₦airaland Forum

Nigeria and other African countries will have to pay between $3 and $10 per COVID-19 vaccine dose to access 270 million shots secured by the African Union.
This is according to a proposal on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Reuters reported Wednesday.
Although discounted compared to what richer nations pay, there are concerns some African countries may still find the cost burdensome at a time of an economic crisis.
Countries that receive the vaccines and are not able to pay for them immediately, will be covered by a loan, payable in installments over five to seven years, the document showed, according to Reuters.
It quoted the Afreximbank as saying through a spokesperson that the document was a draft and meant for confidential discussion by a team created by the AU to secure vaccines and financing for the continent’s coronavirus immunisation programmes.
The plan is different from the COVAX global vaccine sharing scheme led by the World Health Organization and the GAVI.
If the plan goes through, Nigeria may have to pay over $200 million if it takes its full allocation of 42 million doses.
That would be at an average of N3183 per dose.
More than 3.3 million COVID-19 cases and over 80,000 deaths have been recorded on the continent as of Wednesday.
The document showed that talks were underway to secure additional vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V.
The report said AU is troubled that vaccine supplies to be released through COVAX in the first half of the year may not extend beyond the needs of frontline healthcare workers.
A breakdown of the cost showed that 100 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine may go for $3 each, while Pfizer will provide 50 million doses of its two-shot vaccine at $6.75 each.
The European Union and the United States are paying around $19 per dose, while Israel is paying $30 for the Pfizer vaccine.
The report says the World Bank was in discussions with the African Union and governments throughout Africa to support their vaccine needs but did not provide further details.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President, confirmed last week that arrangements had been made with the bank to support member states who want access to vaccines.

As COVID-19 vaccine efforts have gotten underway, the United States federal government has been allocating a specific number of COVID-19 vaccines to each state.
Allocations were initially based on the adult population of each state.1 However, the Trump administration has changed how it will allocate doses per state; it will now prioritize states that administer the vaccines the fastest.2
Experts say the new allocations have confused states, which are now scrambling to ramp up inoculation efforts to avoid losing their doses. Faster rollouts may not even be possible, as there are reports that there is no federal reserve of held-back doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“It is very hard to know what’s going on,” Eric Toner, MD, a senior scientist in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, tells Verywell. “One thing that does seem clear is that we should not expect the current flow of vaccine from the feds to increase in the near future.”

Nigeria’s total public debt stock as of September 2020, increased by over N6 trillion in just one year. This is according to the Nigerian Domestic and Foreign Debt report, recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The total public debt (External and Domestic) incurred by Nigeria stood at N32.22 trillion ($84.57 billion) as of September 2020, which represents an additional N6.01 trillion when compared to N26.21 trillion recorded as of the corresponding period of 2019.
The breakdown shows that external debts accounted for 37.82% (N12.19 trillion) of the total debt stock, while domestic debts at N20.04 trillion represented 62.18% of the total.
Breakdown
Further disaggregation of Nigeria’s foreign debt showed that $16.74bn of the debt was multilateral.
Also, $502.38m was bilateral (AFD) and another $3.26bn bilateral from the Exim Bank of China, JICA, India, and
KFW while $11.17bn was commercial which are Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds.
Total external debt grew by $5.04 billion (N3.9 trillion) within the period, indicating an increase of 18.72%.
Total domestic debt on the other hand declined by $5.86 billion. However, it represents an increase in Naira value of N2.09 trillion, largely due to multiple devaluations of the currency during the period.
A cursory look at the breakdown of the domestic debts show that 73.53% (N11.65 trillion) were in form of Federal Government bonds, 17.17% (N2.72 trillion) in Treasury bills, followed by Promissory Notes accounting for 6.13% (N971.9 billion) of the total federal government domestic debts.
Others include; FGN Sukuk (N362.6 billion), Treasury Bonds (N100.9 billion), Green bond (N25.7 billion), and Savings bond (N12.6 billion).
On the 31st of December 2020, President Buhari signed the 2021 appropriation bill of N13.59 trillion into law, which 25.7% higher than the revised 2020 budget of  N10.8 trillion. However, the budget comes with a deficit of N5.6 trillion, which is expected to be financed mainly through borrowings both externally and domestically.
According to the minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, in a budget presentation on Tuesday, N2.34 trillion will be sourced each from domestic and foreign sources respectively, N709.69 billion from Multilateral/bilateral loan drawdowns, and N205.15 billion from privatisation proceeds.
Recall that Nairametrics reported in December that, the World Bank finally approved a $1.5 billion loan request made by Nigeria as budget support in order to cushion the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the country’s revenue.
It is also worth noting that the federal government will be tapping into funds in unclaimed funds and dormant accounts.

The Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed FG has stated that Nigeria is working on the type and quantity of COVID-19 vaccines to procure.
The Federal Government is currently resolving what type of Covid-19 vaccine to procure and the quantity needed. The provision for this would be made available in the 2021 budget.
This was disclosed by Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed on Tuesday reported by Reuters.
Ahmed disclosed that the FG was committed to a quick supplementary budget that makes way for additional Covid-19 spending needed in the country.
She added that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance will work on a plan on vaccine procurement later this month and also discuss with the National Assembly on budgetary means to finance the procurement.
“We agreed that the effort needed to be done so that we have clarity as to whether the provisions to the budget will be adequate or we have to make additional provisions by way of a special supplementary budget to make more provisions for COVID-19 vaccinations,” she said.
What you should know 
Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), announced its distribution plan for the Covid-19 vaccine deployment in Nigeria.
The NPHCDA revealed that all states will initially receive 4,000 vaccines during the first phase, with the top states being Kano State 3,557; Lagos 3,131; Katsina 2,361; Kaduna 2,074; Bauchi 1,900; Oyo 1,848; and Rivers 1,766.
Meanwhile, the total number of Covid-19 cases in Nigeria surpassed the 100,000 mark as at Sunday, January 10, 2021, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

he COVID-19 pandemic spawned more than 1,000 workplace-related lawsuits last year and drove a record number of class-action cases as employees sued over disputes over workplace safety, how they’re paid while working from home, and family and medical leave.
In 2020, the pandemic led employees to file 1,005 workplace lawsuits in state and federal courts, according to Chicago-based law firm Seyfarth Shaw.
Another law firm, Littler Mendelson, based in San Francisco, says the figure was even higher. It estimated 1,425 such cases as of mid-December.
The lawsuits represent just the leading edge of an even bigger wave that’s expected this year, says Gerald Maatman Jr., a Seyfarth partner. Many were filed after employees were laid off during the pandemic, he says.
“COVID is now a driver of filings and is significantly impacting workplace class-actions,” Maatman says.
Among the 1,005 workplace lawsuits sparked by the outbreak, well over half – 690 – dealt with layoffs and firings, with employees arguing they were victims of age or racial discrimination, for example.

REMBAU, Jan 3 — The National Vaccination Plan scheduled to start in February will be finalised this Thursday, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Khairy Jamaluddin said.
He said this would be discussed in the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Committee Meeting to be chaired jointly by him and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.
“We aim to launch the implementation plan when we have acquired supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine,” he told reporters after the Rembau Division Umno Delegates Meeting, here today.
This is a comprehensive plan which covers the period before the vaccines are received including the hospitals that can be registered to have access to the vaccine as well as the transportation and storage of the vaccines.
In the meantime, he said MOSTI was also drafting a Low Touch Economy Plan in collaboration with several ministries including the Works Ministry and Housing and Local Government Ministry to avoid risk of the public getting Covid-19.
He said this long term plan which would bring changes to the economic environment would focus on the development and use of robotics which would eliminate  the need to touch surfaces.
“People no longer have to meet in crowded places and close contacts will be reduced,” he said adding that these measures would help to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases. — Bernama

America's first known case of a more contagious coronavirus variant was discovered this week in Colorado. This particular strand, called B.1.1.7, was first identified in UK back in September.
The World Health Organization says this strand can now be found in 26 countries, but what does that mean for Central Texas?
First off, healthcare professionals told 25 News that it is completely normal for a virus to mutate and change. In fact, studies show COVID-19 has at least one mutation in its genome every two weeks, but this particular strand has more than one.
The variant was confirmed in Colorado thanks to the not-so widely used sequence testing.
“We’ve been doing common test, which have a result of positive or negative, but of all the 17 million cases of COVID in the US, we’ve only done sequencing on about 51,000 of those,” explained Karen Percell, Executive Director of Quality Management at Advent Health.
The Colorado State Laboratory Confirmed the B.1.1.7 variant through a detailed analysis of the strand. Colorado public health officials say the variant was found in a man in his 20s with no travel history.
With this preliminary information, Percell explained, “With the assumption that he had no history of international travel, and they haven’t yet traced it to an international person exposing him, I think that just reiterates the potential that this variant of COVID-19 has been in the U.S. and it’s out there, but we’re just discovering it because there was sequencing done.”
But if virus mutate all the time, what makes this one special? Percell explains research from the UK and Canada shows that the symptoms for B 1.1.7 are the same as the normal strand of COVID-19, but there is an alarming difference.
“We know that it’s spreading easier and faster, but we don’t see an increase in the severity of illness,” Percell added.
“The reality is that it probably will if it's not already here in Texas. It’s just one more part of the virus we have to deal with,” said Kelly Craine with the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District.
While it’s too early to say what impact this strand will have on Central Texas, Craine says this does not change the precautions we’ve all been taking since March.
“It’s already something that we have seen that can spread efficiently, so this just amps it up one more notch," she said.
Both Percell and Craine say the best way to protect yourself from any strand of the coronavirus is wearing your mask, social distancing, avoiding large crowds and practicing good hand hygiene
The CDC says they are working to understand how the different strands of COVID-19 work, how they are alike, different, and if the current vaccines uphold their efficacy. Dr. William Schnaffner, an advisor to the CDC, says at this time, about 99% of the mutations are the same, so the vaccine would still work. However they are doing more tests just to be sure.
The CDC is also launching a new task force come January that will be solely focused on researching and identifying COVID-19 mutations, focusing first on those areas they classify as having a high variant spread, which would be the UK, South Africa and Nigeria.

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — Travel restrictions are reemerging internationally and domestically in the United States as a popular mitigation tool to try to manage the spread of COVID-19 and new strains of the virus. But with worldwide coronavirus cases surpassing 81 million and the U.S. expecting a post-holiday surge, there are questions about how effective those measures are.
Internationally, reports of a new, potentially more transmissible strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom prompted widespread travel bans. At least 60 countries halted or sharply restricted travel from Great Britain. Last week, the United States required all passengers coming from the U.K. to present a negative COVID-19 test before their flight.
The response has left the U.K. increasingly isolated and raised doubts about whether stopping travel can stop the virus. A majority of European countries blocked travel from Britain after the new variant was discovered and France temporarily closed the border to British passengers and goods. Yet, according to the World Health Organization's regional office in Europe, at least 11 E.U. countries have detected the new strain.
Outside of Europe, the variant has been found in Canada, South Africa and Japan, which implemented a monthlong travel ban on all nonresident foreign nationals starting Monday. Even with flights down 90% between Great Britain and the United States, top U.S. health officials have said it's only a matter of time before the new variant is found here.
According to a recent article in The Lancet, travel restrictions have been shown to help slow the spread of the virus but only in countries that have very little community spread. Travel bans, border closures and targeted restrictions on countries with the highest prevalence of disease helped several countries reduce the number of imported cases, including China, New Zealand and Australia. For months, those countries have kept new cases within the tens or close to zero.

In terms of the prevention and control of the new crown virus, the measures taken by the United States have always been relatively negative, and now they are even uncontrollable, and travel restrictions should not be effective.

Although Americans were warned to avoid holiday travel, the Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 1.2 million people at airport checkpoints in the United States on Wednesday. That volume, officials say, marks the one-day high since the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping across the country in March.
Here are some significant developments:
Coronavirus mutations identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa may be provoking alarm, but infectious-disease experts are optimistic the new variants are still vulnerable to newly authorized vaccines, which could be rapidly reprogrammed to remain effective.
House Republicans blocked an effort by House Democrats to approve $2,000 stimulus payments for millions of Americans — a measure President Trump has demanded be added to an economic relief package before he will sign it.
The Trump administration and Pfizer have reached a deal for the pharmaceutical giant to provide 100 million additional coronavirus vaccine doses during the spring and summer, averting the possibility of a shortfall.
China and Brazil joined dozens of other nations in suspending flights from Britain over a new variant of the coronavirus that health experts say is far more transmissible.
Mexico became the first country in Latin America to start vaccinating people against covid-19.
NORAD, which watches the airspace over the U.S. and Canada, says it’s tracking the movements of “Santa” for the 65th year.

As health care workers and nursing home residents await the first scarce syringes of COVID-19 vaccine, few realize that when they will get a dose depends a lot on what state they live in.
Though they’re first in line for the vaccine, some people in those groups may end up getting vaccinated after people in other states who are deemed lower priority.
The vaccine is allocated according to the number of adults in each state, which doesn’t correlate to the number of high-risk people there. As long as supplies are limited, some states won’t get doses proportionate to their needs.
In those places, medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities will be exposed to the coronavirus for weeks or months longer. They’ll be more vulnerable to sickness and death.
Nevada is one of the winners. According to a USA TODAY analysis of data from Surgo Ventures and Ariadne Labs, the state has relatively few residents in the highest priority group. Based on the federal formula, it will be able to vaccinate all front-line health workers and nursing home residents once the federal government distributes 13.6 million doses nationwide.
Massachusetts, which has a lot of medical workers, won’t hit that threshold until 25.5 million doses have been distributed across the country – potentially weeks into the new year. By the time Massachusetts vaccinates the last person in its highest priority group, Nevada could have moved on to lower priority groups such as elderly people, teachers and grocery workers.
Washington, D.C., fares worst in the country. It won’t be able to vaccinate all its health care workers until 27.3 million doses have been distributed nationwide.
Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter this month to Operation Warp Speed leaders complaining about the “one-size-fits-all formula.” The distribution plan, she wrote, “will leave the district unable to provide vaccinations to the vast majority of our healthcare workers.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar touted the per-person formula as fair. “We wanted to keep this simple,” he said.
Some immunization experts agree with that rationale. Others contend the point of prioritizing doses is to protect the most vulnerable, and a rationing system based on population doesn’t do that.
“Easiest may not be ethically best, most defensible or best for public health,” said Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “You want something that’s lifesaving to go where it’s most needed, not just evenly spread across the country.”

NIGERIA may spend about $1.4bn (N540.4bn, at the official exchange rate of $1: N386) to procure and distribute 218,400,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.
The figure is based on estimates of the World Health Organisation as regards the total amount of funds that Africa would need to pursue a vaccination drive.
According to the WHO, Africa will need at least $9bn (N3.4tn) to procure and distribute 1.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
This development comes as Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki; as well as the wife of Osun State Governor, Mrs Kafayat Oyetola, among others, have expressed worry over the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid rising cases and deaths in the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, the Immunisation and Vaccines Development Programme Coordinator, WHO, Dr Richard Mihigo, has said it will partner institutions such as the African Union, World Bank and others to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination in Africa.
Responding to a question posed by SUNDAY PUNCH newspaper at the WHO Africa online press briefing last week, Mihigo said, “We will definitely need to vaccinate between 60 to 70 per cent of the African population.
“So, if you consider that we have about 1.2 to 1.3 billion people on the African continent and you take 60 per cent of that with the assumption that you will need maybe two doses per population, we are talking about close to 1.3 to 1.4 billion vaccine doses that will be needed to immunise 60 per cent of the people in Africa to reach herd immunity.”
Speaking further, Mihigo explained that it was not just about the cost of the vaccines but the cost of delivering them and ensuring that they got to the right locations.
He added that there were no guarantees that there would be enough supplies before the end of 2021.
The WHO official stated, “So if we compute that number with the preliminary information that we are getting with these vaccine manufacturers because it is not only the cost of the vaccines. There are also additional costs that are needed to deliver those vaccines.
“We know very well that the preliminary rough estimation that is being done, we may need up to $9bn. So, this is a lot of money, a lot of funding that will be needed. First of all, we are not sure that we are going to get enough supply to immunise everybody (in Africa) by the end of 2021.”
Nigeria, which has an estimated population of 203 million people, is Africa’s most populous country and constitutes 15.6 per cent of the entire population of the continent.
Based on the WHO’s estimates on how much it would cost Africa per head, Nigeria may require about $1.4bn to procure and distribute 218,400,000 doses of COVID-19 for double doses for 60 per cent of its population.
It was, however, learnt that there were ongoing discussions with the African Union to work with other multilateral or development banks like the World Bank and Afrexim Bank to mobilise resources for African countries, including Nigeria.

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has extended school closure order to health training Institutions in the state.
Ganduje gave the order through the state's Commissioner of Health, Dr Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa in a press statement issued in the late hours of Tuesday night.
The Governor who didn't state any reason for the closure of the schools, said affected institutions are all Public and Private Health Training institutions including Schools of basic/postbasic nursing and midwifery, Schools of Health Technology and school of Hygiene.
Also read: COVID-19: Ganduje shuts down schools in Kano
Part of the statement reads, "Parents are advised to convey their children from their respective schools on Wednesday, 16th December 2020.
"All inconveniences are highly regretted," the statement however reads.
Recall that the Governor had initially through his Commissioner of Education, Muhammad Sanusi Kiru, ordered the closure of all public and private schools in the state.
Meanwhile, our correspondent reliably gathered that this could not be unconnected to the abduction of school children in Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State.

Americans are increasingly concerned about vaccine safety after four people in Pfizer-BioNTech trials and three people in the Moderna trials developed Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes temporary weakness or paralysis of the facial muscles.
While it may sound scary, experts say Bell’s palsy is more common and less severe than people think.
Bell’s palsy, also known as peripheral facial nerve palsy, can occur at any age, according to the Mayo Clinic. The exact causes are unknown, but it’s believed to be the result of swelling and inflammation of the nerve that controls the muscles on one side of the face, or a reaction after a viral infection.
Dr. Anthony Geraci, Northwell Health’s Director of Neuromuscular Medicine in Great Neck, New York, says at least two Bell’s palsy patients visit his office a month, and they always recover within several weeks.
“Ninety percent, if not more, of patients who have Bell’s palsy experience a mild, transient weakness of the side of the face which is completely resolved within three months, the majority within a month and a half,” he said. “It’s a relatively benign condition.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Bell’s palsy may include rapid onset of mild weakness to total paralysis on one side of the face, facial droop, pain around the jaw or behind the ear, increased sensitivity to sound, headache, a loss of taste and changes in the amount of tears and saliva produced.
But Geraci says most of his patients experience mild to moderate symptoms. That could include numbness or tingling to the tongue, or maybe an off-kilter smile or less blinking in one eye than the other.
He says symptoms can be so subtle most people wouldn’t notice someone has Bell’s palsy to look at them.

As the United Kingdom launches its COVID-19 vaccination, Africa and other poor countries may miss out on the largest ever immunisation drive expected next year unless enough doses are produced urgently, a group of organisations warns.
High-income countries have bought up the vast majority of the world’s vaccine supply through direct deals with vaccine developers for advance purchases of anticipated COVID-19 vaccines.
The UK became the first country to begin its vaccination rollout on Tuesday, with the over-80s and some health and care workers prioritised to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The group that includes Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, says in a statement released today (9 December) that about 70 poor countries will manage to vaccinate only one in ten people against COVID-19 next year.
Data collected and analysed on the deals done between countries and the eight leading vaccine candidates, according to the group, shows that 67 low- and lower middle-income countries are at high risk of being left behind because of rich countries buying large doses.
Of the 67, Kenya, Nigeria, Myanmar, Pakistan and Ukraine have reported more than 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 between them.

A record 101,487 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals on Sunday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, underscoring the immense pressure on the nation's hospitals and health care workers.
"Our hospitals are already at the brink," said CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore City health commissioner. "And they are just at the brink of becoming so overwhelmed that patients are going to get less than ideal care."
Already stretched thin, experts and health care workers fear things will only get worse, with a potential surge of infections fueled by Thanksgiving travel and gatherings.
Just one week after the holiday, the US has yet to feel the full effects. But Wen said we will see an "exponential rise" in cases in the next few weeks, and she urged Americans do their part to combat the spread of the virus and relieve the strain on hospitals.
"Because otherwise we have a catastrophe on our hands that's worse than any of us can possibly imagine," she said.
The US hit a record 7-day average of new Covid-19 cases as hospitals are further strained
December has brought the highest hospitalization numbers in the US since the pandemic began as the virus continues to spread like wildfire.
It took almost 100 days for the US to reach 1 million coronavirus infections after the first cases were confirmed on January 20. But in the first five days of the month, from Tuesday to Saturday, 1,000,882 cases were reported in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 14.7 million confirmed cases had been reported in the US as of Sunday night, and more than 282,200 people have died.
As of Saturday, the US averaged 190,948 new cases over the last week, another record high, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins data.

A Nigerian yellow fever outbreak detected early last month is worsening and causing many cases and deaths across five of the country’s 36 states.  The World Health Organization says 530 suspected cases, including 172 deaths, have been reported in Delta, Enugu, Benue and Ebonyi states in southern Nigeria and Bauchi in the north. 
Bringing this epidemic under control is difficult because Nigeria is facing    
many simultaneous outbreaks of other infectious diseases, including Lassa fever, vaccine-derived polio virus, measles, monkey pox and cholera.    
World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says the northeast of the country is also facing a humanitarian crisis largely caused by Boko Haram militants.
“The response is particularly challenging in a COVID-19 context because it requires an extraordinary amount of time and resources from the country’s health system," said Jasarevic. "...National and state authorities are currently focused on the COVID-19 pandemic response, limiting the human resources required to conduct investigations and response activities for the yellow fever outbreaks.”  
Nigeria has been battling successive yellow fever outbreaks since 2017.  The deadly disease is caused by a virus spread through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which bite during the day.  Jasarevic says vaccination is of key importance in preventing outbreaks in high-risk countries.
“In Nigeria, these efforts are based on the introduction of the yellow fever vaccine into the routine immunization program," said Jasarevic. "This started in 2004, and also carrying preventive campaigns to rapidly increase protection.  But still the population, entire population of Nigeria has not been protected.”  
The World Health Organization urges those in areas reporting yellow fever to avoid daytime mosquito bites, keep their home surroundings clean, and clear mosquito breeding areas.  It also recommends that anyone visiting Nigeria who is at least 9 months old be vaccinated against yellow fever.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has issued a public health advisory to all members of the public to exercise caution as they celebrate the upcoming festivities – Christmas and New year.
The Commission said that it is fully aware that the yuletide season affords a number of people an opportunity to celebrate with their families and friends and as well for people to travel to visit their loved ones or attend events, but cautioned that everyone has to make necessary adjustments in social interactions in line with the reality of the pandemic to limit the spread of Covid-19.
According to the commission, “Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Nigeria, just over 67,000 Covid-19 cases have been reported with just over 1,000 deaths. Most of the confirmed cases and deaths have been in urban/semi-urban cities and towns and the risk of spread remains.
“The Covid-19 virus does not spread on its own, it spreads when people move around. This means that by traveling across countries and cities, there is a higher risk of transmission, especially to rural areas where the existing health infrastructure is already weak.”

The president of the Sports Writers of Nigeria (SWAN), Sir Honour Sirawoo has commended the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for the release of the FIFA Covid-19 Relief Fund.

The NFF had released the sum of N11,400,000 ($30,000) only as part of the Covid-19 Relief Fund from FIFA to SWAN.

Sirawoo lauded the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF for the transparent way and manner it has disbursed the funds in accordance with the earlier breakdown and FIFA guidelines.

According to him, “FIFA and the NFF must be commended for this transparent process. It has been done in such a manner that is open for all to see.

“FIFA must also be commended for such a gesture despite a challenging period of coronavirus pandemica cross the world. It is a sign of a responsive and responsible football governing body.”

He assured that the funds allocated to SWAN would be utilized transparently in accordance with the stated guidelines.

“Let me state clearly that we will follow all the guidelines as stated by FIFA and NFF; every penny expended would be published for all to see.

“Our mantra has always been responsive leadership and we will demonstrate that in all our dealings. An enlarged NEC meeting will hold in a couple of days to determine how the funds will be utilized,” he stressed.

As African universities began to suffer from COVID-19-related restrictions, a picture began to emerge of how they might evolve in a pandemic or post-pandemic world.
University leaders have since started to paint a more precise outline of the long-term changes that may occur in how they function. But what will happen in a field such as engineering?
Engineering and applied sciences more generally are disciplines traditionally known for the ‘hands-on’ experience that students gain through laboratory work, field excursions, industrial placements and team-based problem-solving.
Around the world this is changing. How will remote learning affect how the engineers of tomorrow are being trained? What does the labour market hold for tomorrow’s graduates? And, despite the economic downturns whose effects will last beyond the end of the pandemic, how can universities learn from COVID-19 and strengthen how engineering is taught?
Resource scarcity in Sub-Saharan African higher education systems is exacerbating this situation in a context where engineering and applied science are seen as the key to development.
In addition, many systemic challenges are already hampering engineering education: ageing or immature infrastructure, lack of private-sector investment in research, equity in access to engineering education, and so on.

Mr Ogbuagu's ground-breaking research in the field of modified genetic code has catapulted him into the public eye.
Onyema Ogbuagu is a Nigerian-born researcher and medical doctor who has spent his career investigating some of the world's most pervasive infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and Ebola, just to name a couple.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Ogbuagu's ground-breaking research in the field of modified genetic code has catapulted him into the public eye, as he is one of the brains behind the research at Pfizer for the potential world's first effective coronavirus vaccine.
Some of the fastest vaccines ever developed took at least four years. However, scientists are now racing to develop one for coronavirus under a year.
Dozens of research teams around the world are working to develop a coronavirus vaccine using a mix of established techniques and new technologies.
Funding for a vaccine has never been greater, with billions of dollars pouring in from around the world to make a product that could help to control the pandemic.
There has been a growing optimism after leading drug giants Pfizer and Moderna said preliminary late-stage trial data showed their vaccines were more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.
In a historical development that could very well define his career, Nigerian-born Mr Ogbuagu is among the lead researchers developing the Pfizer vaccine.

The head of Operation Warp Speed has said he would begin sending out vaccinations within 24 hours of approval. Meanwhile, another protest against protective measures has taken place in Berlin. Follow DW for the latest.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of the Operation Warp Speed coronavirus vaccine program in the United States, said Sunday he plans to ship vaccines across the country within 24 hours of approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with vaccinations beginning on December 12.
The FDA, which oversees vaccine production in the US, is scheduled to meet on December 10 to discuss Pfizer's request for emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine. The American company and German partner BioNTech announced earlier this month that the vaccine appeared to be 95% effective at preventing COVID-19.
The Group of Twenty, or G20 nations, has emphasized the need for global access to coronavirus vaccines during the group‘s virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
"Although we are optimistic about the progress made in developing vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics tools for COVID-19, we must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all people," said Saudi King Salman, the host of the summit.
Leaders from across the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, outgoing US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others, participated remotely in the two-day gathering that saw them pop up in windows on a large screen.
According to the organizers, there is still a $4.5 billion (€3.8 billion) funding shortfall for COVID-19 vaccines. G20 nations have, so far, contributed over $21 billion to combat the coronavirus. The group has also injected $11 trillion to "safeguard" the world economy, which has been severely impacted by the pandemic.

Implicit racial attitudes within a community can effectively explain racial disparities seen in rates of COVID-19 in the United States, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by George Cunningham and Lisa Wigfall of Texas A&M University, USA.
There is a growing body of evidence showing that racial and ethnic minorities are more affected by severe illness, and more likely to be hospitalized, from COVID-19 compared to white people. This disparity can be only partially explained by the disproportionate rates of underlying medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, and obesity, seen among Black/African American people.
In the new study, researchers collected data from a variety of publicly available sources for 817 counties (26% of all counties) in the United States. The data included information on cumulative COVID-19 deaths and cases from January 22 to August 31, 2020 as well as explicit and implicit racial attitudes—collected through Harvard University's Project Implicit. The researchers also obtained a wide spectrum of demographic and economic information for these communities so that they could control for these factors.
The percent of Black residents in a county was positively associated with COVID-19 cases (r=0.47) and deaths (r=0.32) in the county. Moreover, both explicit and implicit racial attitudes were positively associated with COVID-19 (r=0.72). The results demonstrated that the relationship between race and COVID-19 cases was strongest when either explicit or implicit racial attitudes were highest. There was also an effect of implicit racial attitudes on COVID-19 deaths among the Black population. The authors conclude that implicit racial attitudes in a community can help explain racial disparities in COVID-19 rates.
The authors add: "These findings show that, even beyond the impact of county demographics, implicit and explicit racial attitudes impact the rates of COVID-19. Racial attitudes captured at the county level represent the bias of crowds and reflect deeper biases that are embedded into systems within society. These biases can negatively affect county residents, including their health and wellbeing."

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Anambra says one prospective corps member in Anambra has been diagnosed of possible case of COVID-19 .
Mr Kehinde Aremu, Coordinator of the scheme said this on Monday during the swearing in of 800 members of 2020 Batch 'B' stream 1A corps members at the permanent orientation camp, Umuawulu/Mbaukwu.
Aremu said the suspect had been handed over to the government through the disease management team.
He said NYSC was working with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to enable it manage the corps members as well as ensure operations of the scheme were not interrupted.
"All our activities are arranged sequentially and in agreement with the Presidential Task Force (PTF) and NCDC guidelines whose officials are also resident here to administer COVID-19 test on both camp officials and corps members.
"We had a single case which the state government had already taken care of through the state disease management team," he said.
The Coordinator said that the number of corps members was reduced to ensure strict compliance to the NCDC guidelines,.
He said the batch would be admitted to camp in batch 200 adding that the left overs would be captured in the next batch.
"We are only 800 corps members in the state, and even that number was segmented into four batches of 200.
"This measure will enable us manage the crowd, this camp has the capability for 3,000 corps members but we staggered it so that each corps member is entitled to a double bunk bed," he said.
Aremu said there were enough hand wash facilities, soap, sanitizers and steady water supply.
Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, Secretary to the State Government, who represented the governor, Chief Willy Obiano, commended the corps members' contributions to bridging the manpower gap in educational and health sectors of the state.
He pledged the governor's commitment to continue support to the NYSC amidst COVID-19 scourge challenge.