In 2007, Foluso Ogunwale began a new job in banking in Lagos, Nigeria, after spending two years in his father’s supermarket chain as an accountant. At the time, one of his good friends lost a brother to diabetes and heart disease and, for Ogunwale, the event re-emphasised the importance of taking care of your health.
“I had a desire to join a gym,” he recalls. Easier said than done…
“There weren’t any decent, convenient, affordable fitness centres. I remember walking into one of the only available options and was told membership was 700,000 naira (US$1,840), with no option to pay monthly,” he remembers. “There were many people, like me, who wanted to get serious about their health and fitness, but the opportunity just didn’t exist.”
To Ogunwale, the gap in the market was obvious but he continued at Skye Bank and started a side-venture selling mobile phones, laptops and accessories. In 2013, he left the bank to run that business, Premier Impacts Ltd, full-time.
It was only in 2015 that he dusted off the fitness centre business idea and opened iFitness.
The company’s first gym was tiny, just 150m2, and was established and run entirely on bootstrapped funding. Today, iFitness is gearing for aggressive expansion, looking to increase its branches from the current 11 to 40 in the next 36 months. Part of this expansion includes the first cross-border venture, with a gym planned for Accra, Ghana, in 2022.
Financing growth
Ogunwale remembers the struggle to find financing in the early days: “The few people we approached for funding at the local banks never took us seriously. There was one manager who laughed at me, wondering if I was a joker. At the time, the fitness industry was young and the bankers could not understand why I wanted to invest in a gym.” For more than a year, the company had to work hard to show proof of concept.
The first external funding came in February of 2017. It was an expensive micro-finance loan for much-needed expansion capital as iFitness had its sights set on adding three new branches.
“The interest rate was ridiculous; around 3.8% per month. Can you imagine taking money at that interest rate?” Ogunwale asks. “But we knew the microfinance loan was only short term, so we jumped in, did it for a few months and then got better funding by the end of the year.”
The company focused on keeping service levels and standards high to ensure return customers, to prove to possible future financiers that the business was sustainable. “When we had four branches by the end of 2017, the banks were taking us a bit more seriously,” he says.
The debt capital helped the company grow its number of branches to eight, and then, in 2019, the first private equity funding was secured through CardinalStone Capital Advisers, a Lagos-based fund manager.
“Ten weeks after we closed that funding round, Covid-19 struck. We had to shut down for over six months and our projections and expansion plans were totally destroyed. We are only now getting back into the expansion that was supposed to follow.”
Keeping the customers
In the first year, iFitness struggled to meet the demand. Ogunwale notes this was more a function of the small size of its first gym than of rapid market acceptance of the product. Even so, the market signals were encouraging enough to warrant expansion.
The gym culture continues to grow, in part due to social pressure as young Nigerians want to look fit and trim. The second reason, Ogunwale believes, is as the convenience to frequent a gym increases, the likelihood grows that on-the-fence customers will take the leap and join.
The company focuses on this convenience to gain and retain customers. “When you are in a busy city like Lagos, the last thing you want to do when you get home after spending two hours in traffic is get changed and have to travel far to get to a gym. Convenience brings people back. We open branches close to where people live or work.”
To make sure it hits the mark, iFitness has a checklist when considering the next location. It looks at the traffic of the area, the population density and whether the access routes are adequate. “Wherever there are 25,000 people in a 5km radius is where we want to have at least one iFitness,” he says.
Customers can choose from three types of contracts: monthly, quarterly and annual. All packages include multi-location access and can be cancelled at any time. Other services, like personal trainers, incur extra charges.

Last night, at the age of 33, I received my vaccine call. Even the choice of Moderna or Pfizer. No, I was not disappointed from a dream this morning. This is especially true in the United States. You are enrolled in the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) to schedule your appointment for the COVID-19 Vaccine. Laudown County – First and Second Dose Clinic: April 14- May 11 (Pfizer / Moderna) ”.
My boyfriend, an American, added me to the list. All it takes is basic information and a US address. No complicated recording with DGT, no complicated situations. No, short and ‘to the point’ to achieve the goal: vaccinate all adults as soon as possible. You do not even have to pay for this in the United States.
You can choose the vaccine and set the date yourself
It seems so simple. Anyone can register on the waiting list to be vaccinated in their municipality. Each week you will be notified that you will be on the waiting list with an updated schedule of who and when you will arrive. Is this your turn? You can create an account, answer some questions, and then you can choose from different clinics. Each clinic tells you which vaccine is being used, so you have the option to choose a specific clinic. You can also see when the first date is available. Do you want a specific vaccine, but a slightly longer waiting time? It is your own choice. Also, you immediately see how long you have to wait for something like this. A good, personal consideration.
It also provides a lot of important information to the government. How many people can see a zip code, how many people have registered, and how readiness for vaccination goes. Is it low? You can better inform those who have additional campaigns and personal phone calls.
You can not create such a policy in business
It doesn’t seem all that complicated. This is how business works, where the best results are achieved in the best possible way. Unfortunately, in the Netherlands we have to deal with a political environment where efficiency and decisiveness do not play a role. More than a year on, they still don’t have things in order and don’t seem to have it in the future. In the business world, people who do not do this are judged. In politics they hold the highest positions (they are allowed to sit). Unfortunately, I am currently in the Netherlands and I have not yet received that vaccine.

Soda Ash Market Research Report by Type (Dense Soda Ash, Light Soda Ash, and Washing Soda), by Application (Chemical, Detergents & Soaps, Glass & Ceramic, Metallurgy, and Pulp & Paper) - United States Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19
New York, April 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Soda Ash Market Research Report by Type, by Application - United States Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" -
Market Statistics:
The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major currencies - USD, EUR GBP, JPY, and AUD. This helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available.
1. The United States Soda Ash Market is expected to grow from USD 2,749.24 Million in 2020 to USD 3,330.70 Million by the end of 2025.
2. The United States Soda Ash Market is expected to grow from EUR 2,410.59 Million in 2020 to EUR 2,920.42 Million by the end of 2025.
3. The United States Soda Ash Market is expected to grow from GBP 2,143.02 Million in 2020 to GBP 2,596.26 Million by the end of 2025.
4. The United States Soda Ash Market is expected to grow from JPY 293,414.49 Million in 2020 to JPY 355,470.32 Million by the end of 2025.
5. The United States Soda Ash Market is expected to grow from AUD 3,992.27 Million in 2020 to AUD 4,836.62 Million by the end of 2025.
Market Segmentation & Coverage:
This research report categorizes the Soda Ash to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:
"The Washing Soda is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"
Based on Type, the Soda Ash Market studied across Dense Soda Ash, Light Soda Ash, and Washing Soda. The Dense Soda Ash commanded the largest size in the Soda Ash Market in 2020. On the other hand, the Washing Soda is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.
"The Detergents & Soaps is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"
Based on Application, the Soda Ash Market studied across Chemical, Detergents & Soaps, Glass & Ceramic, Metallurgy, Pulp & Paper, and Water Treatment. The Glass & Ceramic commanded the largest size in the Soda Ash Market in 2020. On the other hand, the Detergents & Soaps is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.
Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:
COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.
360iResearch™ FPNV Positioning Matrix:
The 360iResearch™ FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Soda Ash Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.
360iResearch™ Competitive Strategic Window:
The 360iResearch™ Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The 360iResearch™ Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.
The report provides insights on the following pointers:
1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players
2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets
3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments
4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players
5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R& activities, and new product developments
The report answers questions such as:
1. What is the market size and forecast of the United States Soda Ash Market?
2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the United States Soda Ash Market during the forecast period?
3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the United States Soda Ash Market?
4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the United States Soda Ash Market?
5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the United States Soda Ash Market?
6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the United States Soda Ash Market?

VICE-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday disclosed that the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, is already working on the local production of COVID-19 vaccine.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke while representing the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), virtually at a forum organised by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.
Akande’s statement was titled, ‘How COVID-19 pandemic opened up immense talents of Nigerian scientists -By Buhari.’
The presidential aide said giving an update on the production of a local vaccine, Osinbajo 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 has 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 is aided by automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence; so, this is a strong point of synergy between science and engineering.”
Describing Nigerian scientists as worthy assets to be nurtured, Osinbajo said the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the potentials, talents, and creativity of the scientists.
“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 said.

The construction industry is widely considered to be one of the world’s largest industrial employers of labour, and is linked to all other sectors of countries’ economies. It presents a path to empower women economically but it tends to be dominated by men.

In spite of past initiatives in many parts of the world to increase their participation in the construction industry at all levels, women remain a minority.

This is not only an issue of equitable gender representation but one of meeting the industry’s needs.

Researchers have identified skills shortages as a problem in construction. Attracting more women to careers in the industry could help bridge these gaps.

In Nigeria, women make up only 16.3% of the construction profession. Research on this is scarce but one 2006 study of the informal housing delivery sector found that women’s participation was extremely low.

This was presumed to be due to certain cultural ethics and values in Nigeria.
In our study, we investigated the current level of women’s participation, challenges faced by professional women and the factors that influence them in the course of developing careers in construction.

We found that gender discrimination and dominance of male culture were among the top constraints. The top strategy suggested for changing this was to make young women aware of opportunities that exist for them in the industry.

The Nigerian government has explained its directive to states to put COVID-19 vaccination on hold once they used half of the doses allocated to them.
Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, addressed the media at Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday.
The official explained there was no confirmation yet on the timeframe for delivery of second batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said it was important that those who already received their first jab complete their vaccination.
“In a situation where we still cannot determine when the next batch of AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive, it is better for us to vaccinate people fully.”
The minister reminded Nigerians that two doses of the vaccination must be taken, in line with global protocols.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) clarified that AstraZeneca vaccine and Johnson & Johnson vaccine could not be taken by the same individual.
The NPHCDA Chief Executive Officer, Faisal Shuaib, warned Nigerians that different jabs could cause serious negative effects.
“You cannot take the AstraZeneca on your left and Johnson & Johnson on the right. Both have to be doses of AstraZeneca”, Shuaib said.

India has donated 100,000 doses of COVISHIELD vaccines to Nigeria.
A statement by High Commission of India in Nigeria, Tuesday evening, said the consignment was delivered to the country through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA.
The statement read in full: “These 100,000 doses of vaccines, manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, Pune, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing facility, arrived at the Abuja airport from Mumbai via Addis Ababa on 26 March 2021 at 1200 hrs. “The consignment was delivered to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) by the High Commission of India. “The Covishield vaccine manufactured at the Serum Institute of India is the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by NAFDAC, Nigeria. ”Its first lot of 3.92 million doses of vaccines under COVAX had reached Nigeria on 2 March 2021. “The bilateral donation of 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines is in fulfilment of the announcement made by the High Commissioner of India at that time.
On the occasion, High Commissioner Abhay Thakur stated that the supply of vaccines to Ngeria is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment, made at the UNGA in September 2020, that India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help humanity in fighting Covid-19. He added that these supplies of Made in India vaccines to Nigeria is in keeping with India’s longstanding, age-old andtime-tested ties with Nigeria, based on close firiendship and deep mutual trust. “India has been at the forefront of the global fight against the pandemic and supports a collective approach in this battle. “Guided by this philosophy, and as the pharmacy of the world, India, and under its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative (Maitri means Friendship), has supplied millions of doses of vaccines to many countries spread across the globe. “As on 02 April 2021, India had supplied 61.426 million doses of Made-in-India vaccines to 82 countries and will be supplying to more countries soon. “Despite the supply shortages, and at a time when the 1.3 billion population of India itself has been administered about 55 million vaccines so far, and when about 3 million daily vaccinations taking place in India, its own needs are huge but India is still supplying vaccines across the world, far and wide.
“Nearly 36.5% of all vaccines supplied to the world, as of mid-March, were Made in India. ”India is not only a leading producer of AstraZeneca vaccines, and other vaccines such as Novavax and Sputnik, but has also developed its own indigenous vaccine, Covaxin, by Bharat Biotech, which too is highly effective and has been supplied to many countries. “We look forward to NAFDAC approval for Covaxin in due course and its supply to African countries both bilaterally and under various international arrangements such as Covax and AVATT, as well. “The Honourable Minister of External Affairs, Dr. S. Jaishankar stated in the Parliament of India on 17 March, 2021, “Vaccine Maitri” began in India’s immediate neighbourhood, followed by our extended neighbourhood including the Gulf countries and then immediately to needy and vulnerable nations in Africa and the Americas. “Dr. Jaishankar had further stated that “as Indians, we are all naturally internationalist by virtue of our culture, traditions, heritage and history. ”We have never seen a contradiction between the internationalism and the nationalism that was the driver of our independence movement and the subsequent efforts at our nation building. “Indeed, this experience has even further reinforced our internationalism, by creating a strong solidarity with other nations who have similarly struggled for their freedom. “In recent years, as democracy struck deep roots, we have found our own cultural expressions that define us in a diverse world. ”In fact, drawing from that heritage, we have become even stronger voices of international cooperation and solidarity. “That is of course, in great demand at times of stress like the Covid pandemic.”

Michigan was making good progress at controlling the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and getting people vaccinated this year when, as a public heath expert put it, the state began to "lift the brakes."
Now, the number of Covid-19 cases is spiking and hospitalization rates have been rising, and on Sunday the state reported that its pandemic testing positivity rate had hit 15.64 percent, the highest single-day percentage since Dec. 2.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has acknowledged that the worsening numbers do not look good.
"It's a stark reminder that this virus is still very real," Whitmer, a Democrat, said last week. "It can come roaring back if we drop our guard."
But as more and more Michigan residents are vaccinated — especially the most vulnerable senior citizens — Whitmer has made no move to reimpose Covid-19 restrictions on residents who are already feeling what public health expert Marianne Udow-Phillips called "pandemic fatigue."
Whitmer, whose team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, needs no reminding that some of the fiercest resistance to statewide lockdowns was in Michigan — she wound up being the target of what authorities said was a right-wing kidnapping plot.
Besides Michigan, Covid-19 case numbers have been rising sharply in states like Hawaii, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, prompting the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, to warn of "impending doom" if Americans fail to continue taking safety precautions.
Michigan's hot spot for new cases has been the conservative counties north of Detroit, an area known as the Thumb, a bastion of Trump voters that has been especially resistant to pandemic restrictions and mask mandates.
But now the number of cases is starting to climb statewide, and so are the ages of the newest victims, said Josh Petrie, a research assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
"While new cases have tended younger in this month's increase, cases are now rapidly increasing in all age groups under 60," Petrie said. "Similarly, while some of the largest case counts per population have been in counties in the Thumb region this month, we are seeing increases in cases around the state."
What's behind the trend?
"For the state as a whole, we are seeing increases in travel and nonessential trips outside the home that are approaching pre-pandemic levels," Petrie said. "Certainly, less mask-wearing and social distancing is going to increase risk of transmission."
Udow-Phillips, who heads the Center for Health Research Transformation at the University of Michigan, said: "It's hard to pinpoint any one thing. Yes, we are seeing the more infectious variants. But we're also doing more testing."

The Biden administration is working to reassert the government's top consumer watchdog, which was sidelined by President Donald Trump, just as the U.S. economy is showing signs of revving up.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, hollowed out and politicized under Trump after his administration failed to eliminate it outright, is a regulatory agency created by former President Barack Obama in response to the last economic crisis. Democratic lawmakers, consumer finance experts and former CFPB employees say the groundwork is being laid for it to re-emerge as the aggressive enforcement entity it was originally envisioned to be, at a time when millions of Americans face unprecedented financial hurdles resulting from the pandemic.
The stakes are high for President Joe Biden, too: His administration has pinpointed the agency as a key weapon in his arsenal to address racial disparities in access to loans, capital and credit, part of major campaign promises to Black Americans and other people of color who have also been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
Experts said a fully staffed, enforcement-focused CFPB gives Biden a crucial tool to advocate for lower- and middle-class Americans who have in recent years, and during the pandemic in particular, been preyed on by financial institutions and subjected to dubious lending and debt collection practices.
"There is going to be a cop on the beat again," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who helped create the agency. "The Trump team, they tried to make clear they were there to help big banks and big money lenders, not families. But the Biden administration is focused on using it to level the playing field."
The approach would be in line with the agency's original mission, and it would mark a notable change from its direction under Trump.
Trump's first CFPB chief was Mick Mulvaney, who as a member of Congress had sponsored bills to eliminate the agency. As acting director, Mulvaney froze hiring, ceased investigations and fine collections, suspended most rulemaking and shifted the mission of the agency from enforcement, which helped consumers, to cutting regulations, which experts said helped lenders and other parts of the financial industry.
He famously submitted a budget request for the agency for zero dollars and created a new line of political appointees in each division of the agency, called policy associate directors, who experts and former employees said were meant to politicize the agency. In 2018, the Trump administration stripped the agency of its powers to enforce discrimination cases in lending, a move that enraged many Democrats and consumer finance advocates.
Experts viewed Mulvaney's successor, Kathy Kraninger, as a leader who more subtly exercised a conservative vision for the bureau, reshaping its mission as educating consumers so they can look out for themselves.
During Mulvaney's tenure, a number of enforcement actions were put on hold, but they picked up under Kraninger. Still, the money recovered by actions under both agency chiefs during the Trump administration paled in comparison to the total recovered during the Obama years. Kraminger resigned at Biden's request, hours after he was sworn in.
The Biden administration has already made moves to help return the agency to its original mission.
Biden named as his acting director Dave Uejio, an agency veteran who had served in various roles there since 2012.
Under Uejio, the agency has begun staffing up. In February, it announced a comprehensive recruiting effort for "mission-oriented" lawyers who would help "achieve the agency's mission priorities."
In a statement to NBC News, Uejio said that since he started the acting top job, he has "focused the CFPB on providing relief for consumers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and taking action on racial equity."
"We are taking a close look at previous policies that hampered the Bureau's effectiveness, and simultaneously working nonstop through supervision and enforcement to ensure financial institutions are treating consumers fairly and playing by the rules," he said.
He hired as a senior adviser Diane Thompson, a former agency employee who has written frequently about the need for the bureau to focus more specifically on racial inequality and antidiscrimination measures.
Agency officials said the agency no longer employed any policy associate directors.

The Nigerian government has taken delivery of the first set of 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines out of a total of 1.4 million doses designated for Nigeria by the African Union (AU).
The vaccines are a combination of doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility and the AU’s COVID-19 vaccination programme, which the MTN Group contributed $25 million. The vaccines will be distributed among health workers in Nigeria by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA).
Commenting on the vaccines, the Director-General of the NPHDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said: “On behalf of health care workers in Nigeria, we commend the efforts of the Nigerian government and the African Union in the fight against COVID-19, and we thank MTN for their collaboration. The arrival of these vaccines is a major step, as we try to stay ahead of the virus. We need all the collaboration we can get, and I implore more organisations to join this drive for the Nigerian people.”
Also speaking, the Director General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, expressed appreciation on behalf of the government. According to him, “The donation of COVID-19 vaccines is truly helpful, and we are grateful. We can only succeed against COVID-19 when we fight together. These vaccines will go a long way in protecting health workers, who are on the frontline, and need all the protection they can get at this critical moment, hence the prioritisation of their vaccinations.”
Expanding on the power of partnership and collaboration, the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Karl Toriola, said: “I thank the Nigerian government and the AU for the opportunity they granted the MTN to collaborate and contribute towards the delivery of these vaccines. The ongoing threat of COVID-19 requires a vast and accelerated effort by both the private and public sectors. Partnerships like this practically demonstrate what can achieved when we work together for Africa’s (and indeed Nigeria’s) progress. We are truly privileged to have been able to play our part in contributing towards government’s efforts to protect and save lives.”
A statement from the MTN, through its media agency, said: “At the start of the pandemic, the MTN Nigeria collaborated with government to curb the spread of the virus, in large part via the introduction of MTN’s Y’ello Hope platform. Y’ello Hope encompasses a broad range of interventions and programmes valued at approximately N25 billion that are designed to offer relief where it is needed most. These are aimed at supporting Nigeria’s people, customers, communities, and the various levels of government.
“Through Y’ello Hope the company provided free-to-access services (including SMS and data) to the most vulnerable, facilitated zero-rated access to healthcare websites, deployed the ‘Wear-it--for-me’ campaign to help create awareness around the importance of wearing masks, and made a N1 billion donation to the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19.”

The Federal Government says it is investigating incidents of COVID-19 vaccine mismanagement at some vaccination sites across the country.
Nigeria kicked its vaccination campaign on March 5, 2021 after receiving nearly four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Director-General of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, said on Monday, March 22 that 122,410 have now been vaccinated across the country.
However, he said issues of mismanagement have been reported at some centres, especially singling out the one at Police Clinic, Falomo in Lagos State.
"This is currently being investigated and we understand from the Lagos State Government that a report would be made available today.
"We anticipate that decisive action will be taken against anyone found culpable of subverting the vaccination process," he said.
Shuaib said the government has instituted mechanisms to ensure that the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine is free from corrupt practices.
The NPHCDA boss said there's a collaborative partnership with regulatory and anti-corruption agencies to further strengthen vaccine accountability.
"Any information of vaccine mishandling and mismanagement, will be handled using stringent measures and appropriate sanctions," he said.
Full implementation of the vaccination has commenced in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory, but Kogi, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Oyo are yet to start their campaigns.

Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said yesterday that the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) was not yet over; describing the vaccine is a new tool that will go a long way in preventing the spread of the disease.
He was confident that the country would overcome the pandemic through vaccination and other public health measures, so the citizens could return to normal life. “This vaccine provides us an opportunity to do that,” he stressed.
During a visit to Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, at the Government House, Enugu, Ihekweazu said: “it had been an amazing experience in Enugu for the 13 months we have been responding to the biggest pandemic of our lifetime.”
He commended the governor for the “amazing job” his administration was doing with NCDC in the fight against COVID-19 in the state.
Ihekweazu, who was in Enugu to inspect some of the health facilities where COVID-19 cases were being managed, and to interact with the public health team, among others, disclosed: “We have a very robust response in Enugu.”
He applauded Ugwuanyi for demonstrating leadership and his confidence in the vaccine, encouraging everybody in Enugu to take advantage of the ongoing vaccination to protect themselves, their families, and communities.
On the outcome of his visit to Enugu, Ihekweazu said: “Today, we reflected on the past one year; we decided on the path for the future and we know we are stronger together, and in Enugu, we hope to continue leading the response as we have done.”
At the event were members of the Enugu Rapid Response Team, led by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ikechukwu Obi.
In the process of stopping the spread of the epidemic, vaccination is one of the effective means. Under current circumstances, it is necessary to increase the amount of vaccines and put the safety of vaccines in the first place.

A handful of countries in Europe are shying away from the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Demark, Norway and Iceland said Thursday they would halt its use while European drug regulators examine the possibility of a link to blood-clotting issues. They emphasized that they were just being cautious and that there is no evidence of any causal link, and global health authorities confirmed support for the vaccine.
Bulgaria joined those countries on Friday, saying it would temporarily suspend inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine after the death of a woman a day after she received a shot (her autopsy found no traces of blood clots). And Thailand delayed its rollout of the vaccine, which was to begin Friday. The Democratic Republic of Congo has also delayed its rollout, Reuters reported.
Germany, France, Poland and Nigeria have said they would continue to administer the vaccine.
A senior adviser to the World Health Organization, Bruce Aylward, stressed in a news briefing on Friday that the W.H.O. had “great confidence” in AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The vaccine has been authorized for use in more than 70 countries, but not the United States, where it is still going through clinical trials.
A shortfall in the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine has fueled tensions within Europe and with European Union allies. AstraZeneca has asked the Biden administration to let it send unused American doses to the E.U.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), says it has destroyed counterfeit medical products worth billions of naira in Kano and Anambra states.
NAFDAC made this known in a statement by the agency’s resident media consultant, Mr Olusayo Akintola, and issued to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja.
Akintola said products destroyed by the agency were drugs, vaccines, cosmetics and expired food items, in three geo-political zones of north-west, south-east and south-south respectively.
He noted that the NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had also warned that henceforth, there would be no hiding place for the merchants of death, who derived joy in unpatriotic acts of circulating expired products.
The consultant said that the products were seized from manufacturers, distributors and importers, and all handed over to the agency.
He said some of the products destroyed such as unregistered drugs, improperly stored vaccine and tramadol, were confiscated by the Nigerian Customs Service.
He listed others as Rohypinol, intercepted on Benin Asaba expressway, and other fake medical products intercepted at different times.
“The estimated value of the products destroyed in Kano is N613,300,290.00 while fake products worth N1, 429,580,683.00 were destroyed in Awka, Anambra State, totalling N2,042,880,973.00.
“The products include drugs such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarial, herbal remedies, psychoactive, controlled substance and food products such as spaghetti, vegetable oil, non-alcoholic beverages, sachet water, Chocolates, Noodles.
“Also destroyed are cosmetics such as creams, pomade, and insecticides’’, she added.
According to NEFDAC, the destruction of the dangerous products would eliminate the risk of their reintroduction into the market.
The agency noted that the destruction of the products was a proof of its resolve to safeguard the health of the people and ensure that only genuine, wholesome medicines were sold in Nigeria.
NAFDAC also disclosed in the statement that a warehouse of banned, controlled, fake and counterfeit products, worth millions of naira, was uncovered in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra.
It said the items were awaiting destruction, pending the setting aside of a Court Order.
It noted however, that apart from seizures and destructions, the agency had been able to secure conviction of culprits, ranging from one year to five years and options of fine.
It said that the Agency was adopting a proactive approach by engaging political, traditional, and religious leaders in sensitising their wards on the dangers of drug abuse.
NAFDAC pledged continuous surveillance on the products and to ensure enforcement of the regulations governing the products in Nigeria.
The agency advised Nigerians to be wary of possible infiltration of fake COVID-19 vaccines into the country, describing diversion and falsification of medicines and vaccines as the same everywhere.
It further urged Nigerians to be vigilant and expose anyone who might want to divert COVID-19 vaccines donated by the international donors for profiteering purposes.
According to Akintola, Adeyeye, who was represented by Mr Kingsley Ejiofor, the Director of Investigation and Enforcement, said that operatives of the agency are all over the country sniffing around to apprehend others in the deadly business.
She warned Nigerians to refrain from procuring COVID-19 vaccines online to avoid falling into the wrong hands of merchants of death.
‘“The public must be on the lookout for these spurious and counterfeit vaccines and other regulated products.
“The cooperation of the public, corporate bodies, religious leaders, and traditional rulers is needed in this effort for the agency to eradicate the menace of drug counterfeiting and substance abuse.
The NAFDAC boss said that the products being destroyed could have had a devastating effect on the populace if not removed from the circulation.
She commended the officers of the agency for their untiring efforts in safeguarding the heath of Nigerians and enjoined them not to relent in ensuring that counterfeiters were brought to book. (NAN)

As U.S. states have started vaccinating people with medical conditions that can increase the risk of a severe case of Covid-19, they are setting very different rules on which conditions to prioritize.
Confusion of guidelines has sparked a race among people with health conditions like cancer or type 2 diabetes to convince state officials to add certain conditions to an evolving list of immunization priorities.
In the town of Royal Oak, Michigan, Megan Bauer, who has cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that can cause serious lung infections, said she was grateful that other high-risk people were vaccinated: Health workers , teachers, his 81 years old. – former grandmother. years.
If Bauer lived in states like Montana, New Mexico, Virginia, or Washington DC, she could also be vaccinated now – but not in Michigan.
“The wait seems endless,” said Bauer. “With cystic fibrosis, every day is precious, so it’s hard to waste that time.”
In the early months of the Covid-19 vaccination, US states attempted to balance between prioritizing older people, who are more likely to die from the virus, and people in occupations more likely to be exposed to it. .
As recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people with medical conditions associated with an increased risk of severe symptoms of the virus will be as follows.
At least 37 states, as well as the capital, Washington, now allow residents with certain health conditions to be vaccinated, according to a New York Times survey. But priority health issues differ from state to state, and even from municipality to municipality.
Some people with Down syndrome can be vaccinated in at least 35 states, for example, but some of them do not vaccinate people with other developmental problems. At least 30 states allow some people with type 2 diabetes to be vaccinated, but only 23 states include people with type 1 diabetes.
At least 19 states make the vaccine available to some people with cystic fibrosis; at least 14 included people with liver disease; and at least 15 considered that some smokers were eligible for vaccination.
At least 30 states have prioritized vaccinating overweight or obese people, according to the NYT survey, although they vary in body mass index: 25, 30, or 40.
Some states require people to prove they have a health problem, although at least 16 of them, in addition to the capital, do not. And at least 12 states allow people to get a referral from a healthcare professional to receive the vaccine, even if their medical condition is not considered a priority by the state.
In the absence of extensive and rigorous studies of the effect of the coronavirus in people with other health conditions, experts say there are few clear principles to apply in determining a sequence of priorities among many. conditions.
Many states are relying on a list of 12 types of conditions that the CDC considers to have substantial evidence of a high risk of Covid, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, smoking, and Down syndrome. CDC officials said they regularly review the scientific literature and will expand the list where appropriate.
But some medical ethics experts say the list itself is misleading because it suggests that the risks for all diagnoses have been considered and ranked. Does a 50-year-old with type 1 diabetes have a higher risk of Covid than a 25-year-old with sickle cell disease or a 35-year-old with an intellectual disability?
The issue has sparked a rush from civil rights groups to influence health officials and politicians in state congresses to put certain health conditions on the priority list.
Since vaccination rules can be set by governors – who often consult with hospital officials and their own groups of medical advisers – many requests have taken on a personal tone.
“Governor Mike DeWine,” Hanna Detwiler, a bone marrow transplant patient in Columbus, Ohio, wrote on her social media about her inability to get the vaccine last month, “is working better.”
About 35 advocacy groups sent a letter in late January to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after fearing the state would explicitly include people living with HIV on the priority list.

As Africa continues to battle the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, economy and finance experts are set to chart a path on sustainable industrialisation in the continent.
They would gather under the aegis of the `Economic Commission for Africa’s 53rd Session’ and the `Conference of the African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, from March 17 to March 23 and in a hybrid form.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Communication Department of the ECA, some participants, led by the Executive Secretary of ECA, Vera Songwe, will attend from Addis Ababa while the majority will participate virtually.
The conference will assemble seasoned and high-level panellists both from within and outside Africa for discussions that promise to be exciting and engaging as the continent continues to respond to the ravages of the COVID-19 crisis.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the outcomes and decisions of the conference will have important implications for Africa’s future.
Among some of the key speakers for the conference is Ms Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics, who is a former Deputy Governor at the Bank of England.
Shafik is also former Deputy Managing Director at the IMF and former Permanent Secretary of England’s Department for International Development, where she was responsible for the UK’s development assistance efforts around the world.
Other participants include the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Director-General, Li Yong, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Director-General, Houlin Zhao, and Ethiopian Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide.

South Africa’s former Trade and Industry Minister, Robert Davies, will deliver the 2021 Adebayo Adedeji Lecture, which will be held under the theme; ‘Towards a Developmental Approach to the AfCFTA’, during the conference.
The annual lecture was set up to honour the late Professor Adebayo Adedeji, who was one of Africa’s foremost development thinkers and the longest-serving ECA Executive Secretary.
Rwanda’s Minister for Trade and Small and Medium Enterprises, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, will be the main respondent.
High-level panel discussions during the Conference of Ministers will include The Big Debate on Sustainable Growth in the Digital era post-COVID-19.
Nigeria’s Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister, Zeinab Ahmed, will be the lead speaker.
In the light of COVID-19, one of the high-level panels will tackle managing debt and innovative finance for fiscal sustainability, and the role of the private sector, while another will look at whether Africa is ready to finance its own vaccine.
Lead speaker in this panel would be WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom, with panellists, including UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Biyanyima.
Other panellists are Afreximbank President, Benedict Oramah, Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group Global Advisor, Susan Silbermann, and Amadou Sall, Director, L’Institut Pasteur, Medical Research Institute, Senegal.
The conference will be held under the theme: ‘Africa’s sustainable industrialisation and diversification in the digital era in the context of COVID−19’.
NAN reports that this year’s theme embraces the need for African countries to achieve rapid economic growth through environmentally conscious industrialisation and diversification while taking advantage of digitalisation.
Discussions under the theme will explore and consolidate strategies on the way forward to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on African economies.
Specifically, the theme reflects calls for an alignment of development strategies with climate change mitigation measures.
It recognises that industrialisation, while being an effective engine of growth for many developed countries, has come at a severe cost to the global climate, posing a growing threat to African nations.

White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that Covid-19 cases in the United States may plateau again at a very high level, even as the nation rapidly administers three vaccines.
The decline in cases seen since early January now appears to be “going down a little more slowly,” Fauci told the Center for Strategic and International Studies during an interview Tuesday afternoon. “Which means we might plateau again at an unacceptably high level.”
The nation is recording at least 58,100 new Covid-19 cases and at least 1,560 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. peaked at close to 250,000 cases per day in early January following the winter holidays. Cases have surged before falling and plateauing two other times over the past year.
Some health experts fear the U.S. could see a “fourth wave” of infections as new, highly contagious variants continue to spread and some states lift restrictions intended to contain the virus. Top U.S. officials, including Fauci, say rolling back restrictions too soon may reverse the downward trajectory in infections and delay the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.
“There’s a light at the end of this tunnel, but we must be prepared for the fact that the road ahead may not be smooth,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month.
Fauci on Tuesday urged Americans to wear masks, socially distance and get vaccinated, saying the virus cannot mutate if it can’t infect hosts and replicate.
He also said the U.S. is now assessing the impact of “homegrown” variants, including the one that is believed to have originated in New York. The strain, which researchers are calling B.1.526, is rapidly spreading in New York City and carries a mutation that could weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, according to The New York Times.
Last week, Fauci said the Biden administration was taking the emergence of the New York strain “very seriously.” He said U.S. officials would need to “keep an eye” on the strain, including the possibility that it could evade the protection of antibody treatments and vaccines.
The United States has already ushered in several waves of infections. I wonder if the new government has a good way to deal with the epidemic?

(Reuters) - The United States has administered 90,351,750 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and distributed 116,363,405 doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines as of 9 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Sunday, the agency said.
According to the tally posted on March 6, the agency had administered 87,912,323 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 116,355,405 doses.
The agency said 58,873,710 people had received one or more doses while 30,686,881 people have received the second dose as of Sunday.
A total of 7,389,102 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.

WASHINGTON – Four states have announced rolling back mask mandates in major recalls of COVID-19 safety measures over the last month — leaving many to wonder whether additional states will join the tide and alter how the country is dealing with COVID-19 at a crucial moment in the fight against the disease. 
But like so much with the pandemic, the path ahead is unclear. Cities, businesses, and families are often making their own choices of whether to wear masks or go to restaurants, despite governors in Mississippi, Texas, Montana and Iowa urging their residents to go back to a virus carefree life.
Major American retail chains across the country, such as Kroger, Best Buy Co., Kohl’s and Ulta are sticking to their policies to require masks in stores. Some local mayors are telling residents to ignore the words of their state governors. 
The mixed messaging has become another unfortunate reality of COVID's impact. Several states that never enacted mask mandates still had communities and businesses that required them, creating a dizzying environment for residents navigating differing rules. The confusion has even led to violent confrontations over the months.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has set aside $19 million to train 100,000 health workers in some parts of Nigeria.
The training, which would be on for the next five year, have Bauchi, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Ebonyi States, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as beneficiaries.
According to a statement from USAID on Wednesday, the USAID Health Office Director, Paul McDermott, and key government health sector officials participated in a launch of a new USAID funded activity to improve the quality of health worker training in Nigeria.
The statement said the five-year, $19 million Health Workforce Management activity will support the establishment of a cost-effective, well-trained and motivated health workforce in targeted rural and remote areas of Bauchi, Sokoto, Kebbi and Ebonyi States, as well as the FCT.
The statement quoted McDermott to have said at the virtual launch: “We are investing in the health workforce because strong and capable human resources for health improve health outcomes and save lives.
“The activity will support efforts to address the persistent healthcare worker challenges in Nigeria.”
The statement said the Health Workforce Management will strengthen human resources, improve governance of the health workforce, and develop interventions to improve health worker retention.
It said over the next five years, the activity is expected to produce a cadre of 100,000 new health workers competent to respond to current and future health needs of the populations in the targeted states.
The Health Workforce Management will train these primary health care workers to anchor a more proficient workforce to respond to health needs, improve the distribution and skill mix of front-line workers, and strengthen training institutions to adopt and apply more effective approaches to human resources.
The Director of Primary Health Care Services Development at the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Usman Adamu, said: “This initiative could not have come at a better time. It will be most beneficial to address maldistribution of health workers by producing the appropriate skill mix of front-line health workers at the primary care level. We look forward to positive change and assure USAID of our collaboration and support all the way.”
The statement disclosed that the activity will be implemented by Banyan Global in collaboration with Abt Associates, Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Solina Health.
It is part of USAID’s integrated package of activities valued at $793 million that is focused on integrating health service delivery at the primary level, creating demand for health services, and strengthening supply chain management at the sub-national level.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with over 200 million population, conducted 1,489,103 COVID-19 tests since March of last year, the country's Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced Wednesday.
Over the tests conducted during Tuesday only, the NCDC recorded 571 new cases, while 12 new deaths were also registered by the center in its latest update.
“Till date, 153,187 cases have been confirmed, 129,943 cases have been discharged and 1,874 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” the NCDC said.
The NCDC also announced Tuesday evening “the inclusion of the Ondo State Public Health Laboratory to the NCDC Molecular Laboratory Network.”
According to the center's latest figures, the Ondo State ranked ninth among the most-affected Nigerian states by the novel virus with 21 confirmed cases.
“Testing at any PUBLIC laboratory in the NCDC network is FREE of charge,” the NCDC noted.
This came amid recent reports indicating that an unknown virus strain -- dubbed B.1.525 -- of the COVID-19 that is different from the UK variant was discovered in the country.
“So far, this [new variant] has been detected among cases in five states in Nigeria. B.1.525 cases have also been reported in other countries in travelers from Nigeria,” the NCDC said in an earlier report.
According to the disease control agency, researchers and scientists are conducting studies to understand whether the new variant has any impact on immunity, diagnostic severity, transmissibility, and already approved vaccines.
The new variant was first detected in a sample collected on Nov. 23 from a patient in Lagos State.

President Biden and Vice President Harris marked the staggering death toll with a moment of silence. In Britain, officials outlined a cautious plan to reopen schools in England.The United States reached a staggering milestone on Monday, surpassing 500,000 known coronavirus-related deaths in a pandemic that has lasted almost a year. The nation’s total virus toll is higher than in any other country in the world. It has far surpassed early predictions of loss by some federal experts. And it means that more Americans have died from Covid-19 than did on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.
“The magnitude of it is just horrifying,” said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who has modeled the virus’s spread and says that the scale of loss was not inevitable, but a result of the failure to control the virus’s spread in the United States.
The United States accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s known coronavirus-related deaths, but makes up just 4.25 percent of the global population.
About one in 670 Americans has died of Covid-19, which has become a leading cause of death in the country, along with heart disease and cancer, and has driven down life expectancy more sharply than in decades. The losses have been searingly personal for the relatives and friends of the 500,000.
“It never goes away,” the Rev. Ezra Jones of Chicago said of his grief for his uncle, Moses Jones, who died of the coronavirus in April.
The harrowing milestone comes amid hopeful news: New virus cases and deaths have slowed dramatically, and vaccine distribution has gradually picked up pace. But uncertainty remains about emerging virus variants, some more contagious and possibly more lethal, so it may be months before the pandemic is contained. Scientists say the trajectory of the U.S. death toll will depend on the speed of vaccinations, the effects of the variants and how closely people stick to guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing.
Last March, in the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the official coordinating the coronavirus response at the time, projected that even with strict stay-at-home orders, the virus might kill as many as 240,000 Americans — a number that seemed unimaginable at the time.
“As sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it,” Dr. Fauci said at the time.
Less than a year later, the virus has killed more than twice that number.
U.S. deaths from Covid-19 came faster as the pandemic wore on. The country’s first known Covid-19 death occurred in Santa Clara County, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2020, and by the end of May, 100,000 people had died. It took four months for the nation to log another 100,000 deaths; the next, about three months; the next, just five weeks.
The virus has reached every corner of America, devastating dense cities and rural counties alike through surges that barreled through one region and then another.
In New York City, more than 28,000 people have died of the virus — or roughly one in 295 people. In Los Angeles County, the toll is about one in 500 people. In Lamb County, Texas, where 13,000 people live scattered on a sprawling expanse of 1,000 square miles, the loss is one in 163 people.
The virus has torn through nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, spreading easily among vulnerable residents: They account for more than 163,000 deaths, about one-third of the country’s total.
Virus deaths also have disproportionately affected Americans along racial lines. Over all, the death rate for Black Americans with Covid-19 has been almost two times higher than for white Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the death rate for Hispanics was 2.3 times higher than for white Americans. And for Native Americans, it was 2.4 times higher.
By Monday, about 1,900 Covid deaths were being reported, on average, most days — down from more than 3,300 at peak points in January. The slowing came as a relief, but scientists said variants made it difficult to project the future of the pandemic, and historians cautioned against turning away from the scale of the country’s losses.
“There will be a real drive to say, ‘Look how well we’re doing,’” said Nancy Bristow, chair of the history department at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., and author of “American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic.” But she warned against inclinations now to “rewrite this story into another story of American triumph.”

It'll be news to nobody that COVID-19 has turned the world's sense of normality on its head in the past 12 months. A year ago, we were all beginning to learn what exactly COVID-19 was, while trusting - hoping - that washing our hands a little more regularly and trying not to touch our faces would be the solution. Fast forward to today and the world has spent the majority of the past 12 months either in varying levels of lockdown or with some form of restriction on everyday life. 
With it being North America Week here on Cyclingnews, we wanted to touch on the ways the cycling landscape has been affected by a year of unprecedented disruption to normality. We reached out to various cycling-related businesses based in the USA to see how they've been affected and adapted in the face of unprecedented adversity. 
As a consequence of the disruption, there's no doubt that cycling has boomed in popularity. Social distancing advice has led to people avoiding public transport, and simultaneously as a result of enforced business closure and stay-at-home orders, there are fewer cars on the roads, making them a safer place for those travelling by bicycle.What's more, in areas where outdoor activity is still permitted, these safer roads make them a more enjoyable - or at least, less daunting - place to be. The concurrent attention on health and wellbeing is leading to more cyclists heading out for the fitness benefits or the sheer pleasure of the ride. This is backed up by various studies, including one published in the Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal which saw a 138 per cent year-on-year increase in recreational activity at 40 intersections across Phoenix, AZ.
Due to this boom, and thanks to being deemed an essential service, many bike shops have seen their busiest year in history, even despite the enforced closure of retail space in many stores.
However, even in a world where cycling is flourishing, it's been far from plain sailing for anyone. 
Businesses with in-person services have struggled as a result of the restrictions on person-to-person contact. Gyms have been forced to close and as a result, businesses such as personal trainers, yoga instructors and massage therapists find themselves without a client base.
Retül is a data-driven bike fit business based out of Colorado, for which in-person interaction is essential, and these services were forced to cease entirely.
"It has been a crazy year," explains Jason Williams, Sports Scientist at Retül. "We closed the office in mid-March when things locked down here in Colorado. We were working from home for at least three months before some restrictions eased up." 
"We returned to some in-person fitting over the summer but when the regional cases spiked again in October/November we halted most in-person fitting again. It has been a year of ups and downs."
For manufacturers of physical goods, factory closures coupled with increased demand put an insurmountable strain on product availability. Indoor cycling was one area in which stock ran dry almost entirely, with the best turbo trainers all-but-impossible to find, and entry-level turbo trainer prices skyrocketing as a result. 
At the time, Wahoo Fitness's Rowley Clifford told Cyclingnews: "At this time in the year we’ve normally switched our factory off making indoor trainers to focus on new product launches. When demand for indoor trainers exploded towards the end of March we had to get the factory going again as soon as we could to try and service it." This is much easier said than done in the midst of a global pandemic where factories are forcibly closed.

You have probably heard the news about the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) imposing a ban on financial services for cryptocurrency exchange operators, as well as the incongruent excuses for its action. You may have also heard of several connected controversies, like how it’s linked to the endSARS protests, aid for which was partly funded in bitcoin.
What you probably don’t know, though, is how this is related to the economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic, the huge arbitrage gap in the naira (NGN) prices across the Nigerian currency market, the decline in Nigeria’s inflow remittances and the emotional tension of individuals whose funds are sadly trapped in all of this.
Over the course of this piece, we will be looking at the economic state of Nigeria prior to the cryptocurrency exchange ban and how it has influenced rapid cryptocurrency adoption, the involvement of the Nigerian senate and what will most likely ensue next.

JACKSON, Miss. — On the last Saturday in January, Johnny Thomas paused as a train snaked through the heart of Glendora, Mississippi. The accompanying roar reverberated through the predominantly Black Mississippi Delta town with a population of fewer than 200 people.
“Ever heard of the other side of the tracks?” Thomas, the town’s mayor, asked. “That’s us.”
In a community where the nearest hospital is more than 20 miles away, the phrase stretches past the proverbial. More than 50 percent of residents live in poverty.
Lately, Thomas has felt pushed even further to the margins. No coronavirus vaccination sites for the general public are operating in Tallahatchie County, where Glendora is. The area’s only hospital, Tallahatchie General, doesn’t expect to have vaccines until mid-February. The nearest state-run drive-thru vaccination clinic is in neighboring LeFlore County, 30 miles away.
“We couldn’t find two people to get that far without it being a hardship,” Thomas said.
Even for those who have the means to travel, appointments go quickly. Last month, Thomas, who is 67, spent almost an hour trying to reach someone on the state’s vaccination hotline hoping to book a slot for himself, only to meet a busy signal.
The pandemic has hit Mississippi’s impoverished, rural and primarily Black communities hard. And disparities are present in the state's vaccinations. The state’s Black residents are vastly underrepresented among Mississippians who have been vaccinated so far. Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents in the nation — 38 percent — but only 17 percent of those who have received the shots have been identified as Black. That’s one of the worst racial gaps in the country.
Mississippi’s leaders have focused on a hesitancy to get the vaccine in communities of color to explain this gap, and they have devoted resources to partner with prominent Black community leaders, many of whom have gotten the vaccine on camera in an effort to overcome concerns about its safety and effectiveness.
But over the past several weeks, local doctors, community leaders and even state officials say it’s become increasingly clear that many Black residents want to get vaccinated — they’re just hitting roadblocks that have prevented them from doing so. Lasting scars from slavery and segregation — including a long history of unequal treatment of Black residents by the state government — touch many aspects of life in Mississippi, leading to racial disparities in access to health care that mean Black residents often have to travel farther for medical check-ups. Only 4 of the state’s 10 counties where residents are least likely to live in a household with a car had a vaccination site as of Thursday.
“What recently I’ve heard is that the balance has changed and actually, the access issue is a bigger issue than the trust,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi’s state health officer, said at a news briefing last week. “We will try to address both of those as aggressively as we can.”
For the poor and communities of color, access barriers can snowball. There’s little advance notice of vaccine appointments for people in low-wage work so they can make arrangements to take time off, provided they have paid leave at all. Going online is the fastest way to book an appointment for the state’s drive-thru sites, but Tuesday’s announcement on social media from Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, of 30,000 new appointments was most likely missed by residents without reliable internet access who can’t check as often for available slots.
For most of January, only two state-run vaccination sites were available in each of the state’s nine health regions. Mississippi’s most populous county, Hinds, which includes Jackson and where more than two-thirds of residents are Black, lacked a drive-thru vaccination site until Jan. 21. State health officials attributed the initial absence to planning challenges.
On Monday, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba said current vaccine measures don’t take into account disparities that disproportionately affect residents in the predominantly Black city.
“Whether intentionally or not, it is discriminatory in this sense: that it depends on a level of privilege. It requires [someone] to go online to set up an appointment. That would depend on someone having computer or Internet access,” he said. “A lot of locations around the state have been drive-through locations. That depends on someone having transportation to do that.”

Dr Susan Moore died of COVID-19 in December, after making a video and declaring: “I put forth and I maintain: If I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that.”
Four female African American medical professionals put it bluntly in a Washington Post Op-Ed on December 26: “Susan Moore’s death underscores the racism embedded in the United States health care system.”
Aletha Maybank is chief health equity officer at the American Medical Association. Camara Phyllis Jones is a family physician, epidemiologist and past president of the American Public Health Association. Uché Blackstock is founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity. Joia Crear Perry is president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative.
They wrote that Moore, “a family physician, University of Michigan Medical School graduate, Black woman” had described in the video “how the white doctor treating her ‘made me feel like I was a drug addict’, refusing to prescribe her additional narcotics when she complained of pain — even though he knew she was a fellow physician.”
In the video, Moore “related how he rejected her plea for additional doses of remdesivir; how ‘he did not even listen to my lungs; he didn’t touch me in any way’; how he suggested she should just go home.
‘This is how Black people get killed, when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves,’ Moore said.”
Racism in Medicine
The deeply racist way Blacks are still treated by the medical system is rooted in the structural discrimination based on 401 years of national oppression. Black professionals, including medical doctors and nurses, continue to face treatments that are inferior to white men and women.
COVID-19 has exposed the devastating realities of long-standing structural inequities experienced by Black and brown people. They are more likely than whites to be infected, and more likely to die.
As the Op-ed authors wrote: “If anyone knew how to fight for herself, it would have been Moore. Still, she was sent home. Less than three weeks later, she was dead, at 52.”
“Her experience,” they continue, “offers stark confirmation that there remains a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on skin colour in this country. That system has a name: racism.
“No matter how well-intentioned our health-care system is, it has not rooted out the false idea of a hierarchy of human valuation based on skin color and the falser idea that, if there were such a hierarchy, ‘White’ people would be at the top.
“This white supremacist ideology has long shaped our values and practices, even in the health-care sector. Moore’s educational background makes her experience slightly more nuanced: Her being a physician brings the privilege of credibility and attracts the attention of many who do not believe that such mistreatment is pervasive.”

(CNN)As officials make strides to improve accessibility to Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, some states are turning their focus to the underserved and vulnerable communities that have not yet been eligible for protection.
Though the country's vaccination rate is not at President Joe Biden's hoped-for level of 1.5 million shots per day, the US has recently gotten closer, having averaged 1.3 million new shots a day over the last week, according to federal data.
States initially raced to vaccinate their priority populations, often health care workers and people in long-term care facilities, followed by seniors and/or essential workers, with many states saying demand for vaccines was exceeding supply.
How to find vaccine information for your state
Now New York, with about 75% of hospital workers inoculated, may become the first state to offer vaccine access to people with the simultaneous presence of two or more medical conditions, no matter their age. The governor's office listed cancer, chronic kidney disease, pulmonary disease and heart conditions as some of the comorbidities and underlying conditions that the state will use to determine eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccine.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo also said Friday that the state is now vaccinating those in the prison system along the same guidelines as the general public.
And in Texas, the Houston Health Department said Friday that it will prioritize "vulnerable populations" and "underserved communities" as it receives additional vaccine allotments.
Houston leaders said Saturday that publicly run hospitals serving the uninsured were getting a smaller percentage of vaccine doses than private hospitals.
"If you want to address the disparity, you've got to send the doses to the venues that are reaching those regions," Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference.
US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said the disparity is making it more difficult to wipe out the virus Texas.
"The state is majority Hispanic, but the largest number of people who've gotten vaccinated are Anglos," Jackson Lee said.
When it comes to reaching the underserved, such as people who are homeless, those without insurance and migrant workers, local pharmacies and health centers are a better option than trying to "reinvent the wheel" with mass vaccination sites, Adm. Dr. Brett Giroir said in a radio interview aired Friday.
"I think trying to set up a big federal site in the middle of Dallas that will immunize 10,000 a day, that's much less amenable," the former Health and Human Services assistant secretary said on SiriusXM's "Doctor Radio Reports." "It's not meeting people where they are, and it's much less efficient than having the distributed network that we've already established and have been using for decades."
As of Saturday, more than 39 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than 2 million more than reported Friday. More than 30.2 million people have received at least one dose, according to CDC data.

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria’s Kaduna state has signed a deal with medical delivery firm Zipline that will allow drone shipment of COVID-19 vaccines without significant state investment in cold-chain storage, the company said on Wednesday.
Kaduna’s partnership with Zipline, which delivered more than 1 million doses of other vaccines in Africa over the past year, will also enable on-demand delivery of blood products, medications and other vaccines.
“It will help ensure that millions of people in Kaduna State will always get the care they need,” Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai said.
Zipline said its end-to-end cold chain distribution capability, which can safely deliver even the Pfizer vaccine, would allow Kaduna health facilities to bypass purchases of ultra-low freezers and enable on-demand deliveries of precise amounts of COVID-19 vaccines.
The company said it is working with an unnamed “major COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer” to enable access to COVID-19 vaccine deliveries in all the markets where it operates. It currently offers drone delivery of blood, vaccines and other medical equipment in Ghana, Rwanda and the United States.
Zipline is also in talks with other states in Nigeria.
Nations across Africa, with limited cold-chain storage and poor road and rail networks, are grappling with how to deliver COVID-19 vaccines that require ultra-low temperature storage.
The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at around -70 degrees Celsius (-112°F) before being sent to distribution centres in specially designed cool boxes filled with dry ice.
Nigeria has said it will seek vaccines that are less dependent on cooling facilities.
Kaduna services are slated to begin in the second quarter, with round-the-clock service from three distribution centres with 30 drones each.
El-Rufai said Kaduna had also upgraded 255 primary health centres, installed a pharmagrade warehouse and is recruiting and training 3,000 officers to manage the facilities.

As the virus that causes COVID-19 continues its global attack, it has done what scientists predicted it would do — it has given rise to new, slightly different strains. How significant some of those strains will be to the pandemic is now under intense study. Meanwhile, demand for the currently available vaccines is outstripping the early supply, and some scientists have sparked controversy by suggesting holding off on booster shots until more people have had their initial shots. That's something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not endorse — but the agency has extended the timing on the second dose a bit.
What does this all mean for you? Let's start with the question of second doses.
Why do the manufacturers and CDC advise two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines?
Simply put, because that's what was tested — Pfizer BioNTech went for a 21-day interval in its large trial, and Moderna went for 28 days. The companies wanted the highest chance of success; while a one-dose shot would be easier to administer, two-shot vaccinations offered the insurance that if the first shot wasn't enough, the second one could finish the job. It's the two-jab immunization that has been shown to be 94% or 95% effective in preventing symptoms of COVID-19.
How protective one dose of these vaccines would be over the long run remains unknown. A Moderna spokesperson told The Hill in late December that it expected the double dose would produce the most durable immunity and was not considering a trial of a single dose.
How does my protection build after the first shot and after the second?
The two vaccines currently authorized in the U.S. — Moderna's and Pfizer's — are based on helping your immune system recognize certain proteins in the virus's outer coat. "That stimulates the immune system to make antibodies, and it also stimulates other parts of your immune system," says Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Those protective antibodies are relatively easy to measure in blood samples, and studies have shown them increasing in quantity a week or so after someone gets their first dose of vaccine. A week or more after the second dose the level of protective antibodies peaks and then falls off only slightly over four months. How long they last beyond that is under study.
But another part of the immune response — a longer-term response — is much harder to measure. Not much is known yet about when that type of immune protection kicks in or when, if ever, it disappears. Infectious disease specialists think this second part of immunity could prove to be important in providing long-term protection against reinfection. They just don't have a lot of data on that yet.
What would happen if I stretched the time period between doses? Would that reduce the vaccine's protection?
While the studies looked at the effect of a strict 21-day interval (for the Pfizer vaccine) before getting the second shot and a 28-day interval for Moderna's, immunologists say there's a bit of wiggle room, judging from experience with other vaccines. At a White House press conference last week, new CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, "We also know that life can get in the way — that some of those doses may be missed. ... In these rare circumstances, the second dose may be given up to six weeks or 42 days after the first."
In an effort to get more people vaccinated, the United Kingdom's National Health Service is allowing for a 12-week gap between doses for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but the CDC strongly urges not going beyond a six-week interval.
If there's some immune protection gained after the first dose, why should I bother getting the second jab?
This question greatly concerns vaccine experts. They worry that because the vaccine sometimes causes temporary redness, discomfort or brief fever, some people will not show up for their second dose. Remember that with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in December found that protection didn't start until 12 days after the first shot, reaching 52% effectiveness a few weeks later. Participants then got their second shot — so whether that 52% effectiveness would have worn away if they hadn't got the second dose is unknown. What is known is that a week after the second vaccination, the effectiveness rate hit 95%.
And in its application for emergency use authorization in the U.S., Moderna reported a protection rate of 51% two weeks after the first immunization and 94% two weeks after the second dose.
By definition, that means 94 or 95 out of every 100 people fully vaccinated with both doses of these vaccines can be expected to not get sick with COVID-19 symptoms when they run into the most common version of the virus, but it likely takes both doses to reach that level of effectiveness. In early January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reiterated that changing course and going to a single dose now — i.e. skipping the second dose — would be "premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence." The agency renewed its strong recommendation that the two-dose schedule be followed.
Is it OK if my second dose comes from a different manufacturer?
No one has tested this sort of mixing and matching of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That lack of testing makes virologist John Moore at Weill Cornell Medical College a little unhappy. But, he says, "the two vaccines are sufficiently similar that there's no reason to doubt that that would still work and be safe."
The CDC says every effort should be made to get the same vaccine in both jabs, but the agency's guidance also allows for a switch between the Pfizer and Moderna products "in exceptional situations in which the first-dose vaccine product cannot be determined or is no longer available." Several vaccines based on different technologies are coming down the line soon; scientists are more hesitant about mixing and matching with those vaccines until tests are done to see how well that works.