Mrs Uko Itohowo, the Director, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, says COVID-19 has worsened Tuberculosis (TB) cases in Nigeria as about 60 per cent of patients go unnoticed and untreated. Itohowo said this on Monday in a virtual media seminar with newsmen in Ilorin.She said that according to the 2020 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Nigeria is ranked first in leading cases of TB in Africa and sixth in the world. She said currently, TB kills 18 Nigerians every hour, with a record number of 47 Nigerians developing active TB every hour, seven of which are children. Itohowo observed that all attention were being placed on COVID-19 to the detriment of TB, which is equally a deadly disease. She said that although TB is a deadly disease yet with proper treatment it could be cured. “The inability of tuberculosis patients to access medication during the COVID-19 lockdown worsened the spread of tuberculosis in Nigeria. “Thus, about 150,000 persons died of tuberculosis in Nigeria in 2019 alone according to a World Health Organisation report,” she said. Itohowo listed symptoms of tuberculosis to include fever, loss of weight and protracted cough. She said, however, that contrary to misinformation, tuberculosis is curable, and urged people with persistent cough that has lasted for two weeks to go for a test. She said that with early diagnosis, TB could be cured within six months, adding that treatment of tuberculosis is free at designated hospitals in the country. “TB is not spread through shaking someone’s hand, sharing food, touching bed linens or toilet seats, or sharing toothbrushes.

People who are incarcerated have high rates of COVID-19 infection and death compared to the general population. Correctional facilities are overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and disproportionately populated by people with preexisting conditions. By August 2020, 90 of the 100 largest COVID-19 clusters in the United States had occurred in prisons and jails. The racist origins of the criminal legal system have created an overrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color in correctional facilities, further exacerbating health inequities in these communities.
Given the increased risk of COVID-19 among people who are incarcerated, it is imperative to vaccinate people in US prisons as soon as possible. But although experts have called to urgently vaccinate people behind the walls, the number of people who have received vaccinations in correctional facilities remains opaque. Few systems publish any data on COVID-19 vaccinations in corrections, and no government infrastructure exists to track the rollout of vaccinations in corrections nationally. Among states that do publicly report vaccination counts, rates of vaccinations in corrections vary widely across states. This has major implications for our understanding of if and when people who are incarcerated have access to the vaccine, which in turn has an impact on our ability to mitigate outbreaks in carceral settings and surrounding communities.
We obtained vaccination counts from the COVID Prison Project, a public-facing database that provides real-time data on COVID-19 transmission within all 50 state prison systems, the federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in Puerto Rico. As no uniform standards for data collection exist across correctional facilities, data were recorded by COVID Prison Project in the form that they are presented. For example, systems may present vaccination data as the total numbers who have received one vaccination, the total who have received two vaccinations, or by unique individuals who have received any vaccination. Historical data summarize the number of individuals who are incarcerated who have received >1 vaccination, the number of staff who have received >1 vaccination, and the number of unspecified staff or people who are incarcerated who have received >1 vaccination.

With this challenge, USAID will offer $3million in funding and technical assistance to youth-led companies and mid-stage companies (those having an existing customer base of more than 1,000 people) in Nigeria in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s agri-food systems.In a statement, USAID says: "Nigeria is presently confronted with a food security crisis that is deepened by COVID-19 global pandemic and its negative consequences on the food value chain in the country.

Describing Nigerian scientists as worthy assets to be nurtured, President Muhammadu Buhari has observed that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the potentials, talents, and creativity of the scientists.
In a speech delivered earlier today on the President’s behalf by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, at a public forum organized by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, the President commended Nigerian engineers for the diversity of their experience and competence.
According to him, “I think the pandemic has truly opened up the immense talents and creativity of Nigerian scientists and engineers and if the current momentum is supported, the next few years could be incredibly exciting.”
He went on to commend the academy and its membership saying, “we are proud of Nigerian Academy of Engineers; your membership is made up of accomplished Nigerian engineers across all disciplines industry sectors of engineering in Nigeria and in the diaspora. This provides it with the depth and diversity of experience and competence to provide advice on virtually all areas of engineering in the country.”
Speaking on the important role of Science, Technology, and Engineering in dealing with the pandemic, the President noted that the world “turned to these disciplines for immediate solutions and answers. I am sure that as engineers, you will agree with me that one of the most poignant lessons of the response to the pandemic is the critical interdependence of science and engineering.”
Giving an update on the production of a local vaccine, the President noted that the African Centre of Excellence for the Genomics of Infectious Disease located at Redeemer’s University Ede, has “developed an efficacious rapid test for COVID and have been working on a vaccine in collaboration with DIOSynVax (Digital Immune Optimised Synthetic Vaccines), Cambridge UK, using the DIOSynVax genomic-based technology.”
“There are also efforts going on therapeutics of various kinds. The development of vaccines, tests, and therapeutics these days are aided by automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, so this is a strong point of synergy between science and engineering.”
Citing the opportunities presented during the lockdown period, President Buhari stated the “huge potential for the creation of effective technologies for telework activities, including Telemedicine and Fintech.”
The President recalled his Executive Order Nos 5 which directs all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (“MDAs”) of government to engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design, and execution of national security projects and maximize in-country capacity in all contracts and transactions with science, engineering and technology components.
Present at the public forum attended virtually by the Vice President were the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; President of Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Engr. Alex O. Ogedegbe; Executive Secretary of Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu; Guest Speaker, Engr. Prof Babatunde Ogunnaike and other top officials of the academy.

The Nigerian Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire says that due to agreements with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the delivery of vaccines on this scale is guaranteed.
70 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines are to be provided by the African Union, and 13.76 million doses of AstraZeneca will be allocated by the international vaccine initiative COVAX.
The government in Abjuja is also mobilizing the economy to finance the project. For example, the Nigerian telecommunications giant MTN donated $ 25 million to order 1.4 million vaccines. Of these, 300,000 cans of AstraZeneca were already delivered in March. Other large companies should follow this example.
Vaccinations for 70 percent of the population by 2020
Boss Mustapha is the chairman of the government's COVID-19 task force, which coordinates all measures to contain the corona pandemic. Mustapha hopes local pharmaceutical companies will be able to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria within a year.
The government's goal is to have enough vaccines for 70 percent of the population by 2022, Mustapha said. He points out that Nigeria has many years of experience in dealing with nationwide vaccination programs. For example, it was possible to eradicate polio .
With around 200 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent.
Great skepticism about vaccination
However, Mustapha is worried about the widespread skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines. According to a survey by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, only half of the population currently wants to be vaccinated.
To demonstrate the safety of the vaccinations, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had themselves vaccinated in front of television cameras. "I received my first sting and I would like to recommend all eligible Nigerians do the same to protect us from the virus," Buhari said when he was vaccinated on March 6.
To ensure efficient vaccine distribution, Nigeria has implemented a digital registration. According to Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, anyone over the age of 18 can register for the vaccination.
The sequence of vaccinations is based on priorities. Key workers in the health sector should be the first to act, older people and people with previous illnesses are also given preference in vaccination.
As of April 7, Nigeria has recorded 163,498 cases of COVID-19 and 2,058 people have died. The number of tests carried out so far is 1.8 million.

"The most recent notice said:" A letter was sent to the Miner Primary School community on April 2, 2021, informing them that when students were present on April 2, 2021, a positive COVID-19 case occurred in the building.
Since the school reopened for face-to-face learning in February, the school system has issued about 100 notices, making the school system’s population approximately 20%. Each posting may mean that at least one classroom (up to 12 people) must switch to distance learning and be isolated for two weeks.
These notices may be worrying, but city officials said they reflect more that students are bringing the virus into schools, rather than that the virus is spreading in schools. School system officials say that when multiple people in the school test positive, they are usually siblings in different classrooms of the school.

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that a batch of its key vaccine ingredient didn't meet quality control standards at a Baltimore facility.
The issue will not affect the Biden administration's timeline to have enough vaccine doses for the U.S. adult population by the end of May, two senior administration officials said.

"Ideally, the cost for tests in travel portals should not cost more than $50 but some West African countries are charging as much as $90."
The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, revealing a global failure to invest in pandemic preparedness. Scientists, looked upon to find a cure, had little time and a low margin for error.
And because the disease is novel and spreads fast, an infodemic - misconception, mistrusts, and scepticisms - sprung, putting pressure on fact-checkers and journalists to deliver accurate, balanced, and timely reports while countering false information.


Two issues remained contentious for more than a year after the pandemic broke: a growing debate on the efficacy of the treatment regimens for the disease and the safety concerns about COVID-19 vaccines.
For instance, the use of Ivermectin - a medication used to treat many types of parasite infestations - for treating COVID-19 has been a hot topic in the health community with many national health associations like the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. choosing to remain neutral, leaving the decision to physicians and their patients.
In Nigeria, the growing concerns about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccines are escalating an already flourishing scepticism and misconception.
Last week, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) in partnership with the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH) held a webinar to address some of the contentious issues surrounding vaccine safety and treatment of the disease.

Alfredo Torres, a microbiology and immunology professor from Texas, had a message Wednesday for parents who might be reluctant to get their children vaccinated against Covid-19: Go for it.
Not only was Torres a volunteer for a Pfizer vaccine clinical trial; so was his 14-year-old son.
"Afterward his arm was a little sore, he was a little tired, which is what happens to most people after getting the shot," Torres said. "But besides that, he was perfectly fine. So my message to parents who might be concerned is very simple: We need to vaccinate as many people as possible to end this pandemic, and that means vaccinating children, as well."
"This vaccine is safe for children," said Torres, who teaches at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Pfizer said Wednesday that its Covid-19 vaccine is safe and 100 percent effective in preventing the illness in teenagers ages 12 to 15.
"After I volunteered, he immediately said he wanted to volunteer, as well," Torres said of his son. "I am very proud."
Torres is far from the only parent who is cheering Pfizer's announcement. Some of the loudest applause came from parents with high-risk children who have already been vaccinated.
Paige Wallis of Malden, Massachusetts, was relieved after her autistic 16-year-old daughter, Sylvie, got her first Pfizer shot last week.
"She just turned 16 earlier this month and qualified for being high-risk — a rare genetic disorder with congenital effects and intellectual disability," Wallis said.

Organisers of the Nigerian National Sports Festival in Edo State, due to begin on Friday (April 2), have said all 8,000 people set to attend the event must have been vaccinated no later than 12 days before the start of competition.
The rules mean athletes who have not received a jab, or refuse to have one, will be prevented from competing.
Athletes and officials will have to present proof of vaccination in order to be allowed to enter the Athletes' Village, Organising Committee chairman and Deputy Governor in Edo state Philip Shaibu has said.
It is thought to be one of the first examples of a "vaccination passport" being included as part of the entry conditions for a sports event.
Organisers have said participants must also be tested for COVID-19 72 hours prior to their arrival.
The rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine has started in Nigeria following confusion over its deployment.
Sportspeople receiving COVID-19 vaccinations has been a contentious topic of late, with some countries refusing to allow their competitors to jump the queue ahead of priority groups.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has claimed a "significant" number of Olympic teams set to compete at this year's postponed Tokyo 2020 Games have already been vaccinated.
The IOC has insisted it is not mandatory for athletes to be vaccinated before the Games and even those who have received the jab will still have to follow the stringent rules set to be in place to reduce the risk posed by COVID-19.


The competition can also be regarded as a form of assembly. In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, vaccination of athletes is necessary.

A non-governmental organization, Millennium Center for Training and Leadership has identified lack of political will and mismanagement of resources by authorities as the key factors responsible for poor health facilities in Nigeria.
DAILY POST reports that health facilities in Nigeria have continued to deteriorate, with the ruling class and other wealthy individuals resorting to foreign treatment, leaving poor citizens at the mercy of ill-equipped hospitals.
Addressing journalists in Enugu on Wednesday, President of the organization, Prince Okey-Joe Onuakalusi stated that Nigeria had the resources and capacity to put in place 21st century state-of-the-art medical equipment in all its health facilities across the nation.
He, however, lamented that it had remained in a sorry state owing to corruption and misplacement of priority by policy makers.
Onuakalusi spoke ahead of a one day National Conference on Health issues in Nigeria, with the theme: “Technology, As a Bridge For Health Security, Socio- Economic Stability And Brain Gain” scheduled to take place in Enugu today, Thursday.
He disclosed that Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu will be the guest Speaker, while former Minister of Power and Energy, professor Chinedu Nebo, will chair the event.
He said some of the discussants will include professor Basden Onwubere, who is the Chairman, National Centre of Excellence for Cardio thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Dr. Uche Unigwe Head, Infectious Diseases Department and Coordinator University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Covid-19 management team, amongst others.
“We are expecting people from all walks of life. We have assembled the best brains and hands in the Health sector, in the Eastern region of Nigeria who will be speaking on different areas of health,” he stated.
According to him, at the end of the conference, the organizers will meet to evaluate the outcome of the deliberation with a view to coming out with a blueprint on the way forward.
“This conference became necessary because the national health issue has remained a serious problem in Nigeria,” Onuakalusi emphasized.


Sanitation facilities cannot continue to deteriorate. For our own future, we must attach importance to the health sector.

The British and Nigerian variants of Covid-19 are slowly spreading in Algeria. New cases of these strains have been recorded in several wilayas of the country, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria said on Tuesday 23rd in a press release.
"Following on from the SARS-CoV-2 virus sequencing activities set up by the Institut Pasteur in Algeria in the context of monitoring variants currently circulating in the world, six new cases have been confirmed. of the British variant (B.1.1.7) and 15 new cases of the Nigerian variant (B.1.525), ” the statement said.
The six new cases of the British variant were recorded respectively in Algiers (2 cases), Blida (2 cases), Tizi Ouzou (01 case) and Ain Defla (01 case), according to the same source.
For the 15 cases of the Nigerian variant, they were confirmed in Algiers (08 cases) including 2 in the same family, 2 cases in Hassi Messaoud in the wilaya of Ouargla, 1 case in Bejaia and 4 cases in In Amenas in the wilaya of Illizi.
"Compliance with barrier measures, as part of the health protocol (physical distancing, wearing a protective mask, frequent hand washing), always remains the best guarantee to stop the spread of the virus and the appearance of new cases", indicates the IPA.
The first cases of the Nigerian variant of Covid-19 were detected on Thursday March 11, and those of the British variant on February 24. In total, Algeria has 28 confirmed cases of the Nigerian variant and 21 confirmed cases of the British variant, according to the IPA.

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 said it received 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from MTN Nigeria.
Speaking at the National briefing, the Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha said: “Yesterday, Sunday, March 21, 2021, the PTF received 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from MTN Nigeria.
“This is acknowledged with thanks as we encourage other partners to contribute towards the fight against COVID-19.”
Recall that the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, had said that the first part of the 1.4 million doses promised to be donated to Nigeria would be delivered by end of February, while the remaining balance would be delivered by end of March, 2021.
Mustapha also said: “?The disclosure that Nigerian Scientists have produced at least two local COVID-19 vaccines which are awaiting clinical trials and certification is significant.
“This is a welcome development that will open a new vista in scientific breakthrough and will boost the morale and image of the medical industry in the country.
“I call on all relevant agencies to provide the required support and enabling environment for smooth conduct of the remaining protocols for the certification of these vaccines with a view to encouraging and motivating other researchers.”
While calling for continued caution as Nigeria tackle COVID-19, Mustapha said: “Yesterday again, Nigeria recorded the lowest number of cases so far this year. We have also seen a decline in cases in the high burden countries around the African region.
“This does not call for us to lower our guards as the virus is still potent and virulent. This is the right time to adhere to the full compliance of the NPIs and be vaccinated.
“Although, situations around the world now show some increase in cases, especially in the Americas, Europe and East Mediterranean regions, which suggests that they could be a third wave, further affirms that non-compliance with COVID-19 regulations and growing evidence of vaccine hesitancy could endanger millions of lives.”
Speaking on the banning of Emirates airlines, the PTF boss said: “The PTF had informed you in the past few weeks on the discussions on the KLM and Emirates airlines services in Nigeria.
”Today, I will like to inform you that KLM has commenced full operations in and out of Nigeria since March 15, 2021 while operations of the Emirates in and out of the Country has been suspended with exemption of Cargo and Humanitarian flights.
“In the course of the week, a new travel and Quarantine protocols will be unveiled to incorporate persons vaccinated against this virus and make travels safe for international passengers.
“Efforts are being put in place for the reopening of the Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu international airports.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least April 21, the U.S. government said on Thursday.
The 30-day extension is the second announced under President Joe Biden and comes as U.S lawmakers in northern border states have urged lifting the nearly year-old restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a notice Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said the three countries have all “determined that non-essential travel ... poses additional risk of transmission and spread of the virus.” Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair confirmed the extension of restrictions on Twitter.
Canada has shown little interest in lifting the restrictions and last month imposed new COVID-19 testing requirements for some Canadians returning at land crossings.
On Jan. 26, the U.S. government began requiring nearly all international air travelers to get negative COVID-19 test results within three days of travel but has no similar requirements for land border crossings.
The Biden administration has spent weeks reviewing whether to impose COVID-19 testing requirements for land border crossings but has not issued new requirements.
In an executive order in January, Biden directed U.S. officials to “immediately commence diplomatic outreach to the governments of Canada and Mexico regarding public health protocols for land ports of entry.”
U.S. lawmakers say Americans who own property in Canada cannot maintain their homes. Border towns and businesses have been hard hit by the lack of cross-border traffic.
Hundreds of thousands of people cross the U.S.-Mexico border daily, and Mexico has extremely limited COVID-19 testing capacity, U.S. officials say.
Representative Tom Massie of Kentucky said at a March 2 hearing a vacationing Kentucky family recently tested positive in Mexico for COVID-19 and could not return to the United States on a flight.
“They flew to Tijuana, walked across the border to the United States, got on an airplane in San Diego and then returned to Kentucky,” Massie said.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he was poised to meet his goal of administering 100 million Covid-19 vaccination shots in his first 100 days on Friday, more than 40 days ahead of schedule.
"I am proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into my administration, we will have met our goal," Biden said Thursday afternoon in a speech at the White House. "That's weeks ahead of schedule, even with the setbacks we faced during the winter storms."
Biden said that 100 million vaccines was "just the floor" and he would announce a new goal next week.
As of Wednesday, the United States had administered more than 96 million shots since Biden was sworn into office, with an average of nearly 2.5 million injections per day this past week, according to data compiled by NBC News.
Biden said that as of Thursday, 65 percent of people age 65 or older had received at least one shot and 36 percent have been fully vaccinated.
Biden was criticized by some for setting the bar too low with his target of 100 million shots, with health officials and experts saying that was well within reach. In the final days of then-President Donald Trump's administration, nearly 1 million shots were being administered per day, the daily average Biden needed to hit in order to meet his goal.
Biden acknowledged in January that his administration was likely capable of surpassing his 100 million goal, saying that he thought the country could reach 150 million shots in his first 100 days.
"It's here, sooner than many ever thought possible," he said in remarks at the White House on Monday. "Over the next 10 days, we will reach two giant goals: One hundred million shots in people's arms and 100 million checks in people's pockets."
When Biden first set a goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in December, no vaccine had been cleared for use and there was a lot of uncertainty around production capacity and distribution capabilities.
Biden said Thursday that "there was a lot that had to be done" when he took office.
"We needed more vaccines, more vaccinators and more places for people to get vaccinated," he said.
Biden has said that there will be enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May. He has set up a number of federally-backed mass vaccination sites around the country to help administer the shots as quickly as possible, and has expanded the pool of qualified people to administer the shots to include dentists, veterinarians and other health care professionals.

WASHINGTON — Republicans took a counterintuitive lesson from losing the presidency and the Senate: never change.
Uniform GOP opposition to the $1.9 trillion pandemic and economic relief measure President Joe Biden signed into law on Thursday is the latest and most illustrative manifestation. Most Republicans voted to defeat the certification of Biden's election. And save for Senate confirmation votes on key members of Biden's Cabinet, congressional Republicans have, almost in lockstep, opposed the major and minor initiatives of the president and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill.
Republicans aren't worried that voters will punish them for voting no on the "American Rescue Plan."
"Short term, it is very politically popular," said Ron Bonjean, a veteran Republican strategist and former GOP leadership aide on Capitol Hill. But, he explained, Republicans are making a different calculation about the long-term politics of the law and the party-line votes on it.
"It is politically risky, but Republicans were shut out of the process in putting the relief package together so they are counting on news of massive waste, fraud and abuse that they can point out before the next election," he added.
That's a big bet against long odds, to be sure.
"Unfortunately, Republicans, as I say, vote no and take the dough," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday. "You see already some of them claiming, 'Oh, this is a good thing,' or 'That's a good thing,' but they couldn't give it a vote."
The relief bill is backed by three-quarters of the American public, according to polling. That means Republicans are moving away from the middle in the shadow of an election in which just a slight shift in the electorate would have delivered President Donald Trump a second term and Republicans majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The intuitive reaction to the elections would be to find slightly more popular political ground to occupy, in part by picking battles carefully. But the GOP's strategy is the opposite. Instead of appealing to a broader swath of the electorate, Republicans are pursuing a strategy of trying to make Biden and his fellow Democrats less popular.
"Democrats didn’t try to make this bill bipartisan; in fact, they actively tried to make sure Republicans didn’t have a voice in this legislation," Senate Republican Whip John Thune of South Dakota said on the floor this week. "This bill is mostly just a collection of payoffs to Democrat interest groups and Democrat states."
Thune is right that the legislation is not what Republicans would have written, and that it includes money for items like a union-pension bailout that can't credibly be claimed as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. But neither was it necessary for Trump's Treasury Department to design a business-loan program that gave money to polo-team and private-jet owners.
Thune's underlying point, which reflects the arguments of Republicans in Congress, is that Biden and the Democrats are corrupt. He offers no evidence of this corruption, other than that money went to people who vote for Democrats. He said nothing about the money that went to Republican voters.
Indeed, it is odd to portray people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, unionized workers, and all 50 states as "Democrat interest groups" and "Democrat states."
But Republicans are calculating that they can win over more voters in the next election, and the one after that, by making everything Biden does controversial by dint of their opposition to it. It is an old playbook, dating back to the days when Newt Gingrich helped Republicans flip the House into their own hands after 40 years in the minority back in 1994.
Republicans will give no quarter to Biden and Democrats, no matter the urgency of the issue. Instead of waiting for Democrats to take unpopular stands and seizing the middle, they are apparently intent on trying to disqualify Democrats for delivering on public demands. Crazier things have happened in American politics, but it's not the high-percentage move.
With Republicans refusing to vote for his plans, Biden is trying to redefine the word "bipartisanship." He is using it to describe matters on which any GOP voters agree with his position, instead of the traditional construct that describes bills that win votes from both parties in Congress.
When there were exigent threats to the public under Republican presidents, Democrats in Congress tended to vote with the president. They gave President George W. Bush wide latitude to fight terrorists abroad and at home, backed a financial-industry bailout at the end of his second term and voted for several rescue packages similar to the latest Covid-relief bill under President Donald Trump last year.
Whatever moral compulsion Democratic lawmakers may have felt at each of those moments, they also perceived political risk in turning their backs on public needs, public sentiment or both.
They also voted overwhelmingly against major initiatives of Bush and Trump, but typically not when so many lives and livelihoods were on the line.
Rifle-shot criticisms of individual provisions of the relief measure could prove successful for Republican House and Senate candidates in 2022. But with more shots going in arms and expectations that nearly $2 trillion will give a jolt to the economy, there's a bigger risk that Democrats will be able to pound them for trying to halt America's physical and economic recovery from Covid-19.

Dr Ngong Cyprian receives his first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, at the National hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, March 5, 2021.
Nigeria has started to vaccinate people after receiving its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines. Virologist and senior research fellow Dr Solomon Bakarey provides some insights on how the country should go about the rollout plan.
The government hasn’t unveiled a coherent plan. How much of a problem is this?
It’s a big problem, and it’s making Nigerians sceptical about the vaccines.
Many countries, including some African neighbours, have rolled out distribution plans for the vaccines they’ve procured. But Nigerian government is yet to unveil a coherent plan.
In my view this means that the government isn’t sincere about making sure there’s equitable distribution. The consequence is that people will have doubts about the efficacy of its efforts as well as the vaccine. They might therefore be reluctant to show interest when the vaccines are made available.
This will not help the country and the international community will not take the country seriously.
What vaccines have been procured?
In early March it was announced that Nigeria had received 3.94 million COVID-19 vaccines shipped by the Vaccines Global Access facility – COVAX. These were Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in India. This meant that the country could begin its vaccination programme.
The government has also announced it is expecting 41 million doses through the auspices of the African Union, which is also sourcing them from manufacturers in India. And the country’s regulatory authorities, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, have approved the vaccines for use.
Earlier this year, Nigeria did not specify which of the three available COVID-19 vaccines – Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or Oxford/AstraZeneca – would be procured but said it would budget for all of them. This was before considering issues such as the suitability of vaccines from a storage point of view.
The Pfizer vaccine, for example, can only be stored at -70°C conditions while the Moderna vaccine can remain stable at refrigerator temperature for about 30 days. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, due its different formulation, only needs to be kept in normal refrigerated conditions. This is better for Nigeria given the country’s erratic power supply.
What’s the rollout plan?
Nigeria plans to vaccinate 40% of its citizens against COVID-19 before the end of 2021, and 70% by the end of 2022.
The government has not released details of how this will be achieved, though it’s been possible to piece together some elements. For example, there is an online registration site which also gives details about which groups of people will be prioritised. At the front of the queue are frontline healthcare workers, those who work in high risk areas like entry points and contact tracing teams.
COVID-19 vaccination teams are also included. Others include security personnel, teachers and the elderly, especially those with co-morbidities –cancer, diabetes, asthma, HIV and AIDS, and immunocompromised patients.
The general population will follow.
What’s the role of private companies, if any?
The government clearly cannot do it alone. Any rollout will have to be implemented with the help of a wide range of organisations. To save the country’s healthcare system from total collapse in the face of COVID-19 requires the input of all.
For the moment, only government agencies can procure COVID-19 vaccines. The reason for this is that global supply is low. This makes it imperative for governments to take charge until more vaccine manufacturers produce enough to go round.
But I think it will not be long before private companies will be asked to get involved.
Private sector involvement is already happening on other fronts. For example, the government announced that it has secured the services of the private sector for ultra-cold storage facilities to help store and distribute the vaccines.
This is not new. Private facilities already contribute significantly to healthcare provision in the country. One example is the involvement of private healthcare institutions in previous federal government vaccination programmes such as child immunisations against polio and measles.

American Business Council (ABC), a trade platform and voice of American businesses operating in Nigeria, has restated its commitment to support trade in Nigeria and to grow the Nigerian economy, despite challenges that range from policy implementation, access to foreign currency, political uncertainty, to specific industry regulations.
The council identified the challenges in its recent survey, tagged: ‘2020 Nigeria Economic Impact Survey’, which it administered in collaboration with the United States Embassy, Verraki, KPMG and PwC.
The survey, which was released last week, analysed the economic effect of United States (US) companies on the Nigerian economy between 2019 and 2020. It measured changes in business revenue, foreign investment, job creation, gross value added and plans for expansion within the period.
According to the survey report, over 65.12 per cent of US companies operating in Nigeria, identified Nigeria as the regional hub for their operations in West Africa, yet the report showed that there was a drop in the creation of direct and indirect jobs in 2019 by American companies, compared to what was obtained in 2018. The report also showed a decrease in generated revenue from $1.47 trillion in 2018 to $1.08 trillion in 2019. The survey report further explained a reduction in the amount of planned investments in the next three years to $2.37 billion, compared to the over $2.57 billion that was spent on expansion in the last five years.
Although the report identified government policy implementation and specific industry regulation as some key factors that were responsible for the drop in business activities in 2019 and 2020, the President, ABC, Mr. Dipo Faulkner, while analysing the report also attributed that challenges faced by American companies, to include the effect of COVID-19 pandemic and the global economy restructuring.
He, however, said ABC would not be deterred by the challenges, since most of them were global in nature.
“The effect of COVID-19 and the global restructuring affected the impact of American businesses on the Nigerian economy in the areas of job creation, expansion of investments and revenue generation, but ABC is creating jobs in Nigeria through the over 100 American companies operating in Nigeria, thereby impacting the Nigerian economy with direct and indirect jobs, which has helped in addressing unemployment in Nigeria,” Faulkner said.
Partner at PWC, Mr. Chijioke Uwaegbute, who presented the report, however called on the Nigerian government to address some of the challenges that were traced to policy implementation and specific industry regulation.
According to him, policy development and implementation should be driven by the right data and there must be conscious efforts of the government to collaborate with the people that will be directly impacted by the policy, such as the organised private sector.
“Most policies may sound good on paper but the successful implementation might be a challenge if the stakeholders are not carried along. Policies must be based on data that are verifiable and the collaboration with those stakeholders that will receive the directive impact of the policies, is key. The Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria is good but the implementation process needs to be looked into in order to enhance our global raking in the Ease of Doing Business,” Uwaegbute said.
Chief Executive Officer/Executive Secretary, ABC, Margaret Olele, said Nigerian businesses, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), must develop themselves with the right digital skills that are available in the global job market, in order to be part of the digital transformation era.
“With the right environment and policies, Nigerian government can help American companies to maximize their business and at the same time, grow the Nigerian economy because American businesses have come to stay in Nigeria for the long term,” Olele said.
She also spoke about the need for Nigerian SMEs to engage themselves in capacity building that will help them become digitally skilled to provide digital services that are required in today’s global digital economy.

This article was published in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, and The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up to receive ProPublica's biggest stories as soon as they’re published, and sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on essential coverage of Texas issues.
HOUSTON — Mauricio Marin felt his heart tighten when the power flicked off at his Richmond, Texas, home on the evening of Feb. 14, shutting down his plug-in breathing machine. Gasping, he rushed to connect himself to one of the portable oxygen tanks his doctors had sent home with him weeks earlier to help his lungs recover after his three-week stay in a Covid-19 intensive care unit.
Between the two portable tanks, he calculated, he had six hours of air.
Marin, 44, and his wife had heard there might be brief, rolling power outages — 45 minutes or an hour, at most — as a massive winter storm swept across Texas last month, overwhelming the state’s electric grid. After more than two hours without electricity, he started to worry.
Marin tried to slow his breathing, hoping to ration his limited oxygen supply as he lay awake all night, watching the needle on each tank’s gauge slowly turn toward zero. The next morning, his wife, Daysi, made frantic calls to the power company and Marin’s doctor’s office, but nobody was answering in the midst of the storm.
For the next two days, Marin struggled for air and shivered under a pile of blankets. On the morning of Feb. 17, as they were still without power, his wife begged him to return to the hospital. But they feared driving on icy roads, and by then neither of them could get a consistent signal to call for help, as the widespread outages had knocked cellphone towers offline. And Marin didn’t want to go. He was terrified by the prospect of another hospital stay without visitors.
Marin’s skin was slowly turning purple, and he began to cry.
“Honey,” he later remembered telling his wife, straining with each word, “at least I’m going to die with you and my kids and not alone at the hospital.”
Marin said his life was spared when a neighbor showed up at the door with an oxygen tank a few hours later, sustaining him until the power returned. But he said his doctors fear that the weeklong ordeal inflicted additional damage on his lungs and jeopardized his already tenuous recovery.
Medical experts say Marin is part of a particularly vulnerable group who suffered significant hardships and potentially lasting harm as a result of the outages: those recovering at home from Covid-19.
At the peak of the outages last month, nearly 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses were without power, sparking calls for investigations of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the nonprofit that operates the power grid spanning most of the state, and the Texas Public Utility Commission, which oversees the state’s electric and water utilities. Two board members of the utility commission and six members of the ERCOT board resigned and the ERCOT CEO was fired after sharp criticism that they had not done enough to prepare for winter storms and had ignored warnings about the danger severe weather poses to the state’s electric grid.
Meanwhile, the human toll is still being tallied. Dozens of Texans have filed lawsuits against ERCOT and local power companies. Some of the suits allege that medically fragile children and adults suffered permanent or severe injuries because they were unable to get electricity to power life-sustaining medical equipment. Others have been filed by the surviving loved ones of older residents who died of hypothermia in their homes.
Among those demanding accountability are some Texans recovering from Covid-19 who say the prolonged outages further imperiled their already fragile health.
One woman said she was diagnosed with a fairly minor case of Covid-19 in early February. But after more than two days in her frigid Houston home without power or heat, she said, her symptoms became severe. She had dizziness and difficulty breathing, forcing her to seek care at an emergency room, according to a lawsuit filed in Harris County that accuses ERCOT and her utility CenterPoint Energy of negligence.
Five hours southwest, in Hidalgo County, another woman was sent home with an oxygen machine to recover from Covid-19 after a three-week hospital stay. As she struggled for days to breathe and keep warm without power, she feared she was going to die, according to a lawsuit she filed against ERCOT and her power company, AEP Texas. After her power was restored, the woman had trouble breathing even with her oxygen machine, forcing her to seek medical care, the complaint alleges.
Mauricio and Daysi Marin have filed their own lawsuit in Harris County district court against ERCOT and CenterPoint Energy.
“I told Mauricio, ‘We've got to do something about this. This cannot happen again,’” Daysi Marin said. “We need to speak out and we need to say something.”
ERCOT said it had no comment regarding the Marin lawsuit, and did not respond to a subsequent email seeking comment on the two other cases. A spokesperson for AEP said the company does not comment on pending litigation. In a statement, Olivia Koch, a spokesperson for CenterPoint Energy, said that though she couldn’t comment on pending litigation, the company is fully committed to working with stakeholders to address the issues related to the storm.
“We understand the severe impact that the historic weather and generation shortfall emergency had on all Houstonians and Texans,” she wrote in an email.
Covid-19 has created a major disaster to our lives, especially for people who are recovering. The government has not solved people's life problems, and the recovered patients are also threatened by their lives.

States have continued steadily lifting restrictions, despite warnings from top federal health officials like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci that new coronavirus cases in the United States have plateaued at a very high level after their drastic drop has stalled, and that the country urgently needed to contain the spread of more transmissible variants.
Arizona, California and South Carolina joined a growing list Friday by loosening restrictions, to varying degrees. Arizona’s governor ended capacity limits on businesses, but said they must still require masks. South Carolina’s Republican governor lifted the state’s mask mandate in government buildings, while recommending that restaurants continue to require masking.
California will allow amusement parks and outdoor sports and live events at stadiums to restart on April 1, with reduced capacity and mandatory masks.
“We’ve just now recently experienced the worst surge,” Dr. Fauci said Friday during a White House coronavirus briefing, adding that the country had plateaued at between 60,000 and 70,000 new cases per day. “When you have that much of viral activity in a plateau, it almost invariably means that you are at risk for another spike.”
The seven-day average of new cases was about 61,000 as of Friday, the lowest average since October, according to a New York Times database. But that number was still close to last summer’s highest peak.
Fatalities are falling, too, in part because of vaccinations at nursing homes. Yet the nation is still routinely reporting 2,000 deaths in a single day.
Dr. Fauci warned that the United States could be following the same treacherous path that Europe has recently been on.
“They plateaued,” he said. “And now, over the past week, they saw an increase in cases by 9 percent, something we desperately want to avoid.”
He warned that the virus mutates as it replicates, a process that can be extended when immunocompromised people are infected. He said that maintaining masking, hand washing and social distancing was urgent.
The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in Britain, is spreading so rapidly in the United States that data analysis suggest that, as of this week, it has most likely grown to account for 20 percent of new U.S. cases. And scientists in Oregon have identified a single case of a homegrown variant with the same spine as B.1.1.7 that carries a mutation that could blunt the effectiveness of vaccines.
Earlier this week, Texas and Mississippi, both Republican-led states, lifted mask mandates. President Biden denounced those moves as “a big mistake” that reflected “Neanderthal thinking,” saying it was critical for public officials to follow the guidance of doctors and public health leaders as the coronavirus vaccination campaign gains momentum.
Other Republicans have been more cautious. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said he would lift all public health measures aimed at curbing the virus crisis, but only once new cases there drop under a certain threshold. In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey said she would extend the state’s mask mandate through April 9.
In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey has taken what he calls a “measured approach,” barring local leaders from enacting measures that shut down businesses and allowing major league sports to restart if they receive approval from the state’s Department of Health Services.
Among Democrats, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said on Tuesday that she was easing restrictions on businesses and would allow family members who had tested negative for the coronavirus to visit nursing home residents. In California, the state’s public health department also loosened some restrictions Friday, saying that amusement parks could reopen on a limited basis as soon as April 1.
In New York City, limited indoor dining has returned. And on Thursday, Connecticut’s governor said the state would end capacity limits later this month on restaurants, gyms and offices. Masks remain required in both places.
Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has implored states not to relax their restrictions yet. A new report from the C.D.C. found that counties that allowed restaurants to open for in-person dining in the United States had a rise in daily infections weeks after. The study also said that counties that issued mask mandates reported a decrease in virus cases and deaths within weeks.

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday “now is not the time” to lift COVID-19 restrictions, one day after the governor of Texas announced the southern U.S. state was “100 percent open.”  
At a virtual news briefing for the White House COVID-19 response, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the next month or two will be pivotal in deciding the trajectory of the pandemic.  
On one hand, she noted infection rates across the country have been leveling off, but, she said, COVID-19 variants such as the highly transmissible so-called British strain, are poised to surge. This threatens to destroy what progress has been made.   
Walensky also recognized that pandemic fatigue is winning out and people have begun ignoring measures that she says have successfully contributed to driving down U.S. infection rates.   
The CDC director said this is occurring just as the United States begins a program to vaccinate the entire nation over the course of three or four months.  
Walensky urged Americans to keep wearing masks and communities to encourage mask use. She advocated for precautions such as avoiding travel, crowds and to continue practicing personal hygiene, whether it is government-mandated or not.   
Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott Tuesday lifted his state’s mask-wearing mandate, along with all other restrictions on businesses, saying Texas has mastered the daily habits necessary to avoid getting COVID-19.

The scramble to secure a COVID-19 vaccine appointment is chaotic and fierce. There are not yet enough doses for everyone who's eligible and wants to get vaccinated. As frustration rises, the federal government hasn't offered much besides assurances that things will get better and appeals for calm.
Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with Boston Children's Hospital and Castlight Health, is launching a new tool that allows Americans to search for COVID-19 vaccine providers with stock of vaccine where they live.
The tool, which builds on the existing VaccineFinder.org platform, will capture inventory data from vaccine providers around the country.
In most states, the initial launch is limited to certain providers — those getting the vaccine directly from the federal government. In Alaska, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee, the tool shows all the vaccine providers, including hospitals, clinics and public health vaccination sites.
Residents of those four states can look up their cities or ZIP codes and find an interactive map of all the places administering COVID-19 vaccines and see which ones have vaccine doses in stock.
"The idea is to show where COVID-19 vaccine providers [are] that are open to the public — how to contact them, how to book an appointment, and try to show the daily inventory status so people are clear where there's vaccine and where there isn't," says John Brownstein, the founder of VaccineFinder and chief information officer at Boston Children's Hospital.
After the initial, limited launch, Brownstein says, more providers in more places "are expected to join in the coming days and weeks."
As the pool of eligible people has expanded beyond health care workers and nursing home residents, many states and counties have developed lists or maps of their own to show people which providers are administering shots. Volunteer-run efforts like FindAShot, VaccinateCA and COVIDWA have also sprung up to meet this need.
By contrast, VaccineFinder doesn't require manual input from volunteers — it gathers stock information directly from health care providers, who are supposed to report their inventory every 24 hours.
This does not solve all the problems people currently have when trying to get a COVID-19 vaccine. States and counties still have a patchwork of approaches, with varied eligibility requirements, registration processes and waitlist systems. And even though you can see on VaccineFinder which providers near you have doses in stock and click through links to appointment sites, you still need to try your luck at a variety of places to actually secure an appointment.
"This is one baby step in the complex numbers of steps people have to take in order to get [a] vaccine, but we hope at least it will help reduce some of the noise and confusion that is out there," says Brownstein.
One concern is that — even though providers are supposed to update their inventory to VaccineFinder every 24 hours — they may not all do so consistently. If that happens, places that appear on the map to have doses in stock might actually not have any, says Claire Hannan, who leads the Association of Immunization Managers.
It's important that the site be reliable, she says, because otherwise people might show up at sites they think have available shots only to be disappointed. It's certainly helpful to see where vaccine supply is in your community, Hannan says, but how useful and reliable the site ends up being remains to be seen.
Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, agrees. "This idea has a lot of potential, but I think there's still some questions about — what will it be like in practice?"
Another issue is that the site doesn't help people who are clamoring for the vaccine but are not yet eligible — the problem of demand, Hannan explains. "It's not connected to a centralized system that would manage the demand and put you in a place in line," she says. "I think that's what's missing."
VaccineFinder is not brand new. It actually began after the H1N1 pandemic nine years ago, Brownstein says, and has been used in the years since to help people find seasonal flu shots, travel shots and whatever other vaccines they might need. "We think that with better convenience and access to vaccines, the more that people will be willing to to get them," he says
Brownstein says a team of about 15 people at Boston Children's Hospital — along with 25 staff at subcontractor Castlight, a digital health company — have been working feverishly to launch the site for COVID-19 vaccines, while navigating the fact that, at the moment, vaccine supply is relatively low and eligibility is limited. These facts both constrain how useful the tool can be at this point.
The supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses is increasing. The Biden administration says it's now sending out 14.5 million doses a week to states, an increase of 70% since inauguration. If that trend continues, more slots will be available and more providers like clinics, pharmacies and doctors' offices will be able to begin distributing vaccine doses as well.
When the site is fully launched, Brownstein says, there are plans in the works to share VaccineFinder data about where vaccine providers are located and which have shots available with other online partners.
People will be able to find VaccineFinder's information on sites like Google Maps, Waze or GoodRx, "and those numbers of partners are going to grow," Brownstein says. "So it's not just about coming to the website, but meeting consumers where they are and making sure that anybody who's looking for a vaccine knows where to find them."
If all goes well, Americans can look forward to a time when vaccine doses are abundant and everyone is eligible, and it's easy to find local clinics or pharmacies with vaccine doses nearby, and head over to get a shot.

The global sharing program designed to make vaccine access more equal delivered its first major shipment of doses on Wednesday to the West African nation of Ghana, ramping up the largest mass immunization campaign in history.
“Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard,” said Henrietta Fore, the executive director of UNICEF. “In the days ahead, frontline workers will begin to receive vaccines, and the next phase in the fight against this disease can begin.”
The first shipment of 600,000 doses was packed up and labeled in India, then flown to Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
Ghana and other West African countries are to begin vaccinations in coming days, according to officials, the first of 92 low and middle-income countries that will receive free vaccines through Covax, a vaccine-sharing initiative.
The goal is for Covax to deliver some two billion doses of Covid-19 shots this year, which officials said would make it the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.
The shipment arrived in West Africa as studies were released suggesting that the spread of the virus in the region has been much wider than official numbers show.
At least one in five people in Lagos, Nigeria, could have had contracted the coronavirus by October last year, according to findings just released by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, an infection rate far higher than the one reported through the national surveillance system. A study in Accra released in November had similar findings.
Many public health officials have criticized the unequal distribution of vaccines — with wealthy nations already delivering tens of millions of doses and acquiring vast reserves for their populations.
For instance, while at least 44.5 million Americans and around 18 million people in Britain have already received a shot, as of last week more than 130 countries had yet to vaccinate a single person. The Ghana shipment covers just 1 percent of the population.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, said last week that the distributions had been “wildly uneven and unfair.”
And high-income countries are not respecting contracts under Covax and are competing with them, reducing the number of doses the initiative can buy, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said on Tuesday.
The pandemic will not end, he added, until everyone is vaccinated.
“This is not a matter of charity,” he said. “It’s a matter of epidemiology.”
Last week, the group of wealthy industrialized nations known as the Group of 7 announced that they would intensify their cooperation with the international vaccination drive and raised their overall commitment to the effort to $7.5 billion.
But Dr. Tedros said that there remained a financing gap of $23 billion.
President Emmanuel Macron of France called for even more urgent action on Friday, saying Europe and the United States should send up to 5 percent of their vaccine supplies to developing nations.
But even if things go according to plan, vaccinating the vast majority of the world’s most vulnerable people this year will be a daunting challenge.
Ghana, a nation of more than 30 million people, will get enough vaccines to cover only about 20 percent of its population by the end of 2021. It will have to buy millions more doses separately.
Poorer countries do not pay to purchase vaccines and injection devices under Covax, at least for up to 20 percent of the population. But they do have to pay the costs of delivery within the country.
To receive vaccines, countries had to submit plans saying who they wanted to immunize, how they would go about it and how they would monitor vaccinations. They also had to sign an indemnity agreement with the vaccine manufacturer.
“No country was prioritized,” said Benjamin Schreiber, UNICEF’s coordinator for the Covax program.
Four countries eligible to apply for vaccines under Covax did not do so: Burundi, Eritrea, Madagascar and Tanzania.

Over half a million people have died in the United States due to Covid-19, more than any other country. The pace of new deaths in the U.S. appears to be trending lower but is still high. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects the U.S. death toll could reach 571,000 to 616,000 total deaths by June 1. On a per-capita basis, the U.S. death toll only trails the U.K., Czech Republic, Italy and Portugal.
The U.S. is recording at least 70,200 new Covid-19 cases and at least 1,900 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using Johns Hopkins University data.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (D) told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” “we got to do a better job there” when it comes to delivering Covid vaccines to underserved communities. 
“People of color are twice as likely to get infected and suffer complications and half as likely to get vaccinated,” said Lamont during a Tuesday evening interview. “We’re bringing the mobile vans to the communities, we are working with the churches.”
Data from the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH) suggested that “disparities exist in vaccine administration across racial lines, with Black populations lagging behind White and Hispanic populations.” Lamont, however, assured host Shepard Smith that officials are working to make sure he allocates sufficient vaccines to underserved communities and that “nobody is going to get left behind.”

Global researchers and agricultural scientists have said that stockpiling and trade restrictions by countries producing major food grains could lead to intercontinental food shortage, hunger and malnutrition for food import-dependent countries.
The fear is intensified as the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMet) predicted crop failures as climate change induces elongated droughts amid insecurity for farmers, following the inability of armed forces to tame banditry and terrorism.
Hence, experts said Nigeria would become vulnerable, as wheat, maize, rice and other food and industrial crops are in short supply locally.
Affirming the possibility of the food crisis, a grain breeder and Vice-Chancellor of Al-Qalam University, Prof. Shehu Garki Ado, said the COVID-19 pandemic, locust infestations, drought and labour shortages are factors responsible for food supply chain disruptions, threatening food security around the world. He added that the effects of the factors are more pronounced in food-import countries without food reserves, “and Nigeria is one of them.”
Climate change — producing extreme conditions of floods, excessive heat, drought and pest infestation — has grossly affected food production, especially in developing countries where rain-fed agriculture and labour-intensive practices are common.
In a recent study published in the Nature Food, it was pointed out that trade restrictions and stockpiling of supplies by a few key countries, such as the United States, Thailand and other developed agricultural systems, could create global food price spikes and severe local shortages during times of threat.
“We quantified the potential effects of these co-occurring global and local shocks globally with their impacts on food security,” explains Aalto University Associate Professor Matti Kummu.
Results of this research have critical implications on how nations should prepare for future events like COVID-19, he said.
The researchers modelled future scenarios to investigate the impact of export restrictions and local production shocks of rice, wheat, and maize would have on their supplies and prices.
“These three crops form the backbone of global trade in staple crops and are essential for food security across the globe.
“The results show that restriction by only three key exporters of each crop would increase the price of wheat by 70 per cent, while maize and rice would rise by 40 per cent and 60 per cent. When combining this with potential local shocks that occurred last year, the prices would nearly double,” the study said.
Kummu explains that “this is the result of an increasingly interconnected world, in which the majority of countries are dependent on imported food and, so, vulnerable to this kind of shock.
“We saw that trade restrictions by only a few key actors can create large short-term price spikes in the world market export price of grains, which can lead to food insecurity in import-dependent countries,” explained post-doctoral researcher Theresa Falkendal, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Losing significant yearly grain supply, many low-income and lower-middle-income countries in Africa and Asia would not be able to cover the grain supply deficit with their domestic reserves and would need alternative grain sources to survive.
“It’s important to realise that food security depends on both local and remote conditions, and imprudent policy decisions in the rich part of the world can plunge people into real hardship in poorer parts of the world,” states Falkendal.
But shock scenarios such as those modelled by the researchers and the risks they bring may become commonplace, thanks in part to global warming.
“To help prevent such devastation in the future, we need proactive strategies, like reducing food waste, changing the diet towards more plant-based protein sources, and increasing the yields sustainably, particularly in the most vulnerable countries,” said Kummu.
Michael J. Puma, research scientist and fellow at Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute, Columbia University said: “While the sustainable design of agricultural systems is important, it must go hand-in-hand with efforts to improve political decisions and accountability.”
MEANWHILE, Director-General of NiMet, Prof. Abubakar Mashi, disclosed at the 2021 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) that dry spells, commonly called August breaks, would last for about two to three weeks from June to July.
“The situation this year is not so encouraging because we may likely witness the same weather condition we witnessed last year, but more important is the likelihood of dry spell which will be greater and a larger number of places will be more affected.”
However, Lagos, Ogun, Kebbi and Niger states are expected to have a later than the normal onset of rainfalls.
The forecast says the earlier cessation date would be around 9th October in Kastina and other northern parts of Sokoto.
He added that the growing season would span between 110 days in the extreme north and over 300 days in the south.
Minister Aviation, Hadi Sirika, explained that normal to above-normal rainfall patterns in the country would lead to the possibility of isolated flash floods due to increasing high-intensity rainfalls at the peak of the season, especially in areas that are naturally prone to flooding.
Implications of flooding include crop destruction, pre-harvest/post-harvest losses and capital erosion of farmers’ resources, which would also affect the insurance sector if farms are insured.
Suggesting ways forward, Prof. Shehu Ado said Nigeria should also restrict the sale of grains to neighbouring countries through border towns and villages, fund more research into drought-tolerant crops that could yield significantly under harsh climate conditions, and tame the rising insecurity across the country.
Ado suggested that genuinely repented terrorists and bandits should be given opportunities to surrender their arms and be recruited in farms, while those that refuse to do so should be mercilessly crushed by the armed forces.

He also called on the Federal Government and each state to invest in irrigation facilities to take farming beyond rain-fed systems.
Regional Coordinator of Africa Rice Centre, Ibadan, Dr Francis Nwilene, berated the various administrations at the centre and state governments for paying lip service to the food production sector without investing in infrastructure and technologies that could boost the sector.
He said making irrigation facilities available is inevitable in the efforts to rev up food production amid climate change and disruptions to global food chains.

What an unfortunate year! The Covid-19 problem has not yet been resolved, and new problems have emerged one after another.

But about two-thirds of these employers aren’t paying up.
Only 108 companies had paid a total of about $897,000 in fines as of last week to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since the pandemic hit the United States last year.
Those who haven’t paid include meatpacking giants Smithfield Foods Inc and JBS USA - which had outbreaks infecting thousands of workers - as well as packaged foods company Conagra Brands Inc. All three firms have appealed the citations and say they are without merit.
More than half of employers cited for COVID-19 safety problems by federal OSHA authorities have appealed, according to a Reuters analysis of OSHA enforcement data. That compares to 8% of fined companies that appealed in the five years before the pandemic, according to OSHA data. During the appeals - which can drag on for years - companies don’t have to pay fines and aren’t required to fix problems identified by OSHA inspectors.
The payment delays follow the agency's larger failure to hold employers accountable for unsafe conditions during the pandemic, a Reuters special report revealed in January. Reuters identified dozens of workplaces where employees complained of slipshod pandemic safety around the time of outbreaks - and regulators never inspected the facilities or, in some cases, took months to do so. (For full story, click reut.rs/3jC2hQf )
Further, the payment delays involve relatively small fines - averaging about $13,000 - that are not an effective deterrent, especially for large companies, five current and former OSHA officials told Reuters. Companies have so far had little to fear from regulators during the pandemic, said David Michaels, who led OSHA during the Obama administration and advised President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 task force during the transition.
“This is sending a message,” said Michaels, who is now a professor at George Washington University’s school of public health. “It’s just sending the wrong message.”
James Frederick, acting head of OSHA, did not directly address Reuters’ findings but said the agency is “taking a hard look at enforcement efforts related to COVID-19.”
Frederick, a Biden appointee, pointed to new guidance OSHA issued to employers on infection control in January, following a White House executive order on pandemic worker safety. The agency is exploring the development of an emergency standard that could require masks and social distancing at workplaces, a move resisted by the administration of former President Donald Trump.
Reuters examined citations issued by federal OSHA but not those issued by OSHA affiliates who handle enforcement in about half of states.
Meatpacking giants JBS and Smithfield both argue that OSHA’s citations are baseless because the agency had not issued guidance to meatpacking companies on protecting workers from the virus at the time of the alleged violations in March. The companies said they did their best in the absence of clear standards and have since improved worker protections.
OSHA says all companies have a “general duty” to protect workers from hazards including infection and that both companies failed to ensure a safe workplace.
‘POCKET CHANGE’ FINES
OSHA fined JBS $15,615 in September for violations at its beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, where six workers died and 290 tested positive for coronavirus through the end of July. The same month, it levied a $13,494 fine on Smithfield for failing to protect workers at its pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where nearly 1,300 workers were infected and four died as of June.
The companies’ appeals are pending before administrative judges at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent agency that reviews contested OSHA citations.
Worker advocates and family members of those who died at the plants are frustrated by what they call a lack of accountability for companies that exposed workers.

A 78-year-old woman died shortly after being inoculated at a mass vaccination site in Los Angeles County, health officials announced Saturday.
The patient's family said she had a history of heart illness, said Dr. Michael E. Morris, director of Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s vaccination program, in a statement.
The woman "passed away unexpectedly" Friday after receiving Pfizer's version of the Covid-19 vaccine about noon at the Kaiser-run site at Cal Poly Pomona, 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, the doctor said.
"While seated in the observation area after the injection, the patient complained of feeling discomfort and while being evaluated by medical personnel, she lost consciousness," he said. "Paramedics on scene began CPR almost immediately and continued, but she ultimately could not be revived."
Her cause of death was yet to be determined, but the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said by email that there were no signs of allergic or anaphylactic reactions.
"Her death does not appear to be related to the vaccine," it said.
The woman's husband of 57 years was also vaccinated Friday.
"Despite this tragedy, he is still urging that the COVID-19 vaccination effort continue, and said he intends to receive his second dose of vaccine in a few weeks," Morris said.
Last week, health officials said the cause of death of a 58-year-old Virginia woman who had just received a Pfizer vaccination was unknown.
In January, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said there was no evidence to suggest the Pfizer vaccine increases the risk of death.
Baseball great Hank Aaron died a few weeks after receiving Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine Jan. 5. Some critics of vaccination immediately used the occasion to suggest a link between the Hall of Famer's death and the vaccine.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean at the Emory University School of Medicine, said last month he had "absolute confidence that his death has nothing to do with the vaccine and it has to do with the fact that he was old and frail."
The Cal Poly Pomona vaccination site will remain open as long as supplies last, health officials said.

On the evening of March 20, Chaz Calitri was getting ready to start in on his family's Friday night pizza-making tradition when his boss called.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had decided to make a vaccine to fight COVID-19, the new disease caused by the novel coronavirus spreading with frightening speed in the U.S. The factory Calitri ran in Kalamazoo, Michigan, would play a key role in getting it made.
"I was really excited," he told USA TODAY. "I've been working in pharmaceutical manufacturing for almost 40 years and I've never been on a project like this."
His facility would be responsible for the last few production steps in a vaccine that could help quell the pandemic and save lives.
Reality, however, soon sunk in. It normally takes years to devise a manufacturing process and develop a new vaccine or drug. He'd been given mere months. The vaccine formula wasn't even finalized.
"I sat down on the couch a half hour later and I was horrified," Calitri said. "My head was spinning." 
During the last 10 months, Calitri and his peers at a handful of other drug companies have managed to pull off what they would have considered impossible a year ago: producing tens of millions of doses of a novel vaccine.
And he and others at Pfizer are on the verge of cutting production time for their vaccine nearly in half – from 110 to 60 days.
Although Americans are clamoring for more vaccine, people who understand the manufacturing process are amazed at how quickly so many doses have been made.
"Vaccine manufacturing is an endeavor where an almost infinite combination of things have to work perfectly," said Prashant Yadav, a health care supply chain expert at the Center for Global Development, an international think-tank that aims to reduce poverty.

Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, will not be receiving the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines due to its inability to meet the standard requirement of storing the vaccines.
Nigeria had said it would receive about 100,000 of the vaccines before the end of February.
The Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Matshidiso Moeti, while speaking at a press briefing on COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Africa, on Thursday, said only four out of 13 interested African countries were shortlisted to receive the vaccines through COVAX, a co-financing public-private facility.
Ms Moeti said the countries are Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa & Tunisia. They were picked following evaluations by a multi-agency committee based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends, and the capacity to handle the ultra-cold chain needs of the vaccine.
“In addition, around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries: Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa & Tunisia,” Ms Moeti said.
“Deliveries are also expected later in February.”
She, however, said countries that failed to make the Pfizer list could get the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine later in the month.
“Nearly 90 million of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could start arriving on the continent later this month. This is subject to the WHO listing the vaccine for emergency use,” Ms Moeti said.

Nigeria to get 80 million doses of vaccines, says Fayemi
Foreign airlines, yesterday, blamed additional test measures currently imposed by some carriers on rampant cases of fake COVID-19 test results in Nigeria.
Although the airlines apologised to customers for the discomfort and additional cost, they said the measure was their leeway to mitigate the spread of coronavirus and avert withdrawal from the Nigerian route.
However, the Federal Government is considering sanctions for Emirates and KLM airlines that currently enforced the mandatory antigen test on Nigerians before boarding.
This was after the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) granted approval for the antigen tests to be done at Lagos and Abuja airports.
Travellers in Nigeria have expressed their displeasure with the additional safety protocol, describing it as a rip-off on ‘the unprotected’ Nigerian consumers.
The Guardian reported yesterday that foreign carriers have begun the enforcement of fresh safety protocols much to the discomfort of Nigerian travellers. National carriers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Netherlands, Emirates and KLM, have begun conducting mandatory antigen tests on Nigerian passengers, in addition to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test approved by the Federal Government and the global standard.
The test costs additional N25, 800 per traveller at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja and N36, 800 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.Fayemi said was part of measures being put in place to contain the virus this year, adding that another batch of 60 million doses would arrive in 2022.
Governor Fayemi stated this while delivering a paper on The Role Of Nigeria’s State Governments In Recovery: Responses To COVID-19 Linked Challenges at the Chatham House Africa Programme in the United Kingdom (UK).
He canvassed increased investment in health security and public health emergencies by state governments with recommendation on the need to establish their own centres for disease control in the country.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps our biggest lesson around this, as it has affected all spheres of the economy. Nigeria now has a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) that includes a multi-sectorial approach to combating pandemics on this nature,” he added.
Country Manager of one of the airlines said the antigen test was unavoidable, if they must sustain skeletal operations during the pandemic, saying the PCR tests “appear to have been compromised with a lot of suspicious outcomes.”
Chairman, Airline Passenger Joint Committee (APJC), Bankole Bernard, said Emirates and the other airlines were not at fault for disrespecting Nigerian travellers but for the Federal Government that has refused to live up to its responsibilities.
Bernard said he was aware of the fake test result claims, but insisted that that was government’s exclusive responsibility to rid the system of saboteurs.
MEANWHILE, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has urged the Federal Government to explore the potential of local manufacturing of vaccines, following technology transfer.
He disclosed that about 80 million doses of vaccines would soon be available in the country to immunise 40 per cent of the country’s population this year.

A Missouri state representative was charged in a 20-count indictment that alleged she fraudulently administered treatments, including for Covid-19, that falsely claimed to have stem cells.
Patricia Ashton Derges, 63, allegedly gave so-called “regenerative” treatments to clients who came to the Ozark Valley Medical Clinic looking for treatment for various illnesses, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Monday.
The clinic offered its patients amniotic fluid that claimed to have stem cells, but in fact was acellular, without stem cells.
After Derges made false claims on a Springfield television station in April that stem cells could treat Covid-19, an investigation was launched, the FBI said in a statement on Monday.
And on Facebook, Derges claimed her clinic's "amazing treatment stands to provide a potential cure for COVID-19 patients that is safe and natural," the indictment said.
She self-surrendered on her indictment Monday and was released following an initial appearance in federal court, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office.
Derges’ actions were a betrayal of trust instilled in her as both a health professional and a government official, Special Agent in Charge Timothy Langan, of the FBI’s Kansas City office, said.
“Derges vowed to do no harm as a health care professional and was elected to serve the people, not deceive them,” Langan said. “She used her position for personal gain and damaged the public’s trust.”
According to the indictment, Derges administered the treatment to patients with the promise that stem cells would help alleviate a range of health issues, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to erectile dysfunction. Derges, an assistant physician who got her medical degree from Caribbean Medical University of Curacao in May 2014, allegedly gave the treatments herself.
The clinic obtained amniotic fluid through the University of Utah for about $244.00 per ml. Derges then charged her patients $950 to $1,450 per ml of amniotic fluid, the indictment said, with some paying as much as $6,500 for what they thought were treatments with stem cells.
Patients paid Derges approximately $191,815 for amniotic fluid that did not contain stem cells, the indictment claims.
Federal prosecutors for the Western District of Missouri said Derges had multiple email exchanges in 2019 to the Director of Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Utah, who told her that the fluid did not contain stem cells.
Derges was hit with eight counts of wire fraud in relation to charging the patients, who were not identified, for the allegedly fake stem cell treatment. Each count comes with a maximum sentence of a $250,000 fine and 20 years in prison.
She also faces two charges for making “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent” statements regarding her amniotic fluid treatments to federal investigators last year, each count carrying up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors also alleged that Derges prescribed Oxycodone and Adderall to people online without a proper medical evaluation. She faces 10 counts of distribution by means of the internet without a valid prescription, each carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison.
“This defendant abused her privileged position to enrich herself through deception,” U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said in the FBI statement. “The indictment alleges she lied to her patients and she lied to federal agents. As an elected official and a health care provider, she deserves to be held to a high standard."
Derges, a Republican, was elected in November to a two-year term after running unopposed for the District 140 state house seat. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to her government email address.
In a Facebook post Monday night, Derges cited the biblical story of David and Goliath while claiming that God would be on her side.
“Lies and twisted words mean nothing. Truth and righteousness mean everything,” the post said. “I can stand before God and know that He will smile at me. Goliath can't take that away as much as he tries.”
Stacie Calhoun Bilyeu, an attorney for Derges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. She told the Kansas City Star that she was “limited” in what she could say on the matter and that her client pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“Dr. Derges, despite what it looked like yesterday, has not been found guilty or convicted of anything,” Bilyeu said.