TheNewsGuru

Tag: Coronavirus

  • Commissioner fired by Ganduje for celebrating Kyari’s death tests positive for COVID-19

    Commissioner fired by Ganduje for celebrating Kyari’s death tests positive for COVID-19

    A former Commissioner in Kano State, Muaz Magaji, fired by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for celebrating the death of Abba Kyari has tested positive for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Muaz Magaji made this known using his Facebook profile on Thursday, saying the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) released the result this morning.

    “This morning my NCDC test is out…I have been confirmed Covid-19 positive…And have been moved to one of the state facilities…pray for us!,” the former commissioner wrote.

    Recall that Kyari, 67, a former chief of staff to President Muhammad Buhari, died last month from complications of COVID-19.

    However, Muaz Magaji took to his Facebook page to express delight over the passing of late Kyari, declaring that “Nigeria is free”.

    But hours after making the comments, Governor Ganduje relieved Muaz Magaji of his position as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure.

  • Serie A player tests positive for coronavirus ahead of training return

    Serie A player tests positive for coronavirus ahead of training return

    An unidentified player at Serie A club Torino has tested positive for the coronavirus in the first round of testing ahead of the club’s planned return to training on Friday.

    Serie A clubs have begun to return to training this week after Italy’s eight-week lockdown, the longest in Europe.

    However, there has still been no decision on when, or if, the Serie A season can start again.

    “During the first medical examinations carried out on the players of Torino FC, a positive result emerged for COVID-19,” the club said on its website on Wednesday.

    “The player, currently asymptomatic, was immediately placed in quarantine and will be constantly monitored.”

    The club did not give any further details.

    Although Serie A has said that all 20 of its clubs want to restart the season, Torino appear to have been among the less enthusiastic.

    The club’s president Urbano Cairo said last week that Italy should already be thinking about next season.

    Neighbours Juventus, who began training on Tuesday, said that Argentina forward Paulo Dybala, one of three members of their squad who were infected in March, had tested negative.

    “The player is therefore cured and no longer undergoing the home isolation regime,” said the Serie A champions.

    Serie A’s bid to resume faces a test on Thursday when the medical guidelines drawn up by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) would be discussed with the government’s technical-scientific committee.

    Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said last week that the guidelines were insufficient and that the chances of a re-start were getting narrower.

    On Wednesday, Spadafora told the lower house of parliament that the decision should not be rushed.

    “I confirm my position and that of the government: we all hope that the championship can resume,” he said.

    “But today it is impossible to identify a certain date, we must see how the contagion curve will react. We only began phase two (easing lockdown measures) two days ago.”

    “It must be taken into consideration that football does not allow for safe distancing or use of protective measures,” he added.

    “The idea of immediately deciding on a date goes against the need to analyse the data.”

  • Wuhan With Love, By Jefferson Uwoghiren

    Wuhan With Love, By Jefferson Uwoghiren

    Yesterday I walked into the lairs of quixotic air checking in on a terminally ill friend at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. With the agony of uncertainty, hanging and pervading the air , a visit to a confirmed corona management centre, collapsed and complicated my sturdy nerves and making my hair on end. I wasn’t scared though, but was sufficiently petrified of ensnaring claws of tiny monsters floating blissfully and suzeraintly.
    At the accident and emergency unit, right at the entrance of the hospital, death and hope have never seemed at peace and war. Healthcare workers in restrained haste, patients howling in unrestrained anguish and relations of the sick, in glances and sighs that express and suppress hope, disaster, fear and ennui. A scene of shifting emotions and cascading cultural watershed.
    As Africans we never die alone. When we choose to exist, it is usually in the presence of kindred and floating ancestral spirits, forming a guide, guard and smooth transition from the physical to the spiritual. We never die alone but sleep in the deep profundity of fecund graves, unlike animals- usually the domesticated ones, that end up in a hole. It is all deception and double speak. A grave is a hole, but it’s so called a grave, because we can’t bear to describe the final terminus of our love ones, as a hole, full of waiting insects, rodents and suffocating gas. We managed death so blissfully, so alluringly that, illnesses, deaths and burials have ritualistic, cultural and religious processes all executed with warmth, affections and sighs. All that is about to change.
    Yesterday, at the U.B.T.H, in the face of agonizing distrust, I saw health workers, express emotions ranging from horror and pity as tragedies mixed with triumphs. It was obvious that they are fighting an asymmetrical war in a constantly shifting battleground. They are fighting a virus that is merciless against interlocutors and interpleaders .They are fighting against microbes who aren’t hiding or lurking, but are on the attack, against human prey. They are frenetically battling against tiny mosters ,who have no respect for medical doctors and nurses. They are fighting against inexustably dangerous virus, protesting intrusion of their environments by scientists in search of laurels. A sordid case of trouble go sleep yanga go wake am. These viruses have always existed in their world until we invaded their habitats. Like bees in a calm beehive, they never bothered men. We invaded their environment, intruded their sphere and became infected, providing these mutating idiots new opportunities for epidemic fame and media attention.
    Yesterday at U.B.T.H, I saw frightened doctors. I saw worried nurses. I saw defanged soldiers poised in battle with dangerous and extremely hazardous infectious enemies with the poorest of containment ammunition. Doctors and Nurses are paying a heavy price for the sins of their silly sick laboratory quarantined colleagues. Patients are dying not from Corona, but from their shocking fall from grace. They have become moving time bombs, pathogenic persons, stripped of humanity and all worldly acclaims. They are dying alone and massively dumped into holes, like domesticated animals, without farewell, thanks to the invaders of Wuhan.

    Jefferson Uwoghiren Esq
    Benin City.
    5th May, 2020

  • COVID-19: Its foolishness to shut churches and open markets, hospitals where people die everyday – Oyedepo tells FG, States

    COVID-19: Its foolishness to shut churches and open markets, hospitals where people die everyday – Oyedepo tells FG, States

    Presiding Bishop, Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo has chided the Federal and State Governments for opening markets and continue to lock up churches in the country.

    Oyedepo, in his sermon, said the churches should be opened, wondering why government took such a foolish decision.

    He said there was something wrong for government to allow markets to open for six hours and not allow churches to open for two hours.

    “There should be opening of the churches around the world. Sir, there is something wrong for people to be allowed to be in the market for six hours and can’t be in Church for two hours.

    “It is an upside down ways of looking at things, while quoting Ecclesiastic 4:13 which said “Better is a poor and wise child than an old foolish king who will no more be admonished.”

    “Which one is more orderly, the market or the church? I can smell a rat, the Lord spoke to me about it yesterday. Behind all this, how do we stop the church from exploding?

    “The greatest headache of the power of darkness is the expansion and progress of the church. No civilization had ever endured without a foundation in Christ.

    “I can smell a rat, the forces of darkness are influencing people against the church, targeting the church. But the gate of hell shall not prevail against the church, they shall gather but they shall fall. The devil and all his agents will pay for this.

    “Hospital where people die everyday is opened and the church is closed,” he stated.

  • 103 Nigerians dead from Coronavirus, as number of cases surpass 3,000

    103 Nigerians dead from Coronavirus, as number of cases surpass 3,000

    Coronavirus death toll in Nigeria has climbed to 103, with five new deaths recorded by the nation on Wednesday.

    According to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, five new deaths recorded on Wednesday took the nation’s death toll to 103.

    Also, the report shows Nigeria now has 3,145 confirmed cases of Coronavirus.

    Of the 195 new cases released, Lagos leads the pack with 82 new infections of the deadly disease, while Kano followed with 30 new cases

    Of the 103 people who died of Coronavirus, 30 of them were from Lagos, while Borno recorded 14 deaths.

    Kano has recorded 13 deaths so far, after two people died on Wednesday.

    Katsina and Sokoto States have recorded eight deaths each, while FCT, Edo and Osun have recorded four deaths each.

    While Delta has three deaths, Ogun, Oyo, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom and Rivers have recorded two deaths each.

    Kaduna, Jigawa, Yobe, Ekiti and Nasarawa, have all recorded one death each.

  • Delta: COVID-19 patient from Ughelli dies in isolation

    Delta: COVID-19 patient from Ughelli dies in isolation

    The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient reported from Ughelli South Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State is dead, bringing to 3 the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the State.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Charles Aniagwu, the State Commissioner for Information made this known in an update published on Wednesday.

    With the development, there are now 12 active cases of COVID-19 in the State, from the poll of 17 confirmed cases, of which 3 are now dead, and 2 have been discharged after testing negative twice to the virus.

    A breakdown of LGA with COVID-19 in the State shows that Udu has reported 4 cases, Uvwie has reported 5 cases, Warri South has reported 4 cases, Oshimili South has reported 2 cases, while Ethiope West and Ughelli have reported a case each.

    While other LGAs have not reported any case of the virus, the death cases so far are from Udu, Ughelli South and Uvwie LGAs.

  • $3.4bn loan: Keep receipts of spending, IMF tells Nigeria

    $3.4bn loan: Keep receipts of spending, IMF tells Nigeria

    Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government of Nigeria to keep receipts of spending of the $3.4bn emergency financial assistance.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Kristalina Georgieva, who gave the advice on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC Africa revealed that the IMF had already disbursed the $3.4bn emergency financial assistance to Nigeria.

    The IMF chief stated that accountability and transparency cannot be allowed to take the back seat and that it was very important to retain the trust of people who are going through difficult times as the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ravages the world.

    “One important message we send to everybody and it was indicated in the case of Nigeria as well is, yes, spend, because you have to support the economy going over this difficult time, it’s like building a bridge, but keep the receipt.

    “We cannot afford to have accountability and transparency taking back seat. I am very pleasantly impressed by how many countries have actually in their letter of intent tell us how they exactly going to make their spending transparent. Very very important to retain the trust of people who are going through such a difficult time,” she said.

    Kristalina Georgieva further stated that the IMF expects that countries, as stated in their letter of intent, would prioritise health systems and the most vulnerable people in the society in their spendings.

    “What we are asking countries in their letter of intent to the fund in which they state what they want to use the money for is to prioritise two things: prioritise health systems, pay doctors, nurses, sustain hospitals, and prioritise support for the most vulnerable people to social safety net and other programmes, and to most vulnerable parts of the economy,” she said.

    When asked if the loan had been disbursed to Nigeria, Kristalina Georgieva said, “We have already disbursed. In emergency assistance, the board approves, we disburse within days to the country and it goes to their central bank in dollars before it gets converted into naira in the case of Nigeria.

    “The conditions are quite favourable. Repayment period is five years, up to two and half years is grace period and the interest on the loan is one per cent.

    “We have put in place policy tracking action, and we are seeing progress each country is making. The IMF will continue to support countries and shield them from catastrophic implications of the COVID-19 crisis.

  • COVID-19: FG grants two-month licence-fee waiver to broadcast stations

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has announced the granting of a two-month licence-fee waiver for terrestrial broadcast stations in the country by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), as part of efforts to ease the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the broadcast industry.

    The Minister, who stated this at a meeting with the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja on Wednesday, also announced the setting up of a committee of Creative Industry stakeholders to look into and advise the Federal Government on the best way to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the industry.

    “Before I announce the terms of reference of the committee, let me say that in the interim, I want to announce that I have approved the request by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to grant a two-month licence-fee waiver for terrestrial broadcast stations in Nigeria.

    “I make bold to say that while BON members have been hit hard by the current pandemic, they are not alone. In fact, the entire Creative Industry, which also covers the Broadcast Industry, has been affected by the pandemic that has inflicted extensive damage on the economy of nations across the world,” he said.

    Mohammed stressed the need for a collective and government-supported approach in dealing with the immediate, short and long term palliatives and initiatives for the industry, in order to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the Industry.

    “We have therefore decided that instead of addressing this problem piecemeal, we should do so holistically for a more positive outcome,” he said, noting that the Creative Industry is a very critical sector of the nation’s economy and a major plank of the economic diversification policy of this Administration, in addition to creating the highest number of jobs after Agriculture.

    The Minister said the terms of reference of the committee include to assess the expected impact of the pandemic on the industry in general and advise the Government on how to mitigate job and revenue losses in the sector as well as to create succour for the industry small businesses.

    The committee is also to suggest the type of taxation and financing that is best for the industry at this time to encourage growth and also advise the Government on any other measure or measures that can be undertaken to support the industry.

    The committee has Ali Baba, a renowned Comedian, as Chairman while Anita Eboigbe of the News Agency of Nigeria will serve as Secretary.

    Other members of the Committee include Bolanle Austen Peters, Charles Novia, Segun Arinze, Ali Jita, Baba Agba, Kene Okwuosa, Efe Omoregbe, Prince Daniel Aboki, Chioma Ude, Olumade Adesemowo, Dare Art Alade and Hajia Sa’a Ibrahim.

    Representatives of the Fashion, Publishing, Photography as well as Hospitality and Travel sectors are also to be included in the committee, which has four weeks to submit its report.

    In her remarks, the Chairperson of BON, Hajia Sa’a Ibrahim, who was represented by Sir Godfrey Ohuabunwa, called for urgent mitigating measures for broadcast stations in the country which, she said, have all suffered huge revenue losses due to the pandemic.

    She disclosed that privately-owned broadcast stations have contributed over N2 billion worth of airtime, free of charge, for public sensitization and awareness campaign for the containment of the disease in Nigeria as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

  • COVID-19: 700 suspected persons in isolation in Ebonyi

    COVID-19: 700 suspected persons in isolation in Ebonyi

    Over 700 suspected persons are in Ebonyi State at the State’s isolation centre at the state’s holding area.

    They were rounded up across the state especially at the borders as they made to enter Ebonyi state from states with high risk areas.

    Governor of the state, David Umahi stated this after a joint Security/Covid-19 Committee meeting.

    The governor spoke in Abakaliki, the State Capital in a live briefing to the people of the state on the state’s broadcast stations.

    He said the 700 persons under isolation are being kept at the Pa Oruta Ngele Township Stadium Abakaliki.

    On the five confirmed cases in the state, the Governor said they are responding to treatment at the State’s isolation centre at Unity Square Abakaliki.

    Mr Umahi said that another 300 bed isolation centre built by the state government at Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki is ready and will be handed over to the hospital in the next 10 days.

    He however said the state government has decided to decentralise the isolation procedure to the 64 Development Centres and the 13 local government areas.

    “From henceforth anybody entering the state should be taken to the nearest development centre and quarantined there”

    “While there they will attended to and monitored by the medical teams 24 hours of the day. Anyone who manifests symptoms of Covid-19 will then be brought to Abakaliki holding centre for tests”, he said.

    The Governor said the new method will place the responsibility of detecting returnees on every community.

    He charged community leaders and indeed every resident of the state to take the task serious.

    “You are not doing yourself family or community a favour if you allow any returnee stay at home without coming to the isolation centre. If the persons has it then he will likely spread it to more people in your area. So it is better you help bring such persons to any of the development centres for isolation”, he advised.

  • Corona Watch 20: Chance to start all over again – David Anaka

    Corona Watch 20: Chance to start all over again – David Anaka

    By David Ananaka

    To those who have lost loved ones to Corona virus, take heart and be comforted. The sun will rise and you will smile again.

    To those presently infected with COVID-19, have faith, you will recover.

    To medical practitioners at the front-line of this war against Corona virus, thank you for your good works, sacrifices and perseverance.

    THE WORLD WAS MOVING TOO FAST AND WITHOUT DIRECTION

    The world at some point started moving really fast, I mean swiftly fast. The rich kept getting super richer while the poor on the other hand were finding it rather ridiculously impossible to break from the ugly cycle of poverty. Depression was hitting really hard among the younger generation below 35 who were more vulnerable to societal pressure. These vulnerable younger individuals felt they could not live up to the fancy lifestyle seen across various social media platforms. It was really hard to tell which direction the world was actually heading. It was indeed a circus of crashing carousels. It was obvious people were engrossed in some sort of pursuit that kept eluding them. Was it the pursuit of happiness? Whatever the pursuit was, more people were being trapped in oblivion.

    COULD THERE BE A GOOD SIDE TO THE BAD COVID-19

    The truth is, there is a good and bad side to everything including the dreaded Corona virus. Corona virus is bad no doubt, because it makes people sick and can also kill them. But looking at the positive policies designed to curb the spread of this pandemic we are faced with at the moment and their impacts, such as the sit at home policy, it is obvious that there is some sort of balancing happening. The world has finally applied brakes and we can breathe again. Here’s how:

    FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS RESTORED

    Stay at home, obviously has affected several businesses that were considered non-essential during this pandemic period, but it has to a large extent, restored family values and trust. For several weeks, most people across the world were mandated to stay indoors and work from home so as to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. This really fostered good relationship among family members who obviously had no place to go to outside their homes, as most public spaces and services were closed. People who had super busy work schedules that gave them little or no time to appreciate family, could actually slowdown to think of ways to connect and reach out to family members.

    PRIORITIES SET RIGHT

    People were actually able to recognize and value things that matter most to them aside just their jobs or businesses. A lot of personal questions were answered which in turn will help people live better lives. The high rate of depression among young people will no doubt drop because they had listening ears and were able to connect with family members through this pandemic period.

    IMPROVED PERSONAL HYGIENE

    Personal hygiene which was treated with frivolity by many before the COVID-19 pandemic, can now be said to be a thing of the past. We now notice a general improvement in personal hygiene which is commendable and trusted to stand the test of time.

    WE SAVED OUR PLANET TOO

    While the lock-down or stay at home directive lasted, there were less vehicles on roads which implied less emission of substances that affects our air.

    The list goes on, but I’ll put up my pen here to read your comments.

    Do you feel you this pandemic will have a way of healing the world? Feel free to share your experience on how you’ve been transformed into a better person or not by this experience.

    Leave a comment below

    Just a piece of my heart.

    Heart of Dave