South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse scientifically “unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron. “We call upon all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our southern African sister countries...
Health News
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Sunday said it was monitoring emerging evidence on the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, which was first recently identified in Southern Africa. The new variant “is considered highly transmissible” and has already triggered a new wave of travel restrictions targeted at countries in...
The Angolan authorities on Saturday announced the suspension of flights to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Tanzania due to the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, known as B.1.1.529 or Omicron. Francisco Pereira Furtado, the Angolan minister of state and head of the security house of...
Renowned virologists in Nigeria have called on the Federal Government to be swift in its emergency response to the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19, first detected in South Africa. The virologists including the Chairman, Expert Review Committee on COVID-19, Prof Oyewale Tomori; ex-National Chairman of the Association of Public...
President Muhammadu Buhari has challenged Nigerian universities to intensify their research in order to develop COVID-19 vaccine to tackle the dreaded virus afflicting the country. The President, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, gave the challenge at the 5th and 6th combined convocation of...
South Africa has complained it is being punished – instead of applauded – for discovering Omicron, a concerning new variant of Covid-19. The foreign ministry made the statement as countries around the world restrict travel from southern African countries as details of the spread emerged. Early evidence suggests Omicron...
Two people in the UK have been found to be infected with the new Covid variant, Omicron, the health secretary has said. Sajid Javid said the UK Health Security Agency had detected cases in Chelmsford, Essex, and in Nottingham. He said the cases were linked and the two people...
Dutch health authorities said Saturday that 61 passengers from two flights from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19 and the results were being examined for the new Omicron variant. The people who tested positive were now being quarantined in a hotel near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where the 600 people...
South Africa’s health ministry on Friday attacked a global rush to impose travel bans to slow the spread of a new Covid variant as “draconian,” unscientific and contrary to WHO advice. The new strain, named Omicron, has been blamed for a surge in cases in South Africa, but has...
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has postponed a major conference that was to be held next week in Geneva after governments around the world imposed travel restrictions due to a new and particularly transmissible variant of COVID-19. The EU Trade Ministers’ Consultations on the Ministerial Conference of the WTO...
Israel and Britain have announced new travel restrictions on several African countries over concerns about a new Coronavirus variant. Israel reclassified South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini with immediate effect, Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett’s office said after a special meeting. Foreigners from these countries can no...
PATRICK ABANG, Calabar – Over 400 students of the Cross River University (UNICROSS) have pledged to champion the COVID-19 vaccination sensitization in their campus, among their peers and across the state. The students made the pledge during a town hall meeting organized by the Cross River State Government through...
By JOHN ONAH, Abuja – The Federal Capital Territory Administration has flagged off mass vaccination campaign against the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, targeting over 1.5 million residents in the next 50 days across the six area councils. FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, while performing the exercise...
Immediate policy action is needed to curb the long-run impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the lives and livelihoods of Nigerian households, the World Bank has said in a new report. It stated that the pandemic has hit countries with a health and economic shock whose effects would be...
Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute from their highly successful Covid-19 vaccines while the world’s poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated, according to a new analysis. The companies have sold the vast majority of their doses to rich countries, leaving low-income nations in the...
Nigeria has introduced the use of test kits to stop mother-child HIV/syphilis transmission as the country plans to distribute four million test kits in 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Monday. According to the UN health agency, dual test kits, which cost less than one dollar, are...
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Sokoto State has embarked on a three-day free medical outreach in some rural communities in the area. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the State Coordinator of NYSC, Alhaji Muhammadu Nakamba, inaugurated the Phase II 2021 Health Initiative for Rural...
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said more than three million eligible Nigerians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said this at the bi-weekly briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on Monday in Abuja. The News Agency of...
Almost two million cases of COVID-19 were reported in Europe last week, the most in a single week in that region since the pandemic started, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Almost 27,000 deaths were reported in the continent last week, more than half of all COVID-19 deaths...
Ravindra Gupta, a Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cambridge in U.K., has urged African countries to make a stronger voice against COVID-19 vaccine nationalism. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that vaccine nationalism happens when governments sign agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers to supply their own...