DONALD OTITO

FEATURED  • Govt searching for 500 contacts with infected persons, cases reach 140 • People with COVID-19 symptoms not being tested – NMA president The Federal Government on Tuesday said by next week, Nigeria would be testing 1,500 people for COVID-19 every day. The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, said the country,  as of last week,  was conducting 500 tests per day. Ihekweazu said this as some states, including Oyo and Edo, on Tuesday complained that they were facing a shortage of testing kits for the virus. On its part, the Bauchi State Government appealed to the Federal Government to set up a COVID-19 testing facility in the state. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Sunday,  as part of efforts to increase contact tracing and treat Nigerians, who might have contracted the virus, ordered lockdown of the Federal Capital Terri...

       Muslim pilgrims at the Kaaba. File photo NEWS Saudi Arabia’s hajj minister asked Muslims on Tuesday to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage amid uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia suspended the year-round “umrah” pilgrimage over fears of the new coronavirus spreading to Islam’s holiest cities, an unprecedented move that raised uncertainty over the annual hajj. “Saudi Arabia is fully ready to serve pilgrims and umrah seekers,” hajj minister Mohammad Benten told the state-run Al-Ekhbariya television. “But under the current circumstances, as we are talking about the global pandemic… the kingdom is keen to protect the health of Muslims and citizens and so we have asked our brother Muslims in all countries to wait before doing (hajj) contracts until the situation is clear.” Saudi authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year’s hajj, scheduled for the end of Ju...

The Imo state government and the Police command, Tuesday said that they did not have the number of persons quarantined in the fancy hotel locked down over suspected cases of covid-19 virus linked to Christigonus Aguwa, who visited the hotel located at Umuguma in World Bank area, Owerri. Vanguard in Owerri, reached out to both the government and police to know exactly the number of persons in the hotel as of the time it was sealed off. It happened that the numbers were not disclosed by the government and police given the reason that at the time of the incident, government quickly sealed off the hotel, and since then nobody goes in and nobody comes out from the hotel. According to the commissioner of Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, “Nobody can say the number of people in that hotel. You know the government went there and sealed it and did not allow anybody to go in or come out. “For the village of the man, the government has also gone there and sealed it.” Also t...

…want CBN to give cash grants to 774 LGs The House of Representatives has resolved to donate two months’ salaries of its entire membership to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila announced on Tuesday. The two-month salary donation, the Speaker said, will be independent of the contributions by individual lawmakers to alleviate the hardship that their constituents face at this time of national emergency. The Speaker assured that starting from March salary, the lawmakers’ donation will be transferred directly to the National Relief Fund account for the fight against COVID-19. In a video message to Nigerians as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gbajabiamila said: “We have in the House of Representatives jointly committed to contributing one hundred per cent (100%) of our salaries for the next two months to the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria. “Our contribution will support provisions for the welfare of frontlin...

Britain and France, on Tuesday, reported a total of 880 deaths in less than 24 hours. 381 persons died in the UK while 499 persons died in France. But experts warned not to read too much in the figures, citing indications that stringent measures put in place last week to cut close-contact transmission of COVID-19 were working. “As of 5 pm (1600 GMT) on 30 March, of those hospitalised in the UK, 1,789 have sadly died,” the health ministry said on its Twitter page – up from 1,408 on Monday. Some 25,150 people have now tested positive for the virus in Britain, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a daily increase of 3,009. Emergency medical personnel carries a patient affected with coronavirus (Covid-19) from a military hospital to an ambulance (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) Also, there are 22,757 people hospitalised in France with COVID-19, with 5,565 of them in intensive care while a total 3,523 person have died so far, health official...