Category: Covid-19

$4.7m Malawi Covid Fund Missing After Audit

22May

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

Corruption, Covid-19, Finance, Malawi, News

$4.7m Malawi Covid Fund Missing After Audit

An audit into Covid spending in Malawi has found that around $4.7m (£3.7m) cannot be accounted for from $21m set aside to deal with the second phase of the pandemic. This is on top of $881m from the first phase that a 2020 audit showed had been spent irregularly or was not accounted for. After the first audit, President Lazarus Chakwera promised to crack down on the culprits and several officials were taken to court, though none of the cases have yet concluded. The latest investigation - a 66-page report by the country’s auditor general - lists the irregularities, which include undelivered medical supplies, allowances paid without attendance sheets and fuel acquired without official documentation. Read Also: Face Masks Now Optional, COVID-19 Restrictions To Go Soon – FG ...

Face Masks Now Optional, COVID-19 Restrictions To Go Soon – FG

31Mar

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

Face Masks Now Optional, COVID-19 Restrictions To Go Soon – FG

COVID-19 The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 has said the use of face masks in public places is now optional, while the decision on the final relaxation of measures will be taken after Easter. The Head of the Technical Secretariat, who also doubles as the Secretary of the PSC on COVID-19, Dr Muktar Muhammed, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja. Countries across the world have started relaxing COVID-19 measures. Recently, Ghana, a West African country, announced that the use of face masks was no longer mandatory. Nigeria has continued to witness a drop in the number of daily COVID-19 cases. The PSC also announced that it would stop demanding proof of PCR tests from fully vaccinated travellers. Muhammed stated, “We are easing up ...

FG To Integrate Childhood Immunisation Into COVID-19 Vaccination

26Jan

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

FG To Integrate Childhood Immunisation Into COVID-19 Vaccination

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency(NPHCDA), in Nigeria on Tuesday announced that it would integrate childhood vaccination at COVID-19 vaccination sites for children from 0-23 months in the ongoing mass vaccination exercise. Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, NPHCDA, disclosed this at the National COVID-19 Vaccines weekly briefing, in Abuja Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, NPHCDA, disclosed this in a statement delivered at the National COVID-19 Vaccines weekly briefing, in Abuja and was shared on the Twitter handle of NPHCDA, @Nphcda. Shuaib explained that the integration was to ensure that preventable childhood diseases are not neglected in the face of the response against the COVID-19 pandemic. The NPHCDA boss also called on Nigerians to endeavour they...

Lagos Government Declares End Of COVID-19 Fourth Wave

23Jan

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

Lagos Government Declares End Of COVID-19 Fourth Wave

The fourth wave of COVID-19 is over in Lagos, the state government has said. Commissioner for Health in the state, Prof Akin Abayomi, said that a consistent decrease in COVID-19 case positivity was an indication of the end of the fourth wave in the state. Read Also: COVID-19: Nigerian Government Vows To Bar Unvaccinated Workers From Offices By December Abayomi in an update on his Twitter account said there was a reduction in positivity rates of COVID-19 infection from 29.3 per cent recorded on December 21, 2021, to 1.9 per cent on January 20, 2022. He put bed capacity utilisation at only two percent and fatality rate at 0.71 per cent. But the commissioner asked Lagosians to get vaccinated and continue to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to further reduce the s...

Enforce Compulsory Vaccination On LG, State Workers – FG Tells Governors

10Jan

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

Enforce Compulsory Vaccination On LG, State Workers – FG Tells Governors

The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency has urged state governments to step up mass vaccination against COVID-19 as part of moves to combat the virus. The agency, in its latest advisory obtained by one of our correspondents in Abuja, also urged state governors to enact and enforce vaccination mandate for local and state government workers. This came to fore as the percentage for fully vaccinated Nigerians stalled at 4.2 per cent while those that had taken their first dose remained grounded at 9.8 per cent as of Sunday, January 9, 2021. The NCDC in its daily updates continued to report increase in the number of fatalities reporting no fewer than 38 deaths between January 1 and January 8. Despite the increasing number of cases and deaths, some states have not vaccinate...

Why Garba Shehu, Other Presidential Aides Contracted COVID-19— Femi Adesina

27Dec

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

Why Garba Shehu, Other Presidential Aides Contracted COVID-19— Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, says there is nothing abnormal in presidential aides testing positive for COVID-19. There had been reports that some presidential aides including the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Tijani Umar; the President’s aide-de-camp (ADC), Yusuf Dodo; his chief security officer (CSO), Aliyu Musa, and his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu tested positive for COVID-19 and were in isolation. Speaking on the development, Adesina, in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, said presidential aides are also humans and not immune to happenings around them. Read Also: Electoral Act Amendment: Buhari Returns Bill To NASS, Faults Direct Primaries, Cites Insecurity “What I...

Lai Mohammed Does Not Have COVID-19 – Aide

26Dec

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Breaking News, Covid-19, News, Nigeria, Press Statement

Lai Mohammed Does Not Have COVID-19 – Aide

The minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has dismissed claims that he has COVID-19. According to a statement released by his special adviser, the minister is hale and hearty as against reports making the rounds. The statement reads: The attention of the office of the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has been drawn to a report making the rounds that he has contracted the Covid-19 virus and that he is now in isolation, where he is receiving treatment. For the record, the Minister does not have Covid-19, hence he is neither in isolation nor receiving treatment anywhere. That report, which was first published by an online newspaper and then latched on to by some mainstream lapdog media, once again highlights the uphill task we face i...

Canada Lifts Travel Restriction On Nigeria, South Africa, Others

18Dec

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

Canada Lifts Travel Restriction On Nigeria, South Africa, Others

Canada has lifted the travel ban on foreign travellers from Nigeria and nine other African countries. This was disclosed by the country's Health Minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, at a news conference on Friday. Asides Nigeria, the travel restriction on flights was also lifted on South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Malawi and Egypt. However, the country re-imposed testing as it warned that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 risks quickly overwhelming hospitals. Read Also: We Won’t Reverse Travel Ban Over FG’s Threat – UK He said the lifting of the travel ban would take effect from 11:59 pm on Saturday. The restriction had been announced last month “to slow the arrival of Omicron in Canada and buy us some time,” he said. “But with Omicron...

We Won’t Reverse Travel Ban Over FG’s Threat – UK

13Dec

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria, Transportation

We Won’t Reverse Travel Ban Over FG’s Threat – UK

The British High Commission on Sunday said the United Kingdom would not reverse its travel ban on Nigeria because of a threat of retaliation by the Federal Government. The spokesman for the British High Commission, Dean Hurlock, said this in response to an inquiry by The PUNCH on Sunday over a statement by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that the UK, Canada and Saudi Arabia would be put on Nigeria’s travel ban on Tuesday. Hurlock stated that Britain had made it clear that travel abroad would be different this year, adding that the UK was sticking to its “standard background lines.” Read BREAKING: NCDC Confirms Two Cases Of Omicron Variant In Nigeria In a text message to the high commission, Punch stated that the Federal Government had said it would place a travel ban on ...

FG restricts Airlines from UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia in Reciprocity Over Omicron

12Dec

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Covid-19, News, Nigeria

FG restricts Airlines from UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia in Reciprocity Over Omicron

With effect from Tuesday, Dec. 14, the Federal Government will restrict airlines coming from Canada, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia into Nigeria. Minister of Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika, announced the decision on Sunday in Lagos and explained that it was to reciprocate restricted flights from Nigeria into those countries over the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron. Sirika said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would also place the United Kingdom, Canada and Saudi Arabia on a red list over the outbreak and spread of the Omicron variant. The minister noted that if those countries placed Nigeria on a red list, they lacked a moral right to have their airlines fly into Nigeria on commercial operations. “There is also the case of Saudi Arabia that put Nigeria on the ban list. O...