₦airaland Forum

The persistent myth can be put to bed.

As the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 spreads across the globe, with cases surpassing 1,600,000 worldwide (April 10), misinformation is spreading almost as fast. One persistent myth is that this virus, named SARS-CoV-2, was made by scientists and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began.

A new analysis of SARS-CoV-2 may finally put that idea to bed. A group of researchers compared the genome of this novel coronavirus with the 7 other coronaviruses known to infect humans:
SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2 (which can cause severe disease) along with
HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E (which typically cause just mild symptoms).

This was written by the researchers on March 17 in the journal Nature Medicine.

"Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," they write in the journal article.

Kristian Andersen, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research, and his colleagues looked at the genetic template for the spike proteins that protrude from the surface of the virus. The coronavirus uses these spikes to grab the outer walls of its host's cells and then enter those cells. They specifically looked at the gene sequences responsible for two key features of these spike proteins: the grabber, called the receptor-binding domain, that hooks onto host cells; and the so-called cleavage site that allows the virus to open and enter those cells.

That analysis showed that the "hook" part of the spike had evolved to target a receptor on the outside of human cells called ACE2, which is involved in blood pressure regulation. It is so effective at attaching to human cells that the researchers said the spike proteins were the result of natural selection and not genetic engineering.

Here's why: SARS-CoV-2 is very closely related to the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which fanned across the globe nearly 20 years ago. Scientists have studied how SARS-CoV differs from SARS-CoV-2, with several key letter changes in the genetic code. Yet in computer simulations, the mutations in SARS-CoV-2 don't seem to work very well at helping the virus bind to human cells. If scientists had deliberately engineered this virus, they wouldn't have chosen mutations that computer models suggest won't work. But it turns out, nature is smarter than scientists, and the novel coronavirus found a way to mutate that was better — and completely different— from anything scientists could have created, the study found.

Another nail in the "escaped from evil lab" theory? The overall molecular structure of this virus is distinct from the known coronaviruses, and instead most closely resembles viruses found in bats and pangolins that had been little studied and never known to cause humans any harm.

"If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness," according to a statement from Scripps.

Where did the virus come from? The research group came up with two possible scenarios for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in humans.

FIRST SCENARIO
One scenario follows the origin stories for a few other recent coronaviruses that have wreaked havoc in human populations. In that scenario, we contracted the virus directly from an animal — civets in the case of SARS and camels in the case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the researchers suggest that animal was a bat, which transmitted the virus to another intermediate animal (possibly a pangolin, some scientists have said) that brought the virus to humans.

In that possible scenario, the genetic features that make the new coronavirus so effective at infecting human cells (its pathogenic powers) would have been in place before hopping to humans.

SECOND SCENARIO
In the other scenario, those pathogenic features would have evolved only after the virus jumped from its animal host to humans. Some coronaviruses that originated in pangolins have a "hook structure" (that receptor binding domain) similar to that of SARS-CoV-2. In that way, a pangolin either directly or indirectly passed its virus onto a human host. Then, once inside a human host, the virus could have evolved to have its other stealth feature — the cleavage site that lets it easily break into human cells. Once it developed that capacity, the researchers said, the coronavirus would be even more capable of spreading between people.

All of this technical detail could help scientists forecast the future of this pandemic. If the virus did enter human cells in a pathogenic form, that raises the probability of future outbreaks. The virus could still be circulating in the animal population and might again jump to humans, ready to cause an outbreak. But the chances of such future outbreaks are lower if the virus must first enter the human population and then evolve the pathogenic properties, the researchers said.

SOURCE: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html

The 2- week COVID-19 lockdown is definitely the first of its kind, in Nigeria, starting off in Lagos state, Ogun state, and FCT, Abuja, with the potential of being adopted by other states in the country. As instructed by President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians living in the affected states must remain confined to their homes, ceasing all forms of movement, and any travels. Also, offices within these affected states, must be closed till further notice, barring a select number of establishments.

Of course, the two-week “sentence” will have all residents cooped up in their own space, with very limited interactions. To make up for the imposed social distancing, Nigerians have begun to spend more time online, advertising their businesses; meeting office targets; banking on the internet; shopping and transacting online; keeping up with news and important updates; watching movies; playing online games, and socialising on social media by sending and receiving messages, following trends, participating in challenges, meeting new people, and creating content, all in a bid to bridge the gap with their loved ones who are now out of physical reach.

An increased online presence would mean higher data usage, and the last thing you want is to more than triple your usual data budget in the next few weeks without steady influx of income. Here are a few tips on how to manage your data consumption and maximize online activity:

1. REVIEW YOUR SETTINGS
Most social media applications allow users to switch to “Low Data Usage” while in use. These app settings filter content to suit the users unique preferences, and still minimise the data burn.

Phone settings also give users the opportunity to switch to “Low Data Mode”. In this setting, all updates, upgrades and background data usage, are subject to users authorization. These are a good way to get quality content for less!

2. REGULATE YOUR ONLINE ACTIVITY
Give your eyes a breather and reduce your data costs by creating an online schedule for yourself. Make a list of things you would like to achieve, daily, and constrain yourself to a strict timelimit for online activity. This will help you be more productive in a shorter time, and will cut off unnecessary distractions, considerably!

3. CHANGE YOUR DATA BUNDLE PLAN
Yes, you heard me! No matter what network provider you patronise, there is always that super affordable data bundle plan that gives you a normal data plan plus unlimited night browsing. If you’re willing to stay up at night, invest in one of these plans, and push your data intensive activities like Content Creation, Working from Home, etc., to nighttime. Been there, done that!

4. PARTNER ON UNLIMITED DATA BUNDLE
You’re all stuck at home, so you might as well! If you are on lockdown with a housemate or family, a smart plan is to contribute towards buying unlimited monthly plans. This saves everyone A LOT of money. All network providers have Unlimited Day and Night monthly data bundles for users. Save yourself a ton of money and enjoy seamless browsing, with your family!

5. CREATE OFFLINE ACTIVITY
Our devices can get us so engrossed that we spend little time with our immediate company, and little time being productive offline. Make a point to have daily activity, offline. Bond with family, do your laundry, play chess, disinfect surfaces, wash your hands, read a book, work out, and let the online world feel your absence for a bit!

The world is going digital, and now, more than ever, these tips will keep you online but also in touch, much longer.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/5-ways-to-minimise-data-consumption-during-the-covid-19-lockdown/

FOR the officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, the life of an ordinary Nigerian has scant value. They demonstrated their morbid penchant for wasting innocent lives yet again in a rural Ogun State community recently, by shooting a female teenager to death.

During their operation in Agosasa, Ipokia Local Government Area, Sekinat Agbelade, 15, was slaughtered, her life snuffed out by stray bullets fired by Customs officers. Two others – Oluwole Oladosu and Saliu Babalola – sustained gunshot injuries during the mayhem. Such killings have become routine. This loss is unquantifiable and should provoke a wide range of reforms in the operations of the NCS.

Repeatedly, Customs officers have been needlessly shedding the blood of innocent Nigerians on the pretext of chasing smugglers. Apparently, because the NCS’ killer squads have been getting away without retribution, they went on the rampage again in Agosasa in broad daylight. After impounding the smugglers’ vehicle, they started shooting indiscriminately. What made this case peculiar beyond its brutality is that the victim was young and innocent. Agbelade was an SSS3 pupil preparing for her West African School Certificate Examinations. What a grave loss!

The killing has stirred a familiar debate: what is the value of life in Nigeria? To atone for this gruesome killing, the top hierarchy of the NCS, particularly the Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali, should order a thorough investigation. All those found wanting should be held to account in line with the law. Billions of naira in seized bags of rice cannot equate to one human life, and too many have died on Ali’s watch.

The legitimate enforcement of anti-smuggling laws by Customs has caused much damage in the country, often ending in farce and bloodletting. Through incompetence and corruption, after allowing smugglers to move through the borders, officers wildly descend on minor suspects in the hinterland and on the highways. The border communities are the hardest hit in these gory episodes. In a grisly incident in October 2019, Customs officers gunned down three students in Ihunbo, also in Ipokia LGA, during an attempt to impound contraband vehicles.

As usual, there was no official censure or prosecution of the culprits. Consequently, officers persist in reckless conduct. In October 2017, Paul Ayomaya, 25, was brutally mowed down by Customs officers at a checkpoint in Ajilete, a border community. The incident was disgusting. On the said date – about two months to his wedding – Ayomaya met his untimely death when Customs officers lying in wait for smugglers retaliated an attack by criminals with gunshots. One of the bullets hit him on his motorcycle.

At the Sagamu Interchange on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in February 2019, Customs officers shot a citizen returning from overseas to death. Although the NCS initially dismissed the incident, claiming that the victim was accidentally hit while struggling with an officer, a viral video of the event suggested otherwise. It caused the NCS to recant and state that it was investigating the incident.

In Abule-Egba, a densely populated Lagos suburb, Customs officers pursuing rice smugglers in February 2018 fired gunshots into an early morning crowd, killing one Toyeeb Olayiwola. In spite of this, the officers reportedly fired more shots to disperse the irate crowd. Vividly, this suggests that to the NCS personnel, rice has more value than the life of a Nigerian.

Regrettably, citizens live under the constant threat of intimidation, arrest, extortion and shootings by security agents. In an 18-month tally between November 2016 and June 2018, a national newspaper estimated that the police killed 47 Nigerians extrajudicially. Instead of arresting him, a soldier shot dead a man, who allegedly breached the ongoing lockdown in Delta State last week. Again, a petrol attendant, Chibuisi Okameme, was shot dead allegedly by a police inspector in Ukwa, Abia State on Sunday. Without a doubt, it is deficient leadership that sustains these unchecked extrajudicial killings in the country.

To stem the senseless killings, the affected communities should take the bull by the horns. With the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) at a loss on what to do, these communities should utilise the judicial process to bring the errant NCS officers to book. They should seek damages through individual and class action lawsuits against the NCS.

Perhaps, if the NCS and its murderous officers are forced to cough up heavy financial damages to the families and the communities, it would introduce global best practices and efficiency in its operations. If the NCS had been effective at the borders and smugglers apprehended there, there would be no need to mow down innocent citizens in the hinterland.

Elsewhere, customs organisations adhere to strict rules of engagement. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development recommends the utilisation of technology for customs operations. It recommends its Automated System for Customs Data that assists customs organisations in “facilitating trade efficiency and competitiveness by substantially reducing transaction time and costs; improving security by streamlining procedures of cargo control, transit of goods and clearance of goods and helping fight corruption by enhancing the transparency of transactions.”

To enhance efficiency in member states, the European Commission says its customs union promotes the use of technology, and through it, its customs organisations generated €20 billion and seized 36 million contraband articles worth €770 million in 2013. To attain such lofty heights, the NCS should rigorously re-examine its faulty operational structure.

The NCS should deepen technology and engage the business community. It should connect with the border communities – and sensitise them regularly to the dangers of patronising smuggled goods, which might often turn out to be fake – instead of alienating them by random killing of their members.

The aim of the Customs is to facilitate legitimate trade. The President should stop overlooking these callous killings by the Customs. He should make Ali and his officers to account for the innocent lives being wasted in their operations. For justice to be served, this case should be diligently investigated and aggressively prosecuted.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/ali-should-curb-customs-abuse-of-firearms/

Mon gars, qu’est-ce que tu racontes ? J’espère que tout va bien ?

Remonter le moral!

beardlessdude:
En me lançant en ce projet, j'ai décidé de tout donner. Mon temps, ma force, mes peines, mes joies, tout! Pour moi, la vie parfaite n'était qu'un rêve mais voilà qu'aujourd'hui j'suis devenu plus heureux qu'hier.

En ce moment, j'en peux plus. Ma vie est si difficile même avec l'alcool . Je n arrive plus, mon élève je n arrive plus.

A team of experts have analysed the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak that is claiming the lives of thousands around the world – and reckon it could have been around for longer than we think. They say coronavirus could have been in humans for years – meaning millions could have been infected without them knowing.

Most experts reckon the deadly virus was transmitted from a bat to a human at Wuhan’s notorious Huanan wet market last December. But leading academics claim the bug could have passed to humans long before that. Epidemiology professor Ian Lipkin said: “I think it has probably circulated in humans for some time.

“How long? We may never fully reconstruct that… It could have circulated for months or even years.” A recent study claimed humans could have carried coronavirus for years before it adapted and became deadlier.

Professor Robert Gary warned in Nature Medicine Magazine that the virus could have been slowly mutating under the noses of scientists. He said: “The spark that ignited this surely only took place a few months ago, there could have been other sparks that set it off and made smaller fires that we just didn't detect it. It's a wide range of time that we can select. There's some coronaviruses that we know about - some of the milder ones - that circulated for decades before we actually first discovered the first one.”

In January scientists found bats and pangolins in the market containing coronaviruses similar to Covid-19. The theory that the virus was spreading among people before December has been suggested by a number of other experts.

Italian researchers are looking at whether a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 may be a signal that the new coronavirus might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.

SOURCE (abridged): https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/millions-could-been-infected-coronavirus-21817853

A new study has adduced reasons why people may have to wear face masks whenever they are with others, especially in public places. The researchers state that COVID-19 could be spread through mere breathing and not just by large droplets emitted in a cough or sneeze, hence the need for regular wearing of face masks.

The study, published in peer-reviewed journal, Science, on April 1, explained that if the virus could be suspended in the ultrafine mist that people produce when they breathe out, protection becomes more difficult, thus, strengthening the argument that people should wear masks in public to reduce unwitting transmission of the virus from asymptomatic carriers.

The National Academy of Sciences said the study has given a boost to an unsettling idea: that the virus can spread through the air.

Harvey Fineberg, who heads a standing committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats had, in a letter written on April 1 and addressed to the Head of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kelvin Droegemeier, noted that though current studies on the issue are not conclusive, “the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing.”

Before now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as other health agencies had insisted that the primary route of transmission for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is through the larger respiratory droplets, of up to one millimeter across which people expel when they cough or sneeze. The agencies maintain that gravity grounds the droplets within one or two meters, even though they deposit the virus on surfaces, from which people can pick it up and get infected when they use unwashed hands to touch their mouth, nose, or eyes.

The debate began when researchers reported earlier in the year in The New England Journal of Medicine, another peer-reviewed journal that SARS-CoV-2 can float in aerosol droplets—below 5 microns across—for up to 3 hours, and remain infectious.

In their review, Fineberg and his NAS colleagues pointed to other studies, including a recent one by Joshua Santarpia and colleagues at the University of Nebraska Medical Center that found widespread evidence of viral RNA in isolation rooms of patients being treated for COVID-19.

“Viral RNA turned up on hard to reach surfaces, as well as in air samplers more than two meters from the patients,” the Nebraska team had found.

Another preprint cited by the NAS panel raised concerns that Personal Protective Equipment could itself be a source of airborne contamination.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/covid-19-why-you-need-to-wear-face-masks-in-public-study/

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has made another donation of N20 million to Osun State government to support its effort to cushion the effect of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Osun residents.

As at Friday, April 3, 2020, Osun ranks 3rd among the states with confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 30 confirmed cases out of the 198 confirmed cases in Nigeria as released by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). The state, no doubt, would require all the support that it can get in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and the N20 million support, which was transferred into the state government’s dedicated COVID-19 account domiciled at UBA, is considered timely support in the fight against COVID-19.

The General Overseer noted that by the donation, the mission “acknowledge the efforts of the state government in curbing the spread of the virus in the state and prayed that God would put an end to COVID-19, not just in Nigeria, but in the entire world”. This new donation is coming just as Pastor Adeboye made a donation of 8,000 hand sanitizers, 8,000 surgical face masks and 200,000 hand gloves to support the efforts of the Lagos State government in equipping the medical staff with necessary protective gears needed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday, March 31, 2020, at the Yaba Infectious Diseases Centre.

Pastor Adeboye has always been committed to contributing to the well-being of humanity and in particular, Nigerians of all tongues, religions and beliefs. This has shown in his continuous generous giving in various areas long before the outbreak of COVID-19.

It would be recalled that ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, Pastor Adeboye through the RCCG Christian Social Responsibility (CSR) delivered on the commitment of the church to strengthen and support the health system by donating 11 ICU beds fully fitted with ventilators in Lagos, Ogun and Plateau states. These facilities have immensely contributed to the government’s efforts in the care for persons with acute medical needs.

SOURCE: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/04/pastor-adeboye-donates-another-n20m-to-support-osun-state-covid-19-relief-package/

Jean-Paul Mira, a French doctor, has apologised for suggesting that a potential COVID-19 treatment be brought to Africa for testing — a remark that sparked outrage on social media.

Mira, who is the intensive care unit (ICU) head at the Cochin hospital in Paris, had made the remark during an interview on French television channel LCI. But, according to Reuters, the Paris network of hospitals, Mira’s employers, released a statement reported to be from the controversial ICU head containing his apology for the inciting comment.

“I want to present all my apologies to those who were hurt, shocked and felt insulted by the remarks that I clumsily expressed on LCI this week,” the apology read in part.

Camille Locht, a research director with Inserm, France’s national health institute, had been on TV with Mira to discuss the ongoing tests for BCG tuberculosis vaccine as a potential COVID-19 cure.

“Should we not do this study in Africa, where there are no masks, treatment or ICU, a little bit like it’s done, by the way, for certain AIDS studies or with prostitutes?,” Mira had asked teasingly. “We try things because we know that they are highly exposed and they don’t protect themselves.”

In his reply, Locht had said: “You are right. We are in the process of thinking in parallel about a study in Africa. That doesn’t prevent us from also thinking about a study in Europe and in Australia.”

However, Didier Drogba, retired Ivory Coast soccer star, wrote on Twitter: “Africa isn’t a testing lab. I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racist words.”

SOURCE: https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/french-doctor-apologises-after-suggesting-covid-19-drug-be-tested-in-africa/

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has praised the Nigerian government for handling the Coronavirus pandemic well.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, currently has 190 cases of COVID-19 but has managed to keep the death toll to just two. While 24 people have fully recovered and discharged.

UN Secretary General while speaking at a virtual news briefing in New York, referred to Nigeria as a ‘developing country’ that has “shown a remarkable capacity to respond to the coronavirus.”

“I have to say this; some of these developing countries have shown a remarkable capacity to respond. I was quite impressed to see, for instance, Nigeria putting in place and immediately establishing a hospital. “And I saw difficulties in countries that are much more developed to do quickly the same.”

He also renewed his call for a global ceasefire, urging countries in a conflict like Syria, Libya, and Yemen to lay down arms and allow for unified combat against the coronavirus pandemic. The worst is yet to come,” Guterres said, referring to countries beset with fighting.

“The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theatres of conflict. The virus has shown how swiftly it can move across borders, devastate countries and upend lives. But there is a huge distance between declarations and deeds — between translating words into peace on the ground and in the lives of people,” Guterres said.

“In many of the most critical situations, we have seen no let-up in fighting — and some conflicts have even intensified.”

SOURCE: https://www.today.ng/news/nigeria/commends-nigeria-coronavirus-response-289923

An entire Spanish family including eleven children have contracted Coronavirus and are under strict isolation in their home. The Cebrian Gervas family have been forced to lock themselves away in Valladolid in north-west Spain after every single one of them was diagnosed with the virus.

Mother Irene Gervas was the first in the family to test positive for Covid-19. Doctors placed the family under a strict lockdown because their viral load means they have an increased risk of affecting others in their home city of Valladolid. The family said they are keeping their children entertained using technical devices like laptops and mobile phones and are home schooling them from Monday to Friday

Father Jose Maria Cebrian told local media: 'The children fell one by one. Some of them got over it better and some of them a bit worse. As the virus takes 5 or 6 days to show up when you feel bad you start to recall and then you think 'ok!''

The children Carmen (15), Fernando (14), Luiz (12), Juan Pablo (11), twins Miguel and Manuel (10), Alvaro (, Irene (5), Alicia (4), Helena (3), and Jose Maria (1) are now unable to leave their home. The family can be seen in the attached photo.

Cebrian added: 'In our case, they (the children) are sick one day, they have a headache, they vomit and after vomiting, they feel better. The day after they don't even remember.' The family is under a strict lockdown as they could infect others due to the high number of family members under the same roof. Cebrian added: 'The doctor told us that we will have to stay at least two more weeks on an absolute lockdown because of the viral load that we have. If we go out and take it out we could start a source in Valladolid.'

They have so far been in isolation since testing positive on March 14, the day Spain announced it was extending its state of alarm. The country has recorded more than 117,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 11,000 deaths. Local media said that the family is relying on relatives and their 14-year-old son to help them deal with the situation. Their son is only allowed to go out to the pharmacy so long as he wears a face mask and gloves.

Cebrian also said: 'He is the only one who goes out a bit. I take out the rubbish and he is the messenger. When we get our groceries delivered they leave it in the garage and my son goes down to pick it up. 'Our siblings are in Valladolid and our loving mothers, the grandmothers, who do not stop cooking, asking and bringing things.'

The children are reportedly being home schooled using laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Jose Maria said: 'It is important they do not have the feeling that this is chaos, so they have classes from Monday to Friday.'

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8184621/Father-says-entire-Spanish-family-including-ELEVEN-children-caught-coronavirus.html

Clinton Kanu spent 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, but life on the outside feels far from free.

Each morning, 56-year-old Clinton Kanu wakes up on a thin mattress laid on the tiled floor of his tiny flat. He lives on the 3rd floor of a modest apartment building in the southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu, in a flat not much bigger than a walk-in closet. Kanu is not quite six feet (1.83 metres) tall, but when he stands, his head almost scrapes the ceiling.

He goes through his plans for the day, trying to figure out where he will get something to eat. On this particular Saturday, he decides to go down the road to the home of his sister, Victoria Okoroji. There, she dishes out scrambled eggs and shares a loaf of bread. Kanu, his sister and her husband eat together at the dining table. After that, she brings out a family photo album.

Kanu smiles at the old pictures of his nieces and nephews. Pictures taken of them when Kanu was not around. Pictures taken during the 27 years Kanu spent in prison for a murder he did not commit. He has been trying to make up for lost time since he was released last April and trying to get his life back - but neither are easy to do.

Back at his apartment, Kanu brings out a Bible and flips through the pages to one of his favourite passages. "And the Lord said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,'" he recites in a gentle voice, eyes moving over the words. In the room's stuffy heat, beads of sweat settle in the dip above his lip. "'I have heard their cry.'"

A mild, easy-going man, Kanu says his faith saved him in prison and continues to inspire him, despite his present struggles. "Look at me, just look at me," he says. "I have nothing."

Kanu was an ambitious, charismatic 27-year-old who owned two residential buildings and had a good job and government connections when he was arrested. Today, he has no job, no car, not even a refrigerator. He has no wife, no children. He does not have many friends. There is no land, no valuable jewellery, no retirement account, no stocks or bonds in his name.

Although he is no longer behind the bars of a maximum-security prison, he is without a job in a country where poverty is rapidly rising and finding employment often depends on who you know. His frustrations are mounting.

'THE HEIGHT OF WICKEDNESS'
Born in the Nigerian oil hub of Port Harcourt, Kanu was raised in a middle-class family with a high regard for education. His father grew up poor but educated; he built himself up professionally and managed to earn a good income from a stable government job as a director at the national postal service. He made sure his children got the best schooling his money could buy. Kanu's mother, a teacher, also pushed her children to focus on academics.

Kanu worked hard in school. He was studious and liked to read. He collected young-adult crime novels and went on to study law and criminology at a nearby university. He became a consultant criminologist and an aide to government officials. His problems began when he tried to help solve a case involving theft and a dispute over family land. When a man connected to the dispute died, someone accused Kanu of murdering him, even though he was more than 100km from the scene of the crime.

In 1992, he was arrested. He maintains that his arrest was politically motivated; that he was framed by people who were envious of his connections to government officials. He was detained in a small prison in the southeastern city of Owerri to await trial. He waited for several years. Looking back at it all, he believes he was a victim of the corruption in Nigeria's criminal justice system.

"The height of wickedness," he says, his face twisted into a scowl. "The height of crudeness, the height of treachery, the height of judicial murder."


SENTENCED TO DEATH
Nigeria's criminal justice system is rife with corruption. In the past, judges have been suspended for misconduct and caught accepting bribes. Excessive delays compound the problems, with enormous backlogs of stagnant legal cases. Nearly 70% of the country's approximately 74,000 prison inmates are awaiting trial. The long waits contribute to overcrowded prisons.

The maximum-security prison in Port Harcourt where Kanu was transferred after he was sentenced in 2005, held more than 4,000 inmates last year, although it was built for 804, according to figures from the federal government. "Certainly overcrowding is the biggest problem caused by over-arrest, indiscriminate and unlawful arrest of citizens, some of whom are innocent," explains Sylvester Uhaa, director of International Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), a Nigerian prison reform organisation.

"This has caused a lot of congestion in the courts and results in congestion in the prison system. That is the biggest problem - the visible problem that we see. The invisible ones are the corruption, abuse of power, disregard for the rule of law and human rights."

Kanu was sentenced to death by hanging or by firing squad, a common sentence in the country. Nigeria has the highest death row population - 2,000 people - in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Amnesty International. The 621 death sentences the country imposed in 2017 accounted for 71% of all confirmed death sentences ordered in sub-Saharan Africa that year.

In 2016, Nigerian courts carried out three executions and handed out 527 death sentences - three times more than in 2015. Death sentences are typically given for armed robbery, murder and involvement with militia groups.

'LIKE A THORN IN MY FLESH'
The confinement and death sentence took a heavy toll on Kanu. He suffered physically, as well as emotionally, having to receive treatment in the prison's health ward for high blood pressure, insomnia, complications arising from diabetes, depression and stress. "I was frustrated, and I was tired," he recalls.

In 2008, he tried to commit suicide, swallowing 10 tablets of diazepam he had managed to get smuggled into the prison to help with his insomnia. But it did not kill him. Kanu missed his relatives and spent hours thinking about his siblings - Kingsley, Uzoamaka, Chikezie, Ginika and Victoria. Although they would visit him in prison, seeing them leave was hard.

His family suffered, too. "It was like a thorn in my flesh," Victoria explains. "Anytime I woke up, I remembered my brother is in the prison. That would be a sad day to me." She waves her hand in the air, as though pushing the memories from her mind. She avoids talking and even thinking about those years now, she says.

While he was incarcerated, Kanu's father, his brother Kingsley, his uncle and several of his cousins died. But it was his mother's death in 2014 that hurt most deeply. "It's painful," he says. People told him his mother died of a broken heart.

"I loved my mother so much. I'm the first [child]. My mother loved me so; it's painful. I don't know how to express it … a lot of times we [sons] live for our mothers." His mother's death pushed him over the edge. He tried, again, to end his life, this time overdosing on dialine - a medication used to treat diabetes. But a prison nurse rushed him to the medical unit where he was stabilised. He was closely monitored but, the following year, managed to get hold of a sharp tool from the prison workshop. He used it to stab himself but stopped when another inmate pleaded with him.

"I realised God wanted me alive," Kanu explains. He decided to try to make something of his time in prison. He turned to counselling other inmates, helping them to cope with the woes of confinement and, having persuaded the African College of Christian Education and Seminary to run classes in the prison, he enrolled to study theology along with 50 other inmates.

Each week, he looked forward to his classes in philosophy, religion, interfaith studies, world conflict and psychology. His studies gave him solace, and he earned a bachelor's degree in guidance counselling in 2009 and went on to get a master's in education management and another in guidance counselling. But Kanu did not stop there. After seven years of studying in the prison's college, he was awarded, in 2014, two doctorate degrees in missions ministry and counselling.

That same year, he was ordained as a nondenominational reverend. "It was one of the best things that ever happened to me," he reflects. "I've always wanted to be a reverend." Ten other inmates were also ordained as reverends, but they all referred to him, affectionately, as "The Bishop". He would hold prayer sessions with the inmates, encouraging them to stay calm and manage their anger. He spoke passionately about religious tolerance.

As the years passed, he waited for word on his appeal - a process he began shortly after the 2005 pronouncement of his death sentence. "2005 was when the battle was set," he says. He ended up selling his four cars, the two residential buildings he owned, his stereo system, air conditioners, beds, and his refrigerator to pay the legal fees. He had nothing left.

Then, in 2015, his case went to Nigeria's supreme court, which reviewed the scant details of the original trial. It had been a skeletal case: only one witness - the brother of the complainant - claimed he saw Kanu at the scene of the crime, whereas two witnesses were called to testify that Kanu had not been there. In April 2019, the supreme court ruled that there was no evidence against Kanu. He was discharged and acquitted. About two weeks later, he walked out of prison carrying his educational certificates in a bag packed with clothes donated by Christian organisations.

"I didn't know I was going to walk into unemployment and hunger," he recalls. "I was thrown into the cold wind."

PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE
On a Saturday evening in November, the sound of people singing and clapping drifts from a church on the upper level of an industrial-looking commercial building along a bustling thoroughfare in Enugu. Inside, a young woman grasps a microphone and leads about 40 people - mostly women and some restless children - in devotional songs as they sway with their eyes closed. Their voices fill the small space.

As Kanu walks in, she says: "Hello, we've missed you." He takes a seat in the front row. The church is makeshift, the room packed with plastic lawn chairs. Ceiling fans circulate stale air while purple, green and pink lights flash from tiny bulbs hung high on the walls. The back wall is covered in a colourful banner with the church's name printed on it: Days of His Awesome Power Ministries.

Tonight, Kanu is a guest speaker. He has led services here in the past, but cannot attend as often as he would like because the church is nearly 30 minutes from his home and he has to beg to put together the bus fare. Still, the head pastor at the church, Mike Okey Agu, refers to him as "Pastor Clinton". The church is the only place, Kanu says, where he actually feels wanted. People there value and respect him.

Pastor Agu is an energetic man, shouting into the microphone as he paces up and down the aisle, laying his hands on people's heads while repeating, "take it, take it, take the anointing", and "blood of Jesus". When he sees Kanu, he smiles. He believes Kanu's spirituality helped him gain his freedom.

Up at the podium, Agu leads the church in prayer. Kanu bows his head. Like everyone else in the dimly lit space, he believes he has a lot to pray for. The yearly rent on his apartment is due in January - N200,000 ($550) and he has no idea how he is going to find the money. He is leaning on his faith to take care of it.

DREAMING OF PRISON REFORM
Kanu knows exactly what he wants to do with his life now that he is out of prison: He wants to advocate for prison reform and be what he calls "a voice for the people". The nearly three decades he spent behind bars gave him insights into the country's prison system, where he says he witnessed corruption, torture and extortion.

Money allocated to prisons and detention centres is sometimes siphoned off elsewhere. "Prison officials routinely stole money provided for prisoners' food," a 2015 United States government report read.

Many facilities lack basic amenities like clean toilets and a constant supply of drinking water. Prisoners are dying from treatable illnesses like malaria and tuberculosis. Cells, sometimes rat-infested, are cramped, with little to no ventilation.

"I was boxed up in a cell that could have killed me," Kanu says. He would like to see inmates have opportunities to study and learn trades that could help them when they are released. Back in his apartment, he sits in his armchair, thinking aloud. The more he thinks, the more frustrated he grows.

"Nothing is happening in the prisons," he says, slamming his hand down and leaning forward in his chair. "You dump people there and ... [they] develop ideas about how to come back and get revenge."

Kanu wants to change that. He has big dreams. He wants to sit down with Nigerian officials to devise policies that would improve life for inmates, to establish a nonprofit organisation that will help people to transition to life on the outside after incarceration and to visit correctional facilities in other countries to see how they are run there.

He is full of ideas, but with no money, no connections and no job, he does not know how to get started. He has knocked on doors, visited government agency offices and filled out job applications. He has made phone calls and pleaded for help. But he has been away for so long and cannot trace any of his old contacts and friends.

"Everyone has moved on with their lives, as they should. It's been 27 years," he says, looking pensively up at the ceiling. He believes he has marketable skills and a solid education, but he has become a beggar, living off handouts and free food.

It has been about four months since the church service. March is coming to an end, and he still has not paid the rent. It is a quiet Wednesday night in Enugu and in his apartment, Kanu is holding in his hand a notice from the landlord. It reads: "Your rent has expired since the end of January and you have been instructed to evacuate the premises."

Kanu sighs and sets the paper aside. Then, he closes his eyes. As he does several times a day, he bows his head in prayer, hoping his faith will lead the way.

SOURCE: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/life-death-row-pastor-praying-nigeria-prisoners-200325112230225.html

About 45 members of the choir at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in the United States have “contracted coronavirus (COVID-19) through the air”. According to Los Angeles Times, three of the members are already hospitalised, while two others are dead.

Adam Burdick, the choirmaster, had informed the 121 singers through an email on March 6 that the rehearsal would hold despite concerns about the virus already spreading across the country. “I’m planning on being there this Tuesday, March 10, and hoping many of you will be, too,” Burdick wrote in the email.

However, only 60 of the choristers were present at the choir practice that lasted for about three hours, while an official gave hand sanitiser to them at the entrance. The singers were also said to have avoided hugging or shaking one another.

About three weeks after, 45 of them were diagnosed with coronavirus. 8 of the patients said none of them coughed, sneezed or looked ill during the choir practice, while they all maintained some distance. “It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” the choir master said. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.”

The outbreak at the church rehearsal has raised question among experts in the US that COVID-19 could be transferred from person to person through air. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has, however, stated that the notion making the rounds that coronavirus is airborne is in incorrect.

It said the virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

SOURCE: https://www.thecable.ng/45-persons-in-us-contract-coronavirus-through-the-air-at-choir-rehearsal

It gives new meaning to a “fishing trip.” On rare occasions, people have gotten high using not pills, but gills—by eating the fish Sarpa salpa.

Recognizable by gold stripes running along its side, the fish, known by its common name salema porgy, is an otherwise unremarkable inhabitant of temperate and tropical areas, from the Atlantic coast of Africa and up throughout the Mediterranean Sea. But don’t let its seemingly harmless exterior fool you—salema porgy can function as a hallucinogen, and a rather terrifying one at that.

Because of its properties—it’s known in Arabic as “the fish that makes dreams”—this sea bream was supposedly consumed as a recreational drug in the Roman Empire and used among Polynesians for ceremonial purposes. Today reports of actual trips from eating the fish are few and far between, but two case studies published in 2006 in an article in the journal Clinical Toxicology paint a picture of just how psychedelic this ocean dweller truly is.

According to the article, in 1994, a 40-year-old man felt nauseated about two hours after enjoying fresh baked Sarpa salpa on his vacation on the French Riviera. With symptoms like blurred vision, muscle weakness and vomiting persisting and worsening throughout the next day, he cut his vacation short and hopped in the car, only to realize mid-journey that he couldn’t drive with all the screaming animals distracting him. These giant arthropods—mere hallucinations, of course—were the last straw. The man directed himself to a hospital, where he recovered completely after 36 hours. He couldn’t recall a thing.

That wasn’t the only case. The next reported incident came in 2002, when after purchasing, cleaning and eating the fish in Saint Tropez, also on the French Riviera, a 90-year-old man started to experience hallucinations of screaming humans and squawking birds. For two nights he had horrifying nightmares, but he didn’t let anyone know, thinking he was developing a mental illness. Fortunately for him, the effects of the fish subsided after a couple days.

These often demonic hallucinations, both auditory and visual, characterize the phenomenon known as ichthyoallyeinotoxism, a rare poisoning following the ingestion of certain fish. Catherine Jadot, a marine biologist at the Reef Ball Foundation whose doctoral research focused on the fish, says such poisoning can trigger nervous system disturbances and cause effects similar to those of LSD.

Why do some people eat sea bream with no apparent side effects while others are transported to a world of utter chaos of nightmarish proportions? If everyone could take the trip of a lifetime, why wouldn’t there be more stories of Mediterranean meals gone wrong, or of a black market of sea bream?

Figuring out what exactly makes this fish so trippy isn’t so easy. A study published in In-Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology in 2012, however, linked the fish’s consumption of phytoplankton that grow on the seagrass Posidonia oceanica (one of the main components of its diet) with higher levels of toxicity in the fish’s organs. This elevated toxicity could be a reason why certain Sarpa salpa take a toll on humans’ physical and mental wellbeing.

It’s not clear, though, which toxins are responsible for such a vivid response in the eater. They could be alkaloids of the indole group, compounds occurring naturally in certain algae and phytoplankton the fish eat and which are chemically similar in structure to LSD. Or a hallucinogen called dimethlytrypthamine (DMT), the same compound found in the spiritual healing brew ayahuasca.

Jadot says there’s not enough research yet about the agents that might cause ichthyoallyeinotoxism or the specific effects the fish has on those who consume it. For one, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when this fish can and can’t poison you. Apparently, certain body parts, including the fish’s head, contain these trippy toxins, whereas others are hallucinogen-free. And the season during which the fish is caught plays a role, too. The same 2012 study cited autumn as the time of year when toxicity was highest in the fish. But the most reports of poisoning, the 2006 report says, are from late spring and summer.

The odds are that you won’t find yourself accidentally tripping on Sarpa salpa. But in the unlikely event you order sea bream on the French Riviera and experience 36 hours of soul-wrenching terror, at least you’ll know the cause.

SOURCE: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meet-the-hallucinogenic-fish-that-can-give-you-lsdesque-nightmares

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has put 40 contacts under close watch following the death of the owner of Fancy Hotel, Owerri, Mr Christogonus Osuagwu, in Abuja. Osuagwu was said to have flown into the country from South Africa via Abuja. He visited Owerri, where he fell sick. He returned to Abuja where he was said to have died of the infection.

A kinsman of the deceased who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity had said the community had not been thrown into panic since Osuagwu’s death because he did not spend much time in the village.

“The deceased did not spend much time at home before he went back to Abuja where he tested positive for coronavirus and later died. So, we are not afraid of the outbreak of the disease in our village,” he had told our correspondent

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that 40 of his contacts are already in self-isolation in various destinations in the FCT. It was also learnt that samples from the wife and son of the deceased had been sent for testing. But authorities of the FCT are keeping the results under wraps.

The state epidemiologist, Dr Mary John, told our correspondent that their results were matter of privacy for them. “They have their right to privacy, so you don’t expect me to reveal their status to you. His wife and son's samples have been taken for tests and results are available but won’t be disclosed,” she said. Dr John, however, said any of the contacts that might display symptoms would be quarantined.

“The FCTA is in close monitoring of the 40 contacts, they are in self isolation. We are also in touch with the Imo State Government for tracing of other contacts. Anyone that displays symptoms will be quarantined. We are monitoring the situation,” she said. She, however, refused to divulge details surrounding the burial of the body.

But a top health official confided in our correspondent that the body of the deceased was released to the family after it was disinfected.

“His body was disinfected before it was released for burial under close monitoring. In ideal situation, the government supposed to take over the burial rites but there is no law backing that at the moment,” the source said..

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/fct-monitors-40-contacts-of-late-imo-hotelier/

In need of coronavirus test in any part of Nigeria? Here are the numbers to call

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has released emergency numbers that can be called in each of the 36 states of the federation to get a coronavirus test done. In a tweet on Thursday, the agency advised the public to call the numbers if a coronavirus test is required.

“We have updated list of State Emergency numbers. If you require testing: Contact your STATE through the listed numbers, Provide relevant details e.g. travel history, Stay at home & wait for further advice,” the tweet read. While the national toll-free number is 112, below are the emergency telephone numbers for each state:

NORTH-CENTRAL

Benue : 09018602439, 07025031214, 08033696511
Federal Capital Territory: 08099936312, 08099936313, 0809993631407, 080631500, 08031230330.
Kogi: 07088292249, 08150953486, 08095227003, 070434021122.
Kwara: 09062010001, 09062010002.
Nasarawa: 08036018579, 08035871718, 08033254549, 08036201904, 08032910826, 08121243191.
Niger: 08038246018, 09093093642, 08077213070 (State Epidemiologist).
Plateau: 07032864444, 08035422711, 08065486416, 08035779917.

NORTH-EAST
Adamawa: 08031230359, 07080601139, 08115850085, 07025040415, 09044235334
Borno: 08088159881, 080099999999
Bauchi: 08023909309, 08032717887, 080596110898, 08033698036, 08080330216, 08036911698.
Gombe: 03103371257, 07026256569, 07045257107, 07025227843, 07026761392, 07026799901, 07042145504.
Taraba: 08065508675, 08032501165, 08039359368, 08037450227
Yobe: 08131834764, 07041116027.

NORTH-WEST
Jigawa: 08035997118, 08036440532, 08069323005, 08038806682, 07035997118, 08038629331, 08068725224, 08034864266.
Kaduna: 08035871662, 080250118304, 08032401473, 08037808191.
Kano: 08039704476. 08037038597, 09093995333, 09093995444.
Katsina: 09035037114, 09047092428, 08065635686.
Kebbi: 08036782507, 08036074588, 08032907601, 07035606421, 08067677723, 08167597029, 08083400849.
Sokoto: 08032311116, 08022069567, 08035074228, 07031935037, 08036394462.
Zamfara: 080356226721, 08035161538, 08161330774, 08065408696, 08105009888, 08063075385.

SOUTH-EAST
Abia: 07002242362, 0700 ABIA DOC.
Anambra: 09034728047, 09034668319, 08163594310, 09034663273, 09145434416, 08117567363, 09033805959 (WHATSAPP), 09074285546 (SMS).
Ebonyi: 09020332489, 08159279460, 07045910340, 07085763054.
Enugu: 08182555550, 09022333833.
Imo: 08099555577, 07087110839

SOUTH-SOUTH
Akwa-Ibom: 08189411111, 09045575515, 07035211919, 08028442194, 08037934966, 09023330092.
Bayelsa: 08039216821, 07019304970 08151693570.
Cross-River: 09036281412, 08050907736 (WhatsApp), 08031230527.
Delta: 08033521961, 08035078541, 08030758179, 09065031241.
Edo: 08084096723, 08064258163, 08035835529.
River: 08056109538, 080318138093, 08033124314.

SOUTH-WEST
Ogun: 08188978393, 08188978382
Ondo: 0700COVID19 (07002684319), 0701COVID19 (07012684319), 0800COVID19 (08002684319).
Osun: 08035025692, 08033908772, 08056456250
Oyo: 08095394000, 08095963000, 08078288999, 08078288800.
Ekiti: 09062970434, 09062970435, 09062970436.
Lagos: 08023169485, 08033565529, 08052817243, 08028971864, 08059758886, 08035387653, 08000CORONA.

#COVID19Nigeria. We have updated list of State Emergency numbers. If you require testing:

1. Contact your STATE through the listed numbers
2. Provide relevant details e.g. travel history
3. Stay at home & wait for further advice

See the list online via: https:///zQrpNeOfet pic.twitter.com/Bq5iwKoYBh
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 2, 2020

Nigeria currently has 184 cases of COVID-19 with 20 recoveries. Two deaths have also been recorded.

SOURCE (updated): https://www.thecable.ng/in-need-of-coronavirus-test-in-any-part-of-nigeria-here-are-the-numbers-to-call

Experts say large elderly population, social behaviour and weak healthcare system have contributed to high fatalities.

Editor's note: This article was first published on March 27, 2020. To view the latest figures related to the coronavirus, visit this page.

Every night in Spain since the coronavirus state of alert was decreed on March 14, citizens take a moment to applaud the country's beleaguered medical workers. But this hopeful image does little to dim the pain of the pandemic; Spain's daily death toll reached a harrowing new high of 769 on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to almost 5,000.

Fresh cases of coronavirus-related infections did drop, from a record total on Thursday of 8,578 to 7,871 on Friday. But both numbers are far worse than a week ago, when new cases stood at 2,833. Another unnerving fact is that compared with Italy, where 8% of health workers are affected, in Spain by Friday that tally stood at 16.5%.

WHAT HAS CAUSED SUCH A RAPID SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS IN SPAIN?
Multiple factors. The most high-profile reason touted by the media in Spain is the public health service's uneven and reportedly depleted resources for tackling this, or indeed any, kind of virus-related pandemic. Academics in Spain partly confirm this as one possible reason, but underline multiple other factors.

"As recently as Wednesday, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Europe pointed out that the impact of COVID-19 depended on a country's level of preparation and its ability to implement rapid countermeasures," Silvia Carlos Chilleron, a professor in the department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Navarra, told Al Jazeera.

"If the increase in cases has been fast, as it has been in Spain, and the human and material resources to fight it are not guaranteed, then the impact is more serious. That probably causes a greater number of deaths among the most vulnerable sectors of society, particularly when medical professionals are among those affected."

Also on Wednesday, Spain's State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) lodged a case with the country's Supreme Court, asking the health ministry to provide sufficient protective equipment as soon as possible. CESM alleged in their case, which was rejected, that the ministry had so far failed to provide professional health workers with sufficient protection to carry out their work in a manner that reduces the risk of catching coronavirus.

"People are generally respecting the lockdown and trying not to come into hospitals for minor illnesses and that's helping reduce the risk of contagion," one hospital doctor in southern Spain, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, told Al Jazeera. "But there is a lack of sanitary material in the hospitals for this kind of crisis, which multiplies the possibilities of health staff getting contagious infections, and that's going to be a huge factor."

Underlying reasons for the coronavirus spread before the state of alert could have been "the low level of perception among the population at large that coronavirus represented a risk", Jose Hernandez, a researcher and assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cordoba, whose specialties include social health policies, told Al Jazeera. At that point and "until relatively recently, there wasn't enough information on what coronavirus was", he said.

Spanish population distribution may also have an effect, observed Alberto Mataran, a professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Granada. "There's a huge density of people in cities like Madrid or on the Mediterranean coast in particular, and a lot of blocks of flats in cities' outlying suburbs. Add in a lot of communal spaces, a very affectionate kind of social behaviour compared to some countries - we always shake hands, or hug, or kiss each other, when we meet, for example - and the opportunities for propagation surely could increase, too."

As for the much-cited dearth of resources, Hernandez argued it explains the "relatively rapid saturation" of the health services. "Also, Spain has a large elderly population, who are very vulnerable, and retirement homes do not, generally, have massive medical resources. On top of that, the fact that Spain's hospitals and medical services are run by different autonomous regions creates some very important underlying inequalities."

Hernandez added that while regional governments can demand assistance from Madrid, this does raise the risk of poorly judged medical strategy decisions in the central government. In 2014, medical staff in Madrid protested against the lack of effective protective equipment and safety precautions amid the Ebola epidemic. "We could see that the public health system had some big gaps in the early detection of infections. And these are structural weaknesses," he said.

Meanwhile, the government had to defend its decision to allow demonstrations in Spain on International Women's Day on March 8, something that professor Silvia Carlos Chilleron flagged as a possible factor. "The greater the number of contacts, the greater the probability of contagion, particularly when it's a new infection against which we have no immunity," she said.

She also pointed to the unusually mild spring and the higher levels of socialisation - people sitting outside in bars and so on - as another possibility, while warning that studies have yet to resolve whether a rise in temperature and higher humidity may act as a brake on the virus's propagation.

FAST-TRACK TESTING
Over the past few days, the national conversation has focused on testing - a dearth of verifiable, rapid methods to establish the true extent of the spread of coronavirus. The government's much-vaunted purchase of millions of fast-track tests from China and elsewhere partly backfired this week when it was discovered that the initial batch of 9,000 had very limited reliability.

Although the Spanish government insists the problem will be resolved with further purchases of more reliable tests, most have yet to arrive. Carlos Chilleron said polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, which takes between 4 and 6 hours to produce results and is being used by 20,000 people a day in Spain, was the most reliable method.

According to the Live Science website, PCR tests work by "detecting specific genetic material within the virus. Depending on the type of PCR on hand, healthcare workers might swab the back of the throat; take a saliva sample; collect a liquid sample from the lower respiratory tract; or secure a stool sample."

Quicker tests that take a fraction of the time are less precise and as a result, and "we don't have the same kind of security from them that a person is not affected", said Carlos Chilleron. She recommends social distancing and hygiene as the best precautions in the absence of testing.

Rumours are also circulating that should a peak not be reached soon and cases start to fall, lockdown measures will be toughened up even further.

As the full scale of the pandemic has yet to emerge, knowing what measures are needed is looking increasingly hard to judge.

SOURCE (abridged): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-deaths-rising-quickly-spain-200327181759832.html

Enyimba midfielder, Dayo Ojo, who was abducted on Sunday March 22 by suspected kidnappers and was released after a ransom was paid on March 25, shares his 3-day ordeal in the kidnappers’ den with ‘TOSIN OLUWALOWO

HOW WERE YOU KIDNAPPED?
We were coming from Aba around 4.07pm. We got to a military checkpoint; they checked us and we later moved. Not far from the checkpoint, about one or two kilometres from there, we saw a pothole that was very big and required that we slowed down; I was the one driving.

Before getting there, they had already stopped a Toyota Sienna, so, immediately they saw me, they went back into the bush and told the occupants of the Sienna to sit at the back of the car, on the floor, so that I won’t know what was happening.

Immediately I got to the pothole, I tried to slow down, so I can move on, but they came out from the bush and started shooting. We were three in the car; the other guys with me were Benjamin Iluyomade of Abia Comets and my Enyimba teammate Emmanuel James. James, who was sitting beside me, opened the door and started running, the two of us also managed to get out of the car and started running into the bush as well. But they (kidnappers) chased us with cutlasses, while those with guns shot into the air.

We (Ojo and Iluyomade) were eventually caught in the bush and they brought us back to the main road, took us back to the other side of the bush and picked three out of the other passengers in the Toyota Sienna, making a total of five of us. That was how they took us away. The other guy in the car (James) escaped. He went to the police station after they had taken us away, to lay a complaint. So, they (police) came back and picked my car. It is still with the police up till now.

SO WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST DAY IN THE KIDNAPPERS’ DEN?
We walked inside the bush throughout the night from the moment they picked us; it was terrible. We walked to a level that we had to sit down for one hour to rest, after that, they asked us to stand up again and move. We slept in different locations in the bush and started walking again. We walked through the night on Sunday till Monday morning, then they took us to a bush and asked us to sit down and started making calls.

They didn’t give us anything to eat or drink. We were even begging them to give us water, they refused, they were only calling and discussing with our families. In the morning, when we got to another part of the bush, they brought out our phones and asked who we wanted to call in our families. They said they are kidnappers. That’s how we started calling our family members. I gave them the numbers of my brother and my former captain at Sunshine Stars Sunday Abe.

WERE YOU GIVEN BETTER TREATMENT ON THE SECOND DAY IN THE FOREST?
Since they (kidnappers) didn’t hear from our families again, we were still in the same place. There was a heavy rain and we were in the rain for about 6 hours, we couldn’t change our clothes, we were not given water, we didn’t have our bath, we were just there. The only day they fed us was Tuesday (March 24) night, when they brought one cup of garri for 5 of us. They poured water on the garri and we had to use our hands to take it twice before they gave the next person. Whenever they said our families were not cooperating, they used the side of the cutlass to hit us.

HOW WERE YOU EVENTUALLY ABLE TO NEGOTIATE YOUR FREEDOM ON MARCH 25, THREE DAYS LATER?
The kidnappers were 5; we, the kidnapped, were also 5 in the bush. I overheard them saying the families of the other kidnapped 3 people had paid some money, and they were putting pressure on us that they’ll kill us if we didn’t do something. They started communicating with Abe and he told them he would be coming. They asked for his location and he told them Akure. They now described Elegbeka village for him and told the 5 of us to stand up. We started walking back to that village because we were far from it.

We walked for like 45 minutes and when we got to a place, they asked us to sit down again. Two of them went to Elegbeka village to meet Abe and my brother. I asked one of them with us what was happening and he said they went to block our families to collect the money, that if they succeeded, they’ll release us. When the two that went came back, they just poured our phones on the floor and said we should pick them and that we should face up and start going straight. We walked for about 35 minutes before getting to where our people were, we came out on a tarred road and Abe and my elder brother were there waiting for us. The families of the other 3 people they kidnapped were also there.

DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHO THE KIDNAPPERS ARE?
They are purely Fulani and spoke Fulani.

DID THE POLICE PLAY ANY ROLE IN THE RESCUE MISSION?
It was our families that came to rescue us, although James told me he went to report to the police after he escaped. I don’t know if they did anything to secure our release.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/kidnappers-hit-us-with-cutlasses-threatened-to-kill-us-ojo/

See attached contact numbers to call, text or WhatsApp details of unprofessional conduct by Nigerian Army personnel during this Covid-19 lockdown...

WHY ITALY?
...by Tracy Beanz.

Italy has been ravaged by the Wuhan Coronavirus, but the reasons why are linked more closely to globalism than the age of the infected.

--Hundreds of thousands of Chinese immigrants now live in Italy, with 300,000 legally registered and many more illegal.
--Italy recently entered into a new economic partnership with China called “One belt, One road”.
--China has revitalized northern Italian ports in order to transport goods more efficiently to the rest of Europe.
--Mayor of Florence initiated a social media campaign called “Hug a Chinese” using Chinese-produced video as an engine to dispel “racism” against the Chinese in Italy.

30 years ago, Italy saw the beginnings of what would become a serious issue with illegal immigration. It began with Italians hiring Chinese off the books at cheap wages to work making garments in towns and villages renowned for their craftmanship; and morphed into Italians seeing the Chinese learn how to do it faster and cheaper; often times watching as their family owned businesses were shuttered because they were outbid.

The Chinese took over the Italian crafts and made it their own. What didn’t change was the coveted “Made in Italy” label. The New York Times began documenting the trend in 2010 writing:

Over the years, Italy learned the difficult lesson that it could no longer compete with China on price. And so, its business class dreamed, Italy would sell quality, not quantity. For centuries, this walled medieval city just outside of Florence has produced some of the world’s finest fabrics, becoming a powerhouse for “Made in Italy” chic.

And then, China came here. Chinese laborers, first a few immigrants, then tens of thousands, began settling in Prato in the late 1980s. They transformed the textile hub into a low-end garment manufacturing capital, enriching many, stoking resentment and prompting recent crackdowns that in turn brought cries of bigotry and hypocrisy.

The city of Prato is now home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe; some legal, many more not. Here in the heart of Tuscany, Chinese laborers work round the clock in some 3,200 businesses making low-end clothes, shoes and accessories, often with materials imported from China, for sale at midprice and low-end retailers worldwide.

The trend continued as whole villages in Italy became Chinese villages, with the Chinese displacing the Italians who lived there, creating their own neighborhoods, and pushing out decades of Italian family owned business. They weren’t known for following the rules. It caused much local consternation; the Italians were forced to pay their taxes and follow employment guidelines, while the Chinese seemed to have built flourishing enterprises by skirting the rules, treating their people poorly, and engaging in rich human smuggling operations, to boot. There was little accountability for the Chinese, and much for the native Italians.

Outside of the typical problems one would see with such an influx of immigrants from a far-off land, were also other, more scandalous ones. In 2017, Bank of China (BOC) agreed to pay a 600,000 euro fine to settle a money laundering case involving its Milan branch. The Florence court hearing the case gave 4 employees of the Milan branch of China’s 4th biggest bank a suspended 2-year prison sentence for failing to report illicit money transfers.

Florence prosecutors leading the so-called “River of Money” investigation alleged that more than 4.5 bn euros (1.8 trillion Naira) was smuggled to China from Italy between 2006 and 2010 by Chinese living mainly in Florence and nearby Prato. About half of the money was sent via BOC, the prosecutors said. The court also ordered BOC to pay back 980,000 euros which it said it had earned through the illegal operations.

According to the prosecutors, the proceeds sent to China came from a series of illegal activities, including counterfeiting, embezzlement, exploitation of illegal labour and tax evasion. BOC said in a statement it had not committed any crime and was not admitting guilt by agreeing to pay the fine, which was a way of closing the case and saving time.

The wheel of corruption kept spinning, and the Italian people became more and more angry. Sometimes, this led to violence. It also led to nationwide sentiment that something needed to change, and the populist uprising we have been seeing across the globe also began to take a foothold in Italy.

FROM 2018:
At a time Europe is filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, political extremists have pointed to the demographic shifts in Prato as proof Italy is under siege. In February 2020, Patrizio La Pietra, a right-wing senator, told a Prato newspaper that the city needed to confront “Chinese economic illegality,” and that the underground economy had “brought the district to its knees, eliminated thousands of jobs, and exposed countless families to hunger.”

Such assertions have been effective: in Italy’s recent national elections, Tuscany, which since the end of the 2nd World War had consistently supported leftist parties, gave twice as many votes to right-wing and populist parties as it did those on the left. Giovanni Donzelli, a member of the quasi-Fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, who last month was elected a national representative, told me, “The Chinese have their own restaurants and their own banks—even their own police force. You damage the economy twice. Once, because you compete unfairly with the other businesses in the area, and the 2nd time because the money doesn’t go back into the Tuscan economic fabric.”

In March 2019, Italy entered into a new agreement with China, part of its “one belt, one road” initiative, a sweeping economic agreement with the country that saw the port of Triesta in northern Italy “revitalized” and managed by The People's Republic of China (PRC). The project makes enormous infrastructure investments to move Chinese goods and resources. Italy became the first of the G7 nations that once dominated the global economy to take part in China’s “One Belt One Road” throughout Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Trump administration, which tried and failed to stop the deal, focused (in the days leading up to Mr. Xi’s visit) on blocking any Italian use of 5G wireless networks developed by the Chinese electronics giant Huawei, which Washington warned could be used by Beijing to spy on communications networks.

Italy, which is saddled with crushing debt, hopes to lift its lagging economy by exporting goods to China and inviting more Chinese investment. But opponents of the project in the Trump administration and in the EU worry that Italy has turned itself into a Trojan Horse, allowing China’s economic (and potentially military and political) expansion to reach into the heart of Europe.

CURRENT SITUATION
The detailed reporting on this slow takeover is expansive, and we could continue here for many paragraphs, but let us fast forward to early 2020. As China withheld information about the seriousness and spread of Wuhan Coronavirus, many of these immigrants were returning (and arriving) from China to Italy. Once news of the virus became mainstream and China felt increasing backlash over their handling of the crisis, they turned to one of their major economic hubs for some help - Italy!

It wasn’t chance. It wasn’t age. It wasn’t overall health, and it wasn’t the good-hearted nature of the Italian people that caused the virus to ravage their nation. It was a leadership who are now under the thumb of the Chinese government.

On February 1, 2020, the mayor of Florence initiated something called “Hug a Chinese” day. This video was released on February 4, and was produced by the Chinese government. Under the guise of being “woke”, the Italian government prodded their citizens to erase the stigma surrounding the virus, and hug one of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who had been living, recently returned, or recently arrived in Italy.

Italy had become dependent on China, and Chinese capital funds a large percentage of the Italian economy. When “One Belt One Road” began early in 2019, the Italians made clear they were willing to partner with China in their quest for global dominance, and sadly it appears in their attempt to please the purse strings, they put a large percentage of their citizens in harms way.

This may also explain the enormous amount of aid and assistance flowing into Italy now from China. Far from being compassionate, the Chinese are likely looking to protect their investment. So when folks ask, “Why Italy?” the reasons are clear. Along with an ageing population who may not be the healthiest, there is also a government now beholden to China, who (acting at their behest) took extreme measures to the opposite of social distancing.

China’s global dominance has become clear even to the average observer in recent months, as Americans have become aware of the supply line dependence on China for even the most vital commodity; medicine. UncoverDC columnist Carol King detailed some of those issues in a piece that you can read here (https://uncoverdc.com/2020/03/11/president-trump-clear-eyed-on-chinese-supply-monopoly/).

We have even witnessed the legacy media in the USA seemingly hold water for the communist nation, choosing to parrot the claim of “racism” against China because President Trump has chosen to correctly name the virus what it is, the Chinese virus – rather than bow to the propaganda of a foreign nation hell bent on our destruction.

If one positive thing can come of the Wuhan corona-virus, maybe it will be that the world will finally open its eyes to just how sinister China has been over the past few decades, slithering in to our households, seemingly unbeknownst to us, and co-opting even our most basic necessities. Time will tell, but one thing is clear- it appears that “Why Italy?” is more nefarious than anyone could have initially thought.

Tracy Beanz is the Founder and Editor in Chief at UncoverDC. You can follow her on Twitter @TracyBeanz

SOURCE (abridged): https://uncoverdc.com/2020/03/20/why-italy/

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has announced total restriction of movement in Lagos and Abuja. The President also restricted movement in Ogun State because of its proximity to Lagos. He said this during a nationwide broadcast on Sunday.

According to him, the restriction will last for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11pm on Monday, 30th of March, 2020. He, however, said the order will not affect persons delivering health care, manufacturing institutions as well as petroleum distribution firms, private security firms, print, and electronic media staff.

Buhari said, “The few confirmed cases outside Lagos and Abuja are linked to persons who have travelled from these centres. We are therefore working to ensure such inter-state and intercity movements are restricted to prevent further spread.

“Based on the advice of the Federal Ministry of Health and the NCDC, I am directing the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11pm on Monday, March 30, 2020. This restriction will also apply to Ogun State due to its close proximity to Lagos and the high traffic between the two states.

“Furthermore, commercial establishments such as food processing, distribution and retail companies; petroleum distribution and retail entities; power generation, transmission and distribution companies; and private security companies are also exempted.

“Although these establishments are exempted, access will be restricted and monitored. Workers in telecommunication companies, broadcasters, print and electronic media staff who can prove they are unable to work from home are also exempted.”

The President said all seaports would remain operational but changes would be made. He also stated that all vehicles conveying food and other essential humanitarian items into these locations from other parts of the country would also be screened thoroughly before they are allowed to enter these restricted areas.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/updated-buhari-locks-down-lagos-abuja-ogun/

The World Health Organization (WHO) has debunked a myth which suggested that coronavirus is airborne and can remain in the air for 8 hours.

The international health agency in its tweet, stated that the virus is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. It added that the droplets are too heavy to hang in the air and falls quickly on the floor and surfaces.

Some of the protective measures the WHO listed include keeping 1m distance from other people, disinfecting surfaces, washing of hands.

See the tweet below;

SOURCE: https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2020/3/coronavirus-is-not-airborne-who-debunks-myth-2.html

Go to this link...answer the questions truthfully!

http://covid19.kpolom.com/

His family brought him home yesterday evening, to teach us that even at 101-years-old, the future has yet to be written!

There are those who have been around the block, and then, there’s this guy: A 101-year-old Italian man has survived the 1918 flu, a World War, and now, the coronavirus. A patient known as “Mr. P” was admitted last week to Infirmi Hospital in Remini, Italy after testing positive for COVID-19. Mr. P was born in 1919, as the 1918 flu pandemic — which would go on to kill an estimated 600,000 Italians — was in full-swing. And on Wednesday night, 101 someodd years later, Mr. P was discharged from the hospital, and taken home by his family.

The Vice Mayor of Rimini, Gloria Lisi, provided a statement to local newspaper ReminiToday about the man. The (incredibly poetic) statement, roughly translated, reads:

“Given the progress of the virus, it could not even be called a ‘story like many’ if it were not for a detail that makes the life of the person returned to their loved ones truly extraordinary. Mr. P., from Rimini, was born in 1919, in the midst of another tragic world pandemic. He saw everything, hunger, pain, progress, crisis and resurrections. Once over the 100-year-old barrier, fate has put this new challenge before him, invisible and terrible at the same time. Last week, Mr. P. was hospitalized at in Rimini after testing positive for COVID-19. In a few days, it became ‘history’ for doctors, nurses, and the rest of the healthcare personnel who treated him.

A hope for the future finds itself in the body of a person over a century old, as the sad chronicles of these weeks mechanically tell every day of a virus that is raging especially on the elderly. Yet, Mr. P. made it. The family brought him home yesterday evening, to teach us that even at 101-years-old, the future has yet to be written.”

Per the Hopkins Map, as of this writing, Italy leads the world in COVID-19 infections resulting in death, and is likely to overtake China within the day for total confirmed infections. But their rate of infections continues to slow, and the country’s lockdown appears to be working.

The reality of the math is brutal, but Mayor Lisi isn’t wrong: The future, as doubly evidenced, isn’t entirely bleak, and has very, very much yet to be written.

SOURCE: https://futurism.com

Somalia has tragically lost former footballer, Abdulkadir Mohamed Farah to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Somali Football Federation has confirmed. Farah passed away at a Northwest London Hospital on Tuesday (24 March 2020), after testing positive to the deadly virus last week. He was 59.

SFF president, Abdiqani Said Arab, has commiserated with the bereaved family on the demise of Farah, who was an advisor to the Minister of Youth and Sport.

Born on 15 February 1961, Farah was born in the city of Beledweyne, about 342 kilometres north of the capital Mogadishu. His football career dates back to 1976 when he first appeared in the national schools’ football tournament. He got promoted to regional level representing his home Hiiraan region in the 1979 regional football tournament.

The regional tournament became a platform for him to showcase his talent and from there he was recruited by Batroolka Football Club where he had an illustrious playing career until late 1980s.

For the past 4 years, he served as an advisor to the Minister of Youth and Sport of the Federal Government of Somalia.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/african-football-legend-mohamed-farah-dies-from-covid-19/

The United States on Thursday took the grim title of the country with the most coronavirus infections and reported a record surge in unemployment as world leaders vowed $5 trillion to stave off global economic collapse.

More than 500,000 people around the world have now contracted the new coronavirus, overwhelming healthcare systems even in wealthy nations and triggering an avalanche of government-ordered lockdowns that have disrupted life for billions.

In the United States, more than 83,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19, edging out Italy, which has reported the most deaths, and China, where the virus was first detected in December in the metropolis of Wuhan. The US has recorded 1,178 deaths, while the global death toll stood at 23,293.

With about 40% of Americans under lockdown orders, Trump urged citizens to do their part by practicing social distancing: “Stay home. Just relax, stay home.”

RECORD ONE-DAY TOLL IN FRANCE
Alarmed by the rapid spread of the sickness in Italy, France has taken aggressive action to stem the virus and went under lockdown on March 17. But the 365 deaths reported Thursday was its highest in a one-day period and, alarmingly, included a 16-year-old girl — a rare case of a young person succumbing to a virus that has devastated the elderly.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/us-tops-world-in-coronavirus-cases-overtaking-china-italy/

As at: 1:05pm Mar 26, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
489,547 confirmed cases
22,150 reported deaths
117,608 recovered.

Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.53%
Global dynamic recovery rate: 24.02%

B. NIGERIA
51 confirmed cases, 1 death, 2 recovered.
Nigeria's dynamic mortality rate: 1.96%

prof2007:
NOVEL CORONAVIRUS: DAILY GLOBAL UPDATE

As at: 3:35am Mar 22, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
298,951 confirmed cases
12,883 reported deaths
66,907 recovered*
Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.31%

B. NIGERIA
22 confirmed cases, 0 deaths


C. TOP TEN COUNTRIES
China
81,054 confirmed cases, 3,261 deaths, 61,644 recovered

Italy
53,578 confirmed cases, 4,825 deaths, 1,045 recovered

United States
25,493 confirmed cases, 307 deaths, 8 recovered

Spain
24,926 confirmed cases, 1,326 deaths, 183 recovered

Iran
20,610 confirmed cases, 1,566 deaths, 2,959 recovered

Germany
17,742 confirmed cases, 48 deaths, 25 recovered

France
14,459 confirmed cases, 562 deaths, 12 recovered

South Korea
8,799 confirmed cases, 102 deaths, 288 recovered

Switzerland
6,113 confirmed cases, 56 deaths, 4 recovered

United Kingdom
5,018 confirmed cases, 233 deaths, 19 recovered

SOURCE: cna.asia/covid19

As at: 1:05pm Mar 26, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
489,547 confirmed cases
22,150 reported deaths
117,608 recovered.

Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.53%
Global dynamic recovery rate: 24.02%

B. NIGERIA
51 confirmed cases, 1 death 2 recovered.
Nigeria's dynamic mortality rate: 1.96%

prof2007:
NOVEL CORONAVIRUS: DAILY GLOBAL UPDATE

As at: 3:35am Mar 22, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
298,951 confirmed cases
12,883 reported deaths
66,907 recovered*
Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.31%

B. NIGERIA
22 confirmed cases, 0 deaths


C. TOP TEN COUNTRIES
China
81,054 confirmed cases, 3,261 deaths, 61,644 recovered

Italy
53,578 confirmed cases, 4,825 deaths, 1,045 recovered

United States
25,493 confirmed cases, 307 deaths, 8 recovered

Spain
24,926 confirmed cases, 1,326 deaths, 183 recovered

Iran
20,610 confirmed cases, 1,566 deaths, 2,959 recovered

Germany
17,742 confirmed cases, 48 deaths, 25 recovered

France
14,459 confirmed cases, 562 deaths, 12 recovered

South Korea
8,799 confirmed cases, 102 deaths, 288 recovered

Switzerland
6,113 confirmed cases, 56 deaths, 4 recovered

United Kingdom
5,018 confirmed cases, 233 deaths, 19 recovered

SOURCE: cna.asia/covid19

As countries are taking measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organisation has warned that lockdown measures will not extinguish the pandemic. The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems.

Ghebreyesus said this at a media briefing on COVID-19 on Wednesday. According to him, “To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries have introduced unprecedented measures, at a significant social and economic cost – closing schools and businesses, cancelling sporting events and asking people to stay home and stay safe. We understand that these countries are now trying to assess when and how they will be able to ease these measures. The answer depends on what countries do while these population-wide measures are in place.

“Asking people to stay at home and shutting down population movement is buying time and reducing the pressure on health systems. But on their own, these measures will not extinguish epidemics.”

According to him, the point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives. Ghebreyesus, however, urged countries who have introduced so-called “lockdown” measures to use this time to attack the virus. “You have created a second window of opportunity. The question is, how will you use it?” the WHO chief asked.

He recommended six key actions to suppress and stop transmissions so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus does not make a resurgence.

“1st, expand, train and deploy your health care and public health workforce.

“2nd, implement a system to find every suspected case at community level.

“3rd, ramp up the production, capacity and availability of testing.

“4th, identify, adapt and equip facilities you will use to treat and isolate patients.

"5th, develop a clear plan and process to quarantine contacts; and

"6th, refocus the whole of government on suppressing and controlling COVID-19,” Ghebreyesus counselled.

He said the last thing any country needed was to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again because of a resurgence.

“Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace are not only the best and fastest way out of extreme social and economic restrictions – they’re also the best way to prevent them. More than 150 countries and territories still have fewer than 100 cases. By taking the same aggressive actions now, these countries have the chance to prevent community transmission and avoid some of the more severe social and economic costs seen in other countries.

“This is especially relevant for many vulnerable countries whose health systems may collapse under the weight of the numbers of patients we’ve seen in some countries with community transmission,” The Director-General said.

SOURCE: https://healthwise.punchng.com/lockdown-will-not-extinguish-covid-19-who/

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS: DAILY GLOBAL UPDATE

As at: 01:30 am March 25, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
421,413 confirmed cases
18,810 reported deaths
108,388 recovered.
Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.46%

B. NIGERIA
44 confirmed cases, 1 death, 2 recovered.

SOURCE: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS: DAILY GLOBAL UPDATE

As at: 05:00 am Mar 23, 2020

A. GLOBAL TOTAL
326,722 confirmed cases
14,507 reported deaths
66,907 recovered*
Global dynamic mortality rate: 4.44%

B. NIGERIA
31 confirmed cases, 0 deaths, 2 recovered.

C. TOP TEN COUNTRIES
China
81,093 confirmed cases, 3,270 deaths, 61,644 recovered.

Italy
59,138 confirmed cases, 5,476 deaths, 1,045 recovered.

United States
33,073 confirmed cases, 416 deaths, 8 recovered.

Spain
28,603 confirmed cases, 1,756 deaths, 183 recovered.

Iran
21,638 confirmed cases, 1,685 deaths, 2,959 recovered.

Germany
18,610 confirmed cases, 55 deaths, 25 recovered.

France
16,018 confirmed cases, 674 deaths, 12 recovered.

South Korea
8,961 confirmed cases, 111 deaths, 288 recovered.

Switzerland
7,014 confirmed cases, 60 deaths, 4 recovered.

United Kingdom
5,683 confirmed cases, 281 deaths, 19 recovered.