Over 300 angry contractors yesterday barricaded the major entrances to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in protest against the non-payment of the COVID-19 equipment they supplied to the FCT agencies between March 2020 and April 2021.
The aggrieved suppliers also accused the FCT Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola, of allegedly demanding bribery.
The payment was in respect of the various medical items and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) among others, which they supplied toward containing the pandemic.
They lamented that they were at the mercy of their creditors, as some of them took loans to be able to meet the supply obligation.
The aggrieved contractors said they were assured that the money would be paid within two weeks or a maximum of one month after supply upon presenting the contract invoices.
One of the aggrieved suppliers, Emmanuel Nwachendu, reinforced the allegation against the permanent secretary.
"This is one year running and nothing has happened. What we hear everyday is that each of the contractors has to pay N1 million bribes to the permanent secretary before we can be paid our money," Nwachendu alleged.
In his reaction, Adesade fiercely denied ever demanding N1 million bribe from anybody.
He also stated that the delay in paying the contractors was due to their failure to meet all the administrative requirements.
According to him, "I am not aware of any payment of N1 million. The only instruction I gave was that all documents should be in the file before any payment can be made. The payment is in batches; we have paid others.
"Contractors owed below N10 million have been paid. If there are issues, the contractors are the cause because they are yet to meet up with the requirements."
Adesade appealed to the contractors to exercise patience, saying despite the challenges of funding, the administration has paid 109 contractors who supplied PPEs to Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS) and 54 contractors in other Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs).
The permanent secretary, who hinged the delay in payments to dwindling internal revenue generation and expected funds from the federal government, also expressed optimism that the contractors would be paid as soon as possible.

In a note to the media about its updated travel guidance, it said the pandemic continued to "pose unprecedented risks to travellers".
The current US "Do Not Travel" advisory covers 34 out of 200 countries.
Covid-19 has now claimed more than three million lives worldwide - more than half a million of them in the US.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the world was "approaching the highest rate of infection" so far, despite the global rollout of vaccination programmes.
The US state department said its decision to update its travel advisories was to bring it more in line with those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and "does not imply a reassessment of the current health situation in a given country".
However, it said the move would "result in a significant increase in the number of countries at Level 4: Do Not Travel, to approximately 80% of countries worldwide". Anyone planning to travel to a country in the remaining 20% is advised to reconsider before proceeding.
Which countries move to level four?
The state department has not revealed which countries will be added to the level four category - the highest of its four risk levels. Guidance will be issued individually for each country in the next few days.
Currently, only three places in the world are assessed at the lowest tier - level one, which advises "Exercise normal precautions". They are Macau, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Even Antarctica is at level two - "Exercise increased caution" - while the UK is at level three - "Reconsider travel" - with an extra warning to exercise caution because of the risk of terrorism.
The CDC currently recommends all Americans refrain from travelling domestically until they have been fully vaccinated and warns that international travel "poses additional risks" even for those vaccinated.
In addition, all air passengers coming to the US, including US citizens, must have a negative Covid test result or documentation of recovery from the virus before they board a flight.
While more than 860 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered in 165 countries worldwide, many countries are still struggling to contain the virus.
Brazil has recorded the third-highest number of cases and, at 368,749, the second-highest number of deaths in the world.
Canada has also reported a recent rise in cases and Papua New Guinea has been highlighted as a cause for concern.
While some countries - such as Israel and the UK - have secured and delivered doses to a large proportion of their population, many more countries are still waiting for their first shipments to arrive.
That is leading to warnings about growing "vaccine inequity" - jabs not being being shared fairly between rich and poorer countries.
The American people should abide by the recommendations of the US State Department, and I support them very much. Nowadays, the death rate in the United States has exceeded one million, so we should not walk around without vaccination. People from other countries should not go to the United States, which is the best way to avoid infection.

WASHINGTON— Half of all adults in the U.S. have received at least one Covid-19 shot, the government announced Sunday, marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign but leaving more work to do to convince skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves.
Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4 percent of the total adult population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated.
The U.S. cleared the 50 percent mark just a day after the reported global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million, according to totals compiled by Johns Hopkins University, though the actual number is believed to be significantly higher.
The country’s vaccination rate, at 61.6 doses administered per 100 people, currently falls behind Israel, which leads among countries with at least 5 million people with a rate of 119.2. The U.S. also trails the United Arab Emirates, Chile and the United Kingdom, which is vaccinating at a rate of 62 doses per 100 people, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.
The vaccine campaign offered hope in places like Nashville, Tennessee, where the Music City Center bustled Sunday with vaccine seekers. High demand for appointment-only shots at the convention center has leveled off enough that walk-ins will be welcome starting this week.
Amanda Grimsley, who received her second shot, said she’s ready to see her 96-year-old grandmother, who lives in Alabama and has been nervous about getting the vaccine after having a bad reaction to a flu shot.
“It’s a little emotional. I haven’t been able to see my grandmother in a year and a half almost,” said Grimsley, 35. “And that’s the longest my entire family has ever gone without seeing her. And we’ll be seeing her in mid-May now.”
The states with the highest vaccination rates have a history of voting Democratic and supporting President Joe Biden in the 2020 election: New Hampshire at the top, with 71.1 percent, followed by New Mexico, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine, CDC data show.
The demand has not been the same in many areas of Tennessee — particularly, rural ones.
Tennessee sits in the bottom four states for rates of adults getting at least one shot, at 40.8 percent. It’s trailed only by Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — three other Southern states that lean Republican and voted for Donald Trump last fall.
Vaccination rates do not always align with how states vote. But polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has shown trends that link political leanings and attitudes about the vaccines and other pandemic-related issues.
A poll conducted in late March found that 36 percent of Republicans said they will probably or definitely not get vaccinated, compared with 12 percent of Democrats. Similarly, a third of rural Americans said they were leaning against getting shots, while fewer than a fourth of people living in cities and suburbs shared that hesitancy.
Overall, though, willingness to get vaccinated has risen, polling shows.
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine has already had problems. Although it is a small chance, the people have great doubts about the safety of the vaccine.

Less than a week after Europe’s drugs regulators admitted that there is an extremely rare chance of fatal blood clots occurring in persons who receive the AstraZeneca COVD-19 vaccine, US health agencies have suspended the use of the Johnson & Johnson, J&J, single-dose COVID-19 vaccine following the development of a similar rare disorder involving blood clots among recipients.
In a joint statement, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, said they were reviewing “six reported US cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot within 13 days after receiving the vaccine.”
All the six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second has been hospitalised in critical condition. About 7 million Americans have so far received the single-dose vaccine.
The regulators are reviewing whether the vaccine is safe to use following discovery of the extremely rare and severe blood clot found in recipients of the jab.
“Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution, to ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events”, the statement noted.
Following the development, Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company has announced that it would delay its European rollout of the shot.
Food and Drug Administration scientist Peter Marks said the disorder might be triggered by a rare immune response to the vaccine similar to that seen among a few hundred recipients of the AstraZeneca jab in Europe.
Both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines are based on adenovirus vector technology.
The suspension is another blow for the troubled European vaccine rollout campaign. European Union has signed a deal for 200 million shots of the vaccine with an option for 200 million more.
Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said she expected the pause to last for just days.
“We are committed to safety and transparency and expeditiously learning as much as we can so further steps can be taken,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director for the CDC.
“When we saw this pattern and were aware that treatment needed to be individualised for this condition, it was of the utmost importance to get the word out,” she said. “That said, the pandemic is severe and it’s important to get the vaccine out so want to make sure we make recommendation quickly.”
Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner and a public health professor at the George Washington University, called the temporary halt of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “exactly the right move.
“To be sure, this is a disappointing setback, because the one-dose J&J has so much potential for easy distribution & administration. This, again, is why a thorough investigation is occurring.
“The reason this really needs to be alerted now is for doctors who may see patients with this rare condition, to know what to look for and how to treat them.”
The type of blood clot reportedly found in the vaccine recipients, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST, is accompanied by low levels of blood platelets.
It occurs when a blood clot forms in the brain and leads to hemorrhages. The symptoms are similar to that of strokes, such as headache, blurred vision, loss of mobility, seizures, or fainting.
People that have received the J&J vaccine who develop a severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination, have been advised to contact their health care provider.
Nigeria expects to receive up to 70 million doses of the J&J vaccine this year through the African Union, according to the Nigeria Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA.
Up to 400 million doses of the J&J vaccine are expected to be delivered to Africa by 2022.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nigeria says it has launched a COVID-19 Food Security Challenge for three million dollars in grant and technical assistance to address food insecurity.
The USAID Mission Director, Dr Anne Patterson, in a statement on Monday in Awka, stated that the gesture would be given to youth-led and mid-stage companies working in food value chains in Nigeria.
The statement also stated that Nigeria was experiencing food insecurity compounded by the COVID-19 global pandemic and its effects on the food value chain in the country.
It stated that the pandemic had disrupted already fragile agricultural value chains, especially smallholder farmers' ability to produce, process and distribute food.
According to the statement, the pandemic disrupted agricultural productivity and markets and negatively impacts livelihoods, especially among vulnerable households, women, and youth.
"We are launching the COVID-19 Food Security Challenge to help innovative Nigerians to check food insecurity.
"This assistance encourages private sector-led solutions to boost food production, processing and create market linkage along the agriculture value chain in a sustainable way across Nigeria.
"USAID seeks commercially viable youth-led and mid-stage companies already working in food production, processing and distribution to participate in the challenge," it stated.
Patterson also stated that successful applicants would present ideas that demonstrably helped farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain to increase agricultural productivity and food security within the next six months.
She stated that the initiative would award 15 to 25 youth-led companies up to 75,000 dollars each and 10 to 15 mid-stage companies up to 150,000 dollars each.
"Winners will receive funding and technical assistance to rapidly expand their activities to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 on Nigeria's food value chain and improve the resilience of vulnerable households to the negative impacts of the pandemic," the statement added.

North-east Governors have advocated for the inclusion of youth in governance even as they called on all tiers of government to reserve fifty percent of elective positions and appointments for youths and women.
The governors made this known Saturday at the Northeast PDP National Youth Summit with the theme “Youths in Governance”, held at the Multi-purpose indoor Sport Hall in Bauchi.
Speaking at the occasion which had in attendance PDP youth delegates drawn from Adamawa, Taraba, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Gombe states, the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed said that for Nigeria to move forward, it must continue to recycle leaders, pointing out that the government should open new frontiers and rediscover new talents, so that the country could be governed by innovation and ingenuity, which could only be discovered in the youths.
He said: “The Nigerian youths can trust the PDP. Since 1999, I can remember clearly, that time I was a very young person, our leaders who started with the Obasanjo regime to Yar’adua regime and of course my boss, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, youths occupied political space that was unprecedented, but we are not surprised that the youths have been put at the background today.
“I am not used to denigrating anybody, but we had people that were young, the president I served, worked twenty four seven and you will see him treating all his files and attending to all his responsibilities and even appointing young people.
“The leadership recruitment was different. I did not have to know Goodluck before I was made the minister of the FCT, that is what a young President and the PDP can do for you. There was no nepotism, there was no exclusion of the youths. Nigeria was never on the brinks under the PDP. There was a political strategy and plan to ensure everyone had a shot at the leadership” he said.
Also speaking, Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who was represented by the Adamawa State Commissioner of Works, Adamu Atiku Abubakar, said that youths play a great role in economic development anywhere in the world, particularly in Nigeria where the youths represent seventy percent of the electorates.
“The youths should not be taken for granted, they must be involved in the affairs of Nigeria. As we know, the role of the youths in any government is to renew and refresh the current status of any society.The youths help in advancing technology, they assist in coming up with innovation and skills.
As I speak to you, most of us in the Adamawa state cabinet are youths, the achievements thus far in the two years administration of the history of Adamawa State are unprecedented in all sectors of the state” he said
Also, the Taraba state Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku who was represented by the PDP Chairman North-east, Dr Emmanuel Bovoa, called on the youths to stand for the truth and good governance, saying that these are qualities of good leadership which could only be found in the PDP.
He called on youths to eschew violence in their politicking and embrace peace even as he called on them to ensure that they deliver the North-east zone to the PDP so that they could continue to enjoy the dividends of the PDP government.
Speaking Earlier, the PDP National Youth Leader, Udeh Okoye, advocated for the involvement of youths in leadership, saying that PDP had been the best political party that has been producing great leaders and giving opportunities to youths to engage in politics and govern the affairs of the country.

Nigeria has reached a milestone in its COVID-19 response with no death recorded from the highly infectious disease in one week; the first time since Suleiman Achimugu became the first fatality on March 23, 2020.
The total number of deaths from the disease has remained 2,058. The last time Nigeria recorded any fatality from COVID-19 was penultimate Thursday.
This is according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Thursday night.
Nigeria is the country with the least death toll among the top six most affected countries by COVID-19 in Africa. The other five countries most affected by COVID-19 in Africa are South Africa, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Egypt.
While the relatively fewer deaths may indicate Nigeria’s success in managing the disease, the government has made some errors and faced some challenges in managing the virus.
PREMIUM TIMES previously highlighted five of those challenges which include poor testing and shortages in oxygen supply.
Health experts believe the death toll, like the number of those infected, is likely higher, with Nigeria testing less than one per cent of its 200 million population.

The Nigerian Government disclosed that it has ordered some states to pause their covid-19 vaccination drive once they have used up 50% of their proportions as Nigeria is not sure when it would receive the second batch of vaccines.
This was disclosed by Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing on COVID-19, in Abuja on Tuesday.
What the Minister is saying
“We believe that in a situation where we still cannot specifically determine when the next batch of AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive, then I think wisdom dictates that it’s better for us to vaccinate people fully.
“And so, we can say that we have a pool of citizens that have been fully vaccinated since this vaccination comes in two doses.
“So that’s what gave rise to that directive, rather than just going ahead with just single dose when the full dose should be two doses of the same.
“So we felt that it was proper for us in the circumstance to ensure that those who have been vaccinated have been fully vaccinated,” he disclosed.
On vaccine side effects so far
The Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed that the FG is monitoring cases of blood clots as reported in Europe, however, he asserted that Nigeria’s vaccination drive has been efficient so far.
“In Nigeria, with every vaccine, we have a parallel system to measure and to monitor any side effects,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor patients in Nigeria. You know, every demography is different, the demography in taking vaccines in every country is different, the interaction between different drugs people are taking. So there are many circumstances that need to be fully evaluated, we will look at the data ourselves here in Nigeria and I will take action as needed.
“So I think, for now, we can be sure that we have an effective vaccination programme going on. And we’re very responsive to the concerns of Nigerians, I will respond to them as appropriate,” he added.

Although there are already a batch of vaccines, they are still not enough. The number of vaccines is still a concern now.

The Biden administration said on Sunday that the country will have sufficient doses of the coronavirus vaccine to achieve the president’s goal that despite the contamination of millions of doses of vaccines at the troubled Baltimore manufacturing plant, every adult in the United States can Get immunizations before the end of May.

The pneumonia-like disease caused by coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow on all the sectors of Nigeria’s economy, including the day-to-day lives of individuals’ resident in the heterogeneous country.
It has been a little over a year since Nigeria recorded its index case of the novel coronavirus on 27 February 2020, in Lagos. Months have gone by, yet the country grapples to contain the pneumonia-like virus which emanated from a local market in Wuhan, China, spreading across 200 countries of the world and killing over 2,048 people in Nigeria, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, the country’s infectious disease agency. As of 29 March 2021, the centre has recorded at least 162,593 tested cases, which represents more than 0.0769 percent of the country’s population of over 200 million.
Interestingly, about two-third of the 162,593 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered after treatment, indicating some level of success recorded by the country’s frontline health workers. The health war is fierce and unlike other countries of the world, Africa’s giant, Nigeria, is threatened by a rather inefficient and insufficient testing capacity.
It took a period of nine months for Nigeria’s supposed antigen-based rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19 to hit a milestone of 120,000 on 24 January 2021 from the 1,000 cases reached on 25 April 2020.
Unfortunately, since the country declared a second wave of the pandemic in December 2020 following an increase in infections, Nigeria has averaged over 1,000 confirmed cases daily, hence, typifying how fast the virus spreads on an hourly basis.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S government’s first look at the real-world use of COVID-19 vaccines found their effectiveness was nearly as robust as it was in controlled studies.
The two vaccines available since December — Pfizer and Moderna — were 90% effective after two doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. In testing, the vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
“This is very reassuring news,” said the CDC’s Mark Thompson, the study’s lead author. “We have a vaccine that’s working very well.”
The study is the government’s first assessment of how the shots have been working beyond the drugmakers’ initial experiments. Results can sometimes change when vaccines are used in larger, more diverse populations outside studies.
With nearly 4,000 participants from six states, the study focused on health care workers, first responders and other front-line workers who had first priority for the shots. They were given nasal swab test kits to use every week to check for signs of infection.
“The evidence base for (currently available) COVID-19 vaccines is already strong, and continues to mount ever higher with studies like this one,” said David Holtgrave, dean of the University at Albany’s School of Public Health, in an email.
The study included roughly 2,500 volunteers who got two vaccine doses, about 500 who got one dose and about 1,000 who did not get vaccinated.
The researchers counted 205 infections, with 161 of them in the unvaccinated group. Of the remaining 44, the CDC said 33 of them were in people apparently infected with two weeks of their last shot, the point at which they are considered fully vaccinated.
No one died, and only two were hospitalized. Thompson did not say whether the people hospitalized were vaccinated or not.
“These findings should offer hope to the millions of Americans receiving COVID-19 vaccines each day and to those who will have the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated in the weeks ahead,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in a statement. “The authorized vaccines are the key tool that will help bring an end to this devastating pandemic.
Different researchers have tried to look at how the vaccines have performed including work done in Israel and the United Kingdom, and a U.S. study of Mayo Clinic patients.
Unlike the Mayo study, which focused on hospitalization and death, the CDC study looked for any infection — including infections that never resulted in symptoms, or were identified before people started feeling sick.
About two-thirds of the participants who were vaccinated got Pfizer shots, one-third got Moderna and five got the newest shot from Johnson & Johnson. The study was done in Miami; Duluth, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Temple, Texas; Salt Lake City; and Phoenix and other areas in Arizona.

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited on Thursday said it contributed N1.2 billion to the Federal Government’s COVID-19 effort to combat the pandemic.
The oil giant said it was also in discussion with the government on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for Nigerians.
Mr Alex Aghedo, Executive General Manager, Operations Support Services, Total E&P Nigeria, made the disclosure at a virtual news conference.
He said: “Total and 30 other upstream operators in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry, led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), donated N21 billion to the federal government’s COVID-19 effort.
“In the first phase, the donation covered three thematic areas, namely, provision of medical consumables; deployment of logistics and inpatient support services as well as medical infrastructure.
“Total’s contribution was $3.2 million (N1.2 billion). ”
According to him, the company also carried out other interventions including the donation of hospital beds, surgical ventilators, dialysis machines, and face masks to the Lagos and Rivers State Governments.
Aghedo said: “In collaboration with the Lagos Ministry of Health and our partners, we decided to build and donate a medical oxygen plant at the Gbagada General Hospital.
”We believe that this facility would be useful even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It would not only help improve the state’s capacity to care for COVID-19 patients but also further strengthen capacity to manage other conditions associated with oxygen deficiency.”
He said the facility was in the last stages of construction and would be handed over to the Lagos State Government very soon.

In February 2020, Nigeria faced a potentially catastrophic COVID-19 outbreak due to multiple introductions, high population density in urban slums, prevalence of other infectious diseases and poor health infrastructure. As in other countries, Nigerian policymakers had to make rapid and consequential decisions with limited understanding of transmission dynamics and the efficacy of available control measures. We present an account of the Nigerian COVID-19 response based on co-production of evidence between political decision-makers, health policymakers and academics from Nigerian and foreign institutions, an approach that allowed a multidisciplinary group to collaborate on issues arising in real time. Key aspects of the process were the central role of policymakers in determining priority areas and the coordination of multiple, sometime conflicting inputs from stakeholders to write briefing papers and inform effective national decision making. However, the co-production approach met with some challenges, including limited transparency, bureaucratic obstacles and an overly epidemiological focus on numbers of cases and deaths, arguably to the detriment of addressing social and economic effects of response measures. Larger systemic obstacles included a complex multitiered health system, fragmented decision-making structures and limited funding for implementation. Going forward, Nigeria should strengthen the integration of the national response within existing health decision bodies and implement strategies to mitigate the social and economic impact, particularly on the poorest Nigerians. The co-production of evidence examining the broader public health impact, with synthesis by multidisciplinary teams, is essential to meeting the social and public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria and other countries.

The Federal Government says it will appeal, rather than force anyone to take the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccines for COVID -19, according to Olorunnibe Mamora, the Minister of State for health
Mr Mamora made the disclosure, on Friday, in Asaba, while fielding questions from reporters shortly after he inaugurated some projects at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Asaba.
His comment followed a reporter’s question on why Kogi was yet to take delivery of the vaccine while most states in the federation had received the vaccine.
However, Mr Mamora was quick to point out that Kogi was not ready to take delivery of the vaccine, while the Federal Government would not compel any state to do so.
“Kogi lacked storage facilities for cold chain, security, logistics and personnel to administer the vaccines.
“Also, let me state clearly here that from the onset, the Federal Government made it clear that it will not force anyone to take the vaccine, but rather will continue to appeal to people in their own interests.
“Aside that, in Kogi, that you mentioned specifically, one of the reasons the vaccine has not been sent there is because during the #EndSARS crisis, some of their facilities were violently destroyed.
“So, as we speak, Kogi does not even have the facilities for storage to maintain the cold chain. So, that is the reason the state has not been supplied,” he said.
The minister stated that the Federal Government had given conditions to the states, to ensure readiness in terms of cold chain facility, logistics, security and personnel to administer the vaccine, before they could be supplied.

The pandemic has eliminated 12 years of progress in the global fight against Tuberculosis.
Global treatment and diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) cases witnessed a drastic decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.
According to new data released by 'Stop TB Partnership,' the pandemic has eliminated 12 years of progress in the global fight against Tuberculosis.
The data, released ahead of the 2021 World TB day, shows that nine countries representing 60 per cent of the global TB burden saw a drastic decline in diagnosis and treatment of infections in 2020, ranging from 16 per cent to 41 per cent.
These countries include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.
"In these countries, TB diagnosis and enrolment on treatment in 2020 declined by a total of 1 million, ranging from 16 per cent- 41 per cent (an average of 23 per cent) in individual countries," Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, Lucica Ditiu, said during a virtual press briefing on Thursday.
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs.
TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
Many countries were making steady progress in tackling TB before the COVID-19 pandemic which has already infected over 100 million people worldwide, according to a 2020 global report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The report indicates that disruptions in services caused by the pandemic have led to further setbacks in progress already made against the disease.
The pandemic has disrupted human activities and overshadowed other health issues across the globe.
Although TB is one of the vaccine-preventable killer diseases which is also curable, statistics from the WHO show that every year, around 245,000 Nigerians die from TB, and about 590,000 new cases occur (of these, around 140,000 are also HIV-positive).
Every March 24, World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
Huge setback
Ms Ditiu said efforts made in the past twelve years to eliminate tuberculosis have been reversed by the pandemic.
"Twelve years of impressive gains in the fight against TB, including in reducing the number of people who were missing from TB care, have been tragically reversed by another virulent respiratory infection," she said.
"In the process, we put the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in jeopardy. I hope that in 2021 we buckle up and we smartly address, at the same time, TB and COVID-19 as two airborne diseases with similar symptoms."
She said data emerging from India and South Africa show that people coinfected with TB and COVID-19 have three times higher mortality than people infected with TB alone.
She said this development makes contact tracing, case finding and bi-directional TB and COVID-19 testing essential.
"After less than a year, a vaccine was developed and is now being deployed to help contain, and hopefully end, the COVID-19 pandemic," said Thokozile Nkhoma, Stop TB Partnership Board Member representing communities affected by TB.
Ms Nkhoma said the only approved vaccine for TB is 100 years old and does not fully work, especially in adults.
"First-line TB treatment for TB is several decades old, and drug resistance is on the rise, while the millions of people with TB who are not found and treated remain at risk of spreading the disease," she said.
Way forward
In his remarks, Executive Director of Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Peter Sands, said countries need to work together in close coordination, pace and scale to respond to this challenge.

Germany, France, Spain and Italy have joined other countries in pausing use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Italy imposed new lockdown measures as Europe confronts a third wave of the virus.Mississippi will become the second state to open Covid-19 vaccinations to all of its adult residents, following a call from President Biden for all states to do so by May 1.
Alaska opened its vaccination doors last week to anybody 16 or older who lives or works in the state. The change in Mississippi takes effect Tuesday.
“Get your shots, friends,” Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Twitter. “And let’s get back to normal!”
The pace of vaccinations in the United States has steadily increased as production has ramped up, from well under one million shots per day on Jan. 20, when Mr. Biden took office, to about 2.4 million doses per day on average, according to a New York Times database.
Mr. Biden’s team has made key decisions that quickened the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines, but now the country faces the challenge of getting all those shots into arms. Mass vaccination sites across the country are opening up or increasing their capacity, in part to respond to the influx of doses from the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But more challenges remain, including improving access in communities of color and convincing Americans wary for a variety of reasons that getting vaccinated is safe and effective.
Although Mississippi lags most states in the share of its population that has been vaccinated, it is doing better than all of its neighbors except Louisiana, according to a New York Times tracker. As of Sunday, about 20 percent of Mississippians have received at least one shot, and 11 percent have been fully vaccinated.
The state had already opened eligibility further than most states, to cover everyone 50 or over. Governor Reeves urged older residents to book appointments as soon as possible.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan has said that her state will drop its restrictions on eligibility by April 5, about a month before Mr. Biden’s deadline. Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut said his state would as well, tentatively opening vaccine eligibility to all adults on April 5.
“It’s still going to take some time to get the vaccine to everyone who wants it, and I urge patience to the greatest extent possible,” Mr. Lamont said in a news release.
Officials in Washington, D.C., said on Monday that they would do the same by May 1, allowing anyone 16 or older who lives in the city to be inoculated.
In New York, where the minimum age was recently lowered to 60, the state will open three new mass vaccination sites on Long Island at the end of the week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday at an appearance. The sites will be on college campuses in Old Westbury, Brentwood and Southampton.
More categories of public-facing workers will become eligible in New York on Wednesday, including government employees, building services workers and employees of nonprofit groups. Mr. Cuomo has yet to announce how or when the state would open eligibility to all adults.
About 92.6 million vaccine doses have been administered since Mr. Biden’s inauguration, according to data released on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the current pace, the country will pass 100 million doses under Mr. Biden before the end of the week.

WASHINGTON – White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned state leaders on Sunday that the nation’s battle with the coronavirus is still “not in the end zone,” and urged Americans to adhere to public health measures as Europeans experience new infection spikes.
“When I hear pulling back completely on public health measures, saying no more masks, no nothing like that, that is risky business,” Fauci said during an interview with “Meet the Press.”
“Don’t spike the ball on the five-yard line. Wait until you get into the end zone. We are not in the end zone yet,” he said, adding that prematurely pulling away from public health measures could prolong the pandemic.
On Fox News, Fauci explained that the recent spike in cases throughout Europe was due in part to a relaxation of safety measures.
“When you see that leveling off at a high level, there is always a risk of a surge back up and in fact, unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening in Europe right now,” Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“They [Europeans] thought they were home free and they weren’t and now they are seeing an increase,” he added. “If you wait just a bit longer to give the vaccine program a chance to increase the protection in the community, then it makes pulling back much less risky.”
Fauci’s comments come as Europe stumbles to administer vaccines and as some countries report a third wave of the highly infectious disease.
“Eastern Europe looks very bad right now, Italy looks bad, but I think that the U.S. is in a much different situation,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained during an interview on the CBS Sunday program “Face the Nation.”
“I think we are in a different situation than Europe because of the vaccine-induced immunity that we are getting into the population,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner added.
As of Sunday afternoon, the U.S. has administered 107 million vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty-seven percent of adults have received at least one dose so far.
New Covid infections in the U.S., meanwhile, continue to decline and as of Saturday were down 11% compared to the week prior, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. However, infections remain high averaging more than 50,000 a day, according to the data. And more than 1,400 people are still dying a day from the virus in the U.S on average.
As trends in the U.S. improve compared to the winter surge, Europe is now facing a new wave of infections. Italy, Germany, Poland and Hungary have reported serious spikes and the Czech Republic and Slovakia show some of the highest death rates in the world.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is placing the majority of the country on lockdown over the Easter weekend in order to mitigate the spread of the virus. Several of the country’s regions will live under more stringent public health measures starting Monday.
German public health authorities have said the country is experiencing a third wave of the virus.
The rising infections come as Europe struggles with its vaccine rollout. Several European countries have halted the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after recipients reported the formation of blood clots. At least nine countries worldwide, including Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, have suspended their use of the vaccine over safety concerns. 
Last week, the World Health Organization said it was carefully reviewing the matter and that “the findings and any changes to our current recommendations will be communicated immediately to the public.”
AstraZeneca said in a statement Friday that there’s “no evidence” that the vaccine causes an increased risk of developing blood clots.
Last week, President Joe Biden urged Americans in his first primetime address to remain vigilant against the disease by following public health measures. Biden also set a goal for Americans to be able to gather in small groups to celebrate the Fourth of July.
When asked if the Fourth of July target was a realistic one, Gottlieb told CBS that he expected much of the country to look better before that holiday.
“I think as we get into April the situation around the country is going to look better but there will be pockets of outbreaks and there will be pockets where some of these variants become more prevalent,” Gottlieb said.
“I think overall the trajectory for the nation continues to look good,” he added.

If you laugh easily, you will probably find the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s description of tobacco to be a tragicomedy funny but serious at the same time.
“Tobacco is the only lega l drug that kills many of its users when used exactly as intended by manufacturers,” WHO said in its global report on trends in tobacco smoking 2000-2025 – First edition.
Up-to-date data on Nigeria’s tobacco situation is often hard to come by, but United-States-based anti-smoking campaigner Tobacco Atlas estimated in 2016 that more than 16,100 Nigerians were killed annually by smoking-related disease.
The statistics included, among others, 246 men every week.
Despite this, more than 25,000 children (10-14 years old) and 7,488,000 adults (15+ years old) continue to use tobacco each day.
This comes despite Nigeria being a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since 2005, and despite the country’s adoption of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act in 2015. Nigeria suffers over 17,000 annual deaths as a result of smoking-related disease.
A 2019 study by BMC Public Health titled ‘Current prevalence pattern of tobacco smoking in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis’ assessed the prevalence and number of smokers in Nigeria between 1995 and 2015.
It found that the estimated median age at initiation of smoking was 16.8 years. It estimated an increase in the number of current smokers from 8 to 11 million (or a decline from 13 to 10.6 per cent of the population). The pooled mean cigarettes consumption per person per day was 10.1 (6.1–14.2), accounting for 110 million cigarettes per day and over 40 billion cigarettes consumed in Nigeria in 2015.
A National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said of Nigeria’s six geopolitical regions, smoking prevalence is highest in the North-Central region—comprising the states of Kogi, Niger, Benue, Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The Southsouth, which covers the states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta and Edo, comes second.

Members of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday received jabs of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines during their weekly national briefing.
The PTF team includes the Chairman, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood; Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora; Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu; Minister of foreign affairs Geoffrey Onyeoma, and the National Incident Manager (NIM) PTF, Mukhtar Muhammad, among others.
“Today, Monday, 8th March, 2021, I will lead all members of the PTF to receive the first doses of the vaccine as a further demonstration of the safety and efficacy,” Mr Mustapha said before the vaccination exercise.
“Also, our journalists who are critical front-liners in this fight will receive the vaccine in a representative manner.”
Nigeria on Tuesday took delivery of nearly four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of an overall 16 million doses planned to be delivered to the country in batches over the next few months. The vaccines are being provided by COVAX, an unprecedented global effort to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Upon arrival, samples were handed to NAFDAC, the Nigerian food and drug regulatory agency, for further examination.
The agency certified the vaccines safe and effective for use on Thursday night, according to Nigerian’s health minister, Osagie Ehanire.
Nigeria on Friday commenced the vaccination, beginning with healthcare workers who are often at the risk of exposure to infections being the first responders to patients.
Cyprian Ngong, a medical doctor, became the first person to receive a jab of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines in Nigeria. Three other health workers were also vaccinated during the flag-off event at the National Hospital in Abuja.

The Nigerian Variant B1.525 of Covid-19 has important mutations in the spike protein but they do not affect the ability to detect or trace a person infected with the variant, said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said this is because existing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits use multiple targets to detect variants even though that person can be asymptomatic.
“Currently, no data suggests that this variant is of higher virulence or causes increased fatality,” he said in a media statement yesterday in response to questions on the Nigerian variant.
From laboratory study reports, Dr Noor Hisham said, mutation E484K which was also seen in other variants, including the South African (B.1.351) and Brazilian (P.1) variants, had been associated with some level of resistance to neutralising antibodies which were needed to confer protection.
The resistance means a possible reduction in the effectiveness of natural immunity or vaccine-derived immunity against this mutation, he added.
“Mutation D614G causes increased transmissibility due to favourable conditions for the virus to infect permissible cells and replicate.
“Another mutation called Q677H has also been related to a possible increase in transmissibility due to the virus’s efficient binding to human cell receptors,” he said.
Referring to the first two cases of the Nigerian variant in Malaysia, Noor Hisham said it involved a married couple of Indian nationals, aged 36 and 33, who were travelling with their six-year-old son.
He said the husband is a finance professional who has worked for the past two years in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and they travelled to Malaysia as the husband received an employment offer.
“The husband was initially admitted to the Low-Risk Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre but was transferred to a private medical centre a day later upon his request. He was discharged well on Feb 9.
“As the wife was in her early pregnancy, she was admitted together with their son to Sungai Buloh Hospital. She was discharged well on Feb 15,” he said.
Noor Hisham said these two travellers arrived in Malaysia on Jan 31, and the health ministry had taken nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs for RT-PCR at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as they did not have a pre-departure Covid-19 test.
They were then quarantined at a designated quarantine station and remained asymptomatic. However, the lab confirmed their RT-PCR results to be Covid-19 positive on Feb 2.
Noor Hisham said the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) subsequently performed full genome sequencing due to their travel history, and the IMR completed the sequencing analysis on March 4, which showed the two cases had the Nigerian Variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B1.525).

WASHINGTON — A ruling in the Senate on Thursday dealt a severe blow to Democrats' hopes of raising the minimum wage in the Covid-19 relief package, probably dooming the proposal in the legislation that is headed for a vote in Congress.
The parliamentarian, the in-house referee, ruled that the provision was not compliant with rules governing the budget process that Congress is using to pass the bill with simple majorities.
"We are deeply disappointed in this decision," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "We are not going to give up the fight to raise the minimum wage to $15 to help millions of struggling American workers and their families. The American people deserve it, and we are committed to making it a reality."
The so-called Byrd rule limits acceptable provisions in the reconciliation process to those that involve taxing and spending. Democrats can still try to pass a wage hike through regular order, but that would require 60 Senate votes, which all but ensures failure because of a lack of Republican support.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, praised the referee's ruling.
"Very pleased the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that a minimum wage increase is an inappropriate policy change in reconciliation," Graham said in a statement. "This decision reinforces reconciliation cannot be used as a vehicle to pass major legislative change — by either party — on a simple majority vote. This decision will, over time, reinforce the traditions of the Senate."
Democrats, led by Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had made a case for including the provision.
Sanders said he strongly disagreed with the ruling and suggested another way to provide incentives for a wage hike through the budget process.
"In the coming days, I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to move forward with an amendment to take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don't pay workers at least $15 an hour and to provide small businesses with the incentives they need to raise wages," he said in a statement. "That amendment must be included in this reconciliation bill."
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he would consider another way to raise wages.
"I'm looking at a tax penalty for mega-corporations that refuse to pay a living wage," Wyden said in a statement provided by his office.
The House, which isn't constrained by the Senate restrictions, is expected to take up the Covid-19 relief bill Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said House Democrats "believe that the minimum wage hike is necessary" and added: "Therefore, this provision will remain in the American Rescue Plan on the Floor tomorrow."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a leading proponent of the $15-an-hour wage, said before the ruling that it would be unacceptable for Democrats to willingly back off the provision, but she acknowledged that the parliamentarian could rule it to be noncompliant.
"The parliamentarian is essentially a legislative reference," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. "If something is out of bounds, it's out of bounds, as per the rules."
Senate experts say Vice President Kamala Harris has the authority to ignore the parliamentarian and rule the wage hike to be compliant, but the White House isn't considering that.
"President Biden is disappointed in this outcome," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, but she added that he "respects the parliamentarian's decision and the Senate's process." She said that he will work with Congress to "determine the best path forward" on a $15 wage but that, in the meantime, he "urges Congress to move quickly to pass the American Rescue Plan."
The parliamentarian's ruling immediately revived calls from some progressive activists for Democrats to abolish the Senate's 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation, which they can do with a majority vote.
Eli Zupnick, a spokesman for the Fix Our Senate coalition, said there is "no reason" for the party not to extend the simple majority process it is using for Covid-19 relief "to increasing the minimum wage, passing HR1 and the Voting Rights Act, and delivering on the many popular promises they made that Sen. McConnell can currently veto with a filibuster."

U.S. health officials warn governors against easing restrictions as a drop in coronavirus cases “may be stalling.” And Canada authorizes the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was endorsed on Friday by a panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration, clearing the last hurdle before a formal authorization expected on Saturday, according to two people familiar with the agency’s plans. The nation’s first shipments will go out in the days after that.

It will be the third shot made available to the United States in the year since the first surge of coronavirus cases began washing over the country, and it will be the first vaccine to require just one dose instead of two.

Johnson & Johnson’s formulation worked well in clinical trials, particularly against severe disease and hospitalizations, even though it did not match the sky-high efficacy rates of the first two vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The panel, made up of independent infectious disease experts, statisticians and epidemiologists, voted unanimously in favor of authorizing the vaccine.

“We’re dealing with a pandemic right now,” said Dr. Jay Portnoy, an allergist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and a member of the board. “It’s great that we have this vaccine.”

During Johnson & Johnson’s presentation to the panel, Dr. Gregory Poland, a virologist at the Mayo Clinic and a paid external consultant for the company, noted the vaccine’s efficacy, ease of use and low rate of side effects. It “nearly checks all the boxes,” he said. “To me, it is clear that the known benefits vastly outweigh the known risks.”

The vaccine had an overall efficacy rate of 72 percent in the United States and 64 percent in South Africa, where a concerning variant emerged in the fall. The shot showed 86 percent efficacy against severe forms of Covid-19 in the United States, and 82 percent against severe disease in South Africa.

Those are strong numbers, but lower than the roughly 95 percent efficacy rates of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines against mild, moderate and severe cases of Covid.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is a single dose and uses a different kind of technology than the authorized vaccines. And the scale and size of the Johnson & Johnson trial was vast, spanning eight countries, three continents and nearly 45,000 participants.

Although the vaccine works with one shot, studies are underway to determine if a second dose would increase its protective effects.

Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the panelists, pointed out on Friday that in early clinical trials that took place over the summer, Johnson & Johnson found that a second dose led to levels of coronavirus antibodies that were almost three times higher than those produced by one dose alone.

The results of Johnson & Johnson’s two-dose, late-stage clinical trial are not expected until July at the earliest. If those results turn out to be better than a single dose, Dr. Offit asked, “Does this then become a two-dose vaccine?”

Dr. Johan Van Hoof, the global head of vaccine research and development at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the drug development arm of Johnson & Johnson, said that the company decided to pursue the one-shot strategy after its studies on monkeys last spring showed that a single dose was enough to provide strong protection against the disease.

“It’s clear that in a situation of an outbreak, in a raging epidemic, the big challenge is to get the epidemic under control,” he said. “The regimen is extremely well positioned to be used in outbreak situations.”

But Dr. Van Hoof also noted that it will be important to track volunteers who received a single dose to see if their immunity changes in the months to come. It might be necessary to deliver a booster shot for long-term protection. “The big question mark still is, how long does protection last?” he said.

After the vote, the F.D.A. told Johnson & Johnson that it “will rapidly work toward finalization and issuance of an emergency use authorization,” according to a statement. The F.D.A. also said that it had notified other government agencies “so they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution.”

Dusuman is a community outside Maiduguri, the capital of northeast Nigeria’s Borno state. Nearby is the neighbourhood of Zabarmari, where dozens of rice farmers were beheaded in November 2020 – a brutal act for which the group commonly known as Boko Haram took responsibility. The Nigerian military is struggling to retake control of the territory within Borno state as a whole, but many areas, such as Dusuman, remain very insecure. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to provide people with humanitarian assistance and medical care.
Despite the significant security challenges in working outside the main cities in Borno state, teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been running mobile clinics to provide basic healthcare to children under 16 in a number of locations outside Maiduguri, namely Dusuman, Musari and Ahmed Grema camp for displaced people in Shuwari.
People in these locations have very limited access to medical care, as the few local clinics that exist are desperately short of essential medications; they also charge for their services, putting them out of most people’s reach.
Aisha, a mother of four, was displaced from her home five years ago and has been living in Dusuman ever since. When her 12-year-old son Yahaya fell ill with a fever and cough, she brought him to MSF’s mobile clinic.
“Yahaya has been sick for almost a week now,” says Aisha, “but I did not take him to the clinic in our community because drugs are often not available, or if they are, we have to pay for them, and most of us here cannot afford to do this.”
Aisha says she would welcome having a more permanent presence of non-governmental organisations in the area to provide people with free medical care. “If possible, we would like to have a permanent presence in our community, to provide us and people in the surrounding settlements with free health services,” she says.
Between mid-August and December 2020, MSF’s mobile team provided a total of 6,881 consultations for children living in villages outside Maiduguri. MSF staff tested 6,463 children for malaria and treated 2,260 children for the disease, referring 18 of them to hospital. The team also treated 71 children for severe acute malnutrition and 190 children for moderate acute malnutrition.
Some neighbourhoods, such as Zabarmari, are too insecure for visits by MSF’s mobile team. In this situation, MSF employs a simple yet effective method to provide children with essential healthcare. The team trains a person from the neighbourhood to carry out rapid malaria tests and malnutrition screening, and to either give appropriate medication or, if a child’s condition is serious or hard to determine, to refer them to an MSF hospital in the capital. In this way, children living in hard-to-reach villages have access to basic healthcare every day, at any time they need it.
“As we cannot directly work in Zabarmari, we have engaged members of the community and trained them in how to perform basic tasks, like test-and-treat malaria,” says Isa Ibrahim, who manages MSF’s mobile team. “They refer patients who require additional management to Gwange or Fori hospitals in Maiduguri.”
Now that peak season for malaria in Borno state is over, MSF’s mobile team has wound up its activities, but it may restart them in the coming months, depending on the security context and on people’s medical needs.
MSF has been working in Nigeria since 1996 and in Borno state since 2014. In Borno state, our medical teams provide emergency treatment, surgery, malnutrition treatment, maternity and antenatal services, vaccinations, and the prevention and treatment of malaria and other diseases.

The United States-Canada border is not only the world’s longest international border, but it includes some of the busiest commercial crossings in North America. New travel restrictions have been implemented as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Non-Essential Travel Ban
The land border has been closed to “non-essential” travel since March 2020 due to COVID-19. Restrictions include:
Individuals are not admitted for tourism, sightseeing, recreation, gambling, attending cultural events, or other non-essential purposes. They are admitted for “essential” purposes, which include travel for work, medical reasons, to attend educational institutions, and diplomatic or military related travel.
Citizens or permanent residents of the country they are entering are excepted from the ban.
Testing Requirements
Anyone entering Canada at a land port of entry must show a negative COVID-19 test that was taken within 72 hours of seeking entry.
No parallel testing requirement for entering U.S. land ports of entry.
The “non-essential” travel ban does not apply to individuals entering the United States or Canada by air. However, testing requirements apply:
To board a flight and enter the United States, anyone 2 years old or over must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 3 calendar days of entry or proof of recovery from COVID-19 within the past 90 days.
To board a flight and enter Canada, all passengers five years old and over must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of flight departure. Canada is considering a testing-upon-arrival regime.
Quarantine Requirements
While the U.S. government has the authority to enforce quarantines upon entry, the current CDC guidelines have no specific penalties for failure to comply. Canada regulations, on the other hand, include penalties.
The United States
According to CDC guidance, those returning to the United States should get tested 3-5 days after returning and stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days after travel, even with a negative test result. Individuals who do not get tested after entry should stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel. It does not specify an enforcement mechanism.
Some U.S. states have specific quarantine requirements, but some are more aggressive in enforcement than others.
Canada
Canada has mandatory quarantine requirements with specific enforcement.
Penalties for failure to comply can include up to 6 months in prison or up to CN$750,000 in fines.
Those who break quarantine and whose actions result in the death or serious bodily injury of another can face a fine for up to CN$1,000,000 or imprisonment for up to 3 years.
Generally, there is a 14-day quarantine or isolation requirement (depending upon whether the individual is symptomatic or asymptomatic). Contact information and information regarding a suitable quarantine or isolation location must be provided upon entry. If no appropriate quarantine or isolation location is available, as a last resort, individuals will be assigned to a designated quarantine facility. Symptomatic individuals, except Canadian citizens and permanent residents, will not be allowed to enter Canada.
Like the United States, there are specific provincial requirements.
As a first step in determining whether you can enter Canada, the Canadian government provided a tool.

Thousands of small pharmacies across the country were tapped by the Biden administration last week to stand on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic and carry out vaccinations.
For each of these mom and pop pharmacies, that has meant investing huge sums of money to purchase freezers for vaccine storage, buying personal protective equipment, acquiring scheduling software, hiring additional staff or shuffling employees around to allow them to run vaccination clinics within their storefronts or in firehouses, parking lots and community centers.
It’s crucial work in slowing Covid-19 infection rates, but there is a growing problem: These small businesses are often not getting paid for the work and costs associated. The reason lies within a decades-old system of medical billing and insurance long left unaddressed by state governments and federal agencies.
If the policies aren’t tweaked soon, these small pharmacies could fall in their efforts to help end the yearlong pandemic.
“My entire career has been a scramble to try to make up the losses because the reimbursement model isn't good or healthy,” said Neal Smoller, who owns the Village Apothecary in Woodstock, New York. “We're doing a tremendous amount of work to provide this vaccine compared to others, and the reimbursement this time should be simple and represent that.”
As the piecemeal rollout of vaccinations continues, the Biden administration moved last week to fully partner with community pharmacies in an effort to reach more Americans.
That was the method used by West Virginia, which has received accolades for its swift rollout compared to other states that focused the majority of their vaccination efforts through central hubs. Small community pharmacies in West Virginia and states such as North Dakota and South Dakota have proven more agile and aware of their customer base, which helps with outreach and community trust.
The issue that pharmacists in 11 states said they have run into, however, is that they’re having difficulty billing insurance companies for their work because many insurance providers do not allow them to file for reimbursement outside of pharmacy benefits. Instead, vaccine dose administration falls under medical benefits.
Pharmacists are typically only allowed to provide certain vaccinations because they are not considered medical providers, but under federal emergency authorizations they are able to administer the Covid-19 vaccinations.
To give a patient two shots of the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccinations, most pharmacies expect between $30 and $40 from insurance companies to cover their bills. Some, however, are just taking on financial losses because of the complexities of the insurance system and the insurance status they hold within it.
“It's a legacy problem,” said Antonio Ciaccia, a senior adviser to the American Pharmacists Association. “We don't really have a seamless integration of pharmacy services into traditional care benefit plans, and we have yet to see any guidance from a number of the plans outside of the Medicaid sector in terms of how they're going to handle this.”
Those who have private insurance typically have two insurance cards: one for their prescriptions that they use at the pharmacy, and one for their medical benefits that they use at their doctor's office. The former is for products or prescription drugs, like insulin or pills to treat high blood pressure. The latter is for a service — a doctor’s visit, a vaccination or a medical procedure, for instance.
For decades, those lanes have run parallel to each other, but in recent years the distinctions have begun to blur. As hospital systems have consolidated, rural medical centers have closed and private practices have disappeared, pharmacies are often the only health institutions left in some communities.
The United States is expected to face a shortage of up to 55,200 primary care doctors and 139,000 total physicians by 2033, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ 2020 workforce projection. Pharmacists argue that — with more than 186,000 community-based pharmacists situated in towns across the country — they can help shore up the gaps in health care access.

Many said they are already serving in that role. They just aren’t being paid for it.
“There are a few pharmacies that I do know that are actually billing on the medical side,” said Dirk White, who owns Harry Race Pharmacy, which has helped vaccinate residents of Sitka, Alaska. “But they're really breaking trail, so to speak, for all the rest of the profession. They are very few and they're the unicorns in our profession.”
Recognizing this as an issue, the Ohio Legislature unanimously passed a law in early 2019 that gave pharmacists provider status, allowing them to bill to patients’ medical benefits and circumventing some of the insurance company bureaucracy.
Two years later, the state and Ohio pharmacies are still negotiating an agreement with private insurance companies that would make pharmacists eligible providers within their networks. The state’s Medicaid program, meanwhile, is already on board.
“I’m not surprised it’s taking a long time, but I was hoping we’d get there by now,” said state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Republican, who introduced the bill. “It’s hard to know how much the pandemic has slowed things down. I’m not making excuses, but Medicaid did their due diligence. I would’ve hoped private insurance would have moved a little quicker.”
The biggest roadblock they’ve run into, pharmacists said, is billing the vaccination to disparate private health plans. Each filing, in some ways, is a unique negotiation with a different company’s bureaucracy.
That has already become frustrating for some, but the floodgates haven’t opened yet. As most states are currently only allowing those above the age of 65 to receive the vaccination, pharmacists have typically only had to deal with Medicare. Once states move to the next stage of the vaccination rollout, pharmacies will have to juggle a greater number of private health plans, as well as those without any insurance at all.
The National Community Pharmacists Association has put up a link on its website for pharmacists to report Covid-19 vaccination billing issues.
Kurt Proctor, the association's senior vice president of strategic initiatives, said they’ve only received about 40 reports so far, but he also reiterated that most pharmacists have only had to deal with Medicare or Medicaid so far. They expect a lot more complaints once the greater public starts getting their Covid-19 shots.
“It’s really when you get into the commercially covered plans that there’s a lot of variance whether it’s a prescription benefit or a medical benefit,” he said.
It gets even more complicated, though. Health systems and employers who provide the insurance plan may make changes to the coverage plans. Pharmacy benefit managers, which oversee prescription drug plans for insurance companies, might have different requirements for different clients.
“The commercial market is where this gets the most challenging,” Proctor added.
Among pharmacists right now, figuring out how to carry out vaccinations without sinking their business is a professionwide effort.
Smoller, who owns the pharmacy in Woodstock, New York, has created “a quick and dirty course” to help colleagues across the country learn how to get vaccination clinics off the ground without losing their heads within the administrative details.
“A lot of these guys don’t know how to use Excel or do all the data submission, appointment scheduling and infrastructure building. It’s a massive undertaking, and that’s just the business side,” he said. “On the clinical side, you have the certification with the CDC and our state governments to handle this particular process, get our staff up to speed on how to store the vaccines — it’s big,” he said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But even those who know their way around billing are frustrated.
Abby Rice runs two pharmacies, Ward Drug and Moffet Drug, in two small Kansas towns that both have fewer than 3,000 residents. She has been vaccinating patients for weeks now and anticipates that she’ll receive more doses in the coming days as part of the recent Biden administration effort.
“At times, we just eat those claims,” she said of private insurance vaccinations. “Let's be honest here, the work on the back end, as far as the time you put in for the reimbursements, it’s a lot for very little.”
Some have said, however, that they simply can’t take on the potential financial drag of the vaccinations. It’s too much of a risk because of the potential reimbursement issues.
Small pharmacies nationwide have faced a growing financial challenge, as they face rising prescription costs and the financial squeeze from chains like CVS — a company that along with Walgreens has a separate and direct private contract with the federal government for vaccine distribution. In comparison, the margins really aren’t there for independent pharmacies to take on much of a monetary burden.
“It’s got to be economically feasible,” said Mike Koelzer, a pharmacist in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who runs Kay Pharmacy, which decided not to pursue vaccinations. “If you're not making much money from it, you probably don't want to do it long term. If you are making a lot of money on it, the problem is, is how long will this last and how much will the model suddenly change without warning?”
Pharmacists said it would be difficult to continue vaccinating for long without support and consistent reimbursement. But they, as well as experts, noted their unique position within their communities to administer vaccine doses, provide medications, track records and conduct tests.
Giving them provider status — even temporarily as proposed in various coronavirus stimulus bills, such as the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act proposed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., over the summer — would better position pharmacies to respond to the nation’s health crisis and serve their local communities.
“It's kind of a no-brainer to keep giving them more responsibility, especially when we have such a fragmented public health system and such an overburdened medical system right now,” said Gigi Gronvall, senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “They’re accessible, they're in the communities, they have stronger networks within these communities, they are there for advice and they often have a more complete picture of what patients are being prescribed and their medical records.”
Gronvall, who has spent the pandemic examining the development of Covid-19 testing and the national strategy surrounding its rollout, and other Johns Hopkins researchers noted in a 2017 report that leveraging pharmacies would be the best way to bolster the public health system in the U.S. and help remedy some of the issues of access, especially during an emergency.
The researchers noted that pharmacies have often been on the front lines in the past during health crises. Whether it was the emergence of a new virus, the surge of the opioid epidemic in the U.S. or medical challenges created by a natural disaster, pharmacies have often had a center role.
The issue is that they weren’t always compensated for it.
“Some pharmacies have reported that they have been unable to obtain reimbursement from insurance companies for some services provided during emergency responses, particularly if those services are outside the scope of their normal authorized operations,” the report said.
The report warned that to fully optimize the partnerships with pharmacies, planning would have to begin “well in advance of a crisis.”
“This will probably be another one of those things that falls into the ‘Oh, we thought about this ahead of time, but we just didn't do anything about it’ category,” Gronvall said.

A shortage in the supply of COVID-19 vaccination doses has prompted health officials in San Francisco to temporarily close two mass inoculation sites, authorities said.

Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management, said mass vaccination sites at the city's Moscone Center convention hall complex and one at San Francisco City College have been put on pause.

"We've made progress and it really is hard to pause operations. None of us want to do it but it is temporary, we know we will get more vaccine, and it does appear to be a supply chain production issue," Carroll told ABC station KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The vaccine shortage in San Francisco mirrors that in other cities across California and the nation.

Los Angeles officials were forced to put a temporarily pause on operations at a mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium last week due to a shortage in supply. The scarcity of vaccine has also caused health officials to pause inoculations at mass vaccination sites in Fresno, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Durham, North Carolina.

Carroll said the Moscone Center site will close for at least a week and will reopen when the vaccine supply is sufficiently replenished. She said the City College mass vaccination site will be closed until Friday, at which time only second doses will be given.

San Francisco's COVID-19 Joint Information Center said the city has the capacity to administer more than 10,000 vaccines per day but lacks the supply.

Despite the shortage, San Francisco officials said they will move forward with opening a third mass vaccination site this week at the Produce Market in the Bayview section of the city, but cautioned that appointments there will be limited by the number of doses they'll have on hand.

As of Saturday, the city had received a total of about 262,000 doses and administered more than 190,000 shots to San Franciscans and other Bay Area residents, officials said in a statement on the city's website. By the end of last week, about 47% of the city's 65 and older population had received at least the first of the two-shot regimen, according to the statement.

"The vaccine supply coming to San Francisco's healthcare providers and the Department of Public Health (DPH) is limited, inconsistent, and unpredictable, making vaccine roll out difficult and denying San Franciscans this potentially life-saving intervention," city officials said in the statement.

Dr. Dean Winslow, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care, said the supply problems are indicative of poor planning on the part of federal and state government officials.

"What you're seeing with glitches like this, having to pause vaccinations, is really just a manifestation of the fact that we really were not prepared for this pandemic," Winslow told KGO-TV.

Black and Latino Americans are falling behind in the nationwide race to get vaccinated against Covid-19, even in blue states and localities praised for championing racial equity during earlier phases of the pandemic.
So far, the U.S. has racial and ethnic data for only about half of the vaccine doses given. Among those, just 5 percent have gone to Black Americans and only 11 percent were given to Latino recipients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A POLITICO analysis of the available data suggests the disadvantaged and underserved communities are being bypassed, including in those states that have not yet publicly broken out data by race and ethnicity.
Washington, D.C.'s hardest-hit and predominantly Black neighborhoods have lagged behind wealthier wards, with vaccination rates between 7 to 9 percent among residents age 65 and older, compared with 25 percent In the northwest part of the city. In Michigan, Detroit is falling behind rural counties in the state’s Upper Peninsula, despite policymakers' efforts to make the city a priority.
Addressing these disparities while ramping up vaccine supply will be a crucial early test for President Joe Biden's administration. He signed an executive order on his second day in office aimed at tackling racial equity, and he has named advisers to specifically focus on disparities in health. But solving the problem will require more than good intentions.
“This pandemic has really exposed the failures of our health care system,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz, (D-Calif.) a physician who represents a district with many Latino farmworkers with limited health care. “We cannot rely on this health care system to address equity. … We are only going to continue to fail. And we see that now with the vaccine distribution.”
The federal government doesn’t explicitly mandate vaccines be distributed or administered equitably “so you’ve got states like Michigan that are well-meaning and thoughtful but didn’t have a comprehensive plan,” Debra Furr-Holden, a public health expert at Michigan State University who serves on the state’s coronavirus racial disparities task force, said in an interview.
“In the absence of a mandate, our natural drift is to inequity,” she added.
An early stumbling block has been a lack of data. In theory, the CDC required states to report race and ethnicity data from the start. But the rule was not strictly enforced, and some states did not initially require providers to collect the information, leaving major gaps in efforts to identify unmet needs.
As of mid-January, only 17 states had publicly released race and ethnicity data on who is getting vaccinated — often with caveats that the data is incomplete. Other states are collecting the information, but have declined to release it citing similar quality issues. The CDC says 47 percent of vaccination data is missing information on race and ethnicity — a flaw public health experts say needs to be corrected as the pandemic enters a new, dangerous phase.

President Biden said last Tuesday that his administration is already working on ordering more COVID-19 vaccine doses to increase the U.S. supply through this summer. But before that can happen, Pfizer and Moderna have to fulfill their commitments under their original federal supply contracts.
Each company is responsible for supplying the U.S. government with 100 million doses of the vaccine by March 31. Although both companies will need to significantly increase the number of weekly doses they release to the government to reach those goals, Moderna has made significant progress in the last week.
The federal government has allocated 5.8 million Moderna doses to states this week, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's 1.5 million more doses than the 4.3 million the company supplied the previous week — an increase of about 35%.
Meanwhile, Pfizer doses increased only slightly over the previous week — 70,000 doses, or less than 2% — for a total just shy of 4.4 million vaccine doses this week.
"Yesterday, we announced a 16% increase in supply flowing to states every week for the next three weeks to a minimum of 10 million doses per week. That's good news," said Andy Slavitt, White House adviser on the COVID-19 response, at a Wednesday press briefing. The projections can help states with planning.
What he didn't say, but is clear from the allocation data, is that most of the latest supply increase is because of Moderna's additional doses.
"Pfizer and Moderna are committed to delivering a total of 200 million doses by the end of March, with much of it coming at the end of the quarter," Slavit said during the briefing. "So it will accelerate."
That's important because if Moderna continues to release 5.8 million doses a week, it will only have released 85 million doses by the end of March. And if Pfizer continues to release 4.4 million doses a week, it will only have released 72 million doses by the end of March. (This is including the doses already released since both vaccines were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in December.)
Releasing supply to the federal government doesn't mean the doses physically pass through federal officials' hands. Rather, it means that the companies have told the government these are the first doses they will provide for the following week and the second doses they will provide a few weeks after that. The government can use the information to allocate the doses to states. Once the orders are in, Pfizer ships its vials using FedEx and UPS, while Moderna uses distributor McKesson.
Asked whether the release and allotment numbers from the companies have been accurate, Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Hall said they have been. "To date, the manufacturers and U.S. government have filled all official allocations that have been provided to jurisdictions," he said.
He said government leaders are in "constant communication and dialogue" with the vaccine manufacturers, but conceded it is a "complex and delicate process."
"We have embedded government specialists in key manufacturing facilities and have a team of logistics experts dedicated to aggressively working with industry to proactively identify and solve any bottlenecks in raw materials, supplies, equipment, or skilled labor," he said.
Still, former government officials decried a lack of transparency into the companies' manufacturing supply during a press call organized by Georgetown University on Thursday.
"I don't think there's been a strong tradition of transparency when it comes to vaccine supplies," said Glen Nowak, a former director of media relations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who now leads the Center for Health and Risk Communication in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
"We saw this when I was at CDC in 2004, when we had a flu vaccine supply shortage. We had a hard time then getting accurate information about how much vaccine was going to be available when," he said. "We sometimes got information, but it often turned out to be not accurate."
Transparency wasn't much better in 2009 regarding the supply of the shingles vaccine, Shingrix, Nowak said. A major government talking point then was to defer to the manufacturer for information.
The COVID-19 pandemic heightens the demand for accurate, timely information. "I still think we need much more transparency from the companies about what they're producing. And I realize it's complicated because ...a lot of this might be proprietary and there's contracts and the like, but these are the company's products," said Bruce Gellin, who used to direct HHS's National Vaccine Program office. "And I think that the company should stand up every week and talk about what their numbers are."
Moderna isn't releasing more detailed supply data, but company spokesman Ray Jordan pointed out that it reaffirmed its supply commitment in a press release on Tuesday.
Pfizer did not respond to NPR's request for comment. But Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that the company could deliver doses to the United States even faster than originally expected and hit 120 million by the end of March, surpassing the commitment of 100 million.
That 20% increase in doses could reflect the unexpected sixth doses found in Pfizer vaccine vials in mid-December. When the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer vaccine, the vials were thought to contain five doses. Now even the FDA acknowledges that there are six doses inside, though they're only accessible with a special syringe that not every health care provider has access to.
Neither company nor the federal government answered NPR's question about how long it takes to make the vaccine from raw ingredients to ready-to-ship product.
Still, Geoffrey Porges, an analyst at the investment bank SVB Leerink, said he's confident the companies will meet their goals despite the limited doses they've released to the United States each week so far.
He said it's also worth noting that Pfizer has committed to delivering significantly more doses than Moderna outside the U.S. In the United Kingdom, for example, Pfizer will provide 40 million doses through 2021. Moderna has only committed to delivering 7 million doses, starting some time in the spring.
"The confidence that Pfizer is showing about the supply commitments makes me presume that they can step this up through those bottlenecks over the next couple of months," he told NPR.
Pfizer cut back on vaccine deliveries in Europe in mid-January to upgrade production capacity, according to the Associated Press. That especially angered Italy, which is reportedly considering suing the company.
Despite being hard at work on its own vaccine, French drugmaker Sanofi said on Tuesday it will help manufacture the Pfizer vaccine by working with Pfizer's German partner, BioNTech. But those doses will increase supply in Europe, not the United States.
"We will provide BioNTech access to our established infrastructure and expertise to help produce more than 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in Europe in 2021," a Sanofi spokesperson told NPR in an email. "We will be filling and packaging the vaccine that BioNTech sends us. This should help accelerate the deliveries of vaccine doses to EU countries. We see this as part of our responsibility to helping solve the COVID-19 pandemic. We are moving some work across our different sites to accommodate this, and plan to start in July with the first doses being delivered in August."
This is the reason why the United States is willful, because it has excellent R & D and production capacity. Even in the distribution of vaccines, the United States can effectively control other countries. When can we successfully complete the vaccination?

A new study published Monday suggests the novel coronavirus was infecting people across the US as early as December -- a month before the first person known to have been infected with coronavirus arrived in the US from China on January 15.
Researchers screened blood donations made in December and early January and found evidence of antibodies to the novel coronavirus in at least 84 samples from nine states -- something that would suggest those people had been infected with coronavirus.
"These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may have been introduced into the United States prior to January 19, 2020," the researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Red Cross wrote in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Many people wonder if they may have had coronavirus early in the pandemic, or even before people knew the virus was circulating.
It would be hard to know unless someone took a coronavirus test at the time -- something that obviously did not exist. The symptoms are similar to those of many other flu-like infections: a cough, a fever, body aches, perhaps a sore throat.
And without a sample taken at the time of infection or soon after, it will be impossible to know whether an individual was infected back then, said Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University.
Antibody tests can indicate a past infection, but not when that infection occurred.
"You cannot distinguish between somebody being infected in December or being infected in March or April," Lipkin told CNN.
A person's immune response to a viral infection such as Covid-19 changes over time. Several studies have shown that antibody responses ramp up right after infection and then adjust as different types of antibodies take over, and long term immunity kicks in. It's not yet known how long the human body maintains an immune response to coronavirus infection.
"There are tests that in the first few weeks of infection indicate very recent infection, but after that you can't really tell," Lipkin said. The only exception would be if someone had taken a blood test earlier that showed they were negative for the virus.
But the study shows that blood donations may be an important source of information about when the virus began circulating, the CDC and Red Cross researchers said. "These findings also highlight the value of blood donations as a source for conducting SARS-CoV-2 surveillance," they wrote in Tuesday's report. SARS-CoV-2 is the scientific name for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
Blood donations stored since last year could be tested for antibodies, although the type of test could be important. Several other coronaviruses cause common colds and tests could mistakenly detect infections with those viruses, the CDC and Red Cross researchers noted.
"We clearly want to know how long this virus has been circulating," Lipkin added.

Gov. Hope Uzodinma of Imo has threatened a second total lockdown, if residents of the state continue to disregard COVID-19 safety protocols.
The governor issued the threat in a statewide broadcast in Owerri late on Friday night.
Uzodinma, who frowned at nonchalance of Imo residents towards established safety protocols, said that four mobile courts have been put in place in different parts of the state to prosecute violators of COVID-19 safety protocols.
He directed the use of face masks, hand sanitisers and hand wash stands in all malls, markets, hotels, eateries, night clubs, supermarkets and public offices as well as for all religious gatherings, marriage and burial ceremonies.
He pecked the maximum number of persons for public gatherings at 50 and warned that offenders would have to endure six months in jail or pay N20,000 in lieu.
“However, I must make it absolutely clear that if our people choose instead to continue to deceive themselves that Coronavirus does not exist and continue to go about without face masks and without observing other safety protocols, I will be forced to review the situation in the coming weeks.
“If it is clear from the realities on ground that extra, more stringent measures must be taken to keep our people safe,
“I will have no choice but to authorise a second lockdown of the state. The choice is entirely ours to make: To strictly adhere to the simple safety protocols now or to face a complete lockdown in a few weeks.
“Let us all resolve today to do the right thing for our state, for our safety and for the safety of our loved ones,” he urged.

All indoor portions of the National Mall in Washington are closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, federal officials said Saturday.
The closure includes the Washington Monument, which had been temporarily closed for the presidential inauguration, the National Park Service said in a statement.
It called the closure "a measure to protect staff and visitors from the spread of COVID-19."
The shutdown means associated memorial parks, including Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site and the Old Post Office Tower, are closed.
Public restrooms and outdoor memorials would remain accessible, officials said.
The District of Columbia reported 172 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, bringing its pandemic case total to 35,077.
"The National Park Service will monitor public health conditions in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as the opening status of other nearby visitor attractions, and reopen the Washington Monument and other indoor park facilities as soon as it deems it is safe to do so," the park service said.