U.S. President, Joe Biden, has urged vaccinated Americans to get their COVID-19 booster shots amidst the growing concerns about the potential threat posed by the new Omicron variant. President Biden, who made the call on Monday, also pleaded with those who have yet to be vaccinated to get their...
Health News
The Federal Government has insisted that the country is yet to record a case of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19, despite Canadian authorities’ claims that two passengers from Nigeria had tested positive. Speaking at the Presidential Steering Committee briefing in Abuja, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease...
PATRICK ABANG, Calabar – Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade, on Monday suspended the 2021 Calabar Carnival. The Governor’s suspension of the 2021 Carnival at State Executive Council Chamber, took many by surprise as the governor had last week announced that the 2021 carnival will hold. The stakeholders meeting...
The surprising number of mutations in the Omicron Coronavirus (COVID-19) variant could signal that it originated in a patient with HIV or another immunodeficiency, a top German immunology expert said. Carsten Watzl, secretary general of the German Society for Immunology, told dpa that it was not only conceivable but...
World Health Organisation (WHO) says it still ‘not clear’ whether Omicron COVID variant is more transmissible or more severe than Delta variant. WHO, in a statement on Sunday, said that its experts, researchers in South Africa and around the world are currently conducting studies to better understand Omicron. The...
The head of the World Health Organisation in Africa on Sunday urged countries to follow the science rather than imposing flight bans in a bid to contain the new Omicron coronavirus variant. “With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans...
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...
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...