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Tag: ventilators

  • COVID-19: FG receives 200 ventilators from US

    COVID-19: FG receives 200 ventilators from US

    The Federal Government on Tuesday received the donation of 200 ventilators promised by the Donald Trump-led administration of the United States Government, to support the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The ventilators were received by the Ministry of Health from the USAID in Abuja.

    In his remark, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said, “We shall be taking delivery of medical ventilators to shore up our Intensive Care response capability, courtesy of the President and people of the United States of America.

    “This donation consists of 200 ventilators, which, as we all know by now, are a critical component of the response strategy to save the lives of persons who have been severely impacted by this viral infection. They will certainly be of great benefit to the people of Nigeria and I wish to convey the appreciation of His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and of the government of Nigeria, to President Donald Trump and the United States Government for the generous consideration and friendly gesture.

    “We particularly appreciate that this gift comes against the backdrop that the United States is also fighting its own fierce battle against the COVID-19 plague. We wish them the very best in this challenge.”

    He added, “I wish to also commend the United States Agency for International Development, the USCDC and the US Ambassador to Nigeria – Her Excellency Mary Beth Leonard, for their interest and engagement in Nigeria, even beyond the advent of COVID-19. Her Excellency has demonstrated personal concern by paying a solidarity visit to the Federal Ministry of Health.

    “I conclude by requesting the United States Government to lend its full weight to global efforts to find efficacious therapeutics and vaccines to neutralize the threat of COVID-19 to the global community and to guarantee fair allocation to all countries and people.

    “The speed and ease with which COVID-19 has spread across the globe clearly shows that it is a threat to mankind. Without the full collaboration of all nations, the threat of COVID-19 to any one part of the world is a threat to all.”

  • We are discussing With FG to produce ventilators-Innoson

    The Chairman of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM), Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, has said that his company was in discussion with the Federal Government(FG) to produce ventilators to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

    According to him “We are already having a fruitful discussion with the government on for my company to produce ventilators to fight covid-19,” he said.

    Earlier on the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, said the federal government had opened discussions with Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company and other key indigenous vehicle manufacturing companies with a view to producing ventilators in the country.

    In the same vein the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engineer Mansur Ahmed, disclosed that manufacturers had increased Nigeria’s domestic production capacity for face masks from two million masks in February to 27 million now.

    The minister, who updated journalists on Covid-19 pandemic and its implications for the manufacturing sector in Abuja, said the government received a proposal from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company to produce ventilators and similar proposals had been submitted by other indigenous auto manufacturers and that the various proposals are being considered.

    “We are also engaging our indigenous car manufacturers at this time to prepare them to tweak their operations to begin the manufacture of ‘Made in Nigeria’ ventilators – critical medical equipment in the fight against the virus,” he said.

    The ministry had last month set up a committee on “the sustainable production and delivery of essential commodities” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

     

     

     

  • COVID-19: FG launches locally-made ventilators, disinfectants in Abuja

    COVID-19: FG launches locally-made ventilators, disinfectants in Abuja

    The Federal Government on Tuesday launched locally made ventilators and disinfectants to further combat the ravaging coronavirus disease [COVID-19] in the country.

    It also opened disinfectant tunnels and doorways that will be placed at the entrance of public institutions, schools and malls that are produced with censors.

    The doors would spray disinfectants on people walking through the tunnels.

    Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mohammed Abdullahi, who inaugurated the equipment yesterday in Abuja, said that an agency under the Ministry, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) produced the equipment in an answer to Mr President’s call to find a solution to handling the pandemic.

    He said that the government will make NASENI produce the ventilators and disinfectants in large quantities for distribution to different parts of the country to curb the spread of the virus.

    His words: “This product can beat other inventions that we have seen outside the country, I am very impressed with NASENI because this can greatly improve the public health safety of the country, on behalf of NASENI we are going to ensure that the Federal Government adopts this for our various institutions, public schools, shopping malls etc to ensure that people that walk into such facilities are properly disinfected to guard against further speed of COVID-19.

    “We are here to answer the clarion call of Mr President to see how we can use our own technology, engineers and scientists to develop equipment that will assist the country in containing the spread of COVID-19 and other upcoming health challenges in the country. The invention of these ventilators will assist Nigeria in no small way to contain the virus that is plaguing all nations.

    “We are going to interface with the relevant agencies and ministries to ensure that NASENI is empowered to manufacture this in large quantities for distribution. I hope that states in the country will take advantage of this and place their procurement orders because as it is now, NASENI is going to be under tremendous pressure to produce as much as they can so as it is, it is going be on first come, first serve basis. On our part we are going to lias with the appropriate COVID-19 committee domicile in the SGF office, CBN and NNPC to ensure that adequate funding is provided to encourage this initiative.”

    Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NASENI Prof Mohammed Haruna explained that the agency using the World Health Organization model produced a reversed engineering model of ventilators in accordance with the materials they have available.

    He said that the agency has ten different centres all over the country, with state of the art manufacturing capabilities to produce the different parts and it can begin mass producing ventilators and indisinfectants which can be ready for use in ten days when funds are provided for them.

    He said:”It is a mobile ventilator sick people can receive oxygen and be revived outside the hospital, we have two models, one is the same type with the model from the World Health Organisation that requires a type of oxygen tank it is in the absence of the small tank that can be hung to move around with that we made our own model.

    “We also have the design for two other automated ventilators that monitors the patients conditions including the online display of the heartbeat rate and other responses.

    “With the closure of boarders due to the pandemic and the need in the country, we had to look inward within our capacity, every product was designed afresh, we camped our scientists since the inception of the lockdown for nine days in a camp in one of our institutes in Minna to share ideas on designs and models needed and we produced what is practicable within the constraints.

    “We have a group in NASENI doing reverse engineering of the models of ventilators presented by the WHO, its electronic model was produced by another team that was camped in our centre in Okene so everything is our design and it will be patented. So far we have spent about N27m to produce the different prototypes in terms of materials.

    “NASENI has many research and development centers about 10 across the country, each of these centres has advance manufacturing capabilities and machines, as soon as we get funding, I can assure you that different parts will be mass produced in different centres and thousands will be made available provided funding is provided and many products can be ready within ten days.

    “The tunnels are produced with polycabinet based materials, they are not wood and the cover is made with materials that will not absurd rays of light but reflect because of the safety, each tunnel has censors, that it automatically senses a person coming in and it sprays.”

  • COVID-19: We regret begging US billionaire for ventilators – FG

    The Federal Government has withdrawn the plea made by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning demanding ventilators from a United States’ billionaire, Elon Musk in order to provide treatment for the Coronavirus patients within Nigeria.

    Musk, the founder and Chief Engineer, SpaceX, had tweeted on Thursday that his firm had extra ventilators that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in America.

    “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. We will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients and not stored in a warehouse,” his tweet read.

    In an early response, the ministry of finance, budget and national planning had shown willingness to receive the kind gesture, opening up on the need of 100 to 500.

    The ministry tweeted, “Dear @Elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100 to 500 ventilators to assist with Covid-19 cases rising every day in Nigeria.”

    Following an immediate backlash from the public, however, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, the Special Adviser to the minister on Media and Communications, issued a disclaimer that the unauthorised post made with the ministry’s verified Twitter handle is regrettable and therefore brought down.

    He wrote: “An unauthorised post was made on the verified Twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

    “The fact of the post is regrettable because of which it is brought down. We have made sure our internal processes are strengthened that such doesn’t happen again.

    “The error is highly regrettable.”

  • COVID-19: I can produce ventilators for Nigeria, Innoson CEO declares

    The Chairman of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM), Chief Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, has said that his company can produce ventilators to help fight the corona pandemic in Nigeria.

    Speaking in an interview with TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) on what his company can do to help to combat the spread of covid-19 in the country, Innoson said:“I can produce ventilators. When they want to jump from analog to digital we bought some equipment that can be used to produce ventilators. If the government is in need of ventilators we are in a position to produce ventilators locally.”’

    Meanwhile a financial analyst, Mr.Charles Olojede has advised the government to make use of all those who have the capacity to help the country out of the corona virus.

    Olojede who spoke on how the Corona virus is adversely affecting the nation’s economy said the government should not waste time as other countries are flooding the market with what they can produce locally.

    He said that if one actually look at our economy and the breakdown of the GDP, the only problem is that the government still significantly derives its revenue from a particular sector which is oil and gas.

    “We are still focusing majorly on oil. It is about the right time to pass the PIB bill.’

    He regretted that China which Nigeria relies on to get most of her products is now stuck due to COVID-19. And most of our goods are stuck in China.

    Olojede disclosed that India is the largest buyer of Nigeria’s oil. “India said by 2030 they will not be using vehicles powered by fuel. That is to say that in ten years’ time India may not need our oil. Because it is going to ban totally fuel powered vehicles.”
    He said that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) is already thinking in that direction. “If in ten years’ time when oil is no longer there what are we going to do?” He concluded that with the closure of the border and COVID-19 pandemic afford the government the area opportunity of flooding the market with made-in-Nigeria products.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that for patients with the worst effects of the corona virus infection, a ventilator offers the best chance of survival. Simply put, a ventilator takes over the body’s breathing process when disease has caused the lungs to fail. This gives the patient time to fight off the infection and recover.

  • FG begs US billionaire for ventilators as Covid-19 cases hit 174 in Nigeria

    FG begs US billionaire for ventilators as Covid-19 cases hit 174 in Nigeria

    The Nigerian government on Wednesday begged for the assistance of Tesla CEO and Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk in the fight against coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases hit 174.

    The tech guru took to his Twitter page on Thursday, disclosing that his company is ready to provide free FDA-approved ventilators to countries in need of immediate ventilators.

    Musk, however, said the ventilators would be shipped to countries within its delivery region and those in urgent need but only on one condition.

    Musk said that the ventilators must be needed immediately and not for storing in warehouses for future purposes.

    His tweet read: “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device and shipping costs free.

    ” Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients and not stored in a warehouse..”

    The official handle of the Nigerian ministry of finance quickly responded, pleading for 100-500 ventilators to fight coronavirus.

    The post read: “Dear Elon Musk, Tesla, the federal government of Nigeria needs the support of 100-500 ventilators to assist with COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.”

    Meanwhile, the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC has confirmed 23 new cases of COVID-19, which brings the total number of confirmed patients in Nigeria to 174.

  • Uproar as FG requests Elon Musk for 100-500 ventilators

    Uproar as FG requests Elon Musk for 100-500 ventilators

    The request by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for 100-500 ventilators from an engineer, industrial designer, and technology entrepreneur, Elon Musk has caused an uproar.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Elon Musk had posted to Twitter the availability of extra FDA-approved ventilators for shipment to hospitals worldwide within his company, Tesla’s delivery regions.

    As the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues its rage across the globe, demand for life-saving equipments, including ventilators soared, with countries having to source for these life-saving equipments by every means possible.

    In his efforts to contribute to containing the COVID-19 pandemic, Elon Musk started making FDA-approved ventilators available to some countries that are battling with the novel Coronavirus.

    “We have extra FDA-approved ventilators. Will ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse. Please me or @Tesla know,” Elon Musk tweeted.

    In response, the official Twitter account for Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, tweeted “Dear @elonmusk @Tesla Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria”.

    Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators
    “Federal Government of Nigeria needs support with 100-500 ventilators to assist with #Covid19 cases arising every day in Nigeria,” Ministry of Health requests Elon Musk.

    The Ministry’s response had garnered over 1,500 retweets and over 2,000 likes before it was deleted. However, the comments that followed mostly were not palatable.

     

     

    https://twitter.com/AsiwajuLerry/status/1245638553419186176?s=19

     

    https://twitter.com/cliqik/status/1245644451533303815?s=19

    https://twitter.com/chiefmarcus_/status/1245654827637456897?s=19

    https://twitter.com/chiefmarcus_/status/1245654827637456897?s=19

    https://twitter.com/chiefmarcus_/status/1245668071622291458?s=19

    https://twitter.com/PrincessofImo/status/1245651646777929729?s=19

    Meanwhile, several countries such as Spain, Ukraine and Argentina have indicated interest for the extra FDA-approved ventilators that Elon Musk is willing to giveaway.

  • Coronavirus:Akwa Ibom to deploy 13 ventilators – Udom

    Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has stated that the South-South state is well-equipped with health facilities to contain COVID-19 emergencies.

    Udom made this known on Wednesday during a visit to the Intensive Care Unit/Isolation Facility at the Multi-Specialty Hospital in the state.

    This was shortly before the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control announced the first five coronavirus cases in the state.

    The governor said, “I am not just here to check the scale of preparedness but to also make sure what we put on ground works and works well.

    “At times what people assume are working well are not until they are put to test before they know whether they are functional or not.

    “I came in with the experts to take a look, to see whether they are working well or not.

    “As at now, all the whole 13 ventilators will be tested to make sure they are working well.

    “I have ordered more beds and an 20 extra facilities to accommodate emergencies.”

     

  • Covid-19: FG must start thinking of producing manual ventilators – Mimiko

    Covid-19: FG must start thinking of producing manual ventilators – Mimiko

    Olusegun Mimiko, the immediate past governor of Ondo State has asked Nigeria and Nigerians to look inwards as it faces the COVID-19 challenge.

    Mimiko in a statement tagged ‘Just thinking aloud’ released in Akure on Tuesday said the time is now for Nigerians to prepare for the worst-case scenario and look inwards to carve out its own peculiar strategies.

    Mimiko who said the President’s recent address should give added momentum to the combat against the killer virus, added that the most crucial equipment at the clinical stage is the mechanical ventilator, the scarcity of which is now global – “obviously, Nigeria does not have enough to match a population of 200 million people”

    He counseled that Nigeria, while trying to procure more of this life-saving gadget which are hardly available anyway, should “start mobilizing massively for manual ventilators and start training paramedics who may be called to use them as instruments of last resort in emergency.”

    In his words, “Even New York is already making arrangements in case it needs to go through that route.

    “I am sure that if we ransack medical stores in hospitals around the country, we may be able to retrieve a lot of old fashioned manual ventilators that can be fixed for use and also important to serve as a prototype for local production,” he said.

    Mimiko further adds that “local companies like Innoson Motors, though may face challenges trying to produce modern type mechanical ventilators because of sophisticated softwares and sophisticated electronic parts, will produce any type of manual ventilators quickly as would other similar or related local industries, if challenged.

    “After all, the basic principle of most types of ventilators, positive pressure creators, is more or less the same as that of time honored bellows that our traditional smiths were so dexterous at”

    He expressed doubts about any effort by government official to engage Innoson since their reported claim to have the capacity to produce ventilators.

    He therefore recommends “immediate engagement of Innoson and such other concern as could quickly manufacture manual ventilators.
    “Simultaneously, we must start mobilizing our local capacity and start building oxygen plants for what may turn out to be an astronomical demand”

    The former Governor stressed that social distancing is a major way to stop further spread of the virus. “May I state that in light of our obvious limited capacity to test, trace or treat or cope in case of a blowout, social or more correctly, physical distancing remains, the best arrow in our quiver”

    He added that the troubling issue is how to sustain a stay at home order when perhaps up to 40 percent of our adult population earn their daily bread on daily basis.

    “We are quick to complain of lack of data, but we have BVN. I’m told we have 40billion BVN accounts. Adopting a benchmark of say annual turn over of say below 360,000 Naira needing palliative, and assuming that up to 50 percent, i.e. 20million qualify for palliative, say 20,000 Naira each, that will amount to just about 40billion Naira which we must find! This is without prejudice to other commendable palliatives like cash transfers, trader Moni etc. Alignment of data base, I am assured, will quickly ensure nobody benefits twice” Mimiko said.

    While appreciating Governors “that are already trying to provide food palliatives to households, Mimiko said “leveraging digital tech will surely help” saying “In 2016, in Ondo State, we delivered food palliatives to about 150,000 households, seamlessly in 3weeks!”

    Mimiko commended frontline workers, the federal ministry of health and the NCDC.

  • BREAKING: Trump okays manufacturing of thousands ventilators as U.S Covid-19 cases surpasses 100,000

    BREAKING: Trump okays manufacturing of thousands ventilators as U.S Covid-19 cases surpasses 100,000

    President Donald Trump invoked the rarely used Defense Production Act on Friday to order the Department of Health and Human Services to compel General Motors to manufacturer ventilators hours after he sharply criticized the company for slow-walking production.

    “Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said in a statement.

    “GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.”

    Trump himself has been criticized for not quickly invoking his authority to use the act as the nation’s hospitals and health care facilities are in dire need of critical medical supplies. He announced he would use the act this month, but did not invoke it until Friday.

    U.S. surpassed 100,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, led by a continued jump in infections in New York and in new hotspots across the country.