coronavirus

The United States of America has donated K36.75 million to the Zambian Government as assistance for its COVID 19 vaccination exercise.
This disclosure was made in a press statement by the country's Minister of Health, Dr. Jonas Chanda.
“We are grateful for the support of Zambia’s all-weather friend the United States government who have announced a commitment of an additional K36.75 million ($1.75 million) to provide technical assistance to Zambia’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign targeted at providing critical technical and logistical support to the Ministry of Health for planning, coordination, and delivery of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Zambians,” Dr. Chanda said.
The Minister of Health also disclosed that the Interagency Coordinating Committee (ICC) had formulated the National Vaccine Deployment Plan to guide the rollout.
“The Interagency Coordinating Committee (ICC) met on Friday 26th March 2021 to consider key aspects of the COVID-19 vaccination program. Among the key issues discussed was the consideration of the findings of the report from the Zambian Immunization Technical Advisory Group providing guidance on COVID-19 vaccines being considered for deployment.
“The ICC formally adopted the National Vaccine Deployment Plan to guide the roll-out, including considerations for the cold chain, in line with Cabinet’s guidance on COVID-19 vaccinations which are critical to controlling the pandemic, slowing the emergence of new variants, and helping to boost the economy. Zambia has also successfully met all the requirements set by GAVI under the COVAX facility,” he concluded.
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Thousands of residents of Nairobi have relocated from the capital city ahead of the government move to enforce COVID 19 measures to curb the third wave of the pandemic.
 In  December 2020, there was a similar occurrence, a few days before President Uhuru Kenyatta revised Covid-19 measures during the second Covid-19 wave. The President, however, reduced curfew hours from 9 pm - 5 am to 10 pm - 4 am.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi has warned that Kenya was recording an increase in the number of COVID 19 cases.
"Nairobi's contribution to the positivity is staggering and stands at close to 57.7 percent and that is very high and disheartening. As we have repeatedly said, it would be irresponsible for us to sit back and watch the situation deteriorate further. 
"Unless this trend is arrested, we may have no alternative but to take more stringent measures as necessary to protect the lives of our people," Mwangangi stated.

The Ministry of Health in Kenya has earmarked 7.5 million masks for distribution to schools and those in the informal settlements.

The distribution shall be done through the Ministry of Education.
According to the Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha who made this disclosure, priority would be given to schools with a higher enrollment rate, those in informal settlements, special schools, and schools located in pockets of poverty.
Magoha also disclosed that pupils in  Grade 4 to Grade 8 and secondary students will receive 2.25 million masks.
“The distribution will be cascaded to the regional and county levels. We have tasked the field officers to utilize the outlined criteria to select schools to benefit from the masks, which will be distributed as we receive them from the Ministry of Health,” the cabinet secretary stated.

The First Lady of Zimbabwe, Mrs. Auxilia Mnangagwa has called on all Zimbabwe women to observe three-day fasting and prayer for God to ward of the coronavirus pandemic presently ravaging Zimbabwe and the world.
Mrs. Mnangagwa made this cal in a statement.

“May I as the Mother of the Nation call upon all women in Zimbabwe, and all those abroad who may so wish, to join me in fasting and praying to the Lord the Almighty from tomorrow 21 to Saturday 23 January 2021 for our nation to be spared from further calamity and suffering,”

 “Our country has witnessed a lot of Covid-19 deaths in the past two weeks. Death is within our communities, at our doorstep. There is no family that has not suffered the loss of their beloved ones because of the pandemic.
“Every day we hear of names that are succumbing.
“I thus humbly appeal to all women to commit to a three-day period from tomorrow in which we fast and pray to call for divine intervention to save the nation and our people.
“As women, we play a very important role in our society.”
“As mothers, let us enforce compliance at the family level with measures that reduce the spread of Covid-19 amongst us. We need a plan at the household level for regularly using any means at our disposal to clean and sanitize our homes; to ensure that everyone in the home knows the importance of having a mask and masking up properly; more importantly to organize sharp safe errands for our requirements to get going whilst enforcing the family to stay at home,” she said.
“Let us include the measures against Covid-19 as we play our motherly role of ensuring that every member of the family is responsible for their personal hygiene.

“As we avoid and fight stigmatization, let’s ensure that all members of the family have knowledge of how to help those that have been infected and are willing to assist those that get sick to cope whilst remaining safe from infection.
“As we pray for relief in our nation, we should observe the measures for safe praying. The best is to fast and pray as individuals in our homes, the First lady concluded.

As the corona virus pandemic continues to ravage the Federal republic of Nigeria, Nigerians have expressed worry over the fact that the the President’s speech did not touch on financial palliatives and social welfare packages for the citizenry, even though restriction of movement has commenced in several states, although the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is yet to declare a State of Emergency, it could put paid to the criminality of Political Office Holders. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that the leadership has a lot to do for impoverished Nigerians. Excerpts : 

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic the Federal Government has restricted movement in Lagos state, Federal Capital Territory and Ogun state, while a number of states have done same earlier one, without Financial Palliatives and Social Welfare for the citizenry. What are the implications ?

COVID 19 has exposed the emptiness of humanity and the susceptibility to any environmental hazards ,most especially for when severity clause is attached. Leadership is much tested during the period of human travails and capabilities is best measured in the way conflicts are been resolved for Nigeria, it has always been pathetic records of complaints from the governed against the way the affairs of the country has been handled since the period of independence in 1960.

The efforts of Government at all levels is always a case of no proactive measures and fire brigade games of afterthought. The major problem is that ab initio,we lack the desk of the Think Thanks and we respect less the might of our professionals, whose views, directives and instructions would have come earlier to help government proffer appropriate solutions.