The Lagos State Government has ordered all public and private schools below tertiary level in the state to reopen for the second term 2020/21 academic session from Monday, 18 January, 2021.
Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo who revealed this on Monday stated that this was in line with the Federal Government’s directive coupled with the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
She, therefore, enjoined all schools to make efforts to comply with all the outlined Covid-19 requirements for resumption schools. “Not just for the improvement of overall school operations but for the safe reopening of academic activities to support the Lagos State Government’s quest for a full return.”
The Commissioner advised that schools should have flexible plans where students and teachers who felt sick could teach or learn from home via available online platforms, adding that schools should also strive to avoid any COVID-19 infection among all students and staff.
She also enjoined teachers, students and visitors to wear face masks at all times, observe physical distancing, embrace regular hand washing with soap under running water and maintain a high standard of personal hygiene within the school premises.
Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, and other activists who participated in the protest which took place on New Year eve have been remanded in Kuje prison.
The Street Journal had earlier reported that the police arraigned the activists before Taye Maibel at the Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja.
Mr Sowore and his team who were arrested at Gudu junction in Abuja were arraigned on three counts of unlawful assembly, criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance.
The police prosecutor, J. C. Idachaba, told the court that Mr Sowore and other activists were arrested for disturbing the peace of the nation and bearing placards calling for revolution against the Buhari government.
However, all the defendants pleaded not guilty.
Mr Idachaba, according to Premium Times, told the court that the police would need more time to investigate, hence the defendants be remanded in custody or prison until then.
This move was, however, countered by the lawyer representing the defendants, Barr Marshal from the Femi Falana Chambers.
Barr Marshal argued that all the defendants are entitled to bail and should be granted in the interest of justice and prayed the Magistrate to do so.
Mrs Maibel asked the defendants’ counsel to formally apply for their bail and ordered that Mr Sowore and others be remanded in Kuje Prison pending the hearing of their bail application.
The wait goes on for Anthony Joshua’s showdown with Tyson Fury (PA)
The global boxing year will be dominated by the fists, hearts and minds of two British heavyweights at the very centre of a complex business deal.
Never has one fight come to dominate the boxing colony so clearly, and potentially dangerously, as the overdue fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, which is now in the lubricated hands of so many different forces, with so many different voices and so many different masters to satisfy. The trickeration, as Don King would say, is deep.
There is no doubt both men want the fight, no proof that either man has shown any fear at the negotiating table; whispers from one camp, rumours of second thoughts, talk of new demands are so often treated as fact in the fight game. And they are not, let’s get that right. Fury and Joshua have agreed what they need to agree.
What we do know is that the fight’s cabal of fixers have clashed and will continue to clash until the final document is revealed – there is nothing wrong with promoters, lawyers, representatives and television executives arguing, threatening and losing their minds in the vicious days before a deal like this is born. It’s probably best that they all hate each other, have no trust or love for each other and in public smile together like aged glamour models at their daughter’s 18th birthday party. It’s an ugly image of deceit and denial.
The motto for 2021 is simple: Just get the fights done.
Assange pictured leaving court in January a year ago
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the United States, a court in London has ruled.
The judge blocked the request because of concerns over Mr Assange’s mental health and risk of suicide in the US.
Mr Assange, who is wanted over the publication of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011, says the case is politically motivated.
Expressing disappointment at the ruling, the US justice department noted that its legal arguments had prevailed.
Its position is that the leaks broke the law and endangered lives.
“While we are extremely disappointed in the court’s ultimate decision, we are gratified that the United States prevailed on every point of law raised,” the justice department said.
The US authorities have 14 days in which to lodge an appeal and are expected to do so.
Image Credited to TPA MEDIA
image caption Mr Assange appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday
Mr Assange will now be taken back to Belmarsh Prison – where he is being held – and a full application for his bail will be made on Wednesday.
His lawyer Ed Fitzgerald QC told the court there would be evidence to show Mr Assange would not abscond.
What did the judge say?
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that while US prosecutors had met the tests for Mr Assange to be extradited for trial, the US was incapable of preventing him from attempting to take his own life.
Outlining evidence of his self-harm and suicidal thoughts, she said: “The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man fearful for his future.”
She said: “Faced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at HMP Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the US will not prevent Mr Assange from finding a way to commit suicide and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge.”
Image Credited to PA MEDIA
image caption Mr Assange’s partner, lawyer Stella Moris, said “today’s victory is a first step towards justice”
Mr Assange, who wore a blue suit and green face mask in the dock, closed his eyes as the judge read out her ruling on Monday.
His fiancee Stella Moris, with whom he has two young sons, wept and was comforted by Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, who sat next to her in court.
Speaking outside court after the ruling, she called on the US president to “end this now”.
“Mr President, tear down these prison walls,” she said. “Let our little boys have their father. Free Julian, free the press, free us all.”
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser explicitly concluded that Mr Assange should answer allegations that he aided and abetted hacking, theft and the disclosure of the identities of informants working for the US security agencies – disclosures that endangered their lives.
In English law, that would be enough for him to be charged with a crime here – and so the route was open for Mr Assange to face trial for the same in the United States.
But British extradition law also requires a judge to consider Mr Assange’s health.
And it’s the effect of his possible detention in near-solitary confinement in a “supermax” prison that proved decisive.
The US, in the judge’s conclusion, can’t stop a mentally unwell man taking his own life in those conditions.
And so the legal requirement to treat Mr Assange humanely trumps the seriousness of the case that the judge acknowledges he should answer.
When the US appeals – it’ll have to convince more senior judges otherwise.
NIGERIA: An eighteen-year-old girl simply identified as Ogochukwu who allegedly accompanied two suspected internet fraudsters to a popular hotel in Owa Community, Ika North LGA Delta State, has been found dead.
The deceased was said to have accompanied two suspected internet fraudsters to the hotel over the weekend. Unfortunately, her lifeless body was recovered in the hotel room located along Efeizomor road over the weekend.
The Nation reports that the suspected internet fraudsters left the girl while they checked out of the hotel. There was no sign of stabbing or strangulation on the deceased.
It was further gathered that there was no sign of stabbing or strangulation on the deceased which further raised fear in the mind of neighbors.
When contacted, Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya said, ” I got across to the DPO Agbor and he said that a lot of things happened around the community but you would think it is in Delta jurisdiction as a result of the nearness in proximity with Edo State. An investigation has commenced.”
Local jails and state prison systems around the United States on Saturday commenced shutting down completely and transferring their inmates elsewhere, due to the ravaging wave of coronavirus infections and deaths in prisons.
The New York Times reported that officials resorted to this decision as a drastic strategy to keep the virus at bay as so many guards have fallen ill with the virus and cannot work.
“From California to Missouri to Pennsylvania, state and local officials say that so many guards have fallen ill with the virus and are unable to work.
”Thus, abruptly closing some correctional facilities is the only way to maintain community security and prisoner safety,” said the Times report.
The paper quoted experts as saying that the fallout is easy to predict because jails and prisons that stay open will probably become even more crowded.
They will also be unsanitary and disease-ridden, and the transfers are likely to help the virus proliferate both inside and outside the walls.
There have been more than 480,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and at least 2,100 deaths among inmates and guards in prisons, jails and detention centres across the nation.
According to a NYT database, among those statistics are the nearly 100,000 correctional officers who have tested positive and 170 who have died.
“Early in the pandemic, some states tried to ward off virus outbreaks by releasing some offenders early and detaining fewer people awaiting trial in order to reduce their populations.
”However, those efforts often met with resistance from politicians and the public,” said the report.
More recently, as arrests in many areas have increased, jail populations have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
This is according to data collected by the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York-based non-profit research and policy group.
“That fact, combined with widespread infections among correctional officers, staffing shortages stretching back many years and strains on prison medical facilities, have pushed states.
This is as the pandemic progresses toward more concentration and crowding, rather than less, in part through closure of strained facilities,” said the Times report.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 20 million as of Friday as the discovery of a highly contagious new virus strain in the country has increased pressure to speed up the vaccination process.
Embattled Ogun State Commissioner for Environment, Abiodun Abdul-Balogun, has denied that he sexually molested a 16-year-old girl, Barakat, saying some people are trying to blackmail and destroy him.
The commissioner added that it was “just lies, blackmail and falsehood”, saying there was more to the allegation than meets the eye.
Abdul-Balogun had been in the eye of the storm after a teenager alleged that the commissioner lured her to his apartment and allegedly fondled her breasts while muttering some incantations.
In the video confession to the police, the teenager noted that the commissioner’s aides lured her to his house and his bedroom, after which the commissioner came in, bolted the door and sexually assaulted her.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, the commissioner noted that it was a “game of local politics” some people were trying to play on him.
He said, “You know we are politicians and you know the game of politics, especially local politics, as people would want to destroy you once you have the visions. This is happening from my homestead. I have been in Ijebu for the past one week for the festivity. So, I am just getting back. So, it is all about some people; so, I know the game. But I can tell you that there is more to this than what we are seeing. It is just lies, blackmail and falsehood.
“Look at the video and see that somebody was asking leading questions from the girl in question. They are not her original words.”
In the video recording, believably done by a police investigator and obtained by SaharaReporters, the victim, a Senior Secondary School 3 student, had alleged that the commissioner allegedly caressed her body and offered her money.
She said she screamed, before she was eventually allowed to go.
She had said, “On December 31, one Mr Lasisi came to my grandparents in the area, and said he knew someone who needed a computer operator and asked if I knew how to operate a computer. I said yes. He now said I should get dressed and that we would go together to the place.
“When we got there, it was the honourable’s house. A lady, Maryam Odunnuga, came to pick me and took me to a living room. Mr Austin now came out and asked me to come over to a room. The honourable now came inside and Mr Austin went outside immediately.”
The teenager narrated further that the commissioner tried to entice her with money to get a chance to sleep with her but she resisted it.
She said, “The honourable locked the door instantly and put the key in his pocket. So, he now moved close to me and asked for the name of my school. He asked for the amount of money I was paying as school fees. I replied by saying N30,000. He asked me who was paying my school fees, I told him my daddy. He asked if I had thought of starting a business before going to school.
“I said I wanted to go to a higher institution. Then he said if I would need some money now, how much would I need? I said, any amount. He said I should state an amount. He now moved closer and pressed (fondled) my breasts. So, I moved his hand away. He now said won’t I cooperate. He now started pressing (fondling) my breasts and my body.
“I was struggling to free myself from him. Then he started reciting some incantations. He wanted to touch my head. I now moved his hand away so that he would not touch my head. He now wanted to force me inside his bathroom.
“But I struggled with him and started shouting. He did not want people around his house to know what was going on. He now left me and gave him four, N500 notes, that is N2,000 as my transport fare. I rejected the money.
“He said if I didn’t collect the money, he would not let me go. So, I collected it. He now asked Austin to drop me in our house. I want Nigerians to help me to take up this matter against him. This had never happened to me in my life. Right now, I am so shocked. I had never been harassed like that in my life.”
The police at Abigi Police Station had already invited the commissioner to come and answer to the allegations against him.
In the police invite sent to Abdul-Balogun, dated January 1, 2021, and signed by the Divisional Police Officer, the commissioner was to appear before 1pm on same day.
“You are invited to see the officer in charge of crime at the above-named police office in connection with a case reported, which this office is investigating.
“It is just a fact-finding invitation and your very cooperation will be appreciated. Upon arrival, please report to the Divisional Crime Officer, Abigi. Looking forward to seeing on or before 01/01/2021 at 1pm,” the police invite read.
Parents of Don-Davis Archibong, a Junior Secondary School 1 pupil of Deeper Life High School in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, who was allegedly molested and assaulted, have demanded the sum of N100 million as compensation from the school.
Deborah Okezie, mother of the 11-year-old pupil, had made the headlines after alleging that her son came back from the school sick, emotionally unstable and with torn anus, showing he had been abused.
According to Vanguard newspaper, Deborah and Iniobong Archibong (Don-Davis’ parents), in a letter addressed to the school through their solicitors, Eagle-Eyes Network Chambers, and signed by David Okokon (Esq), are requesting for N100 million in damages for the pain and trauma caused to their son.
The letter, addressed to the Principal of the school, was titled “Gross Child abuse, palpable molestation, serial bullying, criminal starvation, malicious oppression, and dubious maltreatment of master Don-Davies Archibong (11 years old) by the Principal and Boarding Master of Deeper Life Secondary School, Uyo”.
In the letter which was dated December 22, 2020, the school was given 21 days on receipt of the letter to pay the N100 million.
The letter reads in part, “We are solicitors for Mr and Mrs Iniobong Archibong, resident in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State hereinafter referred to as our client. We have the firm explicit and unequivocal instructions to write to you on the above subject matter.
“It is indeed provocatively heartbroken, morally suicidal, religiously hypocritical that our clients’ 11-year-old son was torrentially bombarded with physical, and inhuman torture of debilitating dimensions with resultant castration of his human person, dignity, and childhood innocence.
“We respectfully demand the payment of N100,000,000 within 21 days upon the receipt of this letter as compensation to assuage the dehumanising, horrendous torture and indignity our clients’ son was subjected to and for his medical checkup and medication.”
The Akwa Ibom State government had earlier announced its decision to withdraw from investigating the matter, leaving it in the hands of the police and other relevant bodies.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
He appealed to the public to exercise patience for a thorough investigation to be carried out by the police and other relevant institutions.
Ememobong also said the state government would upon receipt of the report, take necessary actions.
The year 2020 witnessed its fair share of political upheavals. These included the leadership crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress which led to the removal of its former National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and the entire National Working Committee; the Edo and Ondo states’ governorship elections; as well as defections across party lines.
Without a doubt, the year 2020 will remain a year most citizens of the world will not forget in a hurry.
From the turmoil within the governing APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, to the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide lockdown, #EndSARS protests and high-profile deaths, Nigerians across the board will continue to remember 2020 as a unique year.
During the past year, there were already signs that the politics of the 2023 general elections, which started in hushed voices in 2020, would not only gather steam but reach feverish pitch this year.
But on a brief look, the Anambra State governorship election is scheduled to hold this year. The incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, is about rounding off his second tenure.
For obvious reasons, it will be an election to watch because the stakes for the parties are high.
For example, Anambra is the only state where the All Progressives Grand Alliance is in power at the state level. Meanwhile, the two dominant parties, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, are keenly interested in winning the state. The possibility of any other opposition party emerging cannot be entirely ruled out as well.
While APGA would do all it can to retain the state, APC and PDP would likely leave no stone unturned to win the state.
At the moment, PDP has 15 states while APC-controlled states rose to 20 when Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State joined the party few months ago.
Away from Anambra State and starting with the planned APC membership registration/revalidation exercise scheduled to commence in the second week of January, political pundits have predicted an intense year of politicking within the two dominant political parties, the APC and the PDP.
The enormity of the task of rebuilding the party after the ouster of the Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC will put the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee of the APC in the spotlight.
Within six months, the committee is expected to reconcile aggrieved party members, update and revalidate its membership register, hold congresses at the ward, local government and state levels, and hold a national convention to elect new party leaders.
As the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, a vocal advocate of reforms within the APC, noted, “We must remember that like any human organisation, our party is not perfect, and our responsibility is to constantly work to improve on the capacity of the party to grow and effectively provide us with the platform to be able to engage in political contests. In order words, our party is work-in-progress.”
Since the return of democracy in 1999, after decades of military rule, the battle for the control of structures of political parties has been more intense in ruling political parties, both at the state or the federal levels.
A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP now a Gombe State APC chieftain, Abdullahi Jalo, explained that the reason for this was not farfetched.
He said, “By the Nigerian constitution, you cannot contest for elective office without being sponsored by a political party. And for the typical politician, he or she will want to control the process to ensure he comes out triumphant. For some who don’t see politics as a game, they resort to desperate measures. Some politicians go as far as deploying thugs to unleash violence on their opponents just to get what they want. The year 2021 is not likely to be different because there will be alignments and realignments of political forces. The movement of established politicians from one party to another will intensify, because this is the year before the year of full-blown campaigns for the 2023 elections.”
The expected official take-off of the campaign machinery of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, and other party members interested in the APC presidential ticket, is also likely to have a telling effect on the party’s health.
The jostle for the control of the party’s soul is likely to intensify in the year ahead. The party’s governors, who are obviously its most powerful power bloc, will certainly be interested in who succeeds Buhari.
Appeals by the APC for its members to withdraw pending litigations from court and embrace dialogue have so far largely gone unheeded.
Some party leaders, including a former National Vice Chairman (South-South), Hillard Eta, have refused to withdraw their suits against the party.
Eta, for example, is in court challenging the dissolution of the Oshiomhole-led NWC which he was a part of.
Although the party had since expelled him, he insisted he remained a member of the ruling party and, in fact, its acting National Chairman.
The outcome of the court case may likely have an effect on how the APC conducts its affairs going forward. The case of the opposing camps in the Rivers, Bayelsa and Zamfara states’ chapters of the party will also attract more than a passing interest among Nigerians.
This is for the simple reason that the judiciary has played a decisive role in the fortunes/misfortunes of the party in the three states in the past years.
In Rivers State, the APC was denied the opportunity of fielding candidates for all elective positions in 2019, while in Zamfara and Bayelsa states, the party contested and won elections but was stripped of its victory through the court.
In Zamfara, the court held that the party failed to conduct primaries in line with its own guidelines and in Bayelsa, the court held that the party fielded an ineligible candidate as its deputy governorship candidate.
Although there is still a subsisting court judgement declaring Igo Aguma as APC Caretaker Committee Chairman for Rivers State, the party’s national headquarters recognises Isaac Ogbobula as its caretaker chairman.
Aguma is sympathetic to the cause of Senator Magnus Abe while Ogbobula is said to be doing the bidding of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi.
The resolution of this and similar conflicts as well as the conduct of congresses will certainly decide the fate of the party, at least in the South-South geo-political zone where it currently does not control any of the six states.
The party’s congresses expected to take place nationwide will also be of interest to political pundits. This is largely due to the fact that it has the potential to either make or mar the party as a political platform.
Some political observers are of the view that the APC has yet to recover from the fallouts of the rancorous primaries it held in 2018.
The situation in the APC is not different from that of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party. The crisis in the South-West geo-political zone is threatening to engulf the entire party. The PDP is also bracing for an upgrade of its membership register and a national convention later in the year. The tenure of the incumbent Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee will expire in December. There are indications that he is interested in a second term in office. However, the political intrigues and permutations ahead of 2023 elections are likely to have a telling effect on not only him, but the entire party.
If, as it is widely being speculated, the party is to zone its presidential ticket to the South, the position of the National Chairman will definitely go to the North. If on the other hand, it is zoned to the North, the chairmanship will remain in the South.
However, whichever is the case, other zones or aspirants will also seek to replace Secondus. The party is also battling internal strife, while many of its leading lights interested in the presidential ticket will also be reviving their campaign machinery before the end of the year.
This among, other things, will put pressure on the party to take decisions which could either sway public opinion for or against it.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a serial contestant for the position of President, is reported to have revived his campaign machinery. He may be contesting the PDP presidential ticket against younger opponents such as the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, whose second term as governor ends in 2023; former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke; and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, among others.
All of these persons will certainly be interested in whether or not the party retains the current zoning formula which keeps the national chairmanship position in the South.
Eminent leaders of thought under the aegis of the National Consultative Front are also gearing up to transform into a political party.
The group which parades personalities such as Prof. Pat Utomi; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’abba; former National Chairman of the National Conscience Party, Dr Yunusa Tanko, among others, are proposing an alternative to the PDP and the APC.
A prominent promoter of the new group, Olawale Okuniyi, who is also the National Secretary of Project Nigeria, said, “We are still having consultations with Nigerians across the board on the way forward; that will be decided early this year. The truth is that both the PDP and the APC are two sides of the same coin; they have both failed Nigerians. We are launching a mega political movement in January and have a full inauguration in June.”
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “The fact that we are already talking about 2023 elections just two years out of the four years of this regime is a clear sign that Nigerians are tired of the cluelessness and clear lack of focus of this regime and can’t wait to vote the APC out of office.”
Nigerians will also be keen to know whether or not the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), will accede to the public clamour for changes in the security architecture of the country.
These, among other political occurrences, will most likely shape events in 2021.
The United States marked the New Year on Friday by passing the extraordinary milestone of 20 million Covid-19 cases, after global celebrations welcoming in 2021 were largely muted by the pandemic.
The US has floundered in its efforts to quell the virus, which is spreading rapidly across the country and has already caused more than 347,000 deaths — by far the highest national death toll.
Worldwide hopes that Covid-19 vaccines will bring a rapid end to the pandemic in 2021 have been shaken by the slow start to the US vaccination program, which has been beset by logistical problems and overstretched hospitals.
Nearly 2.8 million people in the US have already received their first jabs, but the figure fell well behind the 20 million inoculations that President Donald Trump’s administration promised by the end of 2020.
The desperate race to vaccinate is set to dominate the coming year, with the coronavirus already having killed at least 1.8 million people since emerging in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP
The German firm said Friday it was racing to ramp up production of its Covid-19 jab to fill a shortage left by the lack of other approved vaccines in Europe.
Countries including Britain, Canada and the United States approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier, and have since also greenlighted jabs by US firm Moderna or Oxford-AstraZeneca.
“The current situation is not rosy, there’s a hole because there’s an absence of other approved vaccines and we have to fill this gap,” BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly.
Waiting For The Vaccine
Criticism of the slow pace of the vaccine rollout has grown louder in recent days.
In Germany, senior doctors have complained that hospital staff are left waiting for vaccines despite being in a priority group.
France has seen similar complaints, prompting the government to announce that health workers aged over 50 could get the shot from Monday — sooner than originally planned.
The French government on Friday also announced that a nationwide nighttime curfew would be lengthened in 15 regions where infections are high. The curfew will begin at 6:00 pm rather than 8:00 pm, including in the Mediterranean city of Nice.
“The virus is continuing to spread… but with a disparity between regions,” said a French government spokesman, confirming that theaters, cinemas and concert halls would not be able to reopen on January 7, the most recent earliest date given.
Also in France, some 2,500 partygoers attended an illegal New Year rave near Rennes, clashing with police who tried to stop it, authorities said.
But worldwide, normally extravagant midnight celebrations in cities such as Sydney, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Edinburgh were scaled back or cancelled, and crowds banned from attending.
Rio saw one upside: 89 percent less garbage on Copacabana beach, which is left clogged with trash each year after its New Year party.
“We were ready for any scenario. But congratulations to the people of Rio, who listened to the authorities’ calls to avoid large crowds and stay home,” said municipal sanitation chief Flavio Lopes.
Post-Holiday Surge
Travelers braving trains between London and Paris on the first day after Britain’s exit from the EU customs union experienced additional checks but appeared more worried by the extra rules required for travel due to Covid-19.
“I wasn’t supposed to be home for the holidays but there was an emergency. I bought my ticket at the last minute, with a test (for Covid-19) costing 200 pounds (225 euros, US$270),” said Stephanie Bapes, a 35-year-old Frenchwoman who lives in London.
Britain said Thursday that it had vaccinated almost 950,000 people, as a surge in coronavirus cases prompted the reopening of field hospitals.
Norway, which has one of the lowest infection rates in Europe, on Saturday will begin requiring Covid-19 tests upon arrival into the country.
Travelers from abroad must quarantine for seven days and test negative twice as part of the new restrictions, imposed after Norway recorded five cases of the new coronavirus variant that first emerged in Britain.
Experts believe the worst is yet to come globally, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US hit a record number of daily deaths on Wednesday when more than 3,900 people died of Covid-19.
President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20, has criticized the troubled vaccine rollout and implored Americans to wear masks.
Under Trump, US authorities have given often mixed messages on mask-wearing, social distancing and shutdowns, and the outgoing president has repeatedly downplayed the risks.
But in his New Year’s Eve message, Trump hailed his administration’s response, saying, “Our most vulnerable citizens are already receiving the vaccine, and millions of doses are quickly being shipped all across our country.”
The World Health Organization on Thursday granted emergency validation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, paving the way for countries worldwide to quickly approve its import and distribution.
