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  • Unmarried women, men cause of spike in HIV infections – NACA

    Unmarried women, men cause of spike in HIV infections – NACA

    A latest study by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has shown that never married men and women contributed the largest number of new HIV infections in the country.

    The study also showed that never married women contributed more to be HIV infections than men.

    While never married individuals, according to the study, contributed to 64 per cent of new HIV infections, but together with new infections among female sex workers (FSW) and men who have sex with men (MSM), they make up 91 per cent of all new infections among adults.

    Furthermore, the study showed that child infections due to mother-to-child transmission represent the second largest source of new infections, accounting for 22 per cent of all new infections.

    Also, key populations, which represent less than 2 per cent of the total population, accounted for about 11 per cent of new infections.

    NACA’s Director General, Dr. Gambo Aliyu, who said these at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, explained that the study has given the country a new direction on innovative ways to focus its attention and utilise resources to make sure that HIV transmission is curtailed in a year or two.

    The director general decried the lack of interest among the younger population to engage and connect with extant HIV prevention services.

    “The younger generation who are never married are not using prevention. They don’t listen or want to have anything to do with HIV services. If we can reach them and connect them, we can come closer to reducing the pandemic. The younger people living with the virus need to be reached with services to curtail transmission among them and newborn.

    “To reduce child infections due to mother-to-child transmission, we must go beyond the hospital and go to the communities to deliver services. We are working at hospitals and community level. They now have more access. Expectant mothers who don’t go for antenatal service are now reached at the comfort of their homes,” he said.

    Aliyu added: “NACA, in collaboration with development partners, has been working tirelessly in coming up with strategies to halt the spread of the HIV and sustain the epidemic.

    “To this end, the Mode of Transmission Study (MOT), which focuses on identifying the sources of new HIV infections in the country and was first conducted in 2009, was recently repeated, using an updated model known as the Incidence Pattern Model (IPM).

    “The never married population is the largest source of new infections and is mostly between the ages of 17 to 34 for females and 19 to 31 for men. Special efforts are needed to be made to reach this population in schools, workplaces, gathering spots and through the social media.

    “There are new infections through newborns due to low coverage of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Efforts will be targeted at encouraging women to attend Antenatal Care (ANC), especially in high prevalence states.”

    “There should be increased efforts, especially for the highest risk FSW and MSM, which have shown that even though the population is small, prevalence remains high among sex workers and MSM, despite the high levels of reported condom use.

    “Even though there is a law against MSM in Nigeria, the law does not deny them access to services or restrain us from delivering service to them. They can assess our HIV services across the country,” he added.

  • HIV increases risk of severe COVID-19 infection – WHO

    HIV increases risk of severe COVID-19 infection – WHO

    A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report has confirmed that HIV infection is a significant independent risk factor for both severe and critical COVID-19 presentation at hospital admission and in-hospital mortality.

    WHO, in a statement on its website, stated that nearly a quarter of people living with HIV and who were hospitalised as a result of COVID-19 infection ended up dying.

    The statement quoted Dr. Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, as saying: “the report released today (Thursday) will have important policy implications.

    “It will provide data to confirm that HIV is a risk for poor outcomes from COVID-19 and increases the urgency to see all PLHIV on treatment and with access to COVID-19 vaccinations.’’

    The report is based on clinical surveillance data from 37 countries regarding the risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes in people living with HIV (PLHIV) admitted to the hospital for COVID-19.

    It found that the risk of developing severe or fatal COVID-19 was 30 percent greater in PLHIV compared to people without HIV infection and underlying conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are common among PLHIV.

    Among male PLHIV over the age of 65 years, diabetes and hypertension were associated with an increased risk of more severe and fatal COVID-19 infection.

    These conditions are known to put people at increased risk of severe disease and death.

    This highlights the need for PLHIV to stay as healthy as possible, regularly access and take their antiretroviral (ARV) medications, and prevent and manage underlying conditions.

    This also means that people living with HIV, independent of their immune status, should be prioritised for vaccination in most settings.

    An informal WHO poll revealed that out of 100 countries with information, 40 countries have prioritised PLHIV for COVID-19 vaccination.

    The analysis is informed by data from WHO’s Global Clinical Platform for COVID-19, which collects individual-level clinical data and characterizes COVID-19 among individuals hospitalised with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection around the globe.

    Later this week, WHO will also release updated Guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery and monitoring.

    These guidelines provide more than 200 evidence-informed recommendations and good practice statements for a public health response to the prevention, testing, and treatment of people living with HIV.

    These recommendations help to ensure that people with HIV can start and continue treatment during times of service disruption as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed 34.7 million lives so far.

    To reach the new proposed global 95–95–95 targets set by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), countries need to redouble efforts to avoid increasing HIV infections due to HIV service disruptions during COVID-19 thereby slowing down the public health response to HIV.

    Earlier, a report released by UNAIDS, it said people living with HIV were more vulnerable to COVID-19.

    According to UNAIDS report released on Wednesday, studies from England and South Africa have shown that the risk of dying from COVID-19 among people living with HIV was double that of the general population.

    UNAIDS in a statement stated that in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to two-thirds (67 per cent) of people living with HIV, less than three per cent had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as at July 2021.

    “At the same time, HIV prevention and treatment services are eluding key populations, as well as children and adolescents.

    “COVID-19 vaccines could save millions of lives in the developing world but are being kept out of reach as rich countries and corporations hold on tightly to the monopoly of production and delivery of supplies for profit.

    “This is having a severe impact around the world as health systems in developing countries become overwhelmed, such as in Uganda, where football stadia are being turned into makeshift hospitals,’’ it stated

  • FG raises alarm over new mother-to-child HIV infections

    FG raises alarm over new mother-to-child HIV infections

    The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has expressed concern over new paediatric HIV infections in children aged 0-4 years.

    He expressed his worry during a national dialogue on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) on Tuesday in Abuja.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the dialogue was organised by the National AIDS/STIs Control Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health.

    He said that in spite of significant achievements in HIV Programme, there were persisting poor outcomes in PMTCT, noting that the dialogue was prompted by the urgency to scale-up sustainable programmes for PMTCT of HIV to eliminate new HIV infections among children.

    He said “Nigeria, being one of the 21 priority countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the elimination of vertical transmission of HIV, committed to and endorsed The Global Plan.

    “We agreed to be held accountable for achieving the set targets by 2015. Since then, we implemented several pillars cutting across leadership, policy and coordination.”

    He, however, said that “data still points to overall underachievement in key result areas, including PMTCT.

    “For example, PMTCT coverage is only 37 per cent and 21,000 new paediatric HIV infections recorded in children aged 0-4 years in 2019.”

    According to him, the growing cases is unacceptable.

    Ehanire explained that major bottlenecks impacting PMTCT negatively included the variable coverage of Antenatal care (ANC) services, unmet need for family planning, poor testing coverage for pregnant women and poor tracking and retention in care for HIV exposed infants, among others.

    “Overall, we estimate that 88 per cent of pregnant women who test positive are on anti-retrovirals (ARVs).”

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mr Adulaziz Mashi Abdullahi, said the dialogue was to provide a platform for all actors to agree on key next steps toward achieving the goal of elimination mother-to-child transmission of HIVAIDS in the country.

    Abdullahi added that the ministry expected stakeholders to review efforts, political and technical issues hindering the achievement of the set goal.

    He noted that special attention was paid to optimising PMTCT at health facilities and scaling up targeted community testing of pregnant women, improving demand creation and HIV case finding among pregnant women and improving Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) services.

    Dr Gambo Aliyu, the Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), however, said that in spite of unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, 350,000 Persons Living with HIV (PLWHIV) were identified in the last 18 months.

    He added that “the 350,000 people identified were put under treatment in the last 18 months in spite of COVID-19.

    “This number is a break from the previous 50,000 to 60,000 a year.”

    Aliyu said NACA accessed some rural communities and maintained services to be able to identify cases.

    He explained that “from a few numbers of one-stop shops, it increased to 60 one-stop shops all over the country and all these accounted to the 350,000 we were able to identify, instead of the traditional 50,000 to 60,000 people.

    “Results from the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) conducted in 2018 shows about 1.9 million people under the age of 64 are living with HIV.”

    On mother-to-child HIV transmission, Aliyu said there was need to tweak the existing strategy to stop the transmission.

    The NACA boss, who said that the number of women on HIV treatment had greatly improved between 2006 and 2019, emphasised that “it is not the PMTCT that is not working, it is the strategy that we have to tweak.

    “If you look at the numbers we had as far back as 2006, we had about 13,000 women on treatment.

    “As of 2019, about 421,000 women on treatment; this is over 200 per cent increase.”

    He, however, lamented that six million out of eight million pregnant women were not attending antenatal care.

    “So, we are battling with two million that are attending antenatal care in implementing these services; for those that we have access to the services are delivered well.”

    He noted that the only way to eliminate MTCT was to take services to the community level, adding that “if we can do that, I guarantee all of us that in the next 18 months, we will see huge rebound that we noticed with ART surge.”

  • 70-year-old man living with HIV rapes 5-year-old girl

    70-year-old man living with HIV rapes 5-year-old girl

    A 70-year old man, Nicholas Akeh, living with HIV for 20-years, has been arrested by the Benue State police command for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl in the state.

    Akeh confessed to the police that he lured the five-year-old, gave her ‘Garri’ to drink, and then forcefully had carnal knowledge of her

    The suspect was arrested in Naka, Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.

     

    He was transferred to the Police Headquarters in Makurdi on Tuesday for further investigation.

     

    Akeh confessed to the police that he lured the five-year-old, gave her ‘Garri’ to drink, and then forcefully had carnal knowledge of her.

     

    Nicholas explained that his living with HIV made his wife to abandon him. He said, as a result, he raped the minor to satisfy his sexual urge.

     

    DSP Catherine Anene, spokesperson of the command confirmed the report and said the suspect is in police custody and investigation is ongoing.

     

    The police spokesperson said, “The suspect has been detained at Benue police headquarters while further investigation is ongoing. He will be charged to court within the week.”

  • HIV Testing, Condom Use: Nigeria, other African countries, off track 2030 targets

    HIV Testing, Condom Use: Nigeria, other African countries, off track 2030 targets

    By Tobore Ovuorie

     

    Analysis of data from 38 African countries indicates very few, if any, are on track to reach the UNAIDS targets for HIV testing and condom use, respectively, by 2030.

    This was one of the major highlights in HIV prevention research recently announced at the 4th HIV Research for Prevention Conference (HIVR4P), convened by the International AIDS Society (IAS). The annual gathering of researchers, thinktanks, amongst others in the HIV field holds virtually this year, due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

    Based on 114 nationally-representative datasets representing more than 1.4 million sexually active people, the study presented by Phuong Nguyen of St. Luke’s International University, revealed that overall, the probabilities of reaching the 2030 targets were very low for both HIV testing at 0 percent to 28.5 percent and condom use with 0 percent to 12.1 percent, respectively.

    The study predicts the countries with the highest coverage of annual HIV testing in 2030 will be Eswatini with 92.6 percent, Lesotho with 90.5 percent and Uganda with 90.5 percent. Eswatini (85 percent), Lesotho with 75.6 percent and Namibia with 75.5 percent respectively, are revealed as the countries which would have the highest proportion of condom use.

     

     

    Source| Google Image

    At the session tagged; ‘Epidemiology: Using the basic science of implementation’ Mr. Nguyen said “the study team estimated coverage of annual HIV testing and condom use at last higher-risk sex for each country and year to 2030, and the probability of reaching UNAIDS testing and condom use targets of 95 percent coverage by 2030.”

    According to the 2019 national data, Nigeria’s South-South zone has the highest HIV prevalence at 3.1 percent among adults aged 15-49 years.

    HIV PHENOMENON IN NIGERIA

    No fewer than 1.9 million persons are estimated to be living with HIV in Nigeria. A 2019 national survey partnership conducted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NAC A) titled: ‘Nigeria National HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS),’ indicates the national HIV prevalence has reduced to 1.4 percent among adults aged 15-49 years when compared to the previous 2.8 percent, estimate.

    The survey states that girls and women between the ages 15-49 are more than twice as likely to be living with the virus than men. A differential ratio of 1.9 versus 0.9 percent is stipulated for both genders, respectively.

    However, the difference in HIV prevalence between women and men is greater among younger adults, with young women aged 20-24 years more than three times as likely to be living with HIV compared to men in the same age group. At the national level, viral suppression among people living with HIV aged 15–49 years stands at 42.3 percent. That is, 45.3 percent among women and 34.5 percent among men.

    According to the 2019 national data, Nigeria’s South-South zone has the highest HIV prevalence at 3.1 percent among adults aged 15-49 years. The North-Central zone has a prevalence rate of 2.0 percent while the South-East has a 1.9 percent rate.

    The survey indicates South-West has a lower HIV prevalence at 1.1 percent while the North-East and North-West Zones follow in same stride with 1.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

    Infograph: NATIONAL HIV PREVALENCE IN NIGERIA
    Infograph: NATIONAL HIV PREVALENCE IN NIGERIA

    The HIV/AIDS virus remains one of humankind’s greatest global health challenges as it has spread across all countries. The spread is on the increase among heterosexuals and bisexual males but predominantly among young persons in African countries like Nigeria. The rapid growth of HIV positive cases in the last few years globally and in Africa indicates majority of Nigerians infected with the virus are the youths. The UNAIDS says the virus is predominant among young people in Africa because they constitute larger percent of the society.

    In November 2016, the National Population Commission put Nigeria’s populations at 182 million people with a widening youth bulge because more than half of these persons were under 30 years of age. However, by Friday June 26th, 2020 at 9.44am, Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data indicates the current population of Nigeria is 206,018,277.

    HIV IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS: NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

    Graph: Nigeria's population
    Graph: Nigeria’s population between 1950-2020

    In the last five years, there has been a significant expansion in the country’s response to HIV. The number of hubs providing treatment has tripled with over 201 centres unlike previous years. For instance, the number of centres providing services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV have increased eightfold and the number of HIV counseling and testing sites has increased fourfold. A total of 11.3 million adults were counseled and tested for HIV in 2016, four times as many as in 2012. But studies emanating from the HIVR4P 2021 conference indicate this is not enough as Nigeria remains off track in meeting the 2030 UNAIDS testing targets.

    Again, the country is still lagging behind in provision of counseling, test and treatment centres strictly for young persons who make up most of Nigeria’s population. Available statistics and data reveal the West African most populous nation has not prioritized tailor-made policy for HIV control such as testing, even for young persons.

     

    CONDOM USAGE IN NIGERIA

    Research findings indicate condom is used both for prophylactic and family planning or pregnancy prevention purposes. However, adverse experience, gender-related fears, cultural and religious beliefs, amongst others hinder the wide usage of condoms in Nigeria.

    Illustration: Condom usage

    For instance, purchase and use of condoms is associated with illicit sex in Nigeria, particularly when purchased and introduced by females – married and single – to their partners. Many Nigerian men believe condoms limit sexual pleasure, while others believe condoms have side effects after use. Many beliefs about condoms abound in Nigeria; one of which is it causes vaginal dryness, inflammation and diseases and a woman’s womb could become dry after repeated use of condoms. Some Nigerian men sampled for this story believe condoms are coffins. They claim condoms not only kill sexual pleasures but overtime affect reproductive organs.

     

    Based on the projections revealed at the ongoing HIV4RP Virtual conference, Mr. Nguyen while presenting the study titled: ‘Progress toward HIV elimination goals: Trends in and projections of Treatment as Prevention strategy in 38 African Countries’ concluded that there is currently “little prospect of reaching global targets for HIV/AIDS elimination,” and calls for “more attention to funding and expanding testing and treatment” in Africa.

     

     

  • Hisbah arrest 43 people, 14 HIV positive in Kano

    Hisbah arrest 43 people, 14 HIV positive in Kano

    The Kano State Hisbah Board has arrested 43 people for prostitution and illegal sales of alcohol substance at Kwanar Gafan vegetables market, in Garun Malam Local Government Area of the state.

    Dr Harun Ibn-Syna, the Commander General of Hisbah who paraded the suspects on Monday in Sharada quarters, confirmed the arrest.

    “Out of the 43, 34 are females while the remaining nine are males, aged between 15 and 18.

    “The investigation conducted on the suspects also revealed that, out of the male number, eight were found selling hard drugs and one person found in possession of 80 cartons of different bottles of beer,’’Ibn-Syna said.

    He said that 14 were HIV positive, 10 knew their status while four do not know, and that three rolls of males and female condoms were also recovered at the market.

    He said that the arrest was jointly organised between Hisbah board and the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

    Earlier, the Director General of the board, Dr Aliyu Kibiya, disclosed that most of the suspects are from Kano, while some of them are from neighbouring states which include Adamawa, Anambra, Cross river, Bauchi, Benue, Kaduna, Niger, Gombe and Taraba.

  • UNAIDS raises alarm over deaths of 45,000 persons living with HIV in Nigeria

    UNAIDS raises alarm over deaths of 45,000 persons living with HIV in Nigeria

    At least 45,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria died in 2019, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said on Tuesday.

    Fiona Braka, a representative of the UN agency, made this known at a press conference ahead of the 2020 World AIDS Day organised by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).

    She said the death rate is “unacceptable”.

    “This is unacceptable as it’s happening in an era where government, donors and partners have successfully made life-saving medication and commodities available,” she said.

    The World AIDS Day is celebrated December 1 every year to honour the people who have fallen to the disease as well as people living with HIV.

    It is also celebrated to raise awareness of the disease and the need for people to know their status.

    The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is ‘Global solidarity, Shared responsibility’.

    Ms Braka said the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the progress that the world has made in health and development.

    She noted that international agencies have collected data from countries through an online platform to identify how the pandemic has affected the delivery of routine HIV services and emerging challenges.

    She commended the country’s effort in achieving 73 per cent coverage concerning people knowing their HIV status despite challenges posed by the pandemic.

    She, however, said more work needs to be done to get more people tested to know their status

    In his remarks, Director-General of NACA, Gambo Aliyu, said Nigeria has adopted the theme, ‘United to End AIDS in the Midst of COVID-19, So Get Tested’ due to the pandemic ravaging the world.

    He said the 2020 HIV/AIDS response is different because of the coronavirus outbreak.

    “We have heard and seen the impact of it on HIV programs. Even though we are scrutinising our data to find out the real impact on people living with HIV and AIDS.

    “One thing that we know without looking at our data, we know that in terms of very economic realities, COVID-19 has had an adverse economic impact compared to other outbreak population,” he said.

    He noted that the agency has launched a project, Prevent, Protect and Empower in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and supported by UNAIDS.

    He said the project will focus on women living with HIV/AIDS because of their vulnerability.

    “We are focusing on women simply because in terms of equality when it comes to businesses and empowerment, women are disadvantaged.

    “I want to make sure that, first of all, we take care of women living with HIV and AIDS before we focus our attention t

  • Covid-19 may never go away, WHO admits

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has admitted that COVID-19 may never go away, Reuters reports.

    WHO’s executive director emergencies program, Mike Ryan, on Wednesday said the coronavirus may just become one of the viruses around the world that kill people annually.

    “This virus just may become another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away. HIV hasn’t gone away.

    “I’m not comparing the two diseases but I think it is important that we’re realistic. I don’t think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear,” Ryan said.

    HIV/AIDS was first clinically observed in 1981 in the United States and after 30 years, no vaccine has been found.

    Over 4.31million cases of Coronavirus have been reported around the world, with over 294,000 deaths already recorded.

  • COVID-19: FG to deploy machines for testing HIV, Ebola for Coronavirus

    COVID-19: FG to deploy machines for testing HIV, Ebola for Coronavirus

    Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health has said the federal government will deploy 300 GeneXperts Machines to test for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr Ehanire disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, at the Presidential Taskforce Briefing on COVID-19, stressing that Nigerians should be aware that the elderly among them are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

    GeneXpert machines, widely deployed about a decade ago to rapidly detect tuberculosis, including milt-drugs resistant strains, had since been adapted to enable rapid testing of many other pathogens, including not only HIV and hepatitis C, but also influenza, Ebola and sexually transmitted infections.

    Ehaire said the recent inclusion of University College Hospital, Ibadan into the network laboratories for COVID-19, and ongoing assessment to include seven other laboratories in the next three weeks would enable increased testing capacity and improved turn-around time.

    The Minister said the laboratories would assist other response activities, thereby reducing the number of deaths, stressing that it would be critical to reduce turnaround time between identifying a suspected case and confirmation.

    Ehanire said the closure of the airports and also the land borders would reduce the number of importation “of new cases”. He, however, said that Nigerians should be aware that the elderly among them were particularly vulnerable groups.

    Giving an update on the confirmed cases; the minister said that as at 11.15 am March 31, there were 135 cases of COVID19 reported in Nigeria with two deaths, while five had been discharged.

    He added that currently, Lagos had 81; Abuja- 25, Ogun – Four, Ekiti – one, Oyo – Eight, Osun, Five , Enugu – Two, Edo – Two, Bauchi -Two, Kaduna three, while Benue ,Rivers had one case respectively.

    “Lagos state still has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country with 81 cases. The cases reported were from travellers who have just returned to the country. Other cases were from people who have come in contact with infected people,” he said

    In his remarks, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said that the strategy that NCDC were still applying was one of containment.

    “ It means that still at a point, where we think we have a window of opportunity to identify all the cases, confirm them, bring them into care.

    “We confirm all their contacts, follow up each of them, make sure they don’t have the disease and if they do have the disease, bring them into care,” he disclosed.

    Ihekweazu said that this was a tedious process, because NCDC is following about 5000 cases all over the country.

    “Do we have to really meet? We will be destroying the efforts we’re making collectively.

    “It’s only by doing this and bearing this pain for a few weeks that we have a small chance of containing this outbreak,” he said.

    Ihekweazu disclosed that an updated case definition was taken into account for the epidemiology of the virus and the transmission pattern seen in the country.

    He said the agency would continue to review guidelines such as the case definition, as more precise information emerged on the COVID-19 outbreak including characteristics of transmission and geographical spread.

    “The major update to the current case definition, is that any patient with acute respiratory illness within the last 10 days (fever and either cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath) and in absence of an alternative diagnosis that explains the clinical presentation and residing or working in the last 14 days in an area identified by NCDC as a moderate or high prevalence region will be treated as a suspect case.

    “This is in addition to the already existing case definition where the focus is on symptomatic patients (fever and either cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath) who are recent international travelers within 14 days of arrival or contacts of confirmed cases, “ he explained.

    Chairman of the Presidential Task Force for the control of COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, said they had just begun the first day of restrictions in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja.

    Mustapha said that PTF was observing developments around the country as they received reports.

    He disclosed that the PTF had however met with Security Chiefs to smoothen the rough edges of implementation and within the first day of implementation and an appropriate restriction protocol and exemption guidelines would be issued.

    “Initial feedback is that there are violations of restrictions by the citizens that we desire to protect. Let me emphasise that the decision to lockdown is to prevent community spread which may be dangerous to manage.

    “It can only be done by Nigerians and for Nigerians,” he stressed.

  • Exclusive: [Video]Those who wish me Covid-19, will have HIV

    Exclusive: [Video]Those who wish me Covid-19, will have HIV

    Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has reacted to reports making the rounds in the media that he should subjects self to self-isolation.

    According to reports, Yahaya Bello had contacts with the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari who recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

    “I got no Covid, those who wish me to have Covid, will have HIV. I am good, hale and hearty and I am challenging everyone to the boxing ring…” Says Gov. Bello