Coronavirus
House of Reps urges speedy production of local coronavirus vaccines in Nigeria
The House of Representatives has stressed the need for speedy production of local vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19 in Nigeria. The House also mandated its standing Committees on Healthcare Services, Health Institutions and Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria to invite the Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Health, the Executive Director/CEO, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Executive Director, May and Baker Nigeria PLC to brief the Committees and deliberate on possible ways of getting the needed legislative support to fast track the production of vaccines in Nigeria and report back within four (4) weeks for further legislative action The resolutioms followed the adoption of a motion on notice, moved by Rep. J...
Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Weezer Postpone “Hella Mega Tour” Until 2021 Due to Coronavirus
Weezer (photo by Ben Kaye), Green Day (photo by Heather Kaplan), and Fall Out Boy (photo by Philip Cosores) Sadly, the “Hella Mega Tour” has been hella postponed. Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer were set to perform together throughout Europe and North America this summer, but now they’ve announced that they’re pushing the entire outing back to Summer 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The massive tour was originally supposed to begin overseas on June 13th. That European leg, which was scrapped back in April, also featured stops in Vienna, London, and Dublin. The pop punk triad were then scheduled to play North America from mid-July through the end of August. That itinerary included the cities of Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Jacksonville, and Atlanta, as well as Chicago, Detroit, New ...
Kindred Launches NHS Rainbow Range to Raise £5 Million for NHS Charities Together
Laura Whitmore was spotted wearing two wonderful things this week — one being her massive diamond engagement ring and the other being an adorable “Thank You” rainbow charity t-shirt that supports the NHS. The tee, designed by feel-good consumer app Kindred, is selling quickly for £20 with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated to NHS Charities Together. Kindred is a retail company and app that gives buyers cash back on their everyday purchases and then offers the option to keep the cash back or donate it to a local charity. The unisex organic cotton Kindred Thank You NHS t-shirt is available in sizes XS to XXL, for adults (£20) and children (£15). “The UK has seen amazing unity through the Clap For Our Carers campaign,” says Kindred on its website, “and we ...
Lagos discharges 15 more coronavirus patients
Lagos State has recorded 15 more coronavirus recoveries. This brings the total recoveries in the state to 623. The state Health Commissioner disclosed this via Twitter on Monday night. “177 new COVID-19 Infection confirmed in Lagos. Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lagos is now 2566. “15 fully recovered COVID-19 patients; 9 females and 6 males, all Nigerians were discharged. This brings the total number of #COVID19 discharged patients in Lagos to 623,” he said. Newsmen reports that there are 1889 active infections and 36 associated deaths reported in the state. Get more stories like this on Twitter
US coronavirus death toll exceeds 90,000 as Donald Trump urges reopening
The coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed 90,000 on Monday as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 1.5 million across the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The grim milestones came as President Donald Trump tweeted to “REOPEN OUR COUNTRY!” and the White House attempted to shift blame, including onto its own scientists, for the high number of deaths. On Sunday, members of Trump administration disagreed on whether the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) let the country down with testing efforts. “Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing,” Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, told NBC’s Meet the Press programme....
Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel agree €500 billion coronavirus recovery plan for Europe
France and Germany proposed Monday a 500-billion-euro ($542-billion) fund to finance the recovery of the European Union’s economy from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus crisis. Putting aside past differences and seeking to prove that the Franco-German core of Europe remains intact, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the unprecedented package after talks by video conference. European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde told major European newspapers that “the Franco-German proposals are ambitious, targeted and welcome.” With the European economy facing its biggest challenge since World War II, Macron also acknowledged that the EU had fallen short in its initial response to the virus and needed to coordinate more closely on health. Financed by “borrowin...
Volbeat Officially Cancel US Tour After Previously Hoping to Reschedule the Outing
Like most bands, Volbeat were recently forced to postpone their spring US tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Danish rockers originally hoped to reschedule the dates for the fall, but have now decided to outright cancel the outing, which was set to feature support from Clutch and The Picturebooks. The tour was slated to run from April 4th in Tempe, Arizona, to May 13th in New York City. Upon announcing its postponement back in March, Volbeat informed fans that they were looking to reschedule the tour for September and October. Now, with a growing consensus that concerts won’t return to the States in earnest until 2021, the band revealed today (May 18th) that the tour is officially canceled. Volbeat issued the following statement explaining the decision: “We hate to be another band start...
Presymptomatic coronavirus patients can contaminate environments – study
Coronavirus was detected on several surfaces in hotel rooms where two presymptomatic Chinese students were quarantined before being diagnosed with the disease, according to a study released on Monday. For the study, published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers in China examined the hotel rooms of the two students, who returned to China from studying abroad on March 19 and March 20. They did not display any virus symptoms at the time and were transferred to a hotel for 14 days of quarantine. On the morning of the second day in quarantine, they remained presymptomatic but both tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized. About three hours after they tested positive, the researchers sampled various surface...
Lzzy Hale: “Most of the Bands You Know and Love Won’t Make It Out of This” Pandemic
Lzzy Hale has painted a bleak present and future for music acts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, remarking that “most of the bands you know and love won’t make it out of this.” The Halestorm singer-guitarist made the comments on Instagram while also warning her supporters that states are reopening prematurely. Even though Halestorm have a strong following and several rock hits to their name, the financial and emotional hit of the pandemic is taking its toll on the band and its crew — as it is for most touring artists. In her Instagram note, Hale pointed out the “audacity of some people to assume that just because I’m someone of note, that I am not suffering because of all this.” As a majority of the United States starts to reopen in varying phases, Lzzy proclaims, “Without a vaccine,...
Two arrested for extorting money from motorists leaving Abia
The combined team of Abia State Government COVID-19 Joint Task Force manning the border between Abia and Imo States (Onuimo), have arrested two suspects extorting money from motorists entering Abia State with food items. The two suspects, Nwabueze Ibebuike and Ikechukwu Ekeke both hailed from Ekenaobizi in Umuahia South LGA. Before their arrest, the suspects in company of two others still at large mounted illegal checkpoint at Ekenaobizi extorting money from motorists leaving Abia State and assuring them that the Task Force will grant them exit from the state while those entering the state who were cleared by the taskforce team were not spared by the suspects thus creating the impression that there are working for the COVID-19 task force. Both suspects are currently at the Umuahia Central ...
How We Work Now: Duck Club Presents/Treefort Music Festival Co-Founder Eric Gilbert
In a new series amid the coronavirus pandemic, Billboard is asking individuals from all sectors of the music business to share stories of how they work now, with much of the world quarantined at home and unable to take in-person meetings, attend conferences or even go into the office. Submissions for the series can be sent to HowWeWorkNow@Billboard.com. Read the full series here. This installment is with Eric Gilbert, co-founder of Duck Club Presents and Boise, Idaho’s Treefort Music Festival. Eric Gilbert: Treefort was scheduled for March 25-29 and we [initially] postponed it two weeks. At that point, the state nor the city hadn’t really done anything. We made the decision in consultation with them, but we had to take the lead on that. Two weeks after we postponed, the state fully s...
