The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said that local production of COVID-19 vaccines cannot start now in Nigeria. Ehanire made this known in Abuja, while explaining why local production of COVID-19 vaccines cannot start in the country at the moment as the world continues to fight vaccines nationalism. He attributed the delay to government’s inability to procure the required technology for the production. The minister said that the N10 billion earmarked by the National Assembly for that purpose is intact. The federal government, he said, was still in talking with local vaccine firm, Bio-Vaccine Nigeria Limited. “Nigeria is a 49…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Nigerian Society for Immunology (NSI) has urged the federal government to boost funding to the health sector so that it could tackle diseases peculiar to the country. The NSI President, Prof. Ganiyu Arinola, made the appeal in an interview IN Ibadan on Tuesday. “Nigeria is a country with a large burden of both infectious and non-communicable diseases. “If we are to move forward as a country, we need to equip our growing scientists with skills needed to tackle diseases endemic to Nigeria,” he said. According to him, the health system at all levels is not performing close to an optimal level due…
Denis Abranches, Brazil’s first coronavirus vaccine study volunteer, has been reunited with her mother after almost a year and a half. “I drove more than 600 kilometres from Sao Paulo to Araguari in Minas Gerais,’’ Denis Abranches, who returned from the Mother’s Day visit on Monday, told dpa. “It was hug that I will never forget. It was very worried for my mother too,’’ the 47-year-old said. Abranches leads the dentistry department in the Hospital Sao Paulo and as a dental surgeon cleans the mouths of Coronavirus patients to reduce the risk of additional infection. She became known as Brazil’s…
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has declared a one-year nationwide state of calamity due to an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), which has resulted in more than two billion dollars in industry losses. This was announced by the government on Tuesday. In a proclamation signed on Monday, Duterte said that ASF had spread to more than half of the Philippines. He said that it had caused a “significant reduction in the country’s swine population by around three million hogs” and an increase in retail prices of pork products. The proclamation noted that the outbreak had resulted in losses…
Nigeria will begin administering the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines on eligible Nigerians who received the first shots. The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib made this known during the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) briefing in Abuja. Shuaib advised health workers, frontline workers aged 18 years and above and persons aged 50 years and above to visit any designated vaccination site to receive the vaccine free of charge. “I want to remind you that the eligibility period between the first and second doses of the vaccine has been expanded from 12 weeks…
The federal government has reintroduced the restriction on mass gatherings after a spike in COVID-19 cases recorded in in Brazil, India and Turkey. The Head of the Secretary of Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Dr Mukhtar Mohammed, who announced this said effective Tuesday May 11, said event centres and non-essential public places such as night clubs would remain closed till further notice. Mohammed said that gathering of religious groups and weddings have been reduced to 50 per cent attendance, while official engagements, meetings and conferences should continue to hold virtually. He said government had also reintroduced curfew from midnight of Monday to 4p.m. The…
Governor Muhammad of Zamfara on Monday presented nine new Peugeot 406 cars to the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), RATTAWU and all media outfits based in the state. The governor had earlier announced the donations when he hosted media executives and practitioners to break the Ramadan fast at his residence. The governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Bala Maru, said his decision to purchase and distribute vehicles to media outfits was aimed at ameliorating transport difficulties faced by the organisations. He said the gesture would also help the beneficiaries cut costs…
The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has said the rapid mutations and new changes of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) have led to escalation of cases in many countries. Its Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this at the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) briefing on Monday in Abuja. According to him, it is in this mutations and new changes that new variants emerge and those variants have led to the most rapid escalation of cases as we have seen in many countries. ”The virus changing, the more it is transmitted, the more it develops more mutations, the more it develops the capacity…
World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday, inaugurated ”Together for India” appeal to help fund the UN agency’s work in India, including the purchase of oxygen, personal protective equipment and medicines. WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus at COVID-19 media briefing in Geneva, said the world had seen the plateau in number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. In Southeast Asia, the director-general said COVID-19 cases and deaths were increasing rapidly and there were countries in every region where the figures were ticking up. India for instant is undergoing the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, with 403,738 fresh infections and 4,092 deaths in the…
The Police Command in Edo said it rescued seven kidnap victims and killed three suspected kidnappers during an operation in Ahor community. This is contained in a statement in Benin on Monday by SP Kontongs Bello, the command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO). Bello disclosed that in continuation of the forest and bush combing promised by CP Phillip Ogbadu, the Commissioner for Police in Edo, the tactical team of the command and the local vigilante achieved this feat. He said that with the seven rescued victims, and the 13 rescued last Saturday, the total number of victims rescued between Saturday and…