The Federal Ministry of Education says it has aligned with the Jan. 18, 2021 date for schools in the nation to resume. Consequently, schools can resume academic activities on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. The ministry, in a statement on Thursday signed by Ben Goong, the Director of Press, said that the go-ahead was given after undertaking a comprehensive appraisal of the school resumption proposal. “After extensive consultations with relevant stakeholders, including State Governors, Commissioners of Education, Proprietors and heads of institutions, staff unions and students, the consensus of opinion is…
Read MoreTag: COVID-19
Pope Francis, ex-Pope Benedict receive COVID-19 Vaccine
Pope Francis and retired Pope Benedict have received their first vaccination against COVID-19, the Vatican said. The two were given the jab at the Vatican, it added. Francis, who is 84, had part of a lung removed due to an illness in his 20s, so he would be a high-risk patient if he were to contract the virus. Pope Emeritus Benedict 14, who is 93, also lives within the small city-state that is surrounded by Rome. The Vatican began its vaccine roll-out yesterday Wednesday. It said that health-care workers, security…
Read MoreCovid-19 – Govs. worry about vaccines’ delivery, demand local production
Nigerian state governors want the federal government to expedite actions on local production of COVID-19 vaccine instead of relying on foreign pharmaceutical firms. The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this yesterday after a meeting he had with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The governors are also not comfortable with the lack of clarity on when the vaccines will arrive in Nigeria, and told President Muhammadu Buhari to accelerate the delivery. Nigeria is expecting the delivery of 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, the…
Read MoreNUC directs varsities to re-open January 18, after 10-month closure
The National Universities Commission,(NUC), has directed vice-chancellors of universities to commence academic activities on January 18, in accordance with the directive of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) team on COVID-19. The directive was contained in a statement signed by NUC’s Deputy Executive Secretary (Administration), Chris Maiyaki, on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed. The nation’s public universities have been closed since March 2020, following a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities,(ASUU), and the lockdown occasioned by the curbs introduced to combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. …
Read MoreCOVID-19: FG to impose travel ban on defaulting VIPs, govt officials
The Federal Government has vowed to clamp down on Very Important Personalities, (VIPs) and government officials who fail to obey travel protocols, including undergoing compulsory COVID-19 tests after returning into the country. The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, stated this yesterday, in a video posted by the Ministry of Information and Culture on Twitter. Recall that the government had last week released the passport numbers of 100 travellers who failed to undergo COVID-19 tests after returning into the country. It placed a travel…
Read More‘Covid-19: ‘FG won’t force people to take vaccine’ – PTF
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 says it is important for Nigerians to get immunised against COVID-19 when the vaccines are available. The PTF National Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, stated this when he featured as a guest on a television programme, noting that the Federal Government would ensure as many Nigerians as possible get the vaccines, but that would be done at the individual’s will. “Government will not press you down and inject you with the vaccine, no; it is going to be voluntary but it will be free…
Read MoreScientists caution FG on COVID-19 vaccination
As Nigeria prepares to receive its first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines, two scientists have cautioned the Federal Government against a mass COVID-19 vaccination plan. Recall that the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in December 2020 revealed that the Federal Government had planned to acquire vaccines worth N400 billion. Ehanire had said that the N400 billion would be able to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s 200 million population. Nigeria had 88,587 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,294 deaths as of yesterday. It was against this backdrop that the scientists called for…
Read MoreFG releases passport details of 100 banned passengers
The Federal Government has published the passport numbers of 100 travellers who failed to undergo the mandatory COVID-19 test after returning to Nigeria. Their details were published by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 yesterday. “The PTF has placed travel restrictions on the first 100 passengers for non-compliance to the mandatory Day 7 post-arrival COVID-19 test,” the update read. It said the restrictions started from January 1, 2021 and would last till June 30, 2021. The PTF also confirmed that the affected passengers have been notified and will be prevented…
Read MoreCOVID-19: January will be tough – NCDC
Ø Lagos State to fine curfew defaulters The Director-General, (DG), of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has predicted that January 2021 is going to be tough for the country because of a spike in COVID-19 infections. Recall that in the past two weeks, the daily count of COVID-19 cases shot up significantly, with the country recording over 10,000 new infections, with the Federal Government saying that within one week Nigeria entered the second wave of infections in December, 16 out of every 100 tests returned…
Read MoreFG to suspend passports of 100 passengers refusing post-arrival COVID-19 test
Effective from tomorrow, January 1st, 2021, passports of the first one hundred passengers that have failed to take their post-arrival COVID-19 test is to be published in the national dailies and suspended till June 2021. The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force, (PTF), on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha made the announcement in Abuja on Tuesday, during a briefing. Mustapha, also, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said that the names of the passengers would be published on Jan. 1, 2021, while the suspension of the passports would last…
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