almost always seemed negative, regardless of what was he seeing in the data or hearing from scientists he knew.
When Covid cases were rising in the U.S., the news coverage emphasized the increase. When cases were falling, the coverage instead focused on those places where cases were rising. And when vaccine research began showing positive results, the coverage downplayed it, as far as Sacerdote could tell.
But he was not sure whether his perception was correct. To check, he began working with two other researchers, building a database of Covid coverage from every major network, CNN, Fox News, Politico, The New York Times and hundreds of other sources, in the U.S. and overseas. The researchers then analyzed it with a social-science technique that classifies language as positive, neutral or negative.
The results showed that Sacerdote’s instinct had been right — and not just because the pandemic has been mostly a grim story.
The U.S. media is an outlier
The coverage by U.S. publications with a national audience has been much more negative than coverage by any other source that the researchers analyzed, including scientific journals, major international publications and regional U.S. media. “The most well-read U.S. media are outliers in terms of their negativity,” Molly Cook, a co-author of the study, told me.
About 87 percent of Covid coverage in national U.S. media last year was negative. The share was 51 percent in international media, 53 percent in U.S. regional media and 64 percent in scientific journals.
Notably, the coverage was negative in both U.S. media outlets with liberal audiences (like MSNBC) and those with conservative audiences (like Fox News).
Sacerdote is careful to emphasize that he does not think journalists usually report falsehoods. The issue is which facts they emphasize. Still, the new study — which the National Bureau of Economic Research has published as a working paper, titled, “Why is all Covid-19 news bad news?” — calls for some self-reflection from those of us in the media.
If we’re constantly telling a negative story, we are not giving our audience the most accurate portrait of reality. We are shading it. We are doing a good job telling you why Covid cases are rising in some places and how the vaccines are imperfect — but not such a good job explaining why cases are falling elsewhere or how the vaccines save lives. Perhaps most important, we are not being clear about which Covid developments are truly alarming.
As Ranjan Sehgal, another co-author, told me, “The media is painting a picture that is a little bit different from what the scientists are saying.”

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.
Aviation minister Hadi Sirika told a news conference that the airline had demanded passengers from Nigeria undertake three COVID-19 tests within 24 hours, leading the government to suspend its operations, with the exemption of cargo and humanitarian flights.
“To make us go through three tests within 24 hours does not make sense. Since they insist, their operations remain suspended,” Sirika said.
Last month Nigeria lifted a suspension of Emirates airlines flights imposed after the carrier sought additional COVID-19 tests for passengers from Nigeria.
In addition to requiring a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before flying from Nigeria, the airline added an extra requirement of having a rapid test four hours before departure.
Dutch airline KLM commenced flights in and out of Nigeria this month, the minister said.

It's been almost a year since Nigeria recorded its first case of COVID-19, and since then, the country has witnessed a barrage of economic as well as societal shocks that have changed life as we know it. In 2018, the World Bank tagged Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated what was already a critical issue. A recent World Bank study revealed that over 7 million people in the country are expected to be tipped into poverty this year and that by 2022 the number of poor people in Nigeria might hit 100 million.
All across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has rolled back some of the key progress that governments, private players and development actors had made in the pursuit of financial inclusion and improved socioeconomic outcomes as well as the attainment of other development goals. For the average Nigerian, this reality is not theoretical, it is their lived experience. Many families now rely on government palliative care or relief packages from non-profits and social enterprises. It is not far off to attribute some of this decline in standards of living to the latent and lasting economic effects of the first lockdown and restrictions on businesses to members of the informal economy, of which women form a significant number.
This strain on the informal economy is tangible and is not relegated solely to the workforce but has strong effects on the economy itself. Nigeria, like most developing countries, is driven and sustained by a thriving informal economy. The ever-expanding nature of this sector has been fundamentally threatened by the uncertainty of the pandemic. For these millions of workers, even before the pandemic, informality already posed a multi-faceted challenge that restricted access to both private and public sector services. The absence of comprehensive social protection and access to, as well as awareness and uptake of existing financial services has exacerbated an already precarious situation. These socio-economic shocks and the absence of relevant support has led to increasing vulnerability for members of the informal sector, most especially our women including those that have been forcibly displaced. In a sample study organized by the World Bank, Nigeria was one of the four countries including Malawi, Ethiopia and Uganda that saw households record a significant loss in income- with business income being the most susceptible due to the pandemic. Women have it worse, a separate report on Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria by the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion, revealed that more women than men suffered income cuts and loss of livelihood. The extensiveness of the informal economy has meant that business across several sectors- from agriculture to retail- have been impacted.In December 2020, Nigeria's Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP) and 60 Decibels with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation launched an interim report, detailing the results of a survey "Investigating the Effects of COVID-19" between August and December 2020. The survey was administered amongst 4,940 GEEP clients spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country. It is important to highlight that the GEEP beneficiary survey is ongoing with a target to have completed 11 rounds of surveys and publish a final report by May 2021 that will provide verifiable COVID-19 impact insights from more than 11,000 GEEP clients.In December 2020, Nigeria's Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP) and 60 Decibels with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation launched an interim report, detailing the results of a survey "Investigating the Effects of COVID-19" between August and December 2020. The survey was administered amongst 4,940 GEEP clients spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country. It is important to highlight that the GEEP beneficiary survey is ongoing with a target to have completed 11 rounds of surveys and publish a final report by May 2021 that will provide verifiable COVID-19 impact insights from more than 11,000 GEEP clients.
For Habibah, a young widow, who ran a successful petty business selling snacks to school children, the impact of the pandemic coupled with the school closures drove her business to a complete halt. Today, putting food on the table has become extremely difficult as the prices of food have not only increased but her income and business prospects have diminished. Government support and relief programmes intended to alleviate the plight of low-income Nigerians have been beneficial for some and the cash transfer scheme has shown promising results in NIgeria, particularly for women.
Despite being severely impacted, the informal sector is a crucial tool for the country's economic rebound. Nigeria's Ministry of Labour and productivity have estimated that approximately 80% of Nigeria's workforce is employed by the informal sector. With millions of Nigeria's agile labour force contributing significantly to this sector, there is a sizable tax base that will remain untapped without formalising this segment of the economy. Even as we discuss formalisation, it is important to recognise that formalisation itself is not one single thing or solved simply by registration and identification (although these components are fundamental). Formalisation is an agreement that allows all parties to benefit - the government from an increased tax base, and for members of the informal economy, its legal recognition, social protection, tax incentives potentially, and the type of access enjoyed by the members of Nigeria's formal economy. Any formalisation project that simply seeks to register and tax without a quid pro quo will have limited success not only because of the hurdles around duplicity, harmonisation, infrastructure and scale- but simply because of the lack of incentive for anyone to change their current status from informal to formal.
In Nigeria and across the continent the sheer force of the informal sector is often overlooked. This is largely due to the fact that on mere observation it might seem like a herculean task, trying to streamline millions of people into a comprehensive database. However, this is a task that must be done if we want to spur development and boost the economic potential of our informal sector. Ensuring economic stability and social protection is fundamental to poverty reduction as it will create the necessary infrastructure to promote formalization, improve the standards of living for millions and consequently have a considerable impact on our nation's GDP.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the WTO, gave the assurance on Tuesday during a meeting with the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19.
She noted that an economy cannot be advanced until the health sector is taken care of, especially in a world battling a pandemic.
“The main reason we are here is really to see how the WTO can support Nigeria, in improving its economy. And part of doing that is the health. We are in a pandemic and of course, you cannot advance the economy until you take care of the health aspects,” she said.
“And so what the secretary to the government office is doing along with the presidential task force is laudable, and we wanted to just discuss with them, one, what is happening, the arrival of the COVID vaccines, how that is being distributed, the challenges, opportunities on the way of that and that the WTO can do.
“So we are here to see what we can do to support Nigeria. I have to personally say, I was chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance for five years, one of those who designed the COVAX facility, and have been very proud of the ability to make available to poorer countries and to emerging markets like Nigeria, access to vaccines at affordable prices. So we will continue to push that.”
Okonjo-Iweala said the world trade body will also work to reduce export restrictions regarding medical supplies, equipments and COVID-19 vaccines among member states.
“Interestingly, trade is very instrumental in access to medical supplies and equipment, because how do they get from one place to the other? It is through trade,” the WTO DG said.
“And part of the challenges we’ve had in this pandemic is the fact that some of our member countries put export restrictions on the movement of medical supplies, equipment, and even supplies to make vaccines.
“And you remember at the beginning of the pandemic, there are many countries, you know that blocked export. So we’ve managed to get that reduced. There were 91 countries at the beginning, that had restrictions and prohibitions on export of medical supplies and equipment. We are now down to 59.
“So we’ve reduced considerably but still too many my view. And so that’s one of the things we’re trying to get right.”

With COVID-19 vaccines having strict timelines for when they must be used before expiring, including some that must be used within hours of being mixed and thawed, having leftover doses may be somewhat inevitable.
So what happens in those cases? Who receives the doses and how do people find out where leftover shots are available?
Although there's no nation-wide data tracking wasted vaccine doses, it's likely that only a small fraction of distributed vaccine doses must be thrown away.
Still, this small fraction may amount to many thousands of doses -- and advocates say that it's crucial, in a time of limited supply and facing the specter of spreading variants, to get as many shots in arms as soon as possible.
According to a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) report obtained by ABC station WTVD, 2,346 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were marked unusable and thrown out in North Carolina.
And Texas issued a report on March 5 indicating that some 6,800 doses had been discarded out of 7.6 million -- about 0.09%. The state has administered some 6.7 million doses overall, according to its vaccination dashboard. Doses were discarded for a number of reasons, including that their expiration date had passed or inadequate refrigeration.
Some doses are wasted because of human error in mixing, preparation or transportation. But many doses are discarded when people don't show up to vaccine appointments, leaving extra shots on hand with a quickly dwindling expiration date.
Now, some local communities are crowdsourcing solutions. Some of those solutions are low-tech, like putting up a flyer at a grocery store notifying shoppers of extra vaccine doses.
Still, others rely on social media and the internet to give local residents a heads up about extra doses that would otherwise go to waste. Among those high-tech solutions are websites like Dr. B, VaccineHunter, and countless Facebook groups that have cropped up since the start of the vaccine rollout.

With the Covid-19 vaccination rollout accelerating across the United States, public health experts say the biggest obstacle to reaching herd immunity is no longer the anti-vaxxers — it’s the people who are still on the fence about getting a shot.
Nearly a third of the people who took part in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey fell into the “wait and see” category, and that’s enough to imperil the chances of reaching the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population to stunt the pandemic and allow American life to get back to normal, they said.
“We’re in a race now, if you will,” Dr. Marti Sharkey, who is the health officer in the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, told NBC News. “It’s vaccines versus variants. The virus is constantly mutating, so we need to reach herd immunity as quickly as possible, and the way to do that is to vaccinate as quickly as possible. The vaccines are going to be more effective the faster we get them into arms.”
Summer Johnson McGee, who is dean of the University of New Haven’s School of Health Sciences, agreed.
“Every time there is a new Covid-19 infection, we are giving the virus a chance to mutate and develop more transmissible or deadly variants,” she said. “The sooner we reach herd immunity and stop chains of transmission, the less impact these variants are likely to have because it will be so much harder for Covid-19 to find an unvaccinated individual.”
The problem, however, is that the fence-sitters have built up their own immunity against that kind of messaging, the experts said. And the potentially dire consequences of not breaking through to them wound up being a big part of the discussion this week at a meeting of the Fayetteville Board of Health.
"My fear is that we plateau at less than 50 percent vaccination rate in the community and that would make it a difficult summer — not what it could be — which is why messaging is so critically important," said Dr. Hershey Garner, a local physician who treats cancer patients.
As of Thursday, Arkansas ranked 48th out of the 50 states in terms of vaccination efficiency after having administered only about 68 percent of the 1.2 million doses that have been delivered to the state, according to Becker's Hospital Review. And just 9.5 percent of the 3 million Arkansas residents are fully vaccinated.
Sharkey said social media has been both a blessing and a curse for the vaccination rollout in that it’s been a top source of vitally needed information along with being a major source of disinformation.
“People are nervous and are getting conflicting information, especially over social media, about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines,” she said.
So Sharkey is a big proponent of good old-fashioned word of mouth.
“The most effective way to get them off the fence, it seems to me, is by having friends telling friends about the vaccine,” she said. “They’re more likely to believe a friend, a person they trust, who tells them they suffered no ill effects and encourages them to be vaccinated."
In Arkansas, most of the vaccine distribution is being done through pharmacies, and Sharkey said that needs to change as well.
“I believe they need to start distributing them through doctors’ offices as well,” she said. “My mother wants to get a vaccine from somebody she knows and there are a lot of people, especially older people, who feel the same way.”
Seeing trusted public figures get vaccinated also alleviates concerns, McGee said.
“We need every kind of influencer to be using their audience and reputation to promote Covid-19 vaccination,” she said. "Social media influencers, celebrities, athletes, religious and community leaders—absolutely everyone should be talking about how they are vaccinated or why they will vaccinate when they are eligible. We need people going door to door like census takers, answering questions about the vaccine and dispelling these vaccine myths.”
Recently, four former U.S. presidents — including Arkansas native son Bill Clinton — were featured in two national ad campaigns aimed at drumming up support for Covid-19 vaccinations. But former President Donald Trump did not take part in the campaign and also refused to be photographed when he got his shot before leaving office in January.
Sharkey said that was a shame.
“President Trump not receiving the vaccine publicly probably hurt states such as mine that are more conservative, but we have a Republican governor who has been very pro-vaccine and who has been very engaged in the process,” she said, referring to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele says that a vibrant and innovative healthcare system is vital for the country’s national security, hence the need to encourage research and innovation in the treatment of health conditions for the Nigerian citizens.
He stated this at the Bank’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, March 9, 2021,during the presentation of grants to successful beneficiaries of the Health Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme.
Mr. Emefiele disclosed that 68 proposals out of the 286 submissions received by the Body of Experts, had been reviewed and evaluated with five proposals with significant merits valued at N253.54 million recommended by the experts for financing. He added that the recommended proposals also have the potential to enable the development of the Nigerian vaccine for COVID-19.
The Governor said the grant award was a testimony to the significant role research and development in healthcare could play in supporting economic growth, particularly as growth was highly dependent on a strong and healthy workforce.
Mr. Emefiele also noted that the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which had an unprecedented effect on world economy, underscored the fact that a healthy and safe workforce remained critical for a continued economic growth as well as the stability of the financial system.
He equally emphasized that the need to move from a consumer-based economy to a more productive economy necessitated the CBN’s development of intervention programmes and schemes across various sectors including the health sector.
Continuing, the CBN Governor said that the Bank introduced the Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme (HSRDIS), as part of measures to support the growth of the Nigerian healthcare sector.
According to him, the facility aimed at strengthening the sector’s capacity to meet the increasing demand for healthcare products and services, particularly pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare value chain players intending to build or expand capacity.
The CBN Governor also disclosed that 82 projects, valued at N85.89-billion, comprising 26 pharmaceutical and 56 medical projects across the country had been financed through the HSRDIS.
While congratulating the recipients of the grant award, Emefiele urged them to judiciously utilize the opportunity offered to them by the CBN and strive to achieve the purpose of their research by ensuring that their projects meet the set targets. He expressed optimism that the CBN HSRDIS grant will offer an average Nigerian access to the much-needed vaccines and drugs for not just COVID-19, but other communicable or non-communicable diseases.
In his remarks at the occasion, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha commended the CBN for what he described as the modest efforts of the Bank at helping future generations to combat any outbreak of health pandemic.
He assured of President Muhammadu Buhari’s support to HSRDIS as the President had supported similar responses to curb the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Mustapha said the coronavirus pandemic had exposed the fragilities of different sectors of the economy and governance but called for a collective resolve to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic.
The SGF who disclosed that the COVID-19 vaccines were safe and efficacious, and therefore urged members of the public to avail themselves the opportunity when the time arose to be vaccinated.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Sen.Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora and Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye, both commended the CBN for the initiative and reiterated that the HSRDIS was a step in the right direction in ensuring the vibrant and functional healthcare system as well as the socio-economic well-being of Nigerians.
Recipients of the CBN HSRDIS grant award were Prof. Olufemi Emmanuel Dokun-Babalola, Prof. Okoli Ikechukwu, Dr. John Ogedengbe, Dr. Garba Uba and Dr. O’tega Ejofodomi.
Responding on behalf of the five grant award recipients, Dr. Ejofodomi appreciated the CBN for the opportunity and pledged to utilize the resources for the purpose of the grant.
The CBN Healthcare Sector Research and Development Interventions Scheme (HSRDIS) was introduced with the release of the implementation guidelines and subsequent inauguration of the Scheme’s Body of Experts in July 2020. The Scheme is part of the CBN’s policy response to the coronavirus pandemic aimed at prompting intense research and developing vaccines and drugs against the spread of other communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Three days after Nigeria began vaccination for coronavirus, there are concerns that fake and illegal COVID-19 vaccines may soon flood the Nigerian market if the Federal Government did not tackle the situation urgently.The anxiety was heightened, last week, when the global police organization, Interpol Police, in China and South Africa reportedly seized thousands of fake doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, warning this represented only the “tip of the iceberg” in vaccine-related crime.
The Lyon-based agency Interpol said 400 vials – equivalent to around 2,400 doses – containing the fake vaccine were found at a warehouse in Germiston outside Johannesburg in South Africa, where officers also recovered fake masks and arrested three Chinese and a Zambian national.
The situation has raised questions about readiness of Nigeria to prevent fake vaccines from getting into the country, a situation that could increase concerns about efficacy and apathy.
The Guardian investigation revealed that real the challenge for government is that there are no enough vaccines. Some travellers may become so desperate to be tempted to take from the black market, which might encourage its smuggling.
While relying on the fact that the only remedy, perhaps is the vaccine certificate, which only government issues, some fear COVID-19 vaccine certificates could be faked too, just as COVID-19 test results are faked for travelling.
Health Minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, told The Guardian yesterday: “Nigerian government issues vaccination certificates with QR code you can scan for authenticity. The President and Vice President were issued QR coded certificates, valid after they get the second dose.”
Ehanire had told journalists on Tuesday: “All questions can be directed to the Ministry of Health and NPHCDA, but this is not a time to work at cross purposes; it is not a time to be making private arrangements for vaccine procurement and administration. Vaccines that are not approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) will be determined as dangerous, and will be seized by Customs Services and NAFDAC, who are on high alert for illegal vaccine importation.”
Ehanire said that manufacturers of vaccines require an official indemnification to be able to use their product, which Nigeria has provided for the COVAX facility, adding that vaccines from other sources must first have NAFDAC’s Emergency Use Authorisation, and are not covered under the indemnification arrangement warning that such vaccines will be illegal and therefore subject to be impounded by NAFDAC and Customs.
The Guardian reliably gathered that NAFDAC, the regulatory agency that gave the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for the vaccine, has also put in place track and trace mechanisms, including code bars etc. to prevent infiltration of fake vaccines.
Director General, Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Yaba, Lagos, Prof. Babatunde Salako, said: “Government has warned that there are already fake vaccine around and that people should take vaccine only from government facilities. People should also be patient, as more vaccines will come into the country, just as government is still negotiating with other vaccine manufacturers to provide adequate vaccine for at least 70-80 percent of Nigerians.”

Nigeria's health care system has long been held down with challenges such as under-funding, manpower shortages, inadequate facilities and poor equipment, among others.
In the public healthcare institutions run by federal and state governments, there is the usual shortage of healthcare personnel, and patients, in addition to buying their own drugs, are usually required to pay for basic medical consumables such as syringes, plaster, cotton wool, hand gloves and other accessories.
These structural and functional inadequacies have caused the fortunes of healthcare delivery to fall short of expectations. Today, in Nigeria, healthcare is neither readily accessible nor affordable. The National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, introduced several years ago to cushion the negative effects of unaffordable healthcare has failed to achieve that objective.、
With no reliable national healthcare financing arrangement in place for the average Nigerian and the very poor, out-of-pocket payment has remained the order of the day to access healthcare services.
That the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened an already bad situation in the health sector is an understatement. The rising cases of COVID-19 infections is fast overwhelming Nigeria's healthcare system.
The situation has become so critical that in some tertiary health institutions, all non-emergency cases are being suspended in order to devote more time and resources to COVID-19 care.
We have observed that hospital admission is now guaranteed only after deposits of huge sums of money. Some private health facilities demand a deposit of between N2 million and N10 million to admit a COVID-19 patient, apart from the cost of treatment which could be up to N300,000 per day.
It is alarming that presently in Nigeria, a COVID-19 patient who requires oxygen would, on the average, need 8 to 16 cylinders of oxygen daily at the cost of N20,000 to N50,000 per cylinder.
This sudden high demand for oxygen has triggered a booming black market for the life-saving gaseous element. Currently a patient is spending a fortune on oxygen alone in order to stay alive.
Such rising cost of healthcare in Nigeria, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has thus become a potential death sentence to majority of Nigerians who live below the poverty line of less than $1 a day.
The approval, last week, of N6.45 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari for the setting up of gas plants in 38 locations nationwide to produce oxygen for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, is a step in the right direction.
We are hoping that this gesture will be properly and quickly implemented and expanded to other areas of critical need, and will be followed by similar interventions that will rekindle the hope of all Nigerians. Certainly, a lot more needs to be done. Healthcare is a right for all Nigerians and must always be available, accessible and affordable.
To alleviate the plight of Nigerians of less than average means, the nation's entire healthcare system must be restructured.
The era of out-of-pocket payment for healthcare must be abolished once and for all. We commend the states that have set up their own state and community health insurance schemes, and urge them to give the schemes a human face even as we admonish the Federal Government to rekindle the comatose NHIS.
Government must further subsidise the cost of health care. There must be emphasis on the allocation of more funds for provision of life-saving facilities, qualified health care personnel and provision of equipment such as oxygen tanks, respirators, ICUs, among others.


Through this epidemic, we have learned the importance of medical treatment. In order to have a better life in the future, we will continue to develop medical treatment in the future.

The U.S. is at a “critical nexus” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic as highly transmissible variants threaten to overturn the nation’s progress in a matter of weeks, even as more vaccines make their way into the arms of Americans, top health officials warned Wednesday.
The emergence of the new variants has largely coincided with the sharp decline in daily new cases across the U.S. since January, but those figures have since stalled.
The highly contagious variant first identified in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, “looms ready to hijack” the nation’s success, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.
“So much can turn in the next few weeks,” Walensky said at a White House Covid-19 response briefing. “How this plays out is up to us. The next three months are pivotal.”
The U.S. is reporting a daily average of roughly 65,422 new cases over the last week, a drop compared with the peak of nearly 250,000 daily cases the U.S. reported in January, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
However, the number of daily new infections is still above the rate the U.S. reported over the summer when the virus swept across America’s Sun Belt. Covid-19 cases are now growing by more than 5% in 14 states, up from only two states a week ago.
CDC researchers released a study on Jan. 15 that predicted the B.1.1.7 strain would become the predominant strain in the U.S. by mid-to-late March. Health officials have since warned that the variants could reverse the current downward trajectory in infections in the U.S. and delay the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.
“Now more than ever, we must do all we can to stop the spread of the virus,” Walensky said.
Other variants loom
The B.1.1.7 variant first found in the U.K. isn’t the only strain concerning medical experts.
White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday noted the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa could “moderately to severely” reduce vaccine efficacy, and the P.1 variant found in Brazil may evade antibodies generated by previous infection or vaccination.
There are also new variants that have been discovered in the United States. Preliminary reports show that the B.1.427 variant found in California may be more transmissible than previous strains, Fauci said.
The infectious disease expert said earlier this week that U.S. officials are also taking the B.1.526 variant found in New York “very seriously,” raising the possibility that it could evade the protection of antibody treatments and vaccines.
Fauci reiterated that the vaccines should still protect against the disease, and drugmakers are working on booster doses to tackle the arising mutations. Clinical trials for a booster shot from Moderna to target the B.1.351 variant are planned to begin in mid-March, he said.
While the U.S. may see another surge from the B.1.1.7 variant in the future, Dr. Celine Gounder, a former member of President Joe Biden’s Covid advisory board, told CNBC she’s more concerned about the B.1.351 or P.1 variants mutating further and making the currently deployed vaccines less effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
“If you have the B.1.351 or the P.1 further mutate to where it’s no longer covered by the vaccine, and you have a window where we don’t yet have the updated vaccine available, we could find ourselves in a difficult spot in the fall,” Gounder said in a phone interview.

Costco is raising its starting hourly wage to $16, CEO Craig Jelinek said Thursday.
"Since Costco's inception, the company has been committed to paying employees very competitive retail wages and providing them broad and affordable health care benefits," Jelinek said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. "Two years ago we moved our starting hourly wage to $15 everywhere in the U.S. Effective next week, the starting wage will go to $16."
Jelinek said more than half of Costco's U.S.-based employees earn hourly wages of more than $25.
Costco is the latest in a slew of major retailers that have announced wage hikes in recent years because of state regulation and political pressure, but they have also done so to gain an edge over competitors. Before the coronavirus pandemic throttled the economy, unemployment rates were low — leading retailers to compete for scarce talent in a tight labor market. Over the last few years, Amazon, Walmart and Target have gradually raised their starting wages to $15 an hour while offering workers perks like tuition reimbursement programs.
Support is growing in Congress for a federal minimum wage hike. A $15 wage is included in the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill now on the table, which calls for a multiyear phase-in of the increase by 2025. President Joe Biden backs doubling the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
The issue has gained popularity in recent months as grocery store workers, restaurant staffers and other front-line employees continue to bear an outsize share of the pandemic's hardships. Democrats have used the dynamic as leverage to increase hourly compensation, but bipartisan support for the measure has proven to be elusive. Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., announced a proposal Tuesday that would raise hourly wages to just $10 by 2025.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a major advocate for the wage hike, denounced the Republican proposal in a tweet.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has championed increasing the minimum wage for years.
"Why should working people be subsidizing some of the wealthiest families and largest corporations in America because of the starvation wages they pay their workers?" he said Thursday.

The incoming head of the World Trade Organization says getting countries to drop export restrictions on vaccines and medical supplies needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic will be one of her top priorities.
Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is set to become the WTO's director-general on March 1. She's the first woman and first African to lead the group that governs trade rules between countries.
The pandemic has had a profound impact on global trade, which "dropped precipitously in 2020," Okonjo-Iweala tells NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.
Overall, the global economy contracted by 4.3% in 2020, according to the World Bank. The International Monetary Fund predicts the global economy will grow by 5.5% in 2021. But variants of the coronavirus and vaccine rollout complications make those forecasts uncertain.
"Until we solve the public health issues of the pandemic, we can't really get the economic issues settled," Okonjo-Iweala says.
Okonjo-Iweala talked with NPR about the WTO's role in improving access to vaccines, areas where she feels the WTO needs reform and being the first woman to head the organization. Here are excerpts of the interview, edited for clarity and length.

When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was first accused of undercounting nursing home deaths from Covid-19, his administration offered a simple explanation:
The state did not include nursing home residents who died in the hospital in the publicly posted tally of coronavirus deaths linked to long-term care facilities, officials said, because it wanted to avoid a “double count” of those deaths in the statewide total.
But New York stands apart from other states in taking this approach to counting nursing home deaths, research experts said — a decision that made New York’s tally of nursing home deaths appear lower than it was, and that is now under federal investigation.
“It’s tricky to compare state-level data, but New York is the only state that explicitly stated that they were excluding hospital-based deaths,” said Priya Chidambaram, a senior policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research organization.
By contrast, officials in other states, including Minnesota, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, said in recent interviews that they found ways to total all nursing home deaths, including residents who died at hospitals, without counting them twice, by cross-referencing the reports from nursing homes with other data sources. Research experts, including Chidambaram, said they were not aware of any other state that counted nursing home deaths as New York did.
That has left both policymakers and researchers wondering why New York didn’t find a similar workaround to avoid leaving out thousands of nursing home deaths from its reported total.
“New York is an outlier of sorts when it comes to this issue,” said David Grabowski, a long-term care expert and policy professor at Harvard Medical School.
Every state has developed its own method for counting Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, as well as the general population. And New York said explicitly from the early months of the pandemic that its publicly posted count of nursing home deaths only included those that occurred on the premises, as opposed to at a hospital or elsewhere.
The state took this approach to avoid including those deaths twice in its total of all New York residents who had died from Covid-19, the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, told state lawmakers during an August hearing on the administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
“We don’t want to double count — this person died here, and also died there,” Zucker said, describing the Cuomo administration as being “incredibly transparent on information.”
New York officials also said it was important to verify reports of residents who died at hospitals before making those numbers public, as the information provided by nursing homes was not always accurate, especially during the chaotic early days of the pandemic.
“It’s natural to assume they might not have as much information as what happened inside their walls,” said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for the state health department.
That approach, however, led New York to omit a huge number of deaths from its publicly reported nursing home total until recently. The state had said that about 8,500 nursing home residents had died from Covid-19. But when New York finally included residents who died in hospitals, the total shot up to about 15,000 — more than any other state as of late January, according to a state-by-state count of long-term deaths compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And the state only released the new total after its own attorney general issued a report last month accusing the Cuomo administration of undercounting the deaths.
The New York health department said the delay in releasing the number of hospital-based deaths was due to a time-consuming verification process. The Covid-19 reports that nursing homes and hospitals submit daily only include the initials and age of residents who died “to protect patient privacy,” Holmes said.
While more detailed data on hospital deaths is available, the information is entered into a separate system that often lags and does not include the name of a patient’s nursing home, he added. “Great lengths have been taken to ensure accuracy in data reporting from multiple sources.”
Holmes also said the newly released numbers did not change the overall death toll in New York from the virus, since all nursing home deaths had been included in the statewide count, regardless of the place where they occurred.
Officials in other states in the Northeast and elsewhere told NBC News that they took a different approach to compile a comprehensive count of resident deaths — regardless of whether they occurred at a hospital or at the facility — to avoid the double-counting problem that New York officials were concerned about.
In Minnesota, for example, “deaths are categorized by place of residence,” said Scott Smith, a spokesman for the state’s public health department.
The state relies on self-reported data from nursing homes, which are asked to provide demographic information, date and place of death, and other information. Minnesota also collects data from hospitals, laboratories, medical examiners and death certificates to match reports and exclude duplicate entries to avoid double-counting, Smith said.
Similarly, Connecticut uses self-reported data from nursing homes, which are required to report all resident deaths “whether they occur in their facilities or after transfer to a hospital,” said David Dearborn, a spokesman for the state health department.
The state also relies on reports from the state medical examiner to prevent double-counting in the overall death toll, Dearborn said. “This process ensures an accurate statewide total.”
Massachusetts uses a similar approach, cross-referencing nursing home reports with death certificates to avoid duplicate entries to capture total Covid-19 deaths in the state, a state health spokesman said.
While the pandemic was unprecedented in many ways, the data challenges associated with it are not new, said Grabowski, the Harvard Medical School professor.
“Historically, public health officials have often had to distinguish between site of death and immediate residence prior to death,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why other states were able to classify prior residence and New York was not.”
The basic data should have been readily available to New York officials, said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, a right-leaning think tank that sued the state for failing to release its data on nursing home deaths. According to New York’s data collection form, obtained through the lawsuit, nursing homes are specifically asked for “the total number of Covid-19 residents who have died outside your facility,” as well as the total number who died in the facility itself.
“This is not a complicated thing to do,” said Hammond, who believes New York officials should have released both hospital and nonhospital death counts immediately, then cross-checked the information later if they thought it was necessary.
“They’re using the need for maximum accuracy and the difficulty of reconciling the two data sets as a rationale for postponing” the release of public information, he said.

The desperate attempts by President Donald Trump to overturn the free and fair U.S. presidential election of 2020 ought to create every sense of urgency for Nigeria to explore a bi-partisan body for the conduct of its elections.  
Trump’s behaviour was delusional and does not represent any good example of a democratic mien, but it can serve as a blessing in disguise, especially for nations prone to dictatorship and electoral controversies. That is precisely where Nigeria comes in.  
Nigeria has seen its fair share of dictators donning the democratic toga, as well as electoral controversies. Instances abound, but the most relative is the tendency of Nigerian leaders to pervert the laws that govern the country’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).  
As the name suggests, the INEC was envisioned as an independent organisation in line with item F,14(2c) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended). This section states that any of its members must “be nonpartisan and a person of unquestionable integrity.” The Constitution also vests the appointment of principal INEC officials with the president of the country. Unfortunately, most of the appointees have been neither nonpartisan nor independent.  
A prevailing example is the case of Lorretta Onochie, who has been nominated as a National Commissioner for the INEC. Not only is she a rabid promoter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and currently the Senior Special Assistant on Social Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Onochie is also a virally controversial figure and super spreader of toxic fictions. In short, her every rhetoric is emblematic of an extremist rabble-rouser who clowns around the country, spewing offensive fallacies as federal decrees.  
The objective motive behind Onochie’s nomination, therefore, is nothing but trumpish — deliberately designed to wreak havoc and stoke controversies.  
But the dictatorial intrigue within the INEC did not start with Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party were no different or even worse while they were in power.  
Such partisan grip of the INEC has been the major reason Nigerian elections are hardly mentioned in the same breath with the term “free and fair.” However, instead of placing the blame squarely where it belongs, the INEC chairman is typically the scapegoat.  
For instance, as the country geared for the 2011 election, the debate centered on Maurice Iwu, a renowned Professor of Pharmacognosy, who served as the INEC boss in the controversial elections of 2007. To many Nigerians, Mr. Iwu was the problem, and the problem was Mr. Iwu.  
It was generally believed that a mere change in leadership of the INEC was the sole panacea for a free and fair election in the country. Accordingly, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed a new chairman in Professor Attahiru Jega, another astute intellectual, a move widely hailed. Yet, after the 2011 general elections, despite the fact that its conduct showed significant improvement, the opposition groups claimed that the ruling party colluded with the INEC to falsify electoral results.  
In the words of Muhammadu Buhari, the main opposition candidate in the 2011 presidential election, the magnitude of malpractices in the 2007 elections “eclipsed all the other elections in the depth and scope of forgery and rigging. Initially, there were high hopes that after 2003 and 2007 a semblance of electoral propriety would be witnessed. The new chairman of INEC, Professor Jega, was touted as competent and a man of integrity. He has proved neither.”

The two Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States have reassuring safety profiles with no concerning new issues found in data collected from the first month of vaccinations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
After administration of 13.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to the U.S. population, most reports indicated non-serious side effects of the type that had been expected, such as headaches and fatigue. No deaths have been attributed to the vaccines, the data showed.
The CDC collected data between Dec. 14, 2020 and Jan. 13, 2021 from both an existing national surveillance system for adverse events and its own safety monitoring system established for Covid-19 vaccines.
During that time, 6,994 reports of adverse events after vaccination were recorded in the national surveillance system with 90.8 percent of them classified as non-serious and 9.2 percent as serious.
Rare cases of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction requiring medical attention, were reported with both vaccines at a rate of 4.5 cases per million doses administered, down from the agency's previously reported rate of 5 per million doses administered. The rate of anaphylaxis linked to Covid shots is similar to other vaccines, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Friday during the White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing.
"Healthcare providers and vaccine recipients can be reassured about the safety of Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines," the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
A total of 113 deaths were reported, including from death certificates and autopsy reports. No causal link between Covid-19 vaccination and fatalities was found, according to the CDC report.

It has been a long time since American tourists could wander Rome’s Colosseum or amble along the side of Paris’ river Seine. And one of Europe’s trade bodies is sounding the death knell for the EU travel industry if an immediate action plan isn’t put in place to welcome back U.S. tourists.
European economies are suffering–France is expected to be the biggest loser (outside of Covid-19, it is usually the most visited country in the world) with an estimated €48 billion ($58 billion) loss since the pandemic began, as reported by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Germany and Italy are expected to have lost €38 and €37 billion respectively.
U.S., Canadian and Mexican tourists make up a sizeable chunk of the EU’s tourist dollar–North America is the most important origin market for EU countries, bringing in €60 billion ($70 billion) annually. In 2018, 15 million U.S. tourists chose Europe as a holiday destination and in 2020, revenues from U.S. tourists fell by 90-95% across EU/Schengen area countries.
The European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) is the trade association for better tourism in Europe with over 1,200 members serving 63 origin markets. It announced today that the EU needs a solution for welcoming back non-essential travelers from the U.S. or it would risk losing billions of dollars again in 2021.
Tom Jenkins of ETOA said that potential U.S. and Canadian visitors are being pushed away because it isn’t clear yet when they might be able to return and under what conditions. “Europe is viewed as a single destination by long-haul visitors: it is what they think of and is their goal when planning a trip. So there has to be a coordinated response from the Schengen area to define what it takes for business to resume,” he said in a press release.
The Chairman of the Canadian Tour Operators Association (CATO) Brett Walker added that what was needed was an immediate, coordinated, and fully transparent tourism recovery plan, threatening that the situation would become even more dire without one.
“The next 90 days will likely determine if there any safe and meaningful return of North America travellers to Europe this summer,” Walker said. “The greater and the longer the uncertainty, the more likely Europe will see the same decline of North American spending, between 90-95% for 2021 as was the case in 2020,” he added.

LOS ANGELES — Yaneth Gutierrez, 34, an agricultural worker who picks produce in California's Central Valley, had to take two days off when she fell ill. Two weeks after she tested positive for Covid-19, the mother of two lost her job picking carrots because she did not show up to work.
“I don’t have the luxury of getting sick,” Gutierrez said. “I have not been vaccinated. I have to take extra care so I don't get sick again. I have heard bad rumors about the vaccine and I am scared, but the risk of bringing the virus home is bigger.”
California recently announced a shift in vaccine eligibility, from labor-sector-based to an age-based system that prioritizes Californians over 65. However, the state plans to continue vaccinating school personnel, emergency services and health care workers as well as food and agriculture workers as it transitions into the new age-based system, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said last week.
In an interview with NBC News, California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris said equity was at the forefront and that those who were already deemed eligible would have access to the vaccine, including farmworkers.
But trying to get vaccines for essential workers who qualify is proving to be difficult, according to some groups. United Farm Workers, the large labor organization, said it has not been able to get vaccine appointments for its workers through the state’s online portal.
Staff members said they have not been able to get past the first page of the portal. The pop-up message they get reads, “Based on your results you are not eligible for the current phase of the rollout but you will be eligible for a future phase.”
"I feel discriminated against," Gutierrez said. "I think they should give those of us in the fields priority. I think we all deserve the vaccine."
Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, said many workers who are vulnerable are not being vaccinated.
"In the past two weeks, we have had three farmworkers under 65 pass away from Covid-19. The vaccine age limit is impacting the majority of people of color who are a part of the labor force," Romero said. "Conservatively, I can say that 90 percent of farmworkers in California are Latino."
Latino officials and labor advocates are echoing these concerns about the shift in tiers, saying these changes are putting Latino essential workers and their families at risk when counties throughout California are lifting restrictions.
Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, blasted Newsom's decision, calling it "devastating."
“The governor's decision to shift from labor to age I think will prolong the infection rate because workers aren’t protected," Herrera said. "On day one, this federation preached that if we wanted to get control of the virus in Los Angeles, we had to control the workplace. If the workplace isn't contained, workers are taking the virus to their homes and communities. In the case of Latinos, these tend to be multigenerational homes.”
According to the U.S. Census, Latinos make up 39 percent of California’s population, but make up 55 percent of all confirmed Covid-19 cases and 46.5 percent of all deaths, according to state data.
The median age of a Latino in California is 28; only 7 percent of Latinos in the state are older than 64. The age required to make a vaccination appointment for non-health workers is 65.
In the state, Latinos make up half of front-line workers. But some front-line workers in service, production, transportation and material moving are not currently eligible for the vaccine.
“Latino families are overwhelmed by this pandemic, and the current safety net does not include all Californians,” said state Sen. María Elena Durazo, chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, in a statement relating to health disparities and workplace inequities Latinos face amid the pandemic.
This week, Newsom announced the opening of two vaccination centers, one at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland and another at the California State University campus in East Los Angeles, two areas that have been heavily impacted by the coronavirus.
Los Angeles native María Patiño, 30, said nearly every member of her immediate family was infected with Covid-19, including both of her parents. Her family consists of essential workers who reside in a multigenerational household. Last month, her mother, Rosa María Patiño, died of the coronavirus. She was 63 and a food-factory worker.
"She would arrive at work early to be sanitized, but there are three different shifts with a lot of workers working closely to inspect the food," Patiño said. "She wanted to be vaccinated. She was planning to retire in March."

The African Union must conduct a comprehensive reform if it is to stay relevant, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said at the close of the bloc's two-day summit on Sunday.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and the largest economy on the continent, making it an influential member of the 55-nation bloc that was formed to promote international cooperation and harmonise member states' policies.
The bloc decided in 2016 it needed to work on changes to make it more nimble, focused and accountable, putting Rwanda's President Paul Kagame in charge of the process.
"Global realities demand that the AU be overhauled, if it must remain relevant in intergovernmental processes," Buhari said in a statement at the conclusion of the virtual summit.
"Nigeria demands a truly reformed, efficient and effective AU Commission, one that is fully committed to the discharge of its duties and responsibilities."
Buhari did not outline any specific changes he envisaged for the bloc that also has a peacekeeping mission that enables it to send forces to member states and has secured millions of shots of COVID-19 vaccines for the continent.
In a report during the summit, Kagame said the AU needed to overhaul its judicial branch, the pan-African parliament and its commission structures.
He said a division of labour with the patchwork of regional economic communities that have sprung up, sometimes overlapping, across the continent was overdue.
"I ask the incoming commission to give priority attention to these items, so that they are completed this year, without fail," Kagame said.
He also called for changes that he said would strengthen African healthcare systems, including by ranking nations according to service, rather than per-capita spending, and the creation of regional platforms to support member states in increasing domestic health financing.

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has deployed a monitoring and enforcement team to public areas in the country to enforce compliance to use of face masks.
According to it, this is to ensure that citizens comply to the use of facemasks as one of the protocols to curb spread of the COVID -19.
The Acting Commandant General, NSCDC, Mr Hillary Madu, made the disclosure in a statement made available by the agency’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mr Sola Odumosu, on Friday in Abuja.
Madu ordered the immediate composition of a five-man team comprising of some carefully selected officers and men designated to identify key areas such as markets, schools, motor parks, churches and recreational centers for total compliance.
He further directed all Zonal Commanders and State Commandants to ensure optimal enforcement and general compliance to all COVID-19 regulations.
Madu said that strict adherence to the executive order by the corps was predicated on the need to preserve the sanctity of life of Nigerians in different parts of the country.
“As a major stakeholder in the provision of security and safety, as well as the preservation of health and wellbeing of Nigerians, all hands must be on deck to support the good intentions of government in the face of the widespread and rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria”.
The NSCDC boss charged each state command to internalise the directive by ensuring absolute compliance of all personnel to the COVID-19 protocols in their respective states and zones to keep safe at the frontline, while enforcing the guidelines for preventing the spread and containment of the virus.
The acting commandant general of the NSCDC ordered the stepping up of sensitisation and citizens enlightenment campaign to encourage non-adherents to the COVID-19 guidelines to take responsibility in ensuring that they stayed safe with their loved ones.
Madu said the corps must join forces with the Federal Government to mitigate and control the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also warned officers against unwholesome practices.
“Any officer caught extorting money from the public will face summary dismissal as this assignment is not a means to line their pockets with proceeds of corrupt practices.
“The enforcement teams are to ensure that no person shall be allowed within the premises of all identified focal areas except such person complies with all laid down protocols such as wearing of facemask.
“ Facemask that covers the nose and mouth, washing of hand using running water or hand sanitiser and temperature check not above 38 degrees Celsius,” he said.
While encouraging the personnel to go about their assignment with new zeal and absolute sense of patriotism, he also warned them against unnecessary harassment of citizens.
“I enjoin all personnel to put on the toga of civility which the corps is noted for, whilst our watchword, humility and integrity in service delivery should guide you never to go out of order.
“Rather, be disciplined and professional in your approach; do not molest anyone while discharging your duty and respect their fundamental human rights,” Madu said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the spread of Covid-19 and the U.S. rollout of vaccines are “going in the right direction.”
In an interview with JAMA, Fauci said Covid-19 cases have dropped to between 100,000 and 200,000 a day in the U.S. from between 300,000 and 400,000 a day just one month ago. He said he expects Covid-19 cases to continue to drop as long as vaccines continue to be distributed, administered quickly and Americans continue to practice public health measures like wearing masks.
“Things look like they are going in the right direction,” Fauci, who is an advisor to President Biden on Covid-19 and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor of JAMA, during an interview Wednesday afternoon.
Though between 1.3 million and 1.6 million Americans are being vaccinated daily against Covid-19 and about 30 million in the U.S. have received at least one dose, Fauci said there is still “much more demand than there is supply.”
But Fauci said Moderna and Pfizer are producing more dosages and Johnson & Johnson is nearing an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a vaccine that requires only one shot. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots several weeks apart.
“What will happen to make the light at the end of the tunnel even brighter, is that as we get to the end of February into March and April there are going to be a lot more doses that are going to be available,” Fauci told Bauchner. “Things look like they are going in the right direction. We have less individual cases, or infections, per day.
Still, there is the challenge of Coronavirus variants like the United Kingdom variant that is now in 40 U.S. states, Fauci said. The new variants, including one originating in South Africa, are more transmissible but Fauci said there is minimal impact on the effectiveness of vaccines from the U.K. variant.
A South African variant is a bit “more problematic” because vaccine efficacy is diminished. But Fauci said vaccines are still effective for those with “severe disease” against the South African variant, which means protection is still “pretty good” at reducing the risk of serious illness and hospitalization.
To blunt the impact of these new variants, Americans can do things to prepare and avoid them and their potential to spread, mutate and infect.
“You blunt that potential negative effect by vaccinating as many people as you possibly can as quickly as you can,” Fauci said. “Viruses that love to mutate don’t mutate unless they replicate. And if you can prevent them from replicating either by vaccination or by public health measures, then you will diminish the potential of their mutating.”

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has ordered full enforcement of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) Health Protection Regulations 2021, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 26, 2021.

This follows the directives by the President as contained in the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Health Protection Regulations 2021, which mandates the Nigeria Police Force and other agencies of government to ensure full enforcement of the regulations in public places.

The disclosure was contained in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, on Monday, February 1, in Abuja.

The statement from the Nigeria Police Force partly reads, “The Inspector-General of Police, IGP M. A. Adamu, NPM, mni has ordered the Assistant Inspectors OF Police in the seventeen zonal commands and their constituent Commissioners of Police in the thirty-six states of the Federation and the FCT, Abuja, to carry out full enforcement of the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Health Protection Regulations 2021 signed into law by his excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR on 26th January 2021.

The statement notes that some of the public places that the enforcement will be carried out include places of worship, workplaces and schools, banks, public transport vehicles, hostels, boarding houses, detention centres, and so on, in addition to general restrictions on gatherings as well as the use of face masks.

The IGP, while pointing out that the uncertainty and risks engendered by the advent of the pandemic, has placed additional responsibilities on the general public, he called on the public to voluntarily comply with the provisions of the regulations for the safety of all.

Adamu however, cautioned officers enforcing the regulations to show tact, compassion and empathy with the citizens.

He urged them to be firm and professional while remaining polite, civil, and respectful of the fundamental rights of the citizens.