COVID-19
US election: Boris Johnson congratulates Joe Biden, Kamala Harris
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday congratulated Joe Biden “on his election” as US president and Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris “on her historic achievement”. “The US is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security,” Johnson tweeted after US networks called the race for Biden over President Donald Trump. The prime minister has had strained ties with Biden and with former president Barack Obama, but Downing Street has been keen to stress the common interests still enduring in the US-British “special relationship” after Trump’s stormy presidency. In a statement, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “President Trump fought hard in what proved a close contest.” He anticipated working...
A Stadium in North Carolina is Using AI to Detect if Attendees are Wearing Masks
While the global health community at large continues to develop new strategies to contain the novel coronavirus, the University of North Carolina’s Reese Innovation Lab is turning to artificial intelligence to try their hand at helping to get things back on track. On October 10th, 2020, the Reese Innovation Lab in partnership with Lenovo first deployed their AI-powered “Health Greeter Kiosks” at the Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The kiosks made use of large screens, depth-sensing cameras, and real-time anonymized data to determine whether or not attendees were wearing masks and if they were social distancing. If someone wasn’t wearing a mask or was too close to another person, the screen issued an alert advising a correction ...
FAO: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, others risk famine
A new report by two United Nations agencies warned Friday of a heightened risk of famine in three conflict-torn African states and Yemen, and a high hunger risk in 16 more. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme warned that a “toxic combination of conflict, economic decline, climate extremes and the Covid-19 pandemic … is driving people further into the emergency phase of food insecurity”. The agencies swung the spotlight on Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, all facing rising levels of acute hunger with potential risk of famine. Issuing “a stark warning” in their Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots, the agencies said the four countries have areas that could soon slip into famine. Some parts of the population “are already experiencing...
Enugu: Yellow fever cause of ‘strange deaths’ in communities
The Enugu State Government has confirmed that Yellow Fever is the cause of deaths from a reported strange illness in Ette Uno and Umuopu communities of Enugu Ezike town in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of the state. A statement by the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Emmanuel Ikechukwu Obi, stated that the disease was confirmed “through verifiable diagnostic tests”. Dr. Obi explained that “Yellow Fever is not a new disease but one of public health importance internationally and in Nigeria” adding that “It is one of the diseases controlled for in the Nigerian set of routine and mass immunizable diseases.” According to him “a suspected case is anyone with a sudden onset of fever who develops jaundice (yellowness of the eyes) within 14 days it is verifiable by diagnostic tests”. The ...
Canada’s unemployment rate drops with 84,000 more jobs in October
Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 8.9 per cent in October as the economy added 84,000 jobs, but further gains were dampened by new Covid-19 lockdowns, the national statistical agency said Friday. Employment in Canada has increased at a monthly rate of 2.7 per cent since May, but economists had expected fewer jobs to be created last month as new restrictions were reintroduced across the country to slow the spread of a second wave of the coronavirus. Statistics Canada noted that increases in employment across several industries were partially offset by a big drop in accommodation and food services jobs. Full-time employment rose 69,000, making up most of the gains, while self-employment rose by 33,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic in March. Overall, about 2.4 million Ca...
NRC generates N1.4 billion IGR, remits N245 million to TSA in 2020
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Friday said its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as at Sept. 30 stood at N1.4billion as against N4.4billion projection for 2020. Mr Fidets Okhiria, Managing Director of NRC, in a statement said the sum of N245million was remitted to the TSA as at Oct.31. Okhiria said this at the 2021 Budget Defence to the Joint Committee of Land and Marine transport at the National Assembly in Abuja. He said that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic affected its operations as train services were stopped during its peak, thus affecting the IGR projection for the year. “The Joint Committee should also note that for the year 2020, the Corporation presented a separate Internally Generated Revenue & Expenditure Budget. “The sum of N1.4billion has been generated as ...
Kaduna loses 124 children to malnutrition in 9 months
No fewer than 124 children have died of malnutrition in Kaduna State between January and September with 15,329 cured of the diseases within the same period. The State Nutrition Officer, Mrs Ramatu Musa, made this known in Kaduna on Thursday, while presenting the nutrition situation in the state at a two-day meeting organised by Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN). The meeting was organised to strengthen advocacy skills and capacity of health and nutrition CSOs, media and government officials, to identify areas of priorities in nutrition interventions. Musa, who was represented by Mr Jibril Isah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Board (SPHCDB), said that a total of 21,265 malnourished children under five years were admitted....
Nigeria records 180 new virus infections
Nigeria recorded 180 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total number of infections in the nation to 63,508. Meanwhile, no death was recorded from the disease in the last 24 hours, meaning that the fatality stays at 1, 155. This is according to the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on Thursday night. Of the 63,508 cases, 59,748 have been discharged across the country and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 673,183 tests have been carried out across Nigeria. The 180 new cases were reported from 14 states. Thy are: Lagos (87), Oyo (51), FCT (12), Plateau (10), Edo (4), Ekiti (3), Ogun (3), Bauchi (2), Kaduna (2), Niger (2), Kano (1), Ondo (1), Osun (1), Rivers (1) With the latest figures, Lagos still leads in the number of confirmed cases wi...
India’s Sunburn Festival Faces Backlash for Planned 2020 Event
Sunburn Festival, India’s largest electronic music event, has faced its fair share of controversies since its inception in 2007. Last year, the hashtag #BanSunburn trended after religious groups called for its cancellation due to its perceived negative impact. These detractors cited “drug mafias, addiction, and vulgarity” (among other concerns) as reasons for the need to ban the festival. Now, critics have a new argument to call for a swift cancellation—COVID-19. Percept Live, the organizers behind Sunburn, still plan to host the 2020 edition as scheduled in Goa December 27th to 29th, but now under proper COVID-19 safety protocols. In a tweet posted on Sunburn’s Twitter account, they shared a link to those safety measures, which are laid out below. 1. No entry ...
British parliament approves second national lockdown
The British Parliament has approved a four-week coronavirus lockdown plan to begin Thursday morning. Lawmakers approved the plan Wednesday, 516-38. Beginning 1 a.m. Thursday, all nonessential businesses including pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, golf courses, gyms, swimming pools, entertainment and sporting venues will close until at least December 2. The vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown plan was never really in doubt after the opposition Labor Party said it would support the move, even though it criticized Johnson for acting too slowly. Some in Johnson’s own party, however, voted against the plan, saying a national lockdown was too severe. The plan is an effort prevent COVID-19 from escalating out of control and overwhelming Britain’s National Health Service. It represents ...
AFCONQ: No fans for Super Eagles, Sierra Leone clash – ministry
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 have advised the Edo State Government and the Nigeria Football Federation against allowing fans into the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, during the 2021 AFCON qualifier between the Super Eagles and Sierra Leone on November 13. This is coming after the Edo State Government announced that the gates would be thrown open for fans to watch the game at the refurbished Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. The ministry said admitting fans into the match venue would amount to a breach of the COVID-19 protocols. In a letter addressed to the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, the ministry stated that the game “will not have any audience and no gathering”. The letter read in part, “The ministry wishes to brin...
US election: Republicans hold back Democrats, narrowing path to Senate control
The battle for power in the Senate tightened into Wednesday as Democrats picked up a seat in Colorado, but suffered a setback in Alabama, and Republicans held their own in high-profile races in South Carolina, Iowa, Texas and Kansas, dramatically narrowing the political map. Republicans fought to retain their Senate majority by turning back a surge of Democrats challenging allies of President Donald Trump, and the Democrats’ various paths to seizing control were growing more limited. With several contests still too early to call, and one Georgia race heading to a January runoff, the final verdict is expected to drag on. Democrats gained a seat when ex-Gov. John Hickenlooper ousted GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, a must-win to flip the Senate, but couldn’t hold on in Alabama, where forme...
