Category: CORONAVIRUS

Beijing’s city government yesterday introduced new measures to contain a recent outbreak of COVID-19, as China’s capital continued to report new local cases of the virus less than two weeks before it hosts the Winter Olympic Games.

Nine locally transmitted cases were found in Beijing on Jan. 22, the National Health Commission said, of which six were in the city’s Fengtai district.

Fengtai was expected to organise nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 for all its residents yesterday, district health authorities said.

Authorities have asked residents of “risky areas,” including a neighbourhood of Fengtai, to not leave the city, a local government spokesman said at a news conference, adding that Fengtai residents have been asked to avoid mass gatherings.

Beijing city has also asked residents to proactively conduct nucleic acid tests if they find themselves with COVID-19-like symptoms within 14 days of receiving any deliveries from overseas, local authorities said in a statement dated Saturday.

Authorities have suggested Beijing’s first case of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus could have arrived via a package from Canada.

In Fengtai, some kindergartens have told parents that children who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be able to attend, two parents told Reuters.

Reuters could not determine whether the requirement is a government regulation or the kindergartens’ own rules.

A mother surnamed Wang, whose child attends at a private kindergarten in Fengtai, said a teacher told her on Friday that unvaccinated children will not be allowed to return from today, citing new government regulations, without providing Wang any official documents.

“This is not on a voluntary basis. This is coercion,” Wang told Reuters. She said she has filed a complaint with authorities in the hope of having the requirement removed.

Reuters could not reach local authorities for comment on a non-business day.

Mainland China reported 56 new COVID-19 cases on Jan. 22, down from 63 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said. Of the new cases, 19 were locally transmitted, versus 23 a day earlier, it said.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 34 from 43.

There were no new fatalities, leaving the death toll at 4,636.

As of Jan. 22, mainland China had confirmed 105,603 cases.

NO fewer than 74,799 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom (UK) during the past 24-hour reporting period, marking a 15% week-on-week drop.

Figures also show 75 more people had died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 153,862.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 177,000 deaths registered in the UK, where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Government data shows a further 58 people in England have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the country’s death toll to 133,820.

A further 68,913 people tested positive for Covid-19. The total number of cases in England since the start of the pandemic is now 13,482,354.

Scotland has recorded four further deaths of coronavirus patients, which brings the country’s overall death toll to 10,199.

Scotland did not update their case figures yesterday but on the previous day, the total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic was 1,114,066.

Public Health Wales has reported 2,827 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the nation to 756,727.

A total of eight new deaths have been reported and the death roll remains at 6,771.

Five new deaths have been reported in Northern Ireland and a further 3,059 people have tested positive for coronavirus.

This brings the total number of cases in the nation to 506,141 and the death toll to 3,072.

Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab yesterday urged unvaccinated NHS staff in England to come forward for their COVID-19 jabs amid calls for the deadline on mandatory shots to be extended.

Frontline healthcare workers in England must have two shots of COVID-19 vaccine by 1 April, meaning they need to receive their first dose by 3 February to meet the deadline and avoid potentially losing their job.

NHS leaders are being told to begin dismissing or moving staff who have not been vaccinated yet.

While 90% of NHS staff have taken up the vaccine, mandatory vaccination is controversial and the looming deadline has led to warnings that more than 70,000 NHS staff in England could be lost at a time when the health service is under severe pressure.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Raab argued there was no need to postpone the deadline because the NHS was more resilient than it was in 2020 with more staff on which to draw.

“We continue to call for those to come forward to be boosted or vaccinated before the deadline,” he said. “Ultimately we have to make sure that we don’t have people putting patients at risk if they are not vaccinated.”

“The deadline is there to protect the most vulnerable in our hospitals, but we have got the resilience because we have got nearly 5,000 more doctors, nearly 11,000 more nurses than we did in 2020,” he added.

NHS staff who object to the policy demonstrated in central London on Saturday while further protests took place in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Scotland and Wales have not made the vaccines compulsory for health or care workers. Northern Ireland plans a public consultation on the issue.

An impact assessment by the Department of Health and Social Care warned that 73,000 NHS staff in England could be lost as a result of the compulsory jab policy. The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, told BBC Radio 4 that he would not “rule out” recruiting NHS staff who lost their jobs in England, but added “we certainly won’t be going out there looking for them”.

Several health organisations called on ministers to postpone the deadline, but the view is not unanimous.

The Royal College of GPs said the policy should be delayed to prevent staff shortages. Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said compulsory vaccination for health professionals in England was “not the right way forward”.

Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the policy would “backfire” if it was not delayed, while Danny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations within the health service, said its members wanted more time to encourage and persuade hesitant staff to get vaccinated. But he added: “We do have to acknowledge that as the deadline approaches, some frontline staff will have to leave their present roles if they continue to decline to be vaccinated.”

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the organisation did not believe a delay was the answer. “Our survey of trust leaders found that while there was a range of views towards a policy of mandatory vaccinations, a majority backed this policy as a means of protecting colleagues, patients and visitors from cross infection by unvaccinated staff.”

Nigeria has experienced a significant decrease in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last three weeks, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The Nation’s investigation revealed that in the last three weeks, COVID-19 cases decreased by 52.6 per cent, while the number of deaths also dropped by 26.9 per cent.

However, hospitalisation increased by 21.5 per cent.

Also, in four weeks, COVID-19 testing across states in the country has steadily dropped by 13.9 per cent.

As at the time of this report, NCDC data as of January 21, showed that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria was 251,930, number of discharges was 225,906, while the number of deaths reported was 3,124.

In related development, the data from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) showed that 13,769,415 of the total eligible persons targetted for COVID-19 vaccination were reached with the first dose while 5,199,824 were reached with second dose (fully vaccinated).

Also, over the weekend, the NCDC revealed that over 18,000 cases of COVID-19 were recorded from inbound travellers to Nigeria as of January 16, 2022.

Director-General of the NCDC Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa stated that the Federal Government’s decision to make repeat tests compulsory was predicated on the review of COVID-19 test positivity data, especially among returnees to the country during the first and subsequent waves of the pandemic.

He further stated that this was necessary to ensure a balance between the agency’s mandate to protect the health of Nigerians from infections and supporting the restart of the economy.

He urged Nigerians to remain aware and alert to the sundry risks of COVID-19 by adhering strictly to the extant travel protocols put in place by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd) has described the outbreak of COVID-19 as one of the emerging biological threats to national security.

Munguno stated this at a five-day training on Biorisk Management and Public Health Emergency Preparedness, organised by the Office of NSA in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and other technical partners yesterday, in Abuja.

The NSA, who was represented by the Director, Policy and Strategy, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Amb. Aminu Lawal, said the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019 had brought the world to a standstill.

He said 340,543,962 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,570,163 deaths, had been reported to WHO as of Jan. 22, globally with 9,571,502,663 vaccine doses administered.

According to him, in Nigeria, coronavirus cases are 251,959, with 3,124 deaths and 225,946 recoveries.

“The crises that engulfed the world brought economies to low point and that disruption is still ongoing.

“The current COVID-19 pandemic had also left in its wake, loss of lives, economic losses as well as stalled programmes and activities due to strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, amongst others,’’ he said.

Monguno disclosed that a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) exercise was conducted in 2017 to examine the health systems preparedness for emergencies and shocks.

He maintained that the capabilities were well tested and still being tested with the outbreak of COVID -19.

He added that Nigeria had continued to witness outbreaks of other endemic diseases such as Lassa fever, Cholera and Malaria with significant morbidity and mortality.

According to him, it is therefore, safe to say that the country’s health systems are overwhelmed in several aspects.

He said the training was designed to bring together critical personnel drawn from over 20 MDAs to equip participants with current trends in the Biospace as the next potent threat to national security.

“The aim of the training is to acquaint participants, who are largely public health practitioners from Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, with emerging biological threats to national security.

“With 4th wave of COVID-19 cases receding across Nigeria, we hope to consolidate gains of this meeting to provide basis for future engagements as we seek to build a viable force to curtail any threats to national security emanating from biological threats.

“It may interest you all that the ONSA is coordinating efforts to build a broad-based response to CBRNE emergencies by developing capabilities across MDAs.

“In this regard, the yearly simulated Crisis Exercises organised by ONSA with over 28 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is a strong statement that national security involves multi-sectoral and multiagency collaboration,’’ he said.

The Head, Medical Intelligence, Dr. Levin Damisah, said the training was in response to the fact that security had gone beyond fighting with guns and bombs into biological aspects.

Damisah said battles had shifted to fighting bacteria, viruses and telecobalts, adding that there was need for adequate preparations to tackle these emerging biological treats.

He said security agencies could no longer be side lined in the medical health emergency response considering the important roles they played during outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and COVID-19.

He said ONSA believed that there was need to synergise and had force multiplier against the emerging biological threats to national security through capacity building.

Director General, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Dr. Rufus Ebegba said the training of security personnel on biorisk management was a testament that Nigeria was prepared for emergencies.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged nations to lift or ease COVID-19 travel restrictions, saying they have proven to be of little public health value, but detrimental for economic growth.

On January 13, WHO Emergency Committee on International Health Regulations met via video conference to evaluate latest developments in the pandemic situation across the world. This is amid the spread of Omicron strain as the meeting also sought to revisit the COVID-19 response measures.

A statement released by WHO reads: “The committee identified the following actions as critical for all countries; lift or ease international traffic bans.

“They do not provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress experienced by states parties.’’

The committee also said the failure of travel restrictions to restrain the cross-border spread of Omicron has proven their inefficacy.

“Countries should rely on evidence-informed risk assessment when choosing to introduce travel requirements, namely masking, testing, vaccination, and quarantine, and avoid placing the financial burden on international travellers.’’

“The WHO advised for international traffic to not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for international travel as the only pathway or condition permitting international travel given limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” the statement said.”

Latest epidemiological report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that in two weeks, between January 3 to 16, Lassa fever has killed 11 people.

The report obtained by The Nation showed that since the beginning of the year, there have been 465 suspected cases of the disease, with 96 confirmed cases across 11 states and 27 Local Government Areas (LGAs). The states are Bauchi, Edo, Ondo, Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi, Cross River and Ebonyi.

The report further revealed that three states accounted for 74 per cent of the burden of the disease. The states are Edo (31 per cent), Bauchi (22 per cent) and Ondo (21 per cent) states.

The agency, while urging Nigerians to keep their environment clean to prevent Lassa fever, also explained that the virus is spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons; urine, faeces, saliva or blood of infected rodents; and objects, household items, surfaces or eating food contaminated by infected rodents.

It also urged Nigerians to avoid self-medication and report immediately to a health facility for diagnosis when ill.

According to the NCDC, Lassa fever is suspected when an individual shows one or more of the following: malaise, fever, headache, sore throat, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, myalgia, chest pain, hearing loss; and either a history of contact with excreta or urine of rodents, history of contact with a probable or confirmed Lassa fever case within a period of 21 days of onset of symptoms or any person with inexplicable bleeding/hemorrhagia.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has inaugurated the COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-Cares), which will be implemented with a $750-million World Bank facility.

The vice president performed the inauguration yesterday as prelude to National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, which he chaired at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.

He said under the NG-Cares, which would be for a two-year-period — 2021 to 2023, each state would get $20 million, while the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would get $15 million.

He explained that “NG-Cares is a multi-sectoral programme designed to support vulnerable and poor Nigerians to provide essentially emergency relief to small holder farmers and MSMEs, especially those that adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The programme will build on the varied and extensive Federal Government interventions developed as part of the president’s plan for taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and in response to the severe socio-economic fallouts of the pandemic, especially those programmes and plans contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP).

“The essential addition to the Federal Government’s programme is that the NG-Cares programme will leverage on existing programmes in the states, especially job creation programmes, wealth creation, poverty reduction programmes at the community level such as state cash transfer units, state Fadama or agriculture development agencies, state job creation units and MSME units.

“All of the support by Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

“The World Bank loan is in the order of $750 million and this will be over a period of two years — 2021-2023; the intervention allocation to each state is $20 million and $15 million to the FCT; there is also 15 $million for the Federal Cares Support Unit.’’

According to him, the programme is to be driven by the states and there will be a programme for result-delivery mechanism type in which case, performance must be shown.

In his address, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said that the vision, concept and design of NG-Cares was derived from the novel social protection agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

On his part, World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said NG-Cares involved collaboration between the Federal Government, multiple ministries and the states.

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi and Nigeria’s Governors Forum Chairman said NG-Cares was designed jointly with the World Bank team as complement to the ESP.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that in seven days, ten million cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected globally.

Stating that although the risk of a person coming down with severe infection from the Omicron is lower than the Delta variant, however, the sheer volume of cases detected around the world is astonishing.

WHO, therefore, urged people to reduce their exposure to the disease by observing all protective measures.

According to the COVID-19 Technical Lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Maria Van Kerkhove, “Omicron, the latest variant of concern that the WHO is tracking, has been detected around the world. It is efficiently transmitting, and in fact, everywhere where we have good sequencing, this variant has been detected. What we are seeing is a very sharp increase in case numbers.

“You will have noticed in the latest WHO update, almost 10 million cases reported in the last seven day.

“There are a number of reasons for this. First, is the mutations that it has. The virus is able to adhere to human cells more easily. It has mutations that allow it to do that. Second, is that we have what is called immune escape. And this means that people can be re-infected. The other reason is that we are seeing replication of Omicron in the upper respiratory tract, and that is different from Delta and other variants, including the ancestral strain which replicated in the lower respiratory tract, in the lungs.

“And so this combination of factors allowed the virus to spread more easily. With Omicron, what we are learning is that your risk of getting severe disease from Omicron is less than it is for Delta. But the sheer volume of cases that we are seeing around the world is really astonishing.

“And even with a lower risk of hospitalisation, we’re still seeing a large number of people who need clinical care, who are hospitalised and that will overburden the system. “

Kerkhove added: “What’s really important right now is we do a couple of things. Number one: get vaccinated when it is your turn. Vaccinations are incredibly protected against severe diseases and death, including against Omicron, as well as Delta, where both of those variants are circulating. And so we really need to make sure that those who are most vulnerable in all countries get vaccinated. Second, is that we need to make sure that we have good testing systems, getting people into clinical care pathways so that they can receive the care that they need. Everybody else has a responsibility as well as to keep yourself safe.

“It’s really important right now that we minimise exposure, so that we can minimise those case numbers, so that they don’t have that knock on effect of burdening the healthcare system, as well as other sectors.”

In Nigeria, 40 people have died from the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic in eight days, according to the situation report of the epidemiological data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The report revealed that between January 1 to 8, 2022, death toll increased from 3,031 to 3,071, bringing the total death tally to 40.

The Nation reports that since the beginning of this year, a total of 5,434 COVID-19 cases have been reported. As of January 8, 2022; the country recorded 247,775 confirmed cases, 218,427 discharges and sadly, 3,071 deaths.

Encouraging Nigerians to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Federal Government continues to urge citizens to observe and strictly adhere to all non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) of regular hand washing with soap under flowing water, use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers, proper wearing of face masks, practicing social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.

Read Also: Omicron: varsities should embrace technology, says VC

New strain, Deltacron, discovered in Cyprus

 

A new strain of Covid-19 Deltacron has emerged in Cyprus, which has a similar genetic background to the Delta variant, as well as some of the mutations from Omicron.

However, experts said the new variant is not something to be worried about at the moment.

According to ANI, 10 of the mutations from Omicron were found in the 25 samples taken in Cyprus. Eleven of the samples came from people who were hospitalised due to the virus, while 14 came from the general population, reported Jerusalem Post citing Cyprus Mail.

“The frequency of the mutation among hospitalised patients was higher and could point to a correlation between the new variant and hospitalisations,” said Dr. Leondios Kostrikis, the head of the laboratory of biotechnology and molecular virology at the University of Cyprus.

The new variant was not something to worry about at the moment, said Cyprus’s Health Minister Michalis Hadjipandelas on Saturday.

The minister also expressed pride in discovering the new variant. So far, the scientific name of the new variant has not been announced.

 

 Ex-UK head of vaccine taskforce seeks end to mass vaccination

 

Mass vaccination against COVID-19 should come to an end and the UK should focus on managing it as an endemic disease like flu, the former Chairman of Britain’s vaccine taskforce has said.

Dr. Clive Dix, who played a key role in helping pharmaceutical firms create the COVID-19 vaccines, said that mass vaccination should end after the ongoing booster campaign, and the UK should start returning to a “new normality” in which the focus is placed on limiting serious illness rather than stopping the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

“We need to analyse whether we use the current booster campaign to ensure the vulnerable are protected, if this is seen to be necessary,” he told The Observer newspaper, the Sunday edition of The Guardian. “Mass population-based vaccination in the UK should now end.”

“We now need to manage disease, not virus spread,” he added. “So stopping progression to severe disease in vulnerable groups is the future objective.”

Dix said he supports the current booster campaign, but a “new targeted strategy” is needed to get the UK to a position of “managing COVID.”

He said it is time to consider managing COVID-19 as something akin to flu. “We should consider when we stop testing and let individuals isolate when they are not well and return to work when they feel ready, in the same way we do in a bad influenza season,” he said.

Dix urged the government to support research into COVID-19 immunity to include B-cells and T-cells, which he said could help create vaccines for vulnerable people specific to variants such as Delta and Omicron.

Dix’s intervention came as the UK government’s vaccination advisory committee recommended against giving a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to nursing home residents and people over 80.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) said on Jan. 7 that the three doses of the vaccines are still providing “very good protection against severe disease,” and an immediate second booster dose to the most vulnerable would “provide only limited additional benefit against severe disease at this time.”

According to data compiled by the UK Health Security Agency, for people over 65, protection against hospitalisation remains at about 90 percent three months after the third dose.

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and the lead scientist on the ZOE COVID Study app, said last month that the symptoms of the Omicron variant “feel much more like the common cold.”

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, also added on Dec. 28 that COVID-19 will become “just another cause of the common cold”.