Vibesngists Blog

Some 100 million city dwellers around the world are likely to fall into poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank has warned. Densely populated cities are on the front line of the outbreak - especially in slums where people are lacking running water, sewage systems or health care, urban experts said. Those problems will become harder to solve because cities will see a drop of 15 to 25 per cent in tax revenues as a result of the crisis, it is feared. 'Within cities we need to focus on those who need help the most, the poor and the vulnerable have been very seriously affected,' said Sameh Wahba, a global director for the World Bank. 'Our estimate is that there will be possibly upward of a 100 million so-called "new poor" on account of loses of jobs and livelihoods and income,' Wahba told reporters. Many cities lack accurate data about slum areas, making it difficult to know where investments should be targeted, experts say. A World B...

Premier League medics believe attempts to complete the season will not collapse if a player or staff member tests positive for the coronavirus. The scenario of infection has been discussed by Premier League doctors in recent days and will be raised at Friday's shareholders meeting, which will outline plans for how the game can return.

US President, Donald Trump, has confirmed his government will be gifting Nigeria 200 ventilators as the nation battles the Coronavirus pandemic. Recall President Buhari had a telephone chat with the US President who promised to give Nigeria ventilators.

Popular Nigerian dancer and video vixen, Kodak has been confirmed dead in the late hours of Wednesday April 29. According to reports, Kodak was electrocuted while charging her phone at a video director’s home in Omole Estate, Lagos. She was confirmed dead at a nearby hospital she was rushed to.

The Lagos State COVID-19 Taskforce, on Wednesday, arrested more than 50 youths who had attended a party at 84, Parks and Gardens, Idi-Oparun Bus Stop, opposite Abattoir at Abule Egba, Lagos in violation of the lockdown directives of the Federal and State governments. The General Manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Mrs. Dolapo Fasawe, maintained that it is no longer business as usual in the State and anyone who disobeys government directive will be made to face the repercussions.

A woman in her early thirties and her two little Kids got burnt beyond recognition at Alikor Housing estate Choba uniport axis Port Harcourt Rivers state Nigeria. It all started around to 6:00 a.m on the 28th of April 2020, the woman by name Mrs. Imabong from Akwa State deals on what they called Kpo fire that is a kerosene and Fuel that was refined illegally, it is also simply known as Bunkering, she has been dealing on this Illegal Commodity for long, and the worst part of it is that she stores this dangerous commodity in her Kitchen where she cooks.

Anambra state government has commenced the training of COVID-19 task force for parks and major markets in the state, as prerequisite for the opening of the major markets and parks in the State on Monday, 4th May, 2020. The task force is made up of members of all the sixty three major markets in Anambra state. Addressing members of the task force during the training, the secretary to Anambra state government, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu said that the task force team will ensure that all markets are orderly and also keep to WHO and NCDC Coronavirus preventive guidelines.

Lagos State Health Commissioner, Prof. Akin Abayomi, says the coronavirus infection affects the kidney and the blood. He made this known on Wednesday morning during a programme on Arise News.

Federal offices nationwide can open from May 4 for workers to resume work, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has said. The resumption will be based on specific grade levels, the PTF explained. Also, the banking, construction, construction, manufacturing sectors, as well as food processing companies, will be allowed to open from Monday, the PTF further said.

More than 700 people have died in Iran after ingesting toxic methanol, erroneously thinking it can cure the new coronavirus. The national coroner's authority said that alcohol poisoning killed 728 Iranians between February 20 and April 7. Last year there were only 66 deaths from alcohol poisoning, according to the report. Alcohol poisoning has seen a 10-fold increase in Iran in the past year, according to a government report released earlier in April, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

196 new cases of #COVID19 reported;

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has stated that the Almajiris deported from Kano State last week brought 21 cases of COVID-19 to the state. Speaking on Arise Television, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers Wednesday, he said when the state took delivery of 148 Almajiris from Kano, it kept them in a holding facility where tests were conducted on eight of them with symptoms, adding that five tested positive to the disease. He said: “This morning, 16 more of the Almajiris tested positive to it and we have now kept them in an isolation centre where they are being managed. "We made sure stringent measures were put in place to either slow down the spread of the virus. I was the first to be infected in Kaduna. I got infected in Abuja, and I in turn infected four other people. Since then the numbers have increased slightly, but not as much as other states.

An experimental drug has proved effective against the new coronavirus in a major study, shortening the time it takes for patients to recover by four days on average, U.S. government and company officials announced Wednesday. Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir is the first treatment to pass such a strict test against the virus, which has killed more than 218,000 people since it emerged late last year in China. Having a treatment could have a profound effect on the global pandemic, especially because health officials say any vaccine is likely a year or more away.

Federal Government, Wednesday said banks in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja will begin operations from Monday 4th of May, 2020. Disclosing this, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, gave conditions and preventive measures to stem the spread of covid-19.

A suspected COVID-19 patient on Sunday afternoon ran to a police station for help after several attempts to reach the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) failed. The woman, it was gathered, had tried to reach the COVID-19 toll-free lines since she started developing symptoms without success. Desperate for survival, she was said to have walked from her residence to Adekunle Police Station, Yaba in Lagos where she stood outside and announced that she was having COVID-19.

The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has unveiled its locally designed and fabricated air ventilators necessary for patients infected with the coronavirus.

According to reports on Aljazeera, While the rest of the world are trying figure out a practical way of combating the novel corona virus, Senegal has miraculously developed a covid19 test kit that cost approximately $1. Thats right! You read well, $1 approximately N400 only This is in line with their strategy of testing their total population and fishing out those who are infected. The test kit is conducting by taking blood and saliva samples of patients and due to its low cost of production there is plenty of kits to go round.

Coronavirus or COVID-19 has devastated the hospitality industry, forcing hotels to take drastic steps to survive. Rooms reservations are at historic lows while cancellations at historic highs, forcing the company to layoff thousands of workers. Thus lowering the country deeper into its already cavernous "unemployment and hunger" well. Hotel room occupancy rates for the week of March through April 2020, when compared to the same week in 2019, is nothing to write home about, while Bars and Nightclubs are currently observing compulsory shutdown order in the country.

As at 11:50pm 26th April- 1273 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.

Ebonyi government has confirmed the state's first case of Coronavirus since the outbreak of the disease in Nigeria. Governor Dave Umahi who confirmed this in a statement on Sunday evening April 26.

Two patients who tested positive for COVID-19, are on the run in Borno state. Abbas Kaka Hassan, a 24 year-old male, and Hauwa Mohammed, a 42 year-old female, are on the run after testing positive to COVID-19 at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State. The male is from Layin Tanki in Gwange 11 while the woman lives in Shuwari ward.

The Kaduna State government has extended the quarantine order in the state by 30 days. This was confirmed in a statement released by Governor Nasir El-Rufai's spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye. The Kaduna state government stated that only Wednesdays will be lockdown-free until the trajectory of Coronavirus infections becomes clearer. Residents of the state have been directed to wear facemasks and observe social distancing everywhere they go. While public gatherings have been prohibited in the state, the only category of persons exempted are workers in essential services such as health workers, the fire service, water corporation, electricity distribution, and security personnel. During the extended lockdown, persons seeking to come into the state will be denied entry. Such persons will be given the option of returning to their take-off points or entering isolation for 14 days in locations and conditions that are so austere that nobody can mistake them for holiday resorts. The veh...

Buhari to effect Nigerian governors’ lockdown decision Monday. The inter-state lockdown decision taken by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) is a “done deal”. On Sunday, a Chief Press Secretary to a state governor confirmed this to the press. He explained that the chief executives made their position known on Friday to enable the federal government to put in place necessary arrangements for compliance. “The governors’ resolution is to curtail the spread of Coronavirus. The federal government has the power to shut inter-state borders, hence the request to Mr. President,” he said.

The Lagos police command has announced the arrest of 620 persons, including 39 at a strip club, who violated the lockdown in the state. On March 30, President Muhammadu Buhari had restricted movements in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja to limit the spread of coronavirus. The president later extended the lockdown by two weeks. In a statement on Sunday, Bala Elkana, Lagos police public relations officer, said those who violated the lockdown order were arrested between April 21 and April 24, 2020.

The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Senator Uche Ekwunife on Saturday, 25th April 2020 distributed another set of food items to some constituents of Anambra Central Senatorial District. In a 4th batch distribution of Covid-19 palliatives to some of her constituents, the Anambra Central Senator once again showed that she knows first hand the challenges of her people.

Amid the medical race to find an effective vaccine for the coronavirus that is currently spreading the world, Madagascar, a southern Africa, could possible processed a tea from a local plant to cure the disease. The coronavirus disease appeared first in 2019 in Wuhan city in China. The disease was, first identified in Wuhan and Hubei, both in China early December 2019. The original cause still unknown, it remains a puzzle and an enigma for the world scientific community. The disease symptoms include high body temperature with persistent dry cough and acute respiratory syndrome. Some medical researchers say it is a pneumonia-related disease. On April 21, the President of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina has officially launched a local herbal remedy claimed to prevent and cure the novel coronavirus. “Tests have been carried out — two people have now been cured by this treatment,” Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and journalists at the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), whi...

The Imo Governor made this known via his twitter handle, "In a major step that will positively affect the health & an economic lot of Imo people, we're happy to announce the restoration of public water supply to Owerri metropolis.", He wrote. "Public portable water supply, which has eluded the residents for about 24 years, will be restored in the next few days. We believe that this development will make life easier for the residents of the densely populated Owerri municipal." "It will be recalled with sad nostalgia that the last turn around maintenance carried out in Otamiri waterworks was in 1996, hence, I directed a holistic overhaul of the scheme in line with modern technology. I, therefore, solicit the support of the people of the State as our administration works hard to recover lost grounds and put the State on the path of sustainable development." "In agriculture, Adapalm, a major palm Oil Mill owned by the Imo state gover...

"Today, I assented to a Bill on the Prevention of #Covid_19 in Imo." Governor Hope Uzodimma said, as he signs into law, a Bill on the prevention of #COVID-19 in Imo state. The bill which was signed into law, seek to introduce and enforce measures to prevent the spread of #coronavirus disease and other dangerous infectious diseases and related matters. Going forward, it is now a legal offence for anyone to ignore Government directive on COVID-19 prevention and control like social distancing, sanitizing of hands, public gathering, restriction order among others. "I enjoin the people to co-operate with the Government in the fight against coronavirus by adhering to government's directives.", He said.

The Anambra State governor, Willie Obiano, has relaxed the lockdown on the state and has asked churches to commence full activities. The governor stated this in a broadcast to the people of the state on Saturday evening. Before the Saturday broadcast church activities had been restricted for 14 days as one of the measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Earlier today, I got news of another positive case of #COVID19 admitted to our facility in Akure. The case of this individual who is a police officer is unique. He was tested in Lagos but came to Ondo state while awaiting his results . Upon receiving a positive result." Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Akeredolu, revealed. "He claimed to have returned back to Lagos. According to him, he waited a few days in Lagos to be picked up. When this failed, he panicked and rushed back to Akure for treatment. While we appreciate the confidence reposed in our facilities, We do find it most reckless on the...

87 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported; 33 in Lagos 18 in Borno 12 in Osun 9 in Katsina 4 in Kano 4 in Ekiti 3 in Edo 3 in Bauchi 1 in Imo

"Today, I gave an order that families who have corpses of loved ones in our mortuaries have 2 weeks to pick the bodies for funeral so as to decongest our facilities." This was disclosed by the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-olu. "For about two months, there have been no funerals in Lagos due to the Lent period and restrictions of #COVID19.

Rapper Kanye West is now a billionaire thanks largely to the basketball shoes bearing his name that he developed with Adidas, Forbes magazine said Friday. The rough figure of the wealth of Kim Kardashian’s hubby is $1.3 billion, the magazine said in announcing the musician is now on its list of people worth at least $1 billion. The 42-year-old, Chicago-born rapper’s Yeezy footwear often sells for more than $200 a pair in the United States and elsewhere. West was associated with Nike for years but broke away in 2013, lending his name to Adidas as they launched their first shoe together in 2015. Forbes said that for years West has been pressing the magazine to be listed as one of its mega-rich but that it declined, for lack of proof.

Kano State has continued to witness a rise in unusual deaths as over 12 persons were confirmed dead on Saturday. The deceased include professors, a newspaper editor, and other professionals. They were buried at different cemeteries within and outside the metropolis. Within the past eight days of lockdown in the state, no fewer than 20 persons have died from undisclosed ailments. Eyewitnesses and undertakers at cemeteries in the state said an unspecified number of people had died and were buried over the past few days. Among the prominent persons that died in Kano on Saturday were Prof Ibrahim Ayagi, Dr Musa Umar Gwarzo, Alhaji Dahiru Rabiu (former Grand Khadi), Musa Tijjani (Editor of Triumph Newspaper) and Adamu Isyaku Dal, who was a former Executive Secretary of the State Universal Basic Education Board. Others are Alhaji Salisu Lado, Hajiya Shamsiyya Mustapha, Hajiyaj Nene Umma, Alhaji Garba Sarki Fagge, Dr Nasiru Maikano Bichi, Secretary Student Affairs, North West Universi...

Men of the Abia State Vigilante Service on Friday arrested no fewer than twenty-four market women parked in a container truck, at the Ekwereazu Ngwa boundary between Abia and Akwa Ibom states. Ekwereazu is a border community in Obingwa LGA. The women who came from Akwa Ibom state and were on their way to Aba, were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the border closure and lockdown order by the State Government.

Nigeria’s former finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was named by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as its Special Envoy for the newly inaugurated Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that she is to serve alongside British business executive, Sir Andrew Witty in the same capacity, to mobilize international commitment to the initiative. Director-General of the organization, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, made the announcement during the launch of the ACT Accelerator — via webinar from Geneva.

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, to scale down the total lockdown imposed in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja. This was contained in a letter dated April 24, 2020 and signed by NGF chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. The letter was addressed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha. The Governors have asked Buhari to allow free movement in all the states, but with restrictions on large gatherings.

According to video shared by Ebalsblog, on Instagram shared a video where a resident of Irepodun Ifelodun local government area of Ekiti State covered the activities of Amotekun and their Anti-grazing team.

The Federal Government says its insistence on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) producing their Bank Verification Number (BVN) for the payment of their withheld two months will expose those with multiple jobs. ASUU members, who are currently on an indefinite strike, on Wednesday rejected the demand by the Federal Government to produce their BVN before the payment of their February and March salaries. President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday approved the payment of the withheld two months salaries of ASUU members who refused to enrol on the Integrated Payment Payroll Information System (IPPIS). In a swift reaction, ASUU explained that the Federal Government does not require lecturers’ BVN to pay the two months withheld salaries.

According to reports on The PUNCH news, An official diplomatic document has emerged showing that the Chinese Government detailed how 72 Nigerians tested positive for COVID-19 in Guangzhou, China. The document, REF. No. SWZ[2020] 0128, dated April 22, 2020 by the Foreign Affairs Office, Guangzhou Municipal People’s Government, outlined the profile of the cases and advised Nigerians resident in China to comply with the law of their hosts in controlling the pandemic. The PUNCH had published a story on Thursday, April 23, 2020, ‘Evacuation: 72 Nigerians, 111 other Africans in China test positive’, which some Nigerians have mounted a strident campaign against, claiming that the story was false.