What will happen to poor if lockdown continues – PRP

The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has warned the government against pushing the poor to the wall by the indefinite extension of the lockdown order to curb the spread of COVID-19.

President Muhammadu Buhari had declared a lockdown of Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for an initial 14-day period.

Many other states in the country, however, followed suit with restriction-of-movement and stay-at-home orders of their own.

Although the lockdown was expected to last from Monday, March 30 to Monday, April 13, a presidential statement on Saturday said the lockdown would remain in place until otherwise advised by experts.

According to PRP, any human locked up without being provided with a means of sustenance or palliative will rebel.

The party in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Abdul Gombe, warned that the country could face famine and the near-total collapse of the economy if productivity, especially in the agricultural sector, was not sustained.

PRP said that since the agricultural sector employed many of the poor people in the country, the government must critically assess the impact of the pandemic on the sector to prevent the poor from rebelling.

“There is need to agree and transparently put in place measures to address growth in the land,” the statement read in part.

- PM NEWS

COVID-19: Despite smaller population, Ghana has tested 7 times more than Nigeria

Despite having smaller populations, Ghana and South Africa have tested at least seven times more people than Nigeria has since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus on the continent, TheCable can report. 

Sub-Saharan Africa recorded its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria on February 27, 2020.

Since then, the virus has spread to over 50 countries on the continent, with over 11,000 cases recorded.

Based on data on Worldometer, Ghana, which recorded its first case on March 12, 2020 — two weeks after Nigeria’s first case — has tested 37,405 people. Nigeria, on the other hand, has tested only 5,000 people.

Ghana has only 28.8 million people, while Nigeria — the most populous country on the continent — has a population of 201 million people, according to the United Nations (UN).

South Africa, with a population of 58.6 million people, has tested 75,053 people since its first case was confirmed on March 5, 2020.

Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa head, said at a teleconference last week that there is an urgent need to increase testing in Africa. She suggested that testing be expanded beyond major cities.

But based on data available, Nigeria is among the worst performers in Africa and anywhere in the world — as far as testing is concerned.

The west African giant has tested only 24 people for every one million of its population. This pales in comparison to South Africa, which has tested 1,265 of every one million citizens — or Ghana at 1,204 per one million.

NIGERIA ONLY AHEAD OF MALAWI, MOZAMBIQUE

According to Worldometer, only Mozambique and Malawi have tested fewer people per one million than Nigeria has.

Zweli Mkhize, South Africa’s health minister, says the country is testing almost 5,000 people per day. This means, South Africa will test in a day or two, what Nigeria has tested in six weeks.

On the global scale, Nigeria’s peer like Brazil — with a population of 211 million — has tested about 63,000 people. Russia, with a population of 145 million people has tested 1.2 million people.

Germany and South Korea, great examples in the management of coronavirus across the world, have tested over 10,000 people for every one million people in their population.

Germany, with a population of 83 million, has tested more than 1.3 million people, while South Korea, with 51 million people, has tested over 514,000 people.

Based on data available as of April 11, 2020.

- THECABLE

COVID-19: Reduce or forgive debts burdening poor nations, Pope tells world leaders

Pope Francis has called for the reduction or outright forgiveness of debts of poor countries.
In an Easter message at the Vatican on Sunday, the pope said by reducing or cancelling debts, countries would be in a better position to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

“This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic. May the risen Jesus grant hope to all the poor, to those living on the peripheries, to refugees and the homeless,” Pope said in his Easter address.
“In light of the present circumstances, may international sanctions be relaxed, since these make it difficult for countries on which they have been imposed to provide adequate support to their citizens, and may all nations be put in a position to meet the greatest needs of the moment through the reduction, if not the forgiveness, of the debt burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations.”
While offering prayers for the sick, poor and elderly, Francis urged political leaders to give hope and opportunity to laid-off workers.

There should be solidarity the world over to confront the disease he described as an “epochal challenge” posed by the global health crisis, he said.
He urged the European Union (EU) to step up to the challenge posed by COVID-19 and resist the tendencies of selfishness and division.
The pontiff recalled how Europe rose again after World War II “thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity that enabled it to overcome the rivalries of the past.”

“This is not a time for self-centredness, because the challenge we are facing is shared by all, without distinguishing between persons,” Francis said.
Recently, some world leaders including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ngozi Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former managing director of the World Bank asked the G-20 countries for a $44 billion debt relief for African countries to tackle the novel coronavirus.

- THECABLE

Teenage girl dies after falling from London balcony

A 16-year-old girl has died after falling from an eighth-floor balcony in southeast London, police have said.

Officers were called to Thurston Road, in Lewisham, shortly after 2pm on Easter Sunday following reports that a person had fallen from a height.

London Ambulance Service, London Fire Brigade and London’s Air Ambulance, who landed in a nearby Sports Direct car park, attended, but the teenager was pronounced dead at the scene.

The death is not being treated as suspicious, and the girl’s next of kin have been informed.

A police cordon remains at the scene near the residential property while inquiries continue, officers said.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: “The death is being treated as non-suspicious, and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”

- INDEPENDENT/PA

Why Africa's coronavirus outbreak appears slower than anticipated

When Africa's first case of coronavirus was detected in Egypt in February, the rest of the continent prepared for the brunt of a pandemic that has engulfed Europe and spread to the United States, infecting more than 1.6 million worldwide.

Health experts warned of the devastation the deadly virus could cause in Africa, where most hospitals are desperately short of equipment and trained staff.    

Coronavirus has since spread to 52 African countries, but despite a steady rise in the number of confirmed cases, the continent continues to lag behind the global curve for infections and deaths.

Still, the World Health Organization last month warned Africa faced a dramatic evolution of the pandemic even as governments imposed restrictions to help curb the spread. The continent appears poorly equipt to manage a major health crisis and is struggling to test enough to monitor virus cases. 

Where does Africa stand?

To date the novel respiratory disease has infected more than 12,800 people on the continent and killed at least 692, according to a tally compiled by AFP. 

Only the Comoros archipelago and the tiny kingdom of Lesotho have not yet detected any cases.

South Africa is the worst-affected country, with over 2,000 confirmed cases and 24 recorded deaths so far -- well behind the more than 871,000 cases and 71,000 deaths counted in Europe to date.  

Experts, however, warn that the tide is rising.

"During the last four days we can see that the numbers have already doubled," said Michel Yao, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa's emergency response programme manager.

"If the trend continues... some countries may face a huge peak very soon," Yao told AFP.

WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti echoed the concern, adding that the spread of COVID-19 outside major cities opened "a new front in our fight against this virus".

Are numbers underestimated?

Possibly the greatest question mark in analyses of coronavirus in Africa, compounded by a global lack of testing capacity.

Despite a donation of more than one million coronavirus testing kits by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, most African countries lack the equipment needed to detect the disease.

South Africa -- which has the most advanced healthcare system in sub-Saharan Africa -- has so far only managed to test around 73,000 of its 57 million inhabitants.  

"This is way too low for the kind of challenges South Africa is facing," said the country's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, who is aiming to scale up to 30,000 tests per day.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, has only carried out 5,000 coronavirus tests to date for a country of 190 million people.

"The testing system is quite overloaded," admitted a doctor working at a private clinic in Lagos, who asked not to be identified.

"It takes time for... the results," he added. "And are they accurate? We don't know."

Inability to test for the virus has forced several countries to work with vague and sometimes misleading estimates. 

Kenya, for instance, has predicted its number of coronavirus cases to reach 10,000 by the end of April.

Ten days into the month, the number of detected infections remained lower than 200.

"The reason is we have not gone to do community-based testing," explained the Director General of Kenya's health ministry, Patrick Amoth.

"So we still stand by our earlier projections. We don't know what is going to happen."

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, admitted that Africa's coronavirus statistics were far from "perfect".

"We just lack the means," he told AFP.

But Nkengasong also dismissed claims that a high number of infections had slipped under the radar, pointing out that hospitals "would be flooded with people" if that was the case.  

Have lockdowns, curfews worked? 

The delayed spread of coronavirus gave African countries some leeway to roll out the same measures implemented in Europe to stem the disease.  

Governments across the continent reacted ahead of time, closing borders and imposing lockdowns and curfews when just a handful of cases had been detected. 

Those measures have been tricky to enforce in impoverished and densely populated neighbourhoods, where houses are overcrowded and most survive off informal work -- making it almost impossible to remain home.

The WHO's Moeti cautioned that it was "too early to say" whether anti-coronavirus measures were slowing the epidemic in Africa.

Meanwhile, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said earlier this week that there was "sufficient evidence" to show that a nation-wide lockdown was "working".

"In the two weeks before the lockdown, the average daily increase in new cases was around 42 percent. Since the start of the lockdown, the average daily increase has been around 4 percent," Ramaphosa said on Thursday, as he announced an extension of the 21-day shutdown. 

Has Africa had enough time to prepare?

The time gained by African governments could be offset by a lack of means.

"There is a severe shortage of treatment facilities for critical cases of Covid-19," said a WHO statement.    

There are barely five intensive care unit beds per one million people in Africa, compared to 4,000 in Europe, according to the organisation.

Public hospitals only have 2,000 medical ventilators between them to serve the whole continent. 

Still no one dares make any predictions on the proportions the novel coronavirus could reach in Africa.

The WHO noted that 31 countries on the continent had less than 100 confirmed cases and believed "containment was possible".

Yet the threat remains.

"COVID-19 has the potential to cause thousands of deaths," said the WHO's Moeti. "To also unleash economic and social devastation."

burs-pa/bed/sch/pma

- AFP

How did coronavirus start and where did it come from? Was it really Wuhan's animal market?

In the public mind, the origin story of coronavirus seems well fixed: in late 2019 someone at the now world-famous Huanan seafood market in Wuhan was infected with a virus from an animal.

The rest is part of an awful history still in the making, with Covid-19 spreading from that first cluster in the capital of China’s Hubei province to a pandemic that has killed about 80,000 people so far.

Stock footage of pangolins – a scaly mammal that looks like an anteater – have made it on to news bulletins, suggesting this animal was the staging post for the virus before it spread to humans.

But there is uncertainty about several aspects of the Covid-19 origin story that scientists are trying hard to unravel, including which species passed it to a human. They’re trying hard because knowing how a pandemic starts is a key to stopping the next one.

Prof Stephen Turner, head of the department of microbiology at Melbourne’s Monash University, says what’s most likely is that virus originated in bats.

But that’s where his certainty ends, he says.

On the hypothesis that the virus emerged at the Wuhan live animal market from an interaction between an animal and a human, Turner says: “I don’t think it’s conclusive by any means.”

“Part of the problem is that the information is only as good as the surveillance,” he says, adding that viruses of this type are circulating all the time in the animal kingdom.

The fact that the virus has infected a tiger in a New York zoo shows how viruses can move around between species, he says. “Understanding the breadth of species this virus can infect is important as it helps us narrow down down where it might have come from.”

Scientists say it is highly likely that the virus came from bats but first passed through an intermediary animal in the same way that another coronavirus – the 2002 Sars outbreak – moved from horseshoe bats to cat-like civets before infecting humans.

One animal implicated as an intermediary host between bats and humans is the pangolin. The International Union for Conservation of Nature says they are “the most illegally traded mammal in the world” and are prized for their meat and the claimed medicinal properties of their scales.

As reported in Nature, pangolins were not listed on the inventory of items being sold in Wuhan, although this omission could be deliberate as it’s illegal to sell them.

“Whether the poor pangolin was the species at which it jumped, it’s not clear,” Turner says. “It’s either mixed in something else, mixed in a poor pangolin, or it’s jumped into people and evolved in people.”

Prof Edward Holmes, of the University of Sydney, was a co-author on a Nature study that examined the likely origins of the virus by looking at its genome. On social media he has stressed that the identity of the species that served as an intermediate host for the virus is “still uncertain”.

One statistical study looked at a characteristic of the virus that evolved to enable it to latch on to human cells. Pangolins were able to develop this characteristic, but so were cats, buffalo, cattle, goats, sheep and pigeons.

Another study claimed to have ruled out pangolins as an intermediary altogether, because samples of similar viruses taken from pangolins lacked a chain of amino acids seen in the virus now circulating in humans.

The study Holmes worked on suggested that the scenario in which a human at the Wuhan market interacted with an animal that carried the virus was only one potential version of the Covid-19 origin story. Another was the possibility that a descendent of the virus jumped into humans and then adapted as it was passed from human to human.

“Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it,” the study said.

Analysis of the first 41 Covid-19 patients in medical journal the Lancet found that 27 of them had direct exposure to the Wuhan market. But the same analysis found that the first known case of the illness did not.

This might be another reason to doubt the established story.

Prof Stanley Perlman, a leading immunologist at the University of Iowa and an expert on previous coronavirus outbreaks that have stemmed from animals, says the idea the link to the Wuhan market is coincidental “cannot be ruled out” but that possibility “seems less likely” because the genetic material of the virus had been found in the market environment.

Perlman told Guardian Australia he does believe there was an intermediary animal but adds that while pangolins are possible candidates, they “are not proven to be the key intermediary”.

“I suspect that any evolution [of the virus] occurred in the intermediate animal if there was one. There has been no substantial changes in the virus in the three months of the pandemic, indicating that the virus is well adapted to humans.”

So-called wet markets – where live animals are traded – have been implicated in previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, in particular Sars.

Dr Michelle Baker, an immunologist at CSIRO who studies viruses in bats, says some of the research on Covid-19’s origins have stepped off from what was known from the past.

But “we really don’t know” how accurate the origin story is, she says: “There’s some sort of connection [to the Wuhan market] and there were people exposed to the market that were infected.”

Baker says what is “very likely” is that the virus originated in a bat. “It’s a likely scenario but we will never know. The market was cleaned up quite quickly. We can only speculate.”

“These wet markets have been identified as an issue because you do have species interacting,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to highlight the dangers of them and an opportunity to clamp down on them.”

Turner adds: “We’ve found the ancestors of the virus, but having broader knowledge of the coronavirus in other species might give us a hint about the evolution of this thing and how it jumped.”

- THE GUARDIAN, UK

SAD !! Man lures 8-year-old girl with biscuit, defiles her

The Police in Ikorodu, Lagos, on Sunday, arrested one 28-year-old man, who allegedly lured an eight-year-old girl with biscuits and defiled her.

In a statement in Lagos, DSP Bala Elkana, Public Relations Officer of the state police command, said the alleged crime occurred on Alladi Ijelu Street, Agunfoye, Ikorodu, NAN reports.

He said the suspect, who is a father of two, lured the child into his room when her father was away.

Elkana said that the alleged victim had been taken to a hospital for treatment.

According to him, the girl’s father (name withheld) met her in pain when he returned home.

He said that the parents of the child were separated.

“The father left the girl with her two brothers, ages ten years and 12 years.

“The survivor has been taken to a hospital for treatment and forensic examination.

“The suspect, a tiller and father of two, has been arrested by detectives from the Juvenile Welfare Centre, Ikorodu Police Station,” he said.

Elkana said that the state Commissioner of Police Hakeem Odumosu had directed that the case be transferred to the Gender Unit of the command headquarters, Ikeja, for investigation and prosecution.

- DAILY POST

COVID-19: Premier League clubs take final decision on resumption

Premier League clubs have all agreed to play out the rest of the current season rather than cancel or end it at its current stage, according to Crystal Palace manager, Roy Hodgson.

Hodgson revealed that Premier League clubs are all in total agreement that the season needs to be completed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

There had been reports that the season would be declared null and void or that it would end with the positions staying as they are now should no more games be played.

The Crystal Palace boss said it is important for the current season to end without “artificial” methods of determining places.

Footballing and other sporting activities have been suspended since March 13 due to Coronavirus that spread from China to other parts of the world.

Liverpool need just two more wins to be certain of their first league title in 30 years.

Hodgson is adamant the campaign must only finish once all games have been played.

In a message to supporters on Crystal Palace’s official website, Hodgson said: “Everyone is in total agreement we need an end to this season. We don’t want artificial means of deciding who wins the league, who gets into the Champions League, who gets relegated and promoted.

“Ideally our players would have three or four weeks’ minimum to prepare for the first match back, but I accept there may have to be a squeeze on that timeframe.

“It might mean extra restrictions at our place of work – the training ground – for example. It may also mean that we have to play our nine remaining matches in a shorter period of time than we normally would have done, and subsequently receive a shorter break between the seasons.

“But I think with all of these sacrifices – and I am uncomfortable using that word in such a context – everyone will be more than happy to go along with what it takes in order to get playing again as soon as possible in order to get the season finished.”

- DAILY POST 

Pogba reveals those who asked him to leave Man Utd for Juventus

Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba, has revealed his family advised him to leave Old Trafford when he made his move to Juventus.

Pogba left Old Trafford in 2012, after failing to nail down a regular first-team place under Sir Alex Ferguson.

The France midfielder eventually returned to the club in a world-record deal four years later.

“My brother, the United fan, told me he was really angry – even more than me – when I didn’t play,” Pogba told The Official Manchester United podcast.

“He told me, ‘No, go. You can play in this team. If they don’t want you here, go somewhere else. They will see.’

“My mother always told me, ‘You will go somewhere but come back.’ She always said this. I was like, ‘We will see,’ but you know mothers and the things she said: ‘You will come back here, don’t worry,’ and that was just after. She said, ‘You will come back to Manchester, don’t worry,’ and I did.”

Since his return, Pogba has won the League Cup and the Europa League, after winning four Serie A titles with Juventus.

The 27-year-old is yet the subject of transfer speculation and is widely expected to leave United this summer.

- DAILY POST

Drogba offers hospital for coronavirus fight

Didier Drogba has offered his Laurent Pokou hospital to the fight against coronavirus in his country.

Four persons have died in the COVID-19 outbreak in Ivory Coast out of 533 cases.

The hospital the football legend has offered is in Abidjan, the commercial capital.

The head of the city’s regional council, Vincent Toh Bi thanked Drogba for the gesture.

“We thank Drogba for this gift considered as an act of patriotism,” Toh Bi said.

The centre, located in the Attecoube district, is not yet in a working state.

However, it can be used in a period of crisis.

“It’s up to the state to validate it and make it functional,” Mariam Breka, the director of Drogba Foundation said.

Drogba named the hospital in honour of an Ivorian football legend.

Drogba, a former Chelsea forward, scored 65 goals in 105 appearances for his country.

He also won the Champions League with the English club during his playing career.

- PM NEWS