₦airaland Forum

On Wednesday, Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, debuted its COVID-19 Indicator Dashboard—a gating criteria dashboard designed to provide high-level updates of current COVID-19-related conditions in global inbound markets for U.S. travel. The dashboard summarizes how individual markets are performing in relation to recovery targets, which have been designed to help determine when recovery is sufficient for effective marketing activity.  
The COVID-19 Indicator Dashboard, updated in real time, will help in decision-making related to international travel. Travel marketers can use these insights to help determine when effective marketing can take place or when to accelerate marketing efforts to assist in recovery. Dashboard users will also be able to compare different regions via an interactive map to see how travel recovery is trending in each market.
The new data dashboard offers insights through five key avenues:
Government policy on inbound U.S./returning travel—updated as policy changes are made
COVID-19 daily cases (source: Johns Hopkins)—updated daily
Scheduled seat capacity of inbound flights to the U.S. (source: SABRE)—updated weekly
Google Trends data (index of “flights” as a search term topic)—updated weekly
Consumer sentiment (intent to take an international leisure trip in the next 12 months)—updated monthly
“We created a unique dashboard, which features qualitative and quantitative data to provide the insights crucial to help restart international travel to the U.S. and map out the path to recovery,” said Christopher L. Thompson, Brand USA president and CEO, in a press announcement.
Brand USA is the nation's first public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier travel destination and to communicate U.S. travel policies and procedures to worldwide travelers. The organization’s mission is to increase international visitation to the U.S. in order to fuel the U.S. economy and enhance its image worldwide. According to studies by Oxford Economics, over the past seven years, Brand USA's marketing initiatives have helped welcome 7.5 million incremental visitors to the U.S., accounting for a $54.5 billion attribution to the economy and supporting more than 50,000 incremental jobs a year.

Although Nigeria conducted fewer COVID-19 tests last week than the previous week, the country still recorded more new cases and deaths, official data shows.
According to a PREMIUM TIMES’ review of data provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 11, 659 persons tested positive for the virus last week (January 17- 23) , which is 18 per cent higher than the previous week’s record of 9,880.
Further analysis showed that the increase occurred despite the fact that the public health agency tested 87,092 people in the past week, lower than the 128,578 tests carried out in the preceding week.
Since the pandemic broke out in February last year, the country has carried out 1,241,230 tests.
Also, although over 10,000 COVID-19 patients recovered and were discharged from isolation centres across Nigeria last week, the number of those on admission increased.
In the previous week (January 10-16), this newspaper reported that 22,156 COVID-19 patients were being treated at the isolation centres after 5,950 patients had recovered and were discharged.
However, last week (January 17- 23), 10,534 patients were discharged, almost 100 per cent increase compared to the previous week’s record.
But this large increase in the number of patients who recovered from the infection did not reduce the number of those currently on admission as the country still has 23,933 patients receiving treatments.
The only plausible reason for this is the significant increase in the number of new COVID-19 infections recorded last week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday.
“The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House,” Klain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Biden, a Democrat who took over from Republican President Donald Trump on Wednesday, has promised a fierce fight against the pandemic that killed 400,000 people in the United States under Trump’s watch.
He signed a series of executive orders last week, including some that target vaccine distribution.
Biden plans to partner with state and local governments to establish vaccination spots in conference centers, stadiums and gymnasiums. The new administration will also deploy thousands of clinical staff from federal agencies, military medical personnel and pharmacy chains to increase vaccinations, and make teachers and grocery clerks eligible.
Vaccination programs lagged far behind the Trump administration’s target of 20 million Americans inoculated by the end of 2020.
“We’ve seen this factor all over the country where millions of doses have been distributed, but only about half have been given out,” Klain said.
“So the process of getting that vaccine into arms - that’s the hard process. That’s where we’re behind as a country. That’s where we’re focused in the Biden administration - on getting that ramped up.”

Renowned Clinician and International Neuroscientist, Professor Philip C. Njemanze, has said that Nigerians should not be used as Guinea pigs in the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said: “I think we should first talk about Pfizer and their unethical practice of testing new drugs on Nigerians. The landmark case called the Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc. Kano trovafloxacin trial litigation arose out of a clinical trial conducted by the Pfizer based in the USA in 1996 in Kano during the meningococcal meningitis.  The epidemic had much more important health impact because over 12,000 Nigerians died, than we have with the COVID-19 pandemic. Pfizer exploited the terrible health emergency in Nigeria to test their new antibiotic, trovafloxacin (Trovan), which was never tested before on children in the United States. Pfizer gave 100 children trovafloxacin, while another 100 received the gold-standard anti-meningitis treatment, ceftriaxone (Rocephin).
“Pfizer allegedly gave the Nigerian children a substantially reduced dose of the active Gold-standard drug ceftriaxone (specifically, 33mg/kg) instead of the normal dose of up to 100 mg/Kg of body weight for meningitis. On the other hand, the doctors without borders performing their own clinical trial in the same hospital gave the correct dose of the Rocephin at 50-100 mg/Kg, as described on the US FDA-approved prescribing information. The allegation was that this was done to skew the test in favor of Pfizer’s own drug at the detriment of the innocent Nigerian children who were left to die, even though they could have lived otherwise. Five children given the Pfizer Trovan died, as did six of those given substandard dose of ceftriaxone. The lead investigator, Abdulhamid Isa Dutse, later provided a letter of approval for human trials that was found to be falsified. The Federal Government of Nigeria called the trial ‘an illegal trial of an unregistered drug.’ The Nigerian survivors of the trial brought a number of legal actions against Pfizer in the United States, but all legal efforts of the Nigerians were frustrated. Pfizer argued that it was not required to obtain informed consent for experimental drug trials in Africa, and that any case should be heard in Nigeria. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in January 2009, that the Nigerian victims and their families were entitled to bring suit against Pfizer in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute. Pfizer subsequently settled the case out of court with the Kano State Government with a $75 million settlement that was subject to a confidentiality clause.
“How do we know, what is really being given to Nigerians? Has it ever undergone clinical trial in Nigeria by our physicians and NAFDAC?  The use of the vaccines without proper testing procedures in Nigeria is in violation of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We cannot expose our people blindly to grave danger.”

(CNN)States are racing to get Covid-19 vaccine supplies and distribution in order as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday of more contagious variants of coronavirus potentially exacerbating the spread.
CDC officials implored Americans to continue with preventative measures against the coronavirus, while highlighting the variant first identified in Britain known as B.1.1.7.
The B.1.1.7 variant appears to more readily infect human cells and one CDC simulation of its transmissibility raised concerns that it could become the United States' most dominant form of coronavirus by March.
The variant has been identified in about a dozen states with Michigan being the latest state to detect a case. State health officials on Saturday identified the patient as a Washtenaw County woman who recently traveled to the UK.
The CDC has called for aggressive vaccine distribution to try to stem the tide. "Higher vaccination coverage might need to be achieved to protect the public," CDC researchers warned.
On Friday, more than 3,400 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the US, as the total death toll from the pandemic edged closer to 400,000. The nation also recorded its 11th consecutive day of more than 200,000 infections, per Johns Hopkins University data.
On Saturday, Los Angeles County became the first in the US to surpass 1 million cases -- more than Illinois' Cook County and Arizona's Maricopa County combined, according to Johns Hopkins data.
At least 12.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the US as of Friday, according to the CDC, as the federal vaccine rollout has received intense scrutiny and criticism from state officials.
Some states were upset by news from Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said Friday there is no "reserve stockpile" of vaccines available to release.
"We now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people, so we're not sitting on a reserve anymore," Azar told NBC News' Lester Holt. "We've made that available to the states to order."
Asked about the apparent lack of so-called reserve shots, CNN medical analyst and emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen said, "I honestly don't understand how we got to this point, because this is right now in the world the most precious commodity."
"These are doses that were promised to the states," she said. "How are state health departments and local health departments supposed to plan vaccination campaigns when they don't know what's coming their way, or even if there is additional supply?"
"We need answers from the federal government," she added. "We need honesty and transparency."

Eleven days into the new year of 2021, an unusual tale of two kidnappers was told by the Nigeria Police spokesperson Frank Mba.
Mohammed Amodu, a fearsome kidnapper active in the capital city, fell victim to a kidnapping by a relatively unknown kidnapper, Buba Babu. The kidnappers received more than N1.6m ($3,300) in ransom to secure Amodu’s release.
The bizarre event of the kidnapper falling victim to his trade follows the recent kidnapping of more than 300 school boys a few kilometers away from where President Muhammadu Buhari had gone on his end-of-year vacation.
There are many signs that government efforts to fight criminality, kidnapping and rebel activity are not producing results.
Insecurity numbers
A few weeks prior to the school kidnapping, Boko Haram extremists admitted to killing more than 100 rice farmers in Borno State, in retribution for farmers cooperating with the Nigerian military. The attack, staged at a rice field in Garin Kwashebe, occurred on a local government councillor election day, the first to be held in 13 years since the extremists launched an insurgency in the area.
Data from SBM Intelligence shows that between January and November 2020, there were 142 incidents in the Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria, an average of 13 a month.

Last summer, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Congress that if the U.S. didn't get the coronavirus outbreak under control, the country could see 100,000 new cases per day.
Six months later, the U.S. is adding, on average, more than 271,000 new cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Over the past 24 hours, 3,700 new deaths were recorded.
That brings the total number of reported cases in the U.S. to more than 22 million since the start of the outbreak — with a death toll of 373,000.
And many members of Congress are now at heightened risk for contracting the coronavirus. When many House lawmakers sheltered in place in a committee hearing room as the pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol last week, they may have been exposed to someone infected with the virus, Congress' attending physician, Brian Monahan, said in a letter to lawmakers Sunday.
"The time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others. During this time, individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection," read the email, obtained by NPR. "Please continue your usual daily coronavirus risk reduction measures (daily symptom inventory checklist, mask wear, and social distancing). Additionally, individuals should obtain an RT-PCR coronavirus test next week as a precaution."
Several Republican members of Congress refused to wear masks while sheltering with others Wednesday. Video shot from inside one room shows Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., offering blue surgical masks to six Republican lawmakers. They all declined. It's unclear if those unmasked Republicans were in the same room as the one referenced by the attending physician.
Whereas earlier in the pandemic, one could easily point to specific hot spots, the virus is now surging in most states across the country. Daily new cases are increasing in almost every state. Arizona is being hit especially hard, as are Rhode Island, Oklahoma, South Carolina and California.
Health officials say things will get worse before they get better. A new more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first spotted in the U.K., has now been reported in several states — leading some to wonder whether the new variant will come to dominate new U.S. infections.
In Southern California, medical troops have arrived to bolster overwhelmed hospital staffs — mostly Air Force nurses and Army medics, the Los Angeles ABC affiliate reports. Temporary morgues have also been set up in parking lots to store the bodies of COVID-19 victims.
Coronavirus vaccines are rolling out, but not quickly enough to stem the surge. The Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed fell far short of its goal of immunizing 20 million people by the end of 2020. As of Friday, 6.6 million people had received their first dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The incoming Biden administration announced on Friday it would distribute doses that the government has been holding back for millions of second doses.
States are struggling to meet demand for the vaccines. The New York Times reports that several states vaccination websites have been crashing under the strain of thousands of people all trying to sign up at once. In San Antonio, all 9,000 available slots for this week were filled within six minutes of registration opening, the city said. Some states aren't vetting vaccine recipients to ensure they're eligible, instead relying on the honor system.

The number of Americans filing new applications with states for unemployment benefits edged down slightly last week but remains stubbornly high as COVID-19 restrictions continue to hobble the United States jobs market recovery.
Some 787,000 people filed initial jobless claims last week, a fall of only 3,000 from the previous week’s level, the US Department of Labor said on Thursday.
While weekly jobless claims – a proxy for layoffs – are well off their pandemic highs, they are still nearly four times greater than pre-pandemic levels, signalling that the labour market still has a lot of healing to do.
“While prospects for the economy later in 2021 are upbeat, the economy and labor market will have to navigate some difficult terrain between now and then, and we expect claims to remain elevated,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist for Oxford Economics, wrote in a note to clients.
The total number of workers collecting benefits from states – a metric known as “continuing claims” –  fell by 126,000 in the week ending December 26 to 5.07 million.
Throw in federal programmes, and the number of jobless workers collecting benefits fell by more than 400,000 in the week ending December 19 to 19.176 million.
Part of that decline was due to federal jobless benefits lapsing before they were renewed again as part of the $900bn stimulus deal that was signed into law on December 27.
The raft of new coronavirus relief measures includes a $300 weekly federal top-up to state unemployment benefits and provisions allowing laid-off workers who qualify to claim up to 24 weeks of federal unemployment benefits after they’ve exhausted state aid.
A more comprehensive picture of the nation’s labour market is due to be released on Friday with the December jobs report. Economists are expecting a disappointing reading due to COVID-19 fallout.
The jobs market still has a lot of lost ground to make up.
Of the 22 million jobs lost to lockdowns in March and April last year, only a little more than 12 million have been recovered.  And while the nation’s unemployment rate edged down to 6.7 percent in November, it fell because fewer people were actually looking for a job.
Other economic metrics are also signalling that the recovery is losing steam.
Retail sales posted their steepest decline in seven months in November as surging COVID-19 infections ushered in more business-sapping restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

The United States may now have its own locally evolved, fast-spreading strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to White House pandemic trackers.
If that’s true, public health officials need to ramp up testing and socially distancing efforts now to keep the new super-strain from making the pandemic worse, the pandemic trackers say.
The pandemic trackers are members of a working group at the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The working group members talked about the possible rise of a new, aggressive, U.S.-evolved strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) — the virus that causes COVID-19 — in the recommendations section in their latest weekly state-level report set.
The working group is the same body that has started posting detailed state-level and community-level data in the federal government’s Community Profile Report spreadsheet collection.
The federal government is sending the state-level reports to state officials and is not making those reports available directly to members of the public. The state-level reports provide much less detailed data than the Community Profile Report spreadsheets, but they give top-level summary data, and they also give the working group’s narrative assessment of the current pandemic situation.

The US topped 20 million total infections and inched closer to 350,000 Covid-19 deaths on the first day of 2021 -- reminders of a grim reality continuing into the new year.
Grim death toll: More people have died across the US than anywhere else: nearly 348,000 Americans since the pandemic's start. About another 115,000 could die over the next month, according to projections from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
That's while hospitalizations are at the highest levels they've ever been. The US reported a record 125,379 hospitalized Covid-19 patients nationwide Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. That number dipped slightly Friday, with 125,057 hospitalizations reported -- about a 163% increase from two months ago.
A California doctor said hospitals have hit a "breaking point."
"We're also worried that at some point soon we're going to have a really tough time finding the space and the staff to take care of all the sick patients coming in with Covid-19 who really need our help," said Dr. Nicole Van Groningen of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Highest infections: And Friday's bleak case milestone also means the nation has also recorded by far the most Covid-19 infections. It's double what India -- the country with the second-highest number of cases -- has reported and nearly triple what Brazil -- the third country in line -- has reported.

The International Criminal Police Organisation, popularly called Interpol, has traced a €500,000 COVID-19 fraud to Nigeria.
The organisation made this known in a statement on its website titled, ‘Unmasked: International COVID-19 fraud exposed’.
According to the statement, the scheme was coordinated using compromised emails, advance-payment fraud, and money laundering.
It stated that the fraud was uncovered by financial institutions and authorities across Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, as part of a case coordinated by INTERPOL.
The statement read in part, “In mid-March, as a number of countries were going into lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, German health authorities contracted two sales companies in Zurich and Hamburg to procure EUR 15 million worth of face masks. With a global shortage on medical supplies complicating usual business channels, the buyers followed new leads in the hopes of securing the masks.
“It all started with an email address and website which appeared to be linked to a legitimate company in Spain selling face masks. Unbeknownst to the buyers, the site was a fake and their legitimate email addresses had been compromised.
“Through email correspondence, the company initially claimed to have 10 million masks, only for the delivery to fall through. As consolation, they then referred the buyers to a ‘trusted’ dealer in Ireland. The Irish middleman promised to put them in touch with a different supplier, this time in the Netherlands.
“Claiming to have a strong commercial relationship with the company, the man provided assurances that the alleged Dutch company would be able to supply the 10 million face masks. An agreement for an initial delivery of 1.5 million masks was made, in exchange for an up-front payment of EUR 1.5 million.
“The buyers initiated a bank transfer to Ireland and prepared for delivery, which involved 52 lorries and a police escort to transport the masks from a warehouse in the Netherlands to the final destination in Germany.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Tom Van Gilder, Walmart's chief medical officer, announced that the chain was preparing to supply the COVID-19 vaccine in its more than 5,000 pharmacies in the United States. Now, in social networks the rumor has been unleashed that the Pfizer immunizer can be bought at Walmart and Sam's Club for only $ 20 , that is, about 400 Mexican pesos. But what is the truth in this?
According to an official statement from Walmart , the company was in the process of acquiring the necessary equipment to store the vaccines, such as special freezers and dry ice. These must be kept at a temperature between -80 and -60 ° C to remain effective for up to 6 months. In a typical hospital refrigeration unit, the drug will remain viable for five days, Pfizer noted.
Many people misunderstood the ad and spread that the Pfizer vaccine will be sold in such supermarkets. The rumor was accompanied by a doctored image, where it appears that the drug would be available in the form of a vaporizer cartridge. Each dose would supposedly be the same price that Pfizer and BioNTech agreed with the US government: $ 20.
Mexican Internet users replicated the false information, expressing their outrage that the government of the country will not commercialize the vaccine. A few days ago, when the first shipment of Pfizer's drug against the coronavirus arrived in Mexico , Hugo López-Gatell made it clear that the federal government will not allow it to be sold by individuals and warned to the population about possible fraud.
Many accused the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador of wanting to monopolize the vaccine by preventing people from getting a dose on their own.

Ohio reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Saturday, adding 60,968 new cases. That's down 29.1% from the previous week's toll of 86,029 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
A decline in case counts was expected because in the previous week Ohio reported about 13,000 positive tests from a backlog.
Ohio ranked No. 13 among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week the United States added 1,512,372 reported cases of coronavirus, an increase of 1.3% from the week before. Across the country, 17 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.
Across Ohio, cases fell in 83 counties, with the best declines in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties.
The share of Ohio test results that came back positive was 15.3% in the latest week, compared with 20.3% in the week before, a USA TODAY Network analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows. In the latest week, 399,733 tests were administered; a week earlier, that figure was 423,484. Experts say it is important to look at the share of tests that come back positive, not just case counts, to get a better idea of whether the rate of new infections is changing or if differences in testing are playing a role.
The World Health Organization says places should be conducting enough tests to have fewer than 5% coming back positive. Places where the percentage is higher could struggle to complete contact tracing soon enough to prevent spread of the virus.
Within Ohio, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Wyandot, Erie and Fulton counties. Adding the most new cases overall were Franklin County, with 6,320 cases; Cuyahoga County, with 6,108 cases; and Hamilton County, with 3,835. Weekly case counts rose in five counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Knox, Harrison and Fayette counties.
In Ohio, 554 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Saturday. In the week before that, 531 people were reported dead.
A total of 614,429 people in Ohio have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 8,031 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 17,655,591 people have tested positive and 316,159 people have died.

Small businesses (MSMEs) represent about 90% of businesses worldwide and in Nigeria, they account for 84% of the country’s employment.
The global economy was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and from the data, it is clear that small businesses must drive the global economy to recovery.
Oil prices in the global market crashed to about $30 per barrel in Q1 of 2020 and about 90% of Nigeria’s export is Crude Oil. This decrease in demand for Oil in the global market has greatly affected the Nigerian economy as seen in the negative plunge of the GDP in Q2 of 2020.
The government in response has setup various intervention plans to support small businesses in cushioning the overall effect of the downturn on the economy and give room for diversification. This Report seeks to examine the effects of these proposed interventions.
Impact of Covid-19 on the global economy and forecasts on its impact on the Nigerian economy
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a severe economic shock, which the world has yet to experience in decades. According to a recent report by the World Bank, forecasts envision a 5.2% contraction in global GDP in 2020. It has been projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate could rise to 33.6% (a third of our population) by the end of the year if urgent steps are not taken.
Nigeria’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan
To avert the drastic decline in economic growth, the government responded by introducing various intervention programs to cushion the effect of the pandemic on the economy. Thankfully, many of the interventions were targeted at MSMEs.

E no longer be news say many states for north-western part of Nigeria don announce shut down of some or all of dia schools due to either security concern abi second wave of coronavirus.
Educationist Isa Sani wey dey stay Kano for northern Nigeria tell BBC say wetin happun for Katsina state wey hundreds of students still dey miss after gunmen attack dia school for Kankara na major reason why di shutdowns dey happun but wetin di states goments dey tok?
Katsina State
Govnor Aminu Bello Masari announce di closure of schools on Sunday, just a day after gunmen attack goment science secondary school for Kankara town.
According to di govnor di reason why di state goment take dis decision na because of security concerns as dem dey continue to put effort to rescue hundreds of students wey still dey miss.
Zamfara state
On Tuesday Zamfara state goment also announce di closure of ten schools wey dey close to neighbouring Katsina state because of fear of wetin happun.
Tok tok pesin of di govnor Zailani Bappah wey speak to BBC tok say di govnor decide to take dis action because of security concern after wetin happun for dia neighbours domot.
Kaduna state
For dis state di reason na simply di second return of corona. According to statement wey di goment release dem decide to shut downs both goment and private schools as dem observe say di second wave of coronavirus don enter as cases for Nigeria begin to increase.
Kaduna state dey among di states wey don record rising new cases according to NCDC dis na why govnor Nasir El-rufai decide to close schools.
Kano
For Kano state wey get di highest number of students for di region, di decision to close school come late on Tuesday.
Even though di goment no give reason for di statement wey commissioner of Education Muhammad Sanusi release, one insider for di ministry wey speak to BBC yan say na security concern make dem close di schools as Kano dey also share border with Katsina.
Jigawa
Dis state say dia own reason na coronavirus despite say dem dey also share border with Katsina state wia gunmen kidnap students.
Rabiu Adamu wey be permanent secretary for ministry of education for statement yan say dem get 14 new cases of coronavirus for di state and advise parents and guardians to pick dia children from all boarding schools on Wednesday while day students should stay at home.

The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic is still there, and the government should spare no effort to protect the student population and prevent students from being harmed.

ROY, Utah (ABC4 News) – Leaders at Biomat USA are asking for convalescent plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19, to help others who are currently sick, battle this disease. A couple is now on a mission, to donate their plasma as much as they can after losing a loved one.
Maquel Bagley lost her father due to COVID-19 complications. He was on a list to get a convalescent plasma treatment, but Bagley says she believes there weren’t enough donations coming in.
“We lost him at the end of May and he never did receive the plasma, but I keep trying to go to hope somebody else won’t have to go through losing their father, loved one, or family member,” said Maquel Bagley.
She and her husband, Mark now donate regularly. Leaders at Biomat USA say those who tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered, may have antibodies, giving severe COVID-19 patients a better opportunity to fight the virus.
“Doing this, I believe that it is helping him out because if we could do a cause that’s good to help anybody out, where we could have one less person die, I think we could do our part,” said Mark Bagley.
As of Wednesday, 995 people have died due to COVID-19, according to data from the Utah Department of Health.
“Go get tested. If you have the disease, or if you have the antibodies, and you know you have it, if you can help anybody out or donate in any shape or form, we could sure use your help,” said Mark.
Biomat USA is offering one hundred dollars per donation.

With the number of COVID-19 cases rising, many destinations now require travelers to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken prior to travel or else face a 14-day quarantine.
To help passengers navigate that requirement, American Airlines said it will expand its at-home, preflight COVID-19 testing program to include passengers headed to U.S. locations that require proof of a negative test.
The airline partnered with at-home testing company LetsGetChecked in late September to offer tests to passengers headed to Hawaii, the Caribbean and several other international locations.
“We’ve made great strides to help open international travel with our testing partners, and we recognize the need for similar domestic travel solutions,” Alison Taylor, chief customer officer for American Airlines, said in a press release.
Passengers can order a test kit starting Dec. 9 for travel beginning Dec. 12 or later. The test is a nasal swab test and PCR lab analysis. It costs $129 and results are typically delivered within 48 hours.

The behavior of testing the epidemic before boarding is correct. The safety of all passengers cannot be ignored. The safety of society requires everyone to work together.

A total of 138 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have tested positive to COVID-19, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said yesterday.
Disclosing this during the briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, the NCDC Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the safe reopening of the NYSC orientation camps across the country was successful.
He stated that none of those who tested positive was allowed into the camps.
According to him, "a total of 34,785 corps members and members of the camp communities have been tested so far in the last weeks of which only 138 was found positive, which is 0.4 per cent prevalence and 1 in 200 people."
Ihekweazu said those who tested positive were either managed at home or in a treatment centre depending on if they had symptoms and what state they were in.
The DG said the next challenge would be how to work with education stakeholders to ensure safe reopening of the universities.
"Universities have proven to be slightly risky; it has its unique challenges but we are confident that we can address this as we have done in other sectors like aviation," Ihekweazu stated.
Isolation is very necessary, the most important thing is to find the source of the virus, in order to better isolation and screening. Protective measures should be taken in densely populated areas. At present, the United States, India and other countries are high incidence places of covid-19. We should also pay attention to the personnel imported from these places to avoid causing large-scale infection.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that Nigeria is not experiencing a spike in COVID-19 infections.
The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja while giving an update on the disease in the country.
“For over two months we fought between a 100 to 200 cases a day… but we really haven’t seen a spike in our national data.
“There has been a recent increase in a few cases in Lagos, mostly among the younger people, younger populations, and we are monitoring that very closely,” Mr Ihekweazu explained.
According to him, NCDC has worked very hard to contain the spread of the virus.
“If you look at our testing numbers, yes, they have not gone up as high as we would have loved to, but apart from a small decrease during the peak of the demonstrations a few weeks ago, we have managed to maintain our testing numbers of about 30,000 tests per week.
“So generally, I would still say, we need to be cautious and continue with the preventive measures but we have not seen a spike in the country,” he stated.
Mr Ihekweazu said that the announcement of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines against the COVID-19 gave Nigeria a significant “ray of hope”.
He, however, pointed out that many processes needed to be carried out on the two vaccines before they could be used.
The NCDC boss said that the centre was also working to make sure that Nigerians fully understood the value of the vaccines.
Meanwhile, Mr Ihekweazu said that there was no case of COVID-19 outbreak in the various orientation camps of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
He explained that two cases were detected before the infected corps members got into the NYSC camp.

After a semester battling the coronavirus, often unsuccessfully, college leaders have one final plea for students heading home for Thanksgiving: Get tested, please. 
What's unclear: whether the plea will work.
High-profile failures already have marred dozens of colleges' attempts to hold the fall semester of college in person.Some institutions brought students back to campuses, only to pivot to digital instruction a week into classes, as unsanctioned parties drove up COVID-19 cases. By mid-September, counties with a significant population of college students were fueling the nation's worst coronavirus outbreaks. As those outbreaks continued, state and local governments cracked down, ordering students quarantined to campus, like at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, or asking colleges to send students home, like at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Now, with the Thanksgiving holiday a week away and cases hitting record highs nationally, those college students are preparing to fan out across the country, taking their possible coronavirus infections – symptomatic or not – into their loved ones' homes.
Colleges are scrambling to prevent the resulting spread of the virus. Some institutions have urged or even required students to quarantine or receive a negative coronavirus test before traveling home. Without those precautions, college leaders say, students should consider abstaining from their holiday plans and instead opt for a celebration closer to campus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday chimed in, calling out college students in its advisory against traveling during the Thanksgiving period.
The safest way to celebrate the holiday is "at home with the people you live with," the CDC said. "People who do not currently live in your housing unit, such as college students who are returning home from school for the holidays, should be considered part of different households." The agency stopped short of saying college students shouldn’t celebrate with their families, but did say events that included them would be riskier.

A steady increase in US coronavirus numbers, especially over the past 10 days, is prompting new restrictions and expanded measures across the country.
Overnight, the global total topped 55 million cases, and though Europe is the world's other main hot spot, the virus is making headlines again even in countries known for controlling their outbreaks, such as South Korea and Australia.
The United States reported 166,045 new cases yesterday, along with 995 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. Americans hospitalized reached 73,014, up from 69,987 the day before, based on updates from the COVID Tracking Project.
And for the first time yesterday, the nation's 7-day average of daily new infections passed 150,000, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The 7-day average has grown 30% for more than 10 straight days.
Philadelphia officials just announced an order prohibiting most indoor gatherings, which takes effect on Nov 20 and lasts through Jan 1, NPR reported. The "safer at home" restrictions limit indoor gatherings to one family and mean that restaurants must switch back to takeout and outdoor dining only. Bowling alleys and theaters are closed, and high schools and colleges must switch to remote learning.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine today announced a 3-week curfew that starts in 2 days and runs from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am, which he hopes will reduce the spread of the virus. On Twitter today, he asked state residents to do at least one thing each day to reduce contact with others, which he said when paired with mask wearing will reduce contacts by 20% to 25% and prevent hospitals from being overrun.
In Iowa, after long resisting a statewide ask mandate, Gov. Kim Reynolds last night announced a limited mask mandate that applies to public indoor spaces, but not bars, restaurants, churches, or schools, the Des Moines Register reported.
Elsewhere, California officials yesterday announced that they were pulling an "emergency brake" on the state's reopening plan, amid a new surge in cases that saw 13,412 cases reported yesterday, the state's highest daily total since the pandemic began, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Nigerian government through its Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has said that there will be no relaxing of the COVID-19 protocols ahead of the Christmas season.
The coordinator of the PTF, Sani Aliyu, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the daily briefing of the pandemic.
Mr Aliyu said that Nigeria is currently worried with the rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic across the globe, hence the need to enforce the COVID-19 rules during the holiday season.
While speaking on international travels, the coordinator advised all holiday seekers to suspend their trips and stay in the country as Nigeria would ensure that every incoming passenger would undergo the travel rules in the country.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, also advised both incoming and outgoing travelers to suspend their travels if it was not necessary.
Mr Ihekweazu also said that apart from COVID-19, other cases like Ebola, yellow fever are growing in Congo DR and that is why it was important that non essential travels should be suspended.
According to some health experts, there could be a resurgence of the virus if the safety guidelines to curtail its spread are not adhered to.

Millions of people, including in Africa's most populous country Nigeria, risk contracting diseases such as polio and measles as the coronavirus pandemic has halted vaccination campaigns, the UN said Wednesday.
Additional financial resources are needed to safely resume vaccinations, the UN childrens' agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement.
"We cannot allow the fight against one deadly disease to cause us to lose ground in the fight against other diseases," said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore.
"Addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical. However, other deadly diseases also threaten the lives of millions of children in some of the poorest areas of the world," she added in a joint statement wuth WHO.
While Nigeria, home to 200 million people, eradicated wild polio in August, it remains at risk of vaccine-derived polio.
Measles is among the leading cause of death and disability in children in the country, where 54 percent have only received one vaccine dose, according to the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.
On Monday, authorities said they were battling a suspected outbreak of yellow fever in two southern states, Delta and Enugu, that left more than 70 dead according to local media.
In neighbouring Benue state, more than a dozen unexplained deaths have been reported in recent days.
The percentage of people immunised against yellow fever remains low in many parts of Africa, even though the vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective.
Coronavirus has claimed 1,160 lives and infected 64,336 in Nigeria but these numbers are thought to be conservative due to a lack of testing.
International health bodies are now calling for immunisations to fully resume worldwide in order to protect lives.
"Unlike with COVID, we have the tools and knowledge to stop diseases such as polio and measles," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"What we need are the resources and commitments to put these tools and knowledge into action. If we do that, children's lives will be saved," he said.
In Nigeria, immunisations for measles and polio are available at all government health centres, according to Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative.
"All caregivers and parents need to ensure that their children are fully vaccinated and protected from childhood killer diseases," he said, "including ensuring that all doses are taken, so that the vaccine can be effective."

Mark Meadows, the chief of staff to President Trump, has tested positive for the coronavirus. He is the latest person in the president's inner circle to catch the virus, which is surging across the country.
Meadows was last seen by reporters on election night, when Trump gave a defiant speech to supporters packed into the East Room of the White House. Meadows walked into the room ahead of Trump's adult children just ahead of his remarks.
Bloomberg News was first to report the development late Friday evening. A senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Meadows' health information publicly confirmed the news to NPR. A spokesman for the White House declined comment.
The news comes as President Trump remains in a tight race for reelection, with Democratic nominee Joe Biden just shy of winning.
Meadows, at a rally in Reading, Pa., last week, is just the latest of many Trump White House and campaign aides to contract the virus.
Meadows is just the latest of many Trump White House and campaign aides to contract the virus. President Trump himself was hospitalized for COVID-19 in October. First lady Melania Trump and their son Barron also had the virus.
Cases are hitting new records across the U.S., and the country is now averaging more than 94,000 cases a day, double where it was a month ago.
Trump has long undermined guidance even from his own administration regarding pandemic protocols, including social distancing and mask-wearing. The president continued to hold massive campaign rallies where supporters were packed close together and many did not wear masks.
Biden made the coronavirus pandemic central to his campaign and his argument against Trump. In a speech Friday evening, Biden said he and running mate Kamala Harris had already begun planning for the months ahead and how to combat the virus, expecting the presidency to eventually be declared for him.

During her time in Nigeria, she is expected to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, will be visiting Nigeria to discuss strategies to rebuild setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is contained in a statement signed by the UN office in Nigeria and made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday.
Ms Mohammed, leading a delegation of senior officials of the United Nations, will also be visiting Niger, Sierra Leone and Ghana.
Her visit to Nigeria is scheduled for November 8 to 11.
During her time in Nigeria, she is expected to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected over 50 million people globally, has had several adverse impacts on the world economy.
Other activities
Ms Mohammed will also join Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to launch the "Nigeria UN Plus Offer For Socio-Economic Recovery - 2020 -2022"; as an offer for immediate and medium-term support to the people of Nigeria in response to the socio-economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She is also expected to join the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, to launch the Generation Equality campaign in Nigeria.
The campaign aims to raise awareness about the Agenda of the Beijing Platform for Action and foster inter-generational exchange and dialogue to empower a new generation of women's rights activists.
Ms Mohammed, a former environment minister in Nigeria, will be accompanied by other UN officials on her trip.

At present, the second wave of covid-19 is coming. We still can't relax in personal protection and be responsible for ourselves, our family and friends. The government is now trying to find ways to prevent the coming second wave of covid-19. I think what we should do now is to stay at home, wear masks when going out, and avoid going to crowded places.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has expressed his concerns over the COVID-19 second wave of infections which he says may be imminent and has called for more strengthened health systems which he noted are already overwhelmed.

He said Nigeria, having moved from the first few cases recorded in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT, to the current COVID-19 community transmission phase, with over 60,000 confirmed cases and 1,135 deaths across the country, has been able to strengthen its testing, tracing and treatment capacity.

Ehanire who gave the keynote address during virtual Annual General Meeting(AGM) and 30th anniversary of Guild of Medical Directors, Lagos Chapter, said the huge second wave of COVID-19 outbreak raging in Europe and America gives great reason for concern due to high volume of human traffic between Nigeria and those countries.

He said the private sector remains a vital contributor to Nigeria, having moved from the first few cases recorded in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT, to the current COVID-19 community transmission phase, with over 60,000 confirmed cases and 1,135 deaths across our country, has been able to strengthen its testing, tracing and treatment capacity.

"Nigeria, having moved from the first few cases recorded in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT, to the current COVID-19 community transmission phase, with over 60,000 confirmed cases and 1,135 deaths across our country, has been able to strengthen its testing, tracing and treatment capacity."

Minister of state, Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora said the appearance of a new disease, and its progression to the declaration of global pandemic status was challenging for healthcare providers.

He said: "The advent of the pandemic has brought with it apprehension, concern for a nation with weak healthcare infrastructure, personal concern and concern for friends, and finally concern for the economic impact on a nation.