China on Monday reported the highest number of new Coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks.
This occurred as the country battles to prevent more COVID-19 infections, weeks after containing the pandemic.
No fewer than 108 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, Dpa reports.
The figure includes 98 travellers returning from abroad, according to the National Health Commission.
There are concerns about a resurgence of the disease since March 6, when authorities counted 143 new cases.
Meanwhile, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said that there are now 13,814 confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in 52 countries across Africa.
Africa CDC stated this in a tweet on its official Twitter handle on Sunday evening.
According to the tweet, COVID-19 has killed 747 people in Africa, while a total of 2,355 patients have recovered from the deadly disease across the continent.
South Africa remains the highest country in Africa with 2,028 cases and 25 deaths, followed by Egypt with 1,939 and 146 deaths, and Algeria with 1,825 cases and 275 deaths.
Melinda Gates, wife of billionaire businessman and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, has warned that there will be dead bodies all over the streets of Africa if the world does not act fast enough.
The billionaire wife stated this while speaking on the effect of the Coronavirus disease in the third world countries on CNN.
Melinda said her heart was in Africa, adding that she is worried that the continent might not be able to handle the devastating effect of the virus.
“It’s going to be horrible in the developing world.
“Part of the reasons you are seeing the case numbers still do not look very bad, is because they don’t have access to many tests.
“Look at what is happening in Ecuador, they are putting bodies out on the streets, you are going to see that in countries in Africa,” Mrs Gates noted.
Melinda fears things will get worst for Africa once cases peak due to poor health care systems and lack of humanitarian supports in the continent
She pointed out that her worst fear was when she “saw what China had to do to isolate enormous part of its population. My first thought was Africa. How in the world are they going to deal with this.”
“I have been in townships all over Africa and slums. When we talk in country physical distancing and hand-washing, if you live in slums who can’t physically distance, you have to go out and get your meals. You don’t have clean water to wash your hands,” she added.
Bello, son of Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has gone to war with a Twitter user named Consigliere @oewonah.
The two men clashed after the former criticised United States President, Donald Trump, for not doing enough to handle the outbreak of Coronavirus in America.
Bello said, “There is nothing as radioactive as an incompetent leader during a time of crisis. The United States of America is a case in point. A few states in Nigeria too.”
But not satisfied at Bello’s attack on Trump, Consigliere fired back, insisting that the American President was miles better than President Muhammadu Buhari and even his father, el-Rufai, in terms of quality leadership.
Consigliere wrote, “He can’t call Buhari out for his ineptitude yet he’s calling Trump names? Did he vote Trump?”
Rather than douse things, that only escalated tensions, forcing a series of strong-worded and offensive outbursts from the younger el-Rufai directed at the Twitter user.
He said, “Tell your mother I’m passing her to my friends tonight. No Igbo sounds please! Tueh.
“Your mother is the main whore of the South East. I can’t reply you publicly.
“F..k Kanu and take a picture of the Second Niger Bridge, thanks to Buhari.
“My mentions are mine. If a Sunday bastard makes up lies and drags my father, his mother will be games. If he doesn’t want it, he shouldn’t mention me. The crowd has never phased me.
“Truly your mother’s son. Does she still earn by earning 2,019 naira per suck on Azikwe Street, Aba LGA? Tell her to wear mask and gloves while doing it due to this pandemic.
“This daddy’s boy has heard your mother ability to take d..k is mind blowing. Especially one dipped in kerosene from Abia land. Sounds about fair. Despite the ineptitude, he is completing a bridge your Ebele couldn’t. You are stuck with PMB and can’t do shit. How’s failed daddy?”
Some other Twitter users didn’t find Bello’s outburst funny, they attacked him from every angle, expressing a mixture of disgust and disappointment at his choice of words.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has reacted to a recent report which claims that he is not informed of the poor healthcare system in Nigeria.
The SGF noted that the report quoted him wrongly of his statement, hence described as misleading the claims.
Naija News understands that reports emerged two days ago with claims that Boss Mustapha, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, said he is unaware of Nigeria’s poor healthcare system until the outbreak of the global pandemic.
However, Boss Mustapha has debunked the claims during a PTF media briefing in Abuja on Friday, noting that he was truly was quoted out of context, adding that the viral report does not reflect his intent or what he actually said.
He noted that what he meant in his interaction with the National Assembly head was that being the head of the COVID-19 task force has exposed him of the state of the nation’s healthcare system.
His statement reads: “Yesterday (Thursday), I mentioned at the National Assembly that I became fully aware of the state of our medical system during the execution of this Task Force assignment. It has become clear that this has been taken out of context.
“I must clarify that I am aware and has indeed been a champion for the reform and transformation of the health care system. However, this PTF assignment has afforded me the opportunity to dig deeper, interrogate and x-ray the system better.
“So for anyone to think that I didn’t know the level of the deplorable state of our healthcare systems, is a complete misrepresentation.
“For the benefit of those who do not know me well, I come from rural Nigeria. I was born in a village almost 64 years ago that didn’t even have a hospital, it had small missionary dispensary probably with one midwife, no birth certificate was offered. So I don’t even have a birth certificate, I have the declaration of age.
“A lot of you sitting here are privileged to have been born in a better and more equipped medical facilities. So from birth I know the state of our medical, healthcare, I am not a foreigner.
“My statement was totally taken out of context because that was not the reflection of what I said. But having to serve in this committee gave me further insight into what is happening.
“Most of the things you see around as specialists, hospitals or clinics, you just see the buildings, you don’t know what is inside. But, being in this committee has given me opportunity of walking into these facilities, looking at what they have in relation to what they ought to have, my conclusion on that is that they don’t have what they ought to have.
He added: “I wanted to give this explanation so that most of you will not think I am an ajebota, no. I was born a rural Nigerian, I grew up in rural Nigeria, I went to school in rural Nigeria and I still live in rural Nigeria. Yola is my home, I’m just on a journey here in Abuja. At the end of my work or whatever I am doing here, I will return home which is rural Nigeria and I am going to live with the facilities in rural Nigeria.
“The truth of the matter is that this is not the time to be distracted with unnecessary controversies”.
The Chinese Government has replied Nigeria over accusation of maltreating Nigerians in China.
The Chinese Government has replied Nigeria over accusation of maltreating Nigerians in China.
The government said it did not discriminate against nationals of any country but treats foreigners living in the country the same way as its citizens.
Series of videos emanating from social media suggested that Chinese authorities were maltreating Nigerians in their country.
A tweet by the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria on its Twitter handle @china_emb_ng on Friday, quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying that the Chinese government was averse to discrimination against foreigners.
The embassy tweeted this after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila met with its Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian on the disturbing allegation of ill treatment of Nigerians in China.
The Speaker had said that the maltreatment of Nigerians living in China negated the ideals of the cordial relationship between both countries.
The embassy, quoting the Chinese Foreign Minister, Zhao Lijian said: “China and African countries are united more than ever, demonstrating brotherhood in times of adversity.
“We treat all foreign nationals equally in China.
“We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination.”
In a statement on April 9, the foreign ministry said in response to questions bordering on the same allegation, that China was even now focusing on helping African countries overcome the coronavirus.
“Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China and African countries have been supporting each other in fighting the pandemic.
“We won’t forget the support voiced and provided by African countries and their people when we were at the most crucial stage of the fight.
“Now we are closely following the situation in Africa. The Chinese government and people are doing our best to help them,” Zhao said.
“We hope foreign citizens in China will continue to fully understand and cooperate with China’s epidemic control measures to prevent risks and protect the health and safety of themselves and others.
“That is their way of contributing to the final victory over the epidemic,” he added.
Refrigerated tractor trailers serve as temporary morgues in New York City.
The US has become the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day.
Figures from Johns Hopkins University show 2,108 people died in the past 24 hours while there are now more than half a million confirmed infections.
The US could soon surpass Italy as the country with the most coronavirus deaths worldwide.
But experts on the White House Covid-19 task force say the outbreak is starting to level off across the US.
Dr Deborah Birx said there were good signs the outbreak was stabilising, but cautioned: “As encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak.”
President Donald Trump also said he expects the US to see a lower death toll than the initial predictions of 100,000 fatalities, adding: “We’re seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives”.
What are the latest US figures?
The US now has at least 18,693 deaths and 500,399 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins, which is tracking the disease globally. About half of the deaths were recorded in the New York area.
Italy has reported 18,849 deaths while globally more than 102,000 people have died with the virus.
Researchers had predicted the US death toll would hit its peak on Friday and then gradually start to decline, falling to around 970 people a day by 1 May – the day members of the Trump administration have floated as a possible date to start reopening the economy.
“I want to get it open as soon as possible,” Mr Trump said at a Good Friday briefing at the White House. “I would say without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
However, no action would be taken until the government knew the “country [was] going to be healthy”, he said. “We don’t want to go back and start doing it over again.”
A city upended
By Nada Tawfik, BBC News, New York
The coronavirus has changed everything about life, and now it’s upending the rituals of death.
New Yorkers have been shocked by the grim scenes: ambulances constantly blaring down eerily deserted streets, body bags being forklifted into refrigerated trucks outside hospitals and now new trenches being dug on Hart’s Island for possible mass burials.
The remote cemetery, accessible only by boat, is a place regarded historically with sorrow because of its mass graves with no tombstones, just unclaimed bodies. The city’s morgues can only handle so much before temporary burials for Covid-19 victims, once an absolute worst-case scenario, become necessary.
Funeral directors talk openly about how scared and depressed the spiking death toll has left them. Even before this week’s record number of deaths, some families have had to wait a week or more to bury and cremate their loved ones.
Why might the outbreak start levelling off soon?
Dr Anthony Fauci, US infectious diseases chief, concurred that the country was “starting to see the levelling off and coming down” of cases and deaths. But despite the “important advance”, he added, mitigation efforts such as social distancing should not be pulled back yet.
A new projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington forecast 60,000 deaths by 4 August assuming that those restrictions remain in place. Last month, Dr Fauci estimated at least 100,000 deaths.
Also at the briefing, Dr Birx noted that the rate of increase appeared to be stabilising in hard-hit regions like New York, New Jersey and the city of Chicago.
She added that the US mortality rate was “significantly less than many of the other countries, when you correct them for our population”. But she emphasised the nation had yet to see the peak of the outbreak.
“We need to continue to do what we did yesterday, and the week before, and the week before that because that’s what, in the end, is going to take us up across the peak and down the other side.”
Media caption Drone footage shows mass burials in New York.
On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the latest data showed the state was successfully “flattening the curve”, but also cautioned that it was too early to relax social distancing measures. “Even though it’s a grind, even though it’s difficult, we have to stay with it.”
The danger appears to be highest for America’s minority communities, which have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.
Dr Jerome Adams, the US surgeon general, said the trend was “alarming, but not surprising” given that minorities in the US generally had more chronic health conditions such as asthma, hypertension and diabetes.
“As a matter of fact, I have been carrying an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack,” continued Dr Adams, who is African-American.
But he caused controversy by urging minorities to stop drinking, smoking and taking drugs to reduce their risk. He was particularly criticised for his use of colloquial language, when he told them to respect social distancing guidelines.
“Do it for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy. Do it for your Big Mama. Do it for your Pop Pop,” Dr Adams said. He later advised all Americans to avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Media caption US surgeon general shows his inhaler while discussing the impact of coronavirus on people of colour
In Friday’s briefing, Mr Trump also said he had seen the drone images of coffins being stacked in a mass grave on New York’s Hart Island. Officials there say the island, which has been used to bury people with no next of kin for over 150 years, is now burying bodies at five times the normal rate.
Earlier in the day, Dr Fauci told CNN that officials are currently discussing whether to adopt immunity certificates for Americans who have safely survived the coronavirus and have antibodies in their blood to prove it.
The certificates might “have some merit under certain circumstances”, he said, adding that antibody tests would be available next week.
Stay at home for Easter, Vice-President Pence tells people
Meanwhile, in Washington lawmakers are considering a “Covid-19 heroes fund” to provide direct payments to workers on the front line of the pandemic.
A Paisley man who is recovering from coronavirus has called on young people not to underestimate the impact the virus can have.
Calum Wishart said when news of the pandemic first broke his “naive arrogance” led him to believe he would be OK because he is only 25-years-old.
But within days of the lock-down Mr WPPPishart started displaying symptoms of the virus and was hospitalised.
He described it as “the most horrendous experience”.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “I had the completely wrong attitude.
“I would not say I was hugging strangers or anything like that, I think I just underestimated the real impact of it.
“I had the perspective that because I was young it would not affect me, that it would be like a kind of flu.”
Mr Wishart said he had a “massive dose of reality” when the gravity of his situation became clear after being rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and put on oxygen.
He continued: “It started off as a slight fever and from there it escalated.
“The next few days was just on and off oxygen and not being able to do anything.”
The loss of his freedom of movement was the biggest impact and now, out of hospital and into self-isolation, he is using his time to try and make younger people aware that coronavirus can strike anyone.
Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, says he is not aware if medical doctors and other health practitioners managing COVID-19 patients in Nigeria are paid any hazard allowance.
Ehanire, who met with the leadership of the national assembly in Abuja on Thursday, said what the doctors are doing is their routine job.
The meeting was between the lawmakers and the members of the presidential task force on COVID-19 to discuss ongoing trends on the pandemic in the country.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker, had asked the minister if the medical personnel handling coronavirus cases are paid any hazard allowance, to which he responded: “I am not aware of it.”
He added: “It is the standard job they do every day; it is the standard job.”
An apparently furious Gbajabiamila told the minister it is not enough to say he is not aware, and “you dropped the ball”.
ConcourseNews learnt that while Nigerian medical doctors earn a monthly hazard allowance of N5,000, it is yet to be increased even in the face of the pandemic.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has announced the death of a patient suspected to have contracted COVID-19 in the state.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Olisa Ifeajika, the governor disclosed that the case, which was the second, after the first confirmed on Tuesday, was awaiting the outcome of the test conducted on it when the patient passed away.
He stated that the deceased had underlying health issues and had visited Lagos in the past two weeks, adding that the patient, with severe symptoms, presented himself late to the hospital.
According to Okowa, the symptoms on the patient included difficulty in breathing, which prompted immediate and necessary attention to him by medical professionals.
“Shortly after the specimen was taken, he passed away. However, his test results came back positive today (Thursday).
“In order to mitigate against the spread of the virus, we are fast-tracking our contact-tracing to ensure that all those that came in contact with the deceased patient are properly isolated and tested immediately,” Okowa said.
The governor also asked health workers “to protect citizens and residents of our state, families and friends of individuals that are exhibiting the primary symptoms of COVID-19, do not keep it from the authorities.”
He also reiterated that his administration will be transparent to the people of the state by keeping informed of new developments on the pandemic.
