Tag: UK

COVID-19: FG raises alarm over persons evacuated from UAE, UK, US

The federal government has raised an alarm, warning Nigerians against visiting friends and relations recently evacuated from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) gave the warning on Thursday.

In his remarks during the daily press briefing of the PTFCOVID19, the SGF said some of the returnees failed to adhere to the conditions attached to their quarantine, stressing that complying with the warning is in the interest of the visiting relation and in the overall public interest.

Read remarks below:

I welcome you to the National Briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 for Thursday, 14th May, 2020.

2.From today 14th May 2020, we begin the countdown to the end of the first phase of eased lockdown approved by the President, so that our economy could gradually reopen. At the same time, we continue our assessment of the level of compliance with the guidelines and the impact on slowing down the spread of COVID 19. In due course, we shall make further recommendations before the second phase commences.

3.I must, however, state that our initial evaluation point firmly in the direction of a high level of non-compliance which, as we have often warned, portend grave self-inflicted danger. This fact has made it imperative for me to re-echo our call for taking personal responsibility. You must abide with the guidelines (wash your hands as frequently as necessary; use hand sanitizers; maintain social distancing, use a face mask or covering in public places). In addition, you must comply with the ban on inter-state travels, avoid crowded places, observe the curfew and do all you can to STAY HOME and STAY SAFE.

4.You will recall that when the new measures were rolled out and published, we ensured that certain economic activities pertaining to food production and distribution were exempted. This, for the avoidance of doubts includes farming activities. We recognize the fact that we are in the planting season and the nation cannot afford to prevent our hardworking farmers from going to their farms. We therefore use this medium to reemphasize that farmers fall within the list of exemptions and urge State Governors, Local Government Authorities and security agencies to please allow them to carry out their activities. Our food security is critical to our national security.

5.In the past two days, the PTF has briefed the topmost decision-making bodies of the country on progress, challenges and planned course of action. The objective was to seek further guidance and fresh ideas to improve the fight against COVID-19. The briefing was robust and very helpful in bringing renewed cohesion into the efforts of government.

6.The statistics on COVID 19 have continued to come out daily and the indications are that our testing strategy is yielding results because we can now give care to those that need it. The PTF wishes to congratulate all our frontline health workers that have

collectively nursed back to health, a total of 1,071 Nigerians already discharged from the various isolation treatment centres. These health workers have put in all, even beyond the call of duty, to save lives. We also congratulate all those that have been discharged and urge them to come out and tell their stories. We need to tell Nigerians that COVID-19 is real, that it is deadly and that prevention is better than cure. There is no better convincing and compelling evidence of the reality of the dangers than your experience.

7.The PTF reported the progress made with the evacuation of some Nigerians from the UAE, UK & USA. We also informed you about the mandatory quarantine protocol. Nigerians have in recent days been served with different audio-visual clips by some of these returnees. The PTF is saddened by the conduct of some of the returnees who fail to adhere to the conditions attached to their quarantine. I strongly urge them to obey the rules in the facilities and also urge their friends and relations to recognize the contagious nature of the disease by desisting from visiting them. Complying is in the interest of the visiting relation and in the overall public interest.

8.The PTF is pleased to inform you that it has facilitated the visit of the national leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association, JOHESU, National Association of Nurses & Midwives, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Association of Health Professionals and the National Association of Resident Doctors to Kano and Lagos.

Unfortunately, due to traffic gridlock, the delegation could not carry out its mission in Lagos and would repeat it in the coming week. This collaboration underscores the importance the PTF attaches to inclusiveness in the battle against COVID-19. It also reassures our medical personnel that they remain a top priority for government in this effort.

9.The PTF welcomes the resolution of the Nigeria Governors Forum to take steps to ramp up testing and provide the prescribed minimum number of bed spaces in their

isolation/treatment centres. We in turn assure the States that the NCDC will continue to provide technical support and standardization guidelines. It will also continue to firmly

pursue its surveillance activities nationwide. We urge the States to recognize the essence of a strong partnership and always allow overarching public interest to prevail.

10Finally, let me remind all Nigerians that in this battle, vigilance is required, self-preservation is important, collective action is necessary and compliance with guidelines is imperative. All these will help us prevent infection. .

11.I now cede the podium to the Hon. Minister of Health, the DG NCDC and the National Coordinator to update the nation.

12.I thank you for listening.

May 14, 2020
COVID-19: Auto plants resume production in U.S., UK

Some auto plants will resume production this week in the United States and United Kingdom.

Mchigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has said the state’s factories can reopen on Monday (today), removing one of the last major obstacles to North American automakers bringing thousands of laid-off employees back to work amid the coronavirus pandemic.

While reopening the manufacturing sector, Whitmer also extended her state’s stay-at-home order by about two weeks to May 28, citing a desire to avoid a second wave of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but this is an important step forward. As we continue to phase in sectors of our economy, I will keep working around the clock to ensure our businesses adopt best practices to protect workers,” Whitmer said in a statement.

General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said they were targeting resuming vehicle production in North America on May 18, but suppliers would need time to prepare ahead for that date.

Japanese car maker Toyota has also confirmed it will resume production at its North Wales engine plant.

However, Toyota said that it other UK plant, at Burnaston in Derbyshire, will remain closed with a restart date to be announced in the coming weeks.

Staff at the Deeside plant will return to work today to undergo several days of safety induction, with a view to resuming production on Wednesday.

It has also confirmed that its plant in Sakaraya, Turkey will also open this week.

Toyota said that extensive health and safety protocols have been implemented at both plants.

Production at the Deeside plant was suspended on March 18, due to the coronavirus. Outside of Airbus in Broughton, it is one of the biggest private sector employers in North Wales, with a workforce of 600.

In a statement, Toyota said: “The decision to restart these two production operations is based on various considerations, but fundamental has been the ability to ensure the sites’ safety by implementing thorough and detailed hygiene and social distancing recommendations.”

Toyota has already reopened plants in France and Poland.

May 11, 2020
JUST IN: First batch of Nigerians evacuated from UK land in Lagos [Photo]

The first batch of Nigerians evacuated from the United Kingdom have landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The flight landed around 1:30 pm.

The Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa disclosed this on Friday on her twitter handle.

She said the passengers would be proceeding to Abuja where they would be on 14-day compulsory isolation.

“First evacuation from the UK has landed in Lagos. The passengers will be proceeding to Abuja where they will be on 14-day compulsory isolation,” she said.

Dabiri-Erewa, however, did not disclosed the number of people who arrived Lagos from UK.

May 8, 2020
300 Stranded Nigerians in UK return to Nigeria today

About 300 Nigerians stranded in the United Kingdom will be brought home in a charter flight on Friday (today).

The evacuees will on arrival in Abuja undergo the mandatory 14-day supervised quarantine and tests for COVID-19. They are part of 4,000 Nigerians being evacuated from foreign countries.

The first batch of returnees from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, landed in Lagos on Wednesday.

Speaking during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the returnees would be isolated in hotels in the Federal Capital Territory.

He stated, “We are hoping to have another flight tomorrow (today) coming from the UK. This flight would be coming to Abuja, but they would be landing in Lagos first and then fly to Abuja.

“The reasons are these: We have been mindful of the cost to the passengers flying home. We have tried as much as possible to minimise the costs, appreciating that a lot of them stayed out much longer than they would have needed or wanted to.”

He acknowledged that most of the returning citizens preferred isolation in Lagos, but pleaded for understanding, promising to make arrangements for their return to Lagos after their discharge from quarantine.

“We would make arrangements to facilitate the return to Lagos of those who need to be in Lagos rather than Abuja, but the passengers really have to bear with us. Two or three days later, we would have another flight coming into Abuja,” the minister said.

Onyeama explained that the Nigerian High Commission in India was in the process of negotiating with selected airlines to evacuate stranded Nigerians in that country.

May 8, 2020
US hints Nigeria on fresh $319m Abacha loot in UK, France

There is fresh $319m loot of Ex- Head of States, General Sani Abacha, in France and the United Kingdom, the United States has declared.

$167m of the loot is in France while UK has $152m of Abacha assets, it added.

The United States however stated the $152m loot in the UK is a subject of litigation.

In a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, the US said: “The funds returned last week are distinct and separate from an additional $167m in stolen assets also forfeited in the United Kingdom and France, as well as $152m still in active litigation in the United Kingdom.

The repatriation of the $152m (now $155m due to interest) to Nigeria is being challenged by the UK and the US because of alleged plans by the Nigerian government to give $110m out of the money to Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, a known associate of the late Abacha, Bloomberg reported.

Nigeria is seeking the approval of a UK court to take ownership of the assets before returning 70 percent of the proceeds to Bagudu under the terms of a 2018 deal, according to Bloomberg.

The UK government’s National Crime Agency is also “opposing the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s application,” according to a motion filed by Bagudu’s brother, Ibrahim, to the District Court for the District of Columbia in the US capital on March 30.

The US Department of Justice said in February that its Nigerian counterpart is hindering its efforts to recover the allegedly laundered money from the UK.

May 7, 2020
UK says some children have died from syndrome linked to COVID-19

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that some children with no underlying health conditions have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome which researchers believe to be linked to COVID-19.

Italian and British medical experts are investigating a possible link between the coronavirus pandemic and clusters of severe inflammatory disease among infants who are arriving in hospital with high fevers and swollen arteries.

Doctors in northern Italy, one of the world’s hardest-hit areas during the pandemic, have reported extraordinarily large numbers of children under age 9 with severe cases of what appears to be Kawasaki disease.

The Kawasaki disease is more common in parts of Asia.

“There are some children who have died who didn’t have underlying health conditions,” Hancock said.

“It’s a new disease that we think may be caused by coronavirus and the COVID-19 virus.

“We’re not 100 per cent sure because some of the people who got it hadn’t tested positive, so we’re doing a lot of research now but it is something that we’re worried about.

“It is rare, although it is very significant for those children who do get it, the number of cases is small,” Hancock said.

Kawasaki disease, whose cause is unknown, often afflicts children aged under 5 and is associated with fever, skin rashes, swelling of glands, and in severe cases, inflammation of arteries of the heart.

There is some evidence that individuals can inherit a predisposition to the disease, but the pattern is not clear.

Parents should be vigilant, Junior British Interior Minister Victoria Atkins said.

“It demonstrates just how fast moving this virus is and how unprecedented it is in its effect,” Atkins said.

Prof. Anne Rafferty, the President of the Royal College of Nursing, said she had heard reports about the similarity between cases in infants and Kawasaki syndrome.

“Actually there’s far too little known about it and the numbers actually at the moment are really too small,” she said.

“But it is an alert and it’s something that’s actually being explored and examined by a number of different researchers.”

April 28, 2020
World’s trial of drug to treat COVID-19 begins in UK

The world’s biggest trial of drugs to treat COVID-19 patients has been set up in the UK at unprecedented speed, and hopes to have some answers within weeks.

The Recovery trial has recruited over 5,000 patients in 165 NHS hospitals around the UK in a month, ahead of similar trials in the US and Europe, which have a few hundred.

“This is by far the largest trial in the world,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Oxford University, who is leading it. He has previously led Ebola drug trials the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Recovery team expects to be the first to have definitive data. “We’re guessing some time in June we may get the results,” said Prof Horby. “If it is really clear that there are benefits, an answer will be available quicker.” But he warned that in the case of COVID-19, there would be no “magic bullet”.

The team is working against a backdrop of doctors globally using drugs that they believe could be a cure citing “compassionate use”, without yet having good scientific evidence. Politicians are also wading in. Donald Trump has backed hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic form of the old anti-malaria drug chloroquine.

Used together with azithromycin, an antibiotic, it could be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine”, Trump tweeted. The French doctor Didier Raoult has claimed the combination is a cure, leading to public clamour for the drugs in France. President Macron visited Raoult’s hospital in Marseille last week, giving him tentative support but suggesting that trials were needed.

Both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are being tested separately as part of the Recovery trial, and if there is any effect in patients given those drugs alone, compared with those given no drugs, they can be combined later.

April 17, 2020
BREAKING: Late activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son dies of Coronavirus in UK

Menegian, son of late activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa has died of Coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

This was disclosed by his sister, Noo Saro-Wiwa on her Facebook Page on Thursday.

According to Noo, his bother had Coronavirus, combined with underlying health conditions, on Monday, which led to his death.

“We said goodbye to my brother, Gian; on Monday, he had COVID-19 combined with underlying health conditions. Gian was the smartest and most talented out of all of us.

“A champion sprinter at school, a poet, an artist, budding engineer, a self-taught guitarist and pianist. But mental health issues limited his life from age 16 onward.

“I took this photo of him a few months ago before he was hospitalised. We were singing Hysteria by Def Leppard, a song we both love. Although the side-effects of medication altered his athletic physique, this photo still captures Gian’s essence: a kind and beautiful soul, always wanting the best for his family, always praying for our future success while being eternally optimistic about his own.

“And, of course, always loving his music. He leaves a wonderful son, Louis,” she said.

Menegian Saro-Wiwa was born in 1970.

April 16, 2020
10 Nigerians in UK preparing for evacuation to Nigeria test positive for Covid-19

Panic reportedly gripped staff of the Nigerian High Commission in London after 10 out of the 40 Nigerians in the United Kingdom who took the mandatory COVID-19 test to be eligible for evacuation back to Nigeria tested positive for the novel Coronavirus disease.

The results of the tests, which were released on Monday in London, indicated that the 10 individuals were asymptomatic, raising fears that they might have infected other people.

Recall TheNewsGuru (TNG) had earlier reported that the federal government made it a prerequisite for those who intend to return to the country to take Covid-19 test.\The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which compiled a list of such stranded Nigerians, gave some conditions .

According to reports, many of those who tested positive were not resident in the UK, but went to the European country for business and educational purposes.

TNG learnt that Nigerians, who registered for the evacuation, were being tested in a batch of 40. The source added that another batch would soon undergo the COVID-19 test.

“We have just received the results of the first batch of 40 Nigerians who registered for evacuation to Nigeria. The results show that about 10 persons tested positive for COVID-19 and they have commenced treatment in isolation centres.

“What is generating consternation is the fear that they might have infected many other people since they were not showing symptoms of the deadly disease.” A source at the Nigerian High Commission who preferred to speak under condition of anonymity told journalists.

April 14, 2020
Another Nigerian doctor dies of coronavirus in UK

Another Nigerian medical doctor, Edmond Adefolu Adedeji, has died in the UK, killed by coronavirus.

Adedeji died on Thursday 9 April. He was 62.

He was the latest of Nigerian professionals to succumb to the virus.

Adedeji was a well ‘respected and well-liked’ doctor at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, before his death.

According to an ITV news report, Adedeji, was working as a locum registrar in the Emergency Department of the Hospital.

He took the job in August last year after working for London’s St Mary’s Accident and Emergency for years.

His family paid tribute to him saying ‘he died doing a job he loved’.

“We as a family are grateful to God for the life of Dr Edmond Adefolu Adedeji.

“He died doing a job he loved, serving others before himself. We would like to thank the staff and his colleagues for looking after him during his final days.

“He leaves behind a wife, three children and three grandchildren.”

Great Western Hospital also mourned the doctor in a condolence message:

“On behalf of the whole Trust, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to Edmond’s family. Our thoughts are with them, and his friends and colleagues at the Trust.”

Dr Dr Saúl Díaz, a colleague of Adedeji at St Mary’s, who announced his obituary described him as good man.

“May his soul rest in peace”, Diaz wrote on Facebook.

Adedeji was an alumnus of African Church Grammar School, Apata Ibadan.

He was the senior prefect in 1974, when he graduated.

His classmate, Kikelomo Sadiku, who is based in the U.S. paid tribute on Facebook:

“This Covid 19 death toll is beginning to hit me.

“My classmate Dr. Adefolu Adedeji has fallen prey of this coronavirus. He was a medical doctor in London. He was our senior prefect at African Church Grammar School Apata Ibadan.

“He was one of the brainy ones. I use to tag along then to teach me Mathematics. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

“The last time I saw him was in London before I emigrated to the USA. This is so sad.

“May God comfort his wife and children at this time of grief. I am just sad and flabbergasted. Please pray along”

April 11, 2020