…Nigeria sets up Presidential taskforce
…Skoll Foundation injects $7 million to support fight
… U.S has now 717 confirmed and presumptive cases and 26 deaths
…Italian Prime Minister put all of Italy’s 60 million people on lockdown
…63, 663 people have so far recovered
TUE, MARCH 10 2020-theG&BJournal- Nigeria has set up a presidential taskforce for the control of coronavirus as the virus continues its vicious spread across the globe. A State House press statement published late on Monday said the action is in preparation for the ‘’unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) similar to that adopted for HIV epidemic in the last two decades.
The taskforce comes on a day the Federal Ministry of Health announced a second confirmed case of the coronavirus in the country, an Ogun State contact of the index case first reported in the country in February.
Latest data from the John Hopkins University shows that 63, 663 people have so far recovered from illness associated with the disease. Death toll has also risen to a staggering 4,016 worldwide and confirmed cases now stands at 113, 739. As of Monday 104 countries have reported cases.
On Monday, the Italian Prime Minister put all of Italy’s 60 million people on lockdown, suspended all sporting activity until at least April 3 in a sweeping effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 and urged its citizens to stay home. Italy is the most afflicted country in Europe, with high fatality rate too. 463 have been reported dead and 9,172 infected. The country’s fatality rate is now at about 5% nationwide and 6% in Lombardy, one of the worst hit regions.
‘’We have to assume the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread,’’ WHO executive director, Health Emergency Program, Michael Ryan said Monday. He was responding to ‘rumor’ the disease will go away by April. ‘’We do not know yet what the activity or behavior of the virus will be in different climatic conditions,’’
The French government responded to online viral claims that the disease can be cured with cocaine, Futurism first reported the bizarre event Monday. French ministry of health had to declare on Sunday that “no, cocaine does NOT protect against COVID-19,” in a post on Twitter. “It is an addictive drug that causes serious side effects and is harmful to people’s health,” the ministry wrote.
The news comes after memes suggesting that cocaine is able to “kill” the coronavirus started going viral online, as Business Insider reports. The doctored images were made to look like breaking news items on cable news.
It’s part of a larger trend of misinformation that frequently preys on people’s fears about the spread of the deadly virus. Health officials, including a whole dedicated team from the World Health Organization (WHO), have been playing a game of whack-a-mole with numerous misleading and made-up conspiracy theories and myths surfacing all over the web.
In mainland China, where the outbreak first emerged, health officials are now reporting fewer cases. Chinese President Xi Jing Ping surprisingly visited Wuhan in Hubei Province-the epicenter Tuesday same day health officials reported only 19 cases. Other Asian counties such as South Korea are also beginning to see a slow down.
Qianjiang City in Hubei Province Tuesday becomes the first city in the coronavirus-hit province to lift a lockdown. The city will fully resume normal industrial production and living and all traffic checkpoints in the city will be lifted, news report said.
But it is spreading rapidly in the United States where new cases have been reported in at least 20 states as at Monday. U.S has now 717 confirmed and presumptive cases and 26 deaths. CNN reports that at least 10 states, including Washington, have declared a state of emergency. White House officials are now expressing concerns that the President Donald Trump has not been tested for Coronavirus.
South America and Africa remain the only continents where the citizens have been largely untouched by coronavirus outbreaks. But both continents share similar economic challenges and any large scale epidemics will have significant humanitarian and political fallout, experts warn.
The Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) put out a statement today to announce the injection of $7 million by Skoll Foundation to support COVID-19 preparedness and response activities in Africa.
‘’Africa CDC, the SACIDS Foundation for One Health (SACIDS), and the East Africa Integrated Disease Surveillance Network (EAIDSNet), through the funding, have agreed to collaborate and coordinate their efforts in other to better prepare and respond to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak across Africa,’’ Africa CDC said.
Africa CDC said the partnership is in response to the call for a continent-wide strategy to prepare and respond to the coronavirus that Africa Union Health Ministers agreed on during an emergency meeting convened by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 22 February 2020. The high level meeting also endorsed the Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus Preparedness and Response (AFTCOR).
The partnership, Africa CDC said, will focus on implementing several technical areas of AFTCOR: diagnosis and subtyping, enhanced surveillance and risk communication in several AU member States.
‘’It will build on existing systems for monitoring influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory infections. The institutions will implement joint activities within the surveillance and laboratory working groups of AFTCOR,’’ Africa CDC said.
Africa has so far report 90 positive cases in 9 countries
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