It is the season of the new normal. But despite the clear and present danger on the virulence and destruction wrought by coronavirus, not a few Nigerians, including supposedly informed elites, have chosen to live in denial.
It is not my portion, the fanatics will say even as many notable and ordinary families bury their loved ones daily!
The federal government, through the Presidential Task Force, PTF on COVID-19, has toiled daily to draw, execute and fine-tune a National Response Strategy. There is, without doubt, more work ahead.
It is worth reiterating, to educate critics and cynics as well, that the battle against coronavirus is the responsibility of every citizen. All stakeholders, interest groups, including all tiers of government have roles to play. It is in the enlightened self-interest of the rich and the poor; the elite and the common citizen to work in harmony to defeat COVID-19.
The Nigerian constitution has spelt out the roles of each tier of government as well as the duties and responsibilities of Nigerians, as individuals. Provision of education, healthcare and potable water, for example, are on the concurrent list of responsibilities of federal and state governments. As a matter of fact, COVID-19 has exposed the inadequacies in Nigeria’s health infrastructure. More critical are the lack of understanding and the tentative approach of many state governments in embracing the national response strategy.
Members of the PTF on COVID-19 have severally appreciated the enormity of the task ahead. Boss Mustapha, chairman of the team, has toiled day and night since President Buhari gave the marching order in March, last year. With candor, he has combined his task as Secretary to the Federal Government, building a robust and comprehensive national response strategy. Facts on the policy direction and management of Nigeria’s National Response Strategy speak to the articulate composition of the response team. It parades ministers in charge of critical and strategic sectors including health, environment, education, aviation, interior, foreign affairs and humanitarian affairs. There are also experts in diverse health fields – Dr. Chike Ihekweazu, director general, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control; Dr. Walter Kazadi, a public health epidemiologist, who is the country representative of the World Health Organisation; Dr. Sani Aliyu, erstwhile director general of National Agency for the Control of Aids, an expert in infectious diseases and microbiology, who was named the national coordinator of PTF.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the nation’s most populous state was ramping up its lagging vaccination effort, tripling the number of doses given daily between the beginning of the month and Jan. 15.
On Jan. 4, 43,000 doses were administered across the state, he said. Eleven days later, that number was 131,000. The state’s goal is to continue to substantially increase that number, he said.
Experts have attributed the slow rollout to everything from the state’s size to limited federal funding, and California’s efficient health care system, with its lack of extra medical workers trained to administer the vaccinations.
Newsom said Monday that California is “like a large ship. It takes a little to shift course.”    
He also announced the launch of a centralized vaccination scheduling system that can be accessed through a smartphone app. The platform is being tested in two of the state’s largest counties — San Diego and Los Angeles — and will be rolled out across the rest of California by early February, he said.

Nigeria’s health care system has long been held down with challenges such as under-funding, manpower shortages, inadequate facilities and poor equipment, among others.
In the public healthcare institutions run by federal and state governments, there is the usual shortage of healthcare personnel, and patients, in addition to buying their own drugs, are usually required to pay for basic medical consumables such as syringes, plaster, cotton wool, hand gloves and other accessories.
These structural and functional inadequacies have caused the fortunes of healthcare delivery to fall short of expectations. Today, in Nigeria, healthcare is neither readily accessible nor affordable. The National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, introduced several years ago to cushion the negative effects of unaffordable healthcare has failed to achieve that objective.
With no reliable national healthcare financing arrangement in place for the average Nigerian and the very poor, out-of-pocket payment has remained the order of the day to access healthcare services.
That the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened an already bad situation in the health sector is an understatement. The rising cases of COVID-19 infections is fast overwhelming Nigeria’s healthcare system.
The situation has become so critical that in some tertiary health institutions, all non-emergency cases are being suspended in order to devote more time and resources to COVID-19 care.
We have observed that hospital admission is now guaranteed only after deposits of huge sums of money. Some private health facilities demand a deposit of between N2 million and N10 million to admit a COVID-19 patient, apart from the cost of treatment which could be up to N300,000 per day.
It is alarming that presently in Nigeria, a COVID-19 patient who requires oxygen would, on the average, need 8 to 16 cylinders of oxygen daily at the cost of N20,000 to N50,000 per cylinder.
This sudden high demand for oxygen has triggered a booming black market for the life-saving gaseous element. Currently a patient is spending a fortune on oxygen alone in order to stay alive.
Such rising cost of healthcare in Nigeria, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has thus become a potential death sentence to majority of Nigerians who live below the poverty line of less than $1 a day.
The approval, last week, of N6.45 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari for the setting up of gas plants in 38 locations nationwide to produce oxygen for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, is a step in the right direction.
We are hoping that this gesture will be properly and quickly implemented and expanded to other areas of critical need, and will be followed by similar interventions that will rekindle the hope of all Nigerians. Certainly, a lot more needs to be done. Healthcare is a right for all Nigerians and must always be available, accessible and affordable.
To alleviate the plight of Nigerians of less than average means, the nation’s entire healthcare system must be restructured.
The era of out-of-pocket payment for healthcare must be abolished once and for all. We commend the states that have set up their own state and community health insurance schemes, and urge them to give the schemes a human face even as we admonish the Federal Government to rekindle the comatose NHIS.
Government must further subsidise the cost of health care. There must be emphasis on the allocation of more funds for provision of life-saving facilities, qualified health care personnel and provision of equipment such as oxygen tanks, respirators, ICUs, among others.

Nigeria expects to take delivery of its first coronavirus vaccine doses in February, with health workers, top government officials and vulnerable people to be given priority.
The vaccines, which could be as many as 100,000 doses of Pfizer Inc.’s shot, will be procured through the Covax initiative backed by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Faisal Shuaib, head of the West African country’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said in an interview.
The first batch -- enough for a maximum of 50,000 people, equivalent to about 0.00025% of Nigeria’s population -- will be allocated to health-care professionals working in Covid-19 isolation centers and those supporting them, as well as the country’s senior political leaders, Shuaib said.
“We are waiting for final confirmation from Covax on when the first doses will arrive,” Shuaib said, adding that the “most recent indication is they’re expected in February.” The shots were first expected to arrive in January.
Africa’s most populous country of more than 200 million people plans to vaccinate about 70% of its population in the long run and is working on other options, besides Covax, for supplies.
Nigeria has acquired three ultra-cold freezers to keep the Pfizer vaccines at the required temperature, according to Shuaib. However, in the longer term, the government plans to invest in vaccines that are easier to store, such as those created by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, he said.

Dublin, Jan. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Demand for High-Volume Testing Driving the Growth of the US Clinical Chemistry and Immunoassay In Vitro Diagnostics Market, 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The Transformational Health team provides critical insights into the US clinical chemistry and immunoassay industry, highlighting the recent activities, key growth opportunities, and trends that are shaping the industry.
The already dynamic in vitro diagnostics landscape in the United States was affected even more by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical laboratories and manufacturers have been vying to develop SARS-Cov-2 assays to serve the rising demand for testing. In these uncertain times, mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships have seen a considerable dip as compared with the previous year.
The US government and healthcare agencies are supporting telehealth and innovative and clinically vetted direct-to-consumer diagnostic testing services. Partnerships with digital vendors and automation companies are expected to empower core diagnostic companies with Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, and Big Data capabilities. Given these trends, it is important to understand the market dynamics to remain competitive and successful in the in vitro diagnostics market.
This report offers insightful analysis in the form of key growth opportunities that center on the use of serological testing, unmet testing needs for neuro-degenerative disorders, process flow improvement through IoT technologies, and the opportunity to include direct-to-consumer capabilities in business models.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Trump for "high crimes and misdemeanors" — specifically, for inciting an insurrection against the federal government at the U.S. Capitol.
Just one week before he will leave office, Trump has now become the first U.S. president to be impeached twice.
Wednesday's vote came a week after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a chaotic scene that left five people dead.
Ten Republicans broke party ranks to vote in favor of impeachment, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who chairs the House Republican Conference.
"None of this would have happened without the President," Cheney said in a statement Tuesday explaining her vote. "The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."
The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump, with four GOP abstentions, after a few hours of debate evenly divided between the parties. Because of the tight schedule, many lawmakers were only allotted a minute, or less, in which to state their positions.
The Democratic-led House approved the new rebuke in the same chamber where one week ago members of Congress fled rioters who had been stoked by the president and his false claims a bogus election process caused his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden.
Calling Jan. 6 "a day of fire that we all experienced," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said it followed Trump's sustained attempts to spread untruths about the 2020 vote and to influence state election officials to overturn results.
Impeachment, Pelosi said, is "a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man, who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear, and that hold us together."
In signing the article of impeachment on Wednesday evening, Pelosi called Trump "a clear and present danger to our country" and described her heart as "broken" over signing the second presidential impeachment in just over a year's time.
"Today in a bipartisan way, the House demonstrated that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States," she said.
Many Republicans who voted against the measure criticized the impeachment process as rushed and counterproductive. But impeachment supporters said Trump's attempt to derail Congress from certifying the election results spurred an act of domestic terrorism, making the president unfit for office.
In his remarks, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sought to strike a balance — between blaming Trump for his role in fanning the protest's devolution into a riot, and speaking out against impeachment.
"The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters," McCarthy said. "He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding."
But McCarthy, who himself objected to certifying the Electoral College results, said that instead of impeaching Trump, Congress should form a fact-finding commission and consider a formal censure of the president.
As lawmakers debated impeachment, the White House issued a statement in which Trump called for calm. He did not refer to the House proceeding, but to new pro-Trump demonstrations that are planned to take place in the coming week.
In a video later posted to the White House's official Twitter account, Trump described the Capitol insurrection as "mob violence" and said it "goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for."
"No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans."
Trump, even before agitating last week's violent mob, has repeatedly endorsed violence — tacitly and explicitly — against those he views as opponents, including Black Lives Matter protesters and onetime political rival Hillary Clinton.
"If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it, and you are attacking our country," he said in the video.
The Democratic-led House impeached Trump the first time in December 2019 for his role in the Ukraine affair. On Tuesday, the president called the move to impeach him again "ridiculous."
If the Senate votes to convict Trump — an outcome that is far from certain — he likely would be barred from holding any federal office again. An impeachment trial will not begin before Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office said Wednesday that the chamber, which Republicans currently hold, will not convene again until the transfer of power is complete.

The Presidency has welcomed a team of Nigerian professors and scientists investigating effectiveness and role of Ivermectin drug in the treatment of the novel coronavirus.
Composed of scholars at home and abroad, the group also submitted its report on usefulness of the drug to the World Health Organisation (WHO) that had appointed a peer review expert from the United Kingdom.
Speaking yesterday while being briefed on the report by a team of scientists led by the Principal investigator, Prof. Femi Babalola, and the Chief Medical Director, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Chris Bode, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo expressed satisfaction that Nigeria and Nigerians “are at the cutting edge of scientific research into COVID-19 treatment.”
He said: “We have an opportunity here and I am so fascinated to hear this drug has been used in the treatment of river blindness in this country.”
Commending the squad, Osinbajo added that with the report, Nigeria was at an advantage both in knowledge and availability of the drug, especially since Ivermectin had been found useful not only in the treatment of COVID-19, but also as a prophylactic medication.
He promised that the Federal Government would explore ways to support the research for the benefit of Nigerians and humanity, while also advancing effective funding of scientific research in the country.
Aside Babalola and Bode, other members of the IVERCOVID Research Group are Chairman of LUTH Medical Advisory Council, Prof. Lanre Adeyemo; a U.S.-based clinical pharmacologist, Prof. Adesuyi Ajayi; two project virologists: Prof. S.A. Omilabu and Dr. Olumuyiwa Salu; and also the project coordinator, Dr. Felix Alakaloko.
Both Profs. Babalola and Bode commended government for encouraging the research, thanking the Vice President for his support.
The report was titled “A randomised controlled trial for the repurposing of Ivermectin in the management of COVID-19.” The study, carried out at LUTH, followed the report of a 5,000-fold reduction in viral load by Australian workers with in-vitro use of Ivermectin on COVID-19 in culture.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the VP, Laolu Akande, in a statement, explained that the PI had worked extensively with Ivermectin on the Onchocerciasis-River Blindness control programme.
The study, according to him, revealed that the mechanism of action of Ivermectin include “inhibiting viral entry into cells nucleus and direct suppression of viral RNA load of SARS CoV 2.”
The report stressed that Ivermectin “is not meant to replace other COVID-19 measures such as social distancing, face masking and hygiene or vaccinations.” The group stated that it had also forwarded its findings to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
If this drug really works, this is really good news. I would like to ask the government to continue to support this drug research.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, says that the bed occupancy level in the state’s public and private COVID-19 care centres has increased to 51 per cent.
Abayomi made this known through his verified Twitter account @ProfAkinAbayomi, on Friday while giving the state’s COVID-19 update for Jan. 6.
He said that the eight care centres are; Infectious Disease Hospital 1 and 2, Yaba, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Armour, Paelon, Vedic, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, and Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta.
Abayomi said the care centres had 448 bed capacity, with 219 bed spaces currently unoccupied.
The commissioner added that level of oxygen usage for COVID-19 patients had increased at the IDH, Yaba.
Abayomi said the initial projection for oxygen usage in IDH was 70 cylinders per day, but over 71 per cent increase had just been recorded there.
“Given the increases in cases, oxygen usage is expected to increase,” he said.
Abayomi said the state recorded 807 new COVID-19 infections on the reported date (Jan. 6), its highest daily infection figure, exceeding the previous figure of 712 recorded on Jan. 4.
The commissioner said that the newly confirmed cases had increased the state’s total COVID-19 infections to 34,169.
He said that the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the state since inception of the pandemic stood at 234,508.
According to Abayomi, 3,032 COVID-19 patients who had been successfully treated and recovered were discharged from the state’s care centres.
“Total number of #COVID19 recovery in communities – 24, 518.
“Cases currently under isolation – 170, active cases under home based care are 6,203,” he announced.
Abayomi said that the state recorded two new COVID-19 related fatalities, increasing the total deaths to 246.
Giving an update on disease severity, he said that 48 per cent of the patients had mild symptoms, 35 per cent had moderate symptoms, while 16 per cent were severe and one per cent had critical symptoms.
Abayomi said, 54 per cent of the patients exhibited symptoms on admission, 46 per cent had no symptoms, while 30 per cent of infected patients had co-morbidities.
He listed the exhibited symptoms to include cough, fever, shortness of breath, general weakness, chest pain, anosmia, catarrh, loss of taste and appetite, nausea, chills, and dizziness.
Abayomi noted that studies had shown that COVID-19 spreads through droplets released when talking, coughing, sneezing or singing.
“Wearing masks reduces the spray of these droplets. #TakeResponsibility to #MaskUp in public.
“No one is sure who is infected!” he said.

Authorities busted massive New Year's Eve parties in multiple cities and the Transportation Security Administration announced a record for air travel even as coronavirus case counts have soared across the U.S.
Local law enforcement authorities in New York and Los Angeles reported breaking up large crowds of people gathered at New Year's Eve parties to ring in 2021.
An hour after the ball dropped over a deserted Times Square, the New York City Sheriff raided an "illegal bottle club" in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, ejecting 145 attendees and charging four, and an hour later, they shut down another in Queens, where over 300 people were found gathered in apparent violation of emergency orders, charging five people with multiple offenses.
The Los Angeles Sheriff said in a Facebook post that 90 people were arrested and over 900 people were warned for breaking California's coronavirus rules at large gatherings they shut down in Hawthorne, LA, Malibu and Pomona on the last night of 2020.
The sheriff said his office would "seek out and take law enforcement action against all super spreader events occurring anywhere within Los Angeles County."
Social media users have also exposed large crowds in other cities.
Near Houston on New Year's Day, Snapchat's "Map" feature showed a large indoor venue with maskless patrons, close to where a LGBTQ-oriented New Year's party called "Nuclear Neon" was advertised.
Social media users across Miami shared videos of crowds gathering without masks after the New Year's holiday around pools and in lines outside venues.
The images were shared just days after Florida health authorities reported that a new coronavirus variant, thought to be more transmissible, had been detected in the state. According to Covid-19 case tracking by NBC News, Florida surpassed a July peak of cases counted in one day with 17,192 positive tests reported on New Year's Eve.
Two days later, on Jan. 2, the state broke its own record again and counted 31,518 positive cases.
Although Florida's Jan. 2 count included cases from the Jan. 1 holiday, it still outstripped recent post-holiday data dumps that contained two days' worth of data: Nov. 27 (17,344 cases) and Dec. 26 (17,042 cases).
Omari Hardy, who represents Palm Beach in the Florida House of Representatives, called for local officials to shut down the Mar-A-Lago club owned by President Donald Trump over apparent violations of Covid-19 safety guidelines at a New Year's Eve party where Vanilla Ice performed his hit 1989 song, "Ice, Ice, Baby" and few patrons wore masks, reported NBC affiliate WPTV.
In a post containing a video of the party shared by Donald Trump Jr., Hardy said his constituents are "going to have to deal [with] the consequences of a potential super-spreader party at Mar-a-Lago long after [Donald Trump Jr.] & wife leave here on their private jet."
"Mar-a-Lago is a club. A club is a business. Businesses must abide by Palm Beach County's mask order, or be fined or even shut down. We knew that Trump was hosting a New Year's party," Hardy said, adding that he would reach out to the Palm Beach County government to ask "why we weren't ready to enforce the mandate here."
Amid all the reveling, record numbers of travelers flocked to airports around the New Year's holiday.
The Transportation Security Administration announced that 1,327,289 people were screened for air travel on Sunday, marking Jan. 3, 2021 as the busiest air travel day in the U.S. since the pandemic began in 2020.
"It was the highest checkpoint volume since the pandemic hit," Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokesperson, said Monday on Twitter. "It was also the 8th of the last 12 days and 11th of the last 16 days that throughout topped 1 million."
Farbstein suggested that because the Sunday after the Christmas-New Year holiday is often one of the busiest travel days, there's reason to believe travel will remain high this week: "In previous years, many travelers have delayed their return home to the Monday or Tuesday after this two-week holiday period in an effort to avoid crowds and typically find a lower airfare on a weekday," Farbstein wrote.
The record-breaking number of travelers came as states report new highs in coronavirus case counts just as they also report they are detecting a new, more contagious variant in residents with no travel history.

The United States has set yet another record for new COVID-19 cases with almost 300,000 people testing positive in a single day, as new CDC data suggests the nation's true death toll is actually approaching half a million.
As of Saturday, the total number of US deaths in the pandemic topped 350,000 after 2,398 new fatalities were reported by Johns Hopkins University. 
However, according to CDC study measuring the amount of excess deaths in the country in 2020, the total number of deaths is estimated to be much higher.  
The agency calculates the number of excess deaths in a year based on how many people died in the US in previous years. The report showed that up to 431,792 more people have died than expected since February, as of December 19. 
At that time, the death toll was reported to be 316,000. Taking into account the additional 31,000 people that have died since then, the data suggests it likely the actual death toll is close to 470,000.
It comes as 299,087 new infections were reported across the country as of Saturday evening, marking the largest single day increase since the start of the pandemic in March, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 
Hospitalizations remained above six figures once again, with 123,639 people currently being treated for the virus. Of those hospitalized, 23,152 are in intensive care and 7,918 are on ventilators, the data shows.
Daily deaths have fallen below 3,000 in the last two days, with 2,398 fatalities reported on Saturday. 
However the changes could be a result of a backlog due to the holidays, meaning the true number could be higher.
Several states were not included in today's data and others did not update current hospitalizations figures, however these metrics are expected to stabilize over the next week, The COVID Tracking Project noted.  
The health crisis has become especially dire in California, which was once a model in the fight against the outbreak, where hospitals are over capacity with COVID patients and funeral homes have run out of space for the bodies piling up. Meanwhile in Florida, where cases are on the rise, residents flocked to the beaches and popular bars in Miami as they celebrated the new year. 
On Saturday, hundreds of revelers were seen soaking up the sun on South Beach, as others flocked to a nearby hotel for a raucous pool party.  
The revelers downed drinks and danced to music as their festivities spilled onto the sidewalk, seeming to alarm some elderly citizens who were making their way through the area at the same time.   
On the same day, Miami-Dade County recorded more than 5,000 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 51 new deaths from the virus. 
Miami has now clocked a whopping total of 304,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began early last year.  
Health officials fear the recent holiday gatherings could fuel yet another rise in cases and lead to a surge in virus-related deaths to come later this month.  
Funeral homes in Southern California have been forced turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up.   
'I've been in the funeral industry for 40 years and never in my life did I think that this could happen, that I'd have to tell a family, `No, we can´t take your family member,´' said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
Continental is averaging about 30 body removals a day - six times its normal rate. Mortuary owners are calling one another to see whether anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: They're full, too.
In order to keep up with the flood of bodies, Maldonado has rented extra 50-foot refrigerators for two of the four facilities she runs in LA and surrounding counties. 
Continental has also been delaying pickups at hospitals for a day or two while they deal with residential clients.
Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said that the whole process of burying and cremating bodies has slowed down, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. 
During normal times, cremation might happen within a day or two; now it takes at least a week or longer.
Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed, and are struggling to keep up with basics such as oxygen as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory issues. 
Achermann said that in the southern part of the state, 'every funeral home I talk to says, "We're paddling as fast as we can."'
'The volume is just incredible and they fear that they won´t be able to keep up,' he said. 'And the worst of the surge could still be ahead of us.'
Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. 
Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed, and are struggling to keep up with basics such as oxygen as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory issues. 
On Saturday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews arrived to update some hospital's oxygen delivery systems. 
North Carolina officials also reported a record 9,527 confirmed cases New Year's Day. That's more than 1,000 cases above the previous daily high.
In Louisiana, a funeral was being held Saturday for a congressman-elect who died of COVID-19 complications. Republican Luke Letlow died Tuesday at age 41. 
His swearing-in had been scheduled Sunday. He leaves behind his wife, Julia Letlow, and two children, ages 1 and 3.

In Texas, state officials say they have only 580 intensive care beds available as staff treat more than 12,480 hospitalized coronavirus patients, a number that has risen steadily since September and has set record highs this past week.
Following current trends, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that the death toll will hit 456,238 by January 31.
The statistical model however claimed that universal wearing of masks and a rapid vaccine rollout could save about 13,000 lives in the next four weeks.   
The sluggish and at times chaotic initial rollout of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna has drawn sharp criticism from a range of political leaders, including President-elect Joe Biden and Republican Senator Mitt Romney.
A rapid vaccine rollout would only spare about 1,000 lives in January, according to the model. Since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both take several weeks to provide effective protection, their true impact would only be seen over a longer timeline.
As of Saturday, 3.49 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, according to a Bloomberg analysis. That accounts for just 28 percent of the vaccine doses that have been distributed top the states, and means that 1.1 percent of the total population has received a dose. 
It was far short of the Trump administration's goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans with a first of two required doses by the end of 2020. 
Senator Romney, a Utah Republican and frequent critic of President Donald Trump, issued an emotional statement on Friday urging the U.S. government to immediately enlist veterinarians, combat medics and others in a dramatic proposal to boost vaccination efforts.
'That comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed at the federal level and sent to the states as models is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable,' Romney said in a statement that was perhaps aimed as much at the incoming Biden administration as the outgoing Trump one.
'It was unrealistic to assume that the health care workers already overburdened with Covid care could take on a massive vaccination program,' Romney said.
He called on the government to 'enlist every medical professional, retired or active, who is not currently engaged in the delivery of care' to be drafted into a crash program of government-run vaccination sites across the country.
'This could include veterinarians, combat medics and corpsmen, medical students, EMS professionals, first responders, and many others who could be easily trained to administer vaccines,' he proposed.
Romney also proposed a scheme to 'Schedule vaccinations according to a person's priority category and birthdate: e.g., people in group A with a January first birthday would be assigned a specific day to receive their vaccination.' 
Referring to his experience overseeing the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Romney also included what could be seen as a pitch to the Biden administration to offer his own assistance, saying: 'I have experience organizing a major logistical event,' though adding humbly that it was 'nothing on the scale of what is called for today.'

U.S. health officials acknowledged that a Covid-19 immunization campaign is crawling out of the starting gate, raising the prospect that the nation’s all-in bet on vaccines could be afflicted by the same dysfunction that hobbled other measures to contain the pandemic.
Only about 2.7 million Americans had been vaccinated as of Wednesday evening in New York, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. With one day remaining in the year, that represented roughly 13.5% of the U.S.’s stated goal of immunizing 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 -- a number already repeatedly reduced.
The task of delivering shots that could end a pandemic that has killed 341,000 U.S. residents is taxing a largely private medical system designed to maximize profit rather than deliver public health. Governments and institutions are struggling with complex logistics to keep the shots cold, organizing cohorts of people to receive them and persuading those made skeptical by a flood of online disinformation.
Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said the Trump administration is repeating its grave errors in providing tests and personal protective equipment.
“It’s another manifestation of a lack of a federal plan with appropriate resources. It’s the testing problem now just applied to a different setting. Not just testing but PPE,” Wachter said. “Each one of these has been sad. This one could be tragic. With each passing day, if vaccines are sitting on shelves waiting to be administered, those are people that will die because of that.”
Senior public-health officials said the vaccination pace will accelerate as soon as next week. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are likely to get more shots done as the new year dawns and the holidays recede, said Nancy Messonnier of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The leader of the logistics effort said that it will take time to understand why uptake has proceeded so slowly. “We developed and launched a new data system that connects hundreds of existing systems at the state and local level, to allow us to have visibility so that we can see ourselves across the entire United States,” said Army General Gustave Perna.
Meanwhile, states are improvising new delivery systems and rewriting priorities for who should get access to shots first.
Colorado on Wednesday said it would vaccinate people 70 and older, joining Texas and Florida in trying to quickly immunize older residents -- even though federal guidelines favor health-care workers. Other cities and states are just now registering recipients, weeks after the Trump administration made clear it considered its job done once vaccines were delivered to hospitals and agencies.

A second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has led to the death of 20 doctors in Nigeria the last one week.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) confirmed the deaths, with Dr Enema Amodu, the chairman in Abuja, saying the doctors were infected by patients who had failed to disclose their true health status.
Patients visiting clinics and hospitals, he said, should be honest about their health to avoid exposing doctors and other health workers to risk.
“For those of us in the health sector, we have lost quite a number of colleagues in the last one week alone. Across the country, we have lost not less than 20 doctors in the last one week,” he said.
“We also want to use this opportunity to talk to our patients; as you come to us in the hospitals, in the clinics, please oblige us. Wear your mask. Tell us the truth and don’t hold any information back,” he added.
Dr Amodu, a Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgeon, said: “I inadvertently saw a patient that I didn’t know had Covid-19 and she didn’t tell me. She knew. I was exposed, I contracted the virus, developed symptoms but by the grace of God, my colleagues rallied around me and I survived,” he revealed.
He advised the government to improve provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in all medical facilities and called for supply of essential drugs in hospitals.
Dr Amodu also warned that the second wave of Covid-19 was more catastrophic because a lot of Nigerians have gone back to their old ways of life.
“They have thought that the virus is over, it has come, and it is gone, and they have let their guard down.”

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said that it is working hard to obtain International certification to enable Nigeria manufacture vaccines locally.
NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, expressed confidence that Nigeria would soon start manufacturing vaccines, with the upgrading of existing laboratories across the country.
Speaking during the NAFDAC’s Staff Recognition and Award Ceremony for 2019 and 2020, for serving and retired staff held recently in Abuja , the DG said the agency has made huge milestone in the efforts to address the health needs.
She said: “From last three years, the agency has embarked on the digitalisation of its regulatory activities through the deployment of the electronic platform for online registration and decentralisation of registration processes”.
She said the digitalisation exercise enables the clients register their products through online, adding that the agency has decentralised the production of some regulated products to encourage growth of small scale business enterprises
She said NAFDAC was recognising some members of staff who helped in distribution of its palliatives during the lock down.
Also the agency has developed and deployed the port inspection data of its management system as a web-based online application that provides electronic endorsement.
She explained that this will enable it track and trace vaccines received, to ensure that they are safe and monitored for adverse reactions on patients.
“We are upgrading the agency’s laboratories to international standards using equipment that are compliant to ISO 17025. NAFDAC laboratories are changing very rapidly with improvements in new equipment and supplies.
“Our four laboratories that were accredited before I came have received re-accreditation. We have also gotten a new lab – the Yaba Biologies and Vaccines Lab accredited for the first time. And our two other labs will be accredited very soon.”
Adeyeye said efforts to enhance the local production of pharmaceuticals in Nigeria, has led to the agency renewing and updating its 5 + 5 validity policy in order to promote local content.
“We want more local manufacturing – to reverse it from 70 per cent imports to 70 percent locally manufactured products.
“We are building traceability because our supply chain is chaotic to say the least. This is a technologically-driven initiative, and NAFDAC is the second country in Africa to adopt this. We are using this for COVID-19 vaccines when they come,” she said.

The Presidential Task Force against Covid-19 is considering restricting international travel into Nigeria as fear of a second wave triggered a second lockdown of the country.
The Federal Government on Monday, December 21st,  directed all schools to remain closed until at least January 18, 2020, as well as ordering all Federal Government workers on grade level 12 and below to stay at home for the next 5 weeks. The government also announced it has advised states to consider banning bars, nightclubs, event centres all considered super spreader events for Covid-19.
This is as the government said it is considering imposing some new restrictions on international flights due to the discovery of new strains of the coronavirus disease in certain countries.
While Nigeria ponders on whether to impose travel banks, other countries have already started placing travel restrictions as they seek to contain the spread of the virus.
Israel, Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland have all barred air travel to and from South Africa, following the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus.
European countries have started to close their doors to travelers from the United Kingdom on Sunday, with the banning of flights and trains over concerns about a new coronavirus strain that is spreading quickly through the country.

Los Angeles County public health officials announced a staggering 22,422 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, nearly doubling the number of confirmed cases reported the previous day and accounting for almost half of the state's new cases. 
Public health officials begged residents to follow the county's guidelines, including not gathering with people outside their household even during the holiday season.
"Every hour, on average, 2 people are dying of COVID-19 in LA County. These are our neighbors, friends, and family members," the county's health department tweeted. "Our actions today can prevent more suffering. Cancel your holiday plans. Protect each other."
Earlier in the day, state public health officials announced 54,000 new coronavirus cases across California. Worsening numbers in the San Francisco Bay Area and a shortage of beds in intensive care units triggered a stay-at-home order for many Northern California counties.

Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, has admitted that some members of his household have tested positive for the virus.
This is as the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, yesterday said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is responding well to home-based care and treatment for COVID-19.
Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), raised the alarm yesterday in a statement he issued to the public.
He said although the persons who contracted the virus were asymptomatic, they had been isolated and were receiving care in one of the government treatment centres.
Mustapha added that although he and his wife tested negative for the virus, he would remain in self-isolation and work from home according to the protocols by the health authorities.
"I would like to remind all Nigerians that COVID-19 is real. As the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced last week, we are recording an increase in cases across several states.
"Please stay safe and protect yourself. Adhere to all public health and safety measures so that we do not lose the gains we have made in the fight against COVID-19. As a family, we covet your prayers," Mustapha said.
He also urged the public to take responsibility and to protect the country.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has said Governor Sanwo-Olu is responding well to home-based care and treatment for COVID-19.
"Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is responding well to COVID-19 home-based care and treatment. He is in high spirit and very appreciative of all your prayers and well wishes.
"I will be keeping the public informed regularly of Mr Governor's recovery and wellbeing," Abayomi stated in a two-part-tweet update last night.
The commissioner had announced last night that the governor tested positive for coronavirus and has been in isolation since on Friday following contact with persons infected with the virus.
Lagos is a major entry point in Nigeria with over 60% of incoming passenger traffic going through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the state. The state has also recorded over 24,000 infections including more than 200 associated deaths.
A number of governors in the country had also contracted the virus since the pandemic was imported into Nigeria. Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed; Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, amongst others, had tested recovered from the virus.
Also, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who had earlier recovered from the virus, has also gone into isolation again following reported cases of positive COVID-19 cases recorded by persons close to him.

The United States has been overwhelmed by vectors of misinformation throughout the pandemic. But it’s not just Donald Trump, many Republican state leaders, and several thousand COVID-19 deniers who have waged a war against scientific comprehension. America’s virus illiteracy spans the partisan divide.

In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis chirped about his state's superior performance and mocked COVID-19 worriers—only for Florida to become the site of one of America’s worst outbreaks several weeks later. Deep-red North Dakota similarly resisted commonsense measures such as mask mandates before it suffered an even worse outbreak.

As states frantically prepare to begin months of vaccinations that could end the pandemic, a new poll finds only about half of Americans are ready to roll up their sleeves when their turn comes.
The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows about a quarter of U.S. adults aren’t sure if they want to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Roughly another quarter say they won’t.
Many on the fence have safety concerns and want to watch how the initial rollout fares — skepticism that could hinder the campaign against the scourge that has killed nearly 290,000 Americans. Experts estimate at least 70 percent of the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, or the point at which enough people are protected that the virus can be held in check.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) said today they are in the dark about the problems dogging Pfizer Inc’s raw material supply for its Covid-19 vaccine, as reported by news wire agency Reuters on December 4.
Malaysia has agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the vaccine, making it the first country in South-east Asia to announce a deal with the US drugmaker. 
The arrangement, if it goes through, will meet the immunisation needs of 6.4 million Malaysians.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the drug would be subject to National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency evaluation and testing first but revealed that Pfizer has yet to provide the necessary documents.
“The MoH would like to inform you that to date the NPRA has not received any documents from Pfizer for registration evaluation and testing of Covid-19 vaccine,” he said in a statement.
“Hence we have no information about problems regarding the supply of the vaccine as reported.”
The MoH said it would continue to monitor the vaccine’s development and keep the public informed.
Challenges facing its supply chain for the raw materials used in its Covid-19 vaccine had played a role in Pfizer’s decision to cut its 2020 production target, Reuters reported on December 4 citing a spokesperson from the company.
In recent weeks the firm had said it expects to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine this year, down from an earlier target of 100 million doses. 
Pfizer’s vaccine relies on a two-dose regimen, meaning 50 million doses is enough to inoculate 25 million people, according to Reuters.
The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, who cited an unnamed source said to be directly involved in the development of the Pfizer vaccine. 
The source had reportedly said “some early batches of the raw materials failed to meet the standards,” causing production delays.
Noor Hisham had previously said that Malaysia’s preliminary purchasing agreement with pharmaceutical company Pfizer will be void if its Covid-19 vaccine fails to get US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the NPRA’s approval.
It is unclear if the reduction would affect Malaysia’s supply.

The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the recommended days a person must quarantine after coronavirus exposure from 14 days to seven or 10 days.
The new guidelines announced Wednesday say people who have close contact with an infected person can end their quarantine after seven days if they receive a negative test or after 10 days without a test.
The CDC defines close contact as 15 minutes total spent 6 feet or closer to an infected person.
Dr. Henry Walke, incident manager for the CDC’s COVID-19 response, said people should still monitor for symptoms 14 days after exposure.
The CDC based its decisions on study data and modeling by the agency and other outside institutions, Walke said. He said 14 days of quarantine remains the optimal period of time, but seven to 10 days is a good alternative.
A meta-analysis of 1,500 studies from 2003 to June 2020, including 79 SARS-CoV-2 studies, published in The Lancet Microbe in mid-November found that infectiousness and virus shedding lasts only about 10 days after symptoms begin.
“Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are likely to be most infectious in the first week of illness,” study authors wrote.
Walke hopes reducing the length of quarantine will result in more Americans complying with isolation recommendations and other public health actions, such as cooperating with contact tracers.

The United States reported more than 4 million coronavirus cases in November, which is higher than the total number of cases seen all year by any country in the world except India and Brazil. Public health experts are warning that the U.S. will keep seeing record-breaking numbers in the final month of 2020.
Since the pandemic began, the U.S. has seen more than 13.3 million confirmed cases and over 267,000 deaths, by far the highest numbers in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounts for nearly 20% of the global death toll.
India has recorded 9.4 million cases and Brazil has 6.3 million, according to Johns Hopkins data. Other nations with the highest case counts — including Russia, France, Spain and the United Kingdom — have between 1.6 million and 2.3 million. There have been a total of 62.8 million confirmed cases and 1.4 million deaths worldwide. 
The U.S. in November set several grim new records in the pandemic. It surpassed 100,000 daily cases for the first time on November 4, and then more than 200,000 daily cases for the first time on November 28. The nation also passed 90,000 coronavirus hospitalizations for the first time. Hospitals in many communities are at or near capacity and have raised alarms about being overwhelmed as demand continues to grow.
November 24 was the deadliest day of the pandemic since May, with more than 2,100 coronavirus deaths nationwide. About half of the 50 states reported their highest daily toll for the virus, as many states reintroduced restrictions or added new ones to try to contain the spread. 
The month also brought encouraging news about vaccines, with three candidates reported to be more than 90% effective, and the first U.S. vaccinations expected to begin in December once the FDA grants emergency authorization. Health care workers would be among the first to get vaccinated.

A third vaccine candidate, this one from AstraZeneca, has shown the capability to be up to 90% effective as pharmaceutical companies around the world race for answers to conquering the pandemic as early as this spring.
Vaccines can't come soon enough. Since Nov. 12, the United States has reported more coronavirus cases than it did in any full month of the pandemic, while hospitalizations set new highs every day.
The University of Oxford said Monday that it is working with AstraZeneca in submitting interim Phase III data to global regulators for emergency-use approvals. Large scale manufacturing is already underway in more than 10 countries to support "equitable global access," the university said in a statement.
"The vaccine’s simple supply chain and our no-profit pledge and commitment to broad, equitable and timely access means it will be affordable and globally available supplying hundreds of millions of doses on approval," said AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot.
Pfizer/BioNTech has already applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization for a vaccine that could move forward early next month. Moderna says it will seek FDA authorization for its candidate soon. Both are claiming 95% efficacy rates. Operation Warp Speed chief science adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui said Sunday that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated next month, and relative normalcy could return to the country as soon as May.

No fewer than 200,000 farmers are expected to be engaged by the regenerative agricultural intervention in 10 states in Nigeria.
The regenerative initiative, the first of its kind in Nigeria would be piloted across Kano, Cross River, Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, Benue, Niger and Plateau states.
The new Agricultural technology is inherently enhances on-farm biodiversity and water storage capacity will enhance farmers productivity and food security in the country.
The biotechnology Agricultural project, is being anchored by Dantata Foods and Allied Products Company Limited, in partnership with RegenFARM Limited and the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office of the British Government under its Agricultural sector intervention (LINKS Project).
The tripartite partnership is aimed at increasing quality food production, enhancing export opportunities of Nigeria’s Agricultural commodities and improve the soil fertility, nutrients content and organic matter.
Besides, the biotechnology will rescue Nigeria from challenges of soil degradation through flooding, erosion and continued cultivation which reduce farmers productivity and low yield.
Speaking on the project, Managing Director, RegenFARM Limited Mr. Jason Haywarda said Regenerative Agriculture would be an all-embracing opportunity for the Agro-processing industry in the country.
Mr Jason explained that the Intervention will also enhance small holder farmer out-growers productivity, boost profitability and resilience to climate change will be greatly enhanced.
On his part, the Chairman/CEO Dantata Foods and Allied Company Limited Alh. Tajuddeen Aminu Dantata posited that the partnership has already galvanized access to markets in UK and other parts of Europe for the organic commodities produced under the Regenerative Agriculture practices.
He added that Dantata is involved in Agricultural Production, manufacturing and processing, besides the export and distribution of Agro allied products, as well as Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).
“Dantata Foods have aggregated and monitored farmers in the aspect of livestock and animal husbandry. With all these achievements, the Company wants to build a strong relationship with the Central Bank of Nigeria to stand out as a reliable implementing partner for farmers’ aggregation and Agro-allied development projects”.
With a financing commitment from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the Prime Anchor Borrowers Programme, the consortium of private sector and government bodies, the agric solution is expected to rollout new techniques to boost food security in the country.
The use of Regenerative Agriculture inherently enhances on-farm biodiversity and water storage capacity, and therefore RegenFARM Platform offers a cross-over to other complimentary industries and sectors which are focused on, for example, conservation of wildlife and the retention of rainwater in the landscape to rehydrate arid landscapes.
General Manager, Corporate Services, Dantata Foods and Allied Products Company Limited, Sanusi Bature in the release emphasized the platform is designed to assist with the management of various food value chains and offering complete traceability from farmers to end users.

Coronavirus cases have increased in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam over the past 14 days, the latest NBC News data showed Tuesday.
And in a dozen of those states — Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Pennsylvania and New York — infections have spiked in the last two weeks, meaning there has been a 100 percent or more increase in confirmed cases over 14 days.
The White House coronavirus task force bluntly stated in it's latest weekly report that there is "now aggressive, unrelenting, expanding broad community spread across the country, reaching most counties, without evidence of improvement but rather, further deterioration."
The task force report, obtained by NBC News, warned that current efforts to stop the spread "are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve" and that the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday has the potential to "amplify transmission considerably."
With so many new cases, hospitals across the country — and the doctors treating the deluge of new patients — were reaching the breaking point.
“Every day, we seem to break our record for total number of new patients,” Dr. Jeff Pothof, University of Wisconsin Hospital emergency room doctor and chief quality officer, said on MSNBC. “We’re all tired. Everyone is tired. We’re all doing our best. Medicine is a team sport, but we need some help. Things are not going well for us.”

So many people have died of Covid-19. Haven't the government paid attention? The countries that have been shut down have reduced the increase in cases. Why can't the United States learn from it?

The past few months have been an American experiment with Covid-19: Can the country keep bars, restaurants, gyms, and other businesses open while fighting the virus with milder measures, including some social distancing and widespread masking?
Six months after spring shutdowns ended, the answer is clear: The milder approach isn’t working.
The US surpassed 100,000 daily new coronavirus cases on November 4, and it’s gone on to regularly break new records for coronavirus cases since then — with the most recent high exceeding 180,000 on Friday. Hospitalizations have skyrocketed to their highest level of the pandemic, leaving a growing number of hospitals around the US, from Arizona and Texas to Ohio and Tennessee, nearing or at capacity. And deaths are climbing: now above 1,000 a day once again, with a growing likelihood that the country will surpass 2,000 or even 3,000 a day in the coming weeks and months — on top of the more than 246,000 Covid-19 deaths that America has seen so far.
Some places are already taking steps in this direction, like New Mexico, Oregon, Chicago, and El Paso, Texas. But for this to work, it has to be much more common — so it becomes more likely the entire country can stop the spread.
This doesn’t mean locking down in the same way many places did in the spring. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about what works and doesn’t, and can apply those lessons accordingly — keeping outdoor spaces like parks open, for example.

An inhaled form of interferon — a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis by injection — may help protect hospitalized Covid-19 patients from getting worse, according to a British drugmaker.
Results were first released in July, but were published Thursday as a peer-reviewed study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
The body naturally releases interferon when faced with an invader of some kind, such as a virus or other pathogen. Like the name suggests, it works by interfering with viral replication. Some researchers have suggested that Covid-19 patients tend to have a deficiency of interferon, especially in their blood and lungs.
In theory, boosting levels of interferon in the body would help patients fight off illnesses, such as Covid-19.
Indeed, a study published in May suggested that the coronavirus tends to inhibit the body's natural interferon response.
A previous trial, called Solidarity, found that an infusion of the drug did nothing to reduce Covid-19 deaths or aid patients in recovering faster.
The new study from Synairgen, a drug company based in the U.K., used an inhaled type of interferon, called interferon beta-1a (SNG001). In this case, the drug is delivered directly to the respiratory tract.
The study was small, including just 98 patients, who were ill this past spring. About half received the actual drug every day for up to two weeks. The rest got a placebo. Researchers followed their progress for one month.
The study authors wrote that the interferon group "had greater odds of improvement and recovered more rapidly from SARS-CoV-2 infection than patients who received placebo." SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes Covid-19.
Those who received the drug were twice as likely to improve by day 15 or 16.
Interferon "may have the potential as an inhaled drug to restore the lung's immune response and accelerate recovery from Covid-19," study author Tom Wilkinson of the University of Southampton in the U.K. wrote in a media release. That is, the drug may work better if it's delivered directly to the lungs, rather than through the bloodstream.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has disclosed that 1140 active cases of COVID-19 were being managed in Lagos communities under the state's home-based care programme.

Abayomi made the disclosure through his verified Twitter account @ProfAkinAbayomi on Thursday while giving the state's COVID-19 update.

The commissioner said that the active cases were receiving treatment via the EkoTelemed services.

He said that 93 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed in Lagos on Nov. 10 from a total of 1077 COVID-19 tests conducted in the state.

"The new cases brings the total number of confirmed #COVID19 infections in Lagos to 22,086," he said.

The Minister for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, announced that Nigerians will benefit early from COVID-19 vaccines when the product is made available for commercial use.
The Minister disclosed this week in Abuja at a two-day multi-sectorial conference on the COVID-19.
He added that Nigeria’s Health Ministry has prepared arrangements to ensure Nigerians are vaccinated early when a vaccine is released for global usage.
Nairametrics reported earlier this week that Pfizer Inc. disclosed its experimental vaccine, which it is jointly developing with BioNTech, was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data from a large study, in the ongoing phase 3 trials.
The Health Minister revealed that any vaccine that is deemed fit for commercial use in treating coronavirus will be made available early to Nigerians.
“President Buhari has welcomed the arrival of first effective coronavirus vaccine after a successful human trial phase. . . Reacting to the news that the vaccines have recorded 90% effectiveness against the disease, the President described the development as a major milestone in medicine but warned that the world must unite in facilitating the equitable access and distribution of the vaccines to protect people in all countries,” the Presidency disclosed in a statement.