Author: straightnewsng.com

By: Israel Umoh Akwa Ibom State in the South-south region of Nigeria featured prominently on Wednesday, April 1 and other days in the traditional and social media at the state and national levels for the wrong reason.  The state government expected to play a pacesetting role in all aspects of human endeavours naively entered the black book of Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control over its poor response to the agency’s publication of coronavirus cases in the state. Unlike other states that have been hearing and accepting NCDC’s report in good faith only to explore ways to stem the dreaded virus…

By Akanimo Sampson The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the health services of countries. “COVID-19 pandemic has brought countries’ health services into sharp focus,’’ ILO says, pointing out that while governments move to slow the spread of the virus, health workers, especially women, are on the front lines of the epidemic. But, with more than half of the world’s population lacking access to essential health care, what happens when there are not enough doctors, nurses and support staff? As part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, all member states agreed to achieve universal health…

By Akanimo Sampson The United Nations is calling for a $2.5 trillion aid package to enable developing countries cushion the damaging effect of the COVID-19 crisis on their economies. The global body seems to be concerned because two-thirds of the world’s population is living in developing countries (excluding China). Developing countries of the world including Nigeria are facing unprecedented economic damage from the corona virus crisis. There are 167 developing countries some of which includes Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Chile, Comoros, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Hungary, India, Indonesia, and Iran, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia,…

Today is Palm Sunday, a Chrisitan moveable feast that falls on Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It marks the first day of the Holy Week, the last week of Christian solemn season of Lent preceding the arrival of Easter. More details later…

By: Israel Umoh Nigerian politicians make the mistake of thinking that money is what motivate the people. During the elections, they would ‘bribe’ the electorate by paying salaries/bonuses to public servants, gratuities/pensions to pensioners, scholarships/bursary awards to students and ‘perks’ to political hangers. Since money answers many things, they woo the electorate to do their biddings. The problem, according to Ross Gitiri, an Economics writer is that decades of the rising living standards has done nothing to make them feel happier. Rather, they slump into depressing thought. On the contrary, some politicians make the mistake of thinking that food is…

The worldwide number of fatalities from the novel coronavirus rose to 63,437 on Saturday, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT from official sources. More than 1,169,210 declared cases have been registered in 190 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 219,000 are now considered recovered. The tallies, using data collected by AFP offices from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are only testing cases that require hospitalisation. A total…

By Akanimo Sampson Deaths from the rampaging coronavirus in the United States have hit 7,381, and four so far in Nigeria. A total of 28,667 new cases and 1,094 deaths were reported on Friday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. This includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases. Wyoming is the only state not reporting a death from the killer virus. The US has the world’s largest outbreak of the virus, with more than 275,000 infections, with Italy, the next most hard-hit country has about…

By: Akanimo Sampson Twenty-three migrants have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Ritsona open accommodation site in Central Greece. Worried, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is expressing serious concern on the development. The IOM-managed camp, which hosts 2,700 people, reported its first confirmed case on Tuesday. Chief of IOM’s Mission in Greece, Gianluca Rocco, says “this development confirms the fact that this fast-moving virus does not discriminate and can affect both migrant and local communities. Everyone is at risk. Migrants and refugees in Greece are susceptible to the virus as much as the Greek community.” The Ritsona site is one of 30 open…

Two COVID-19 patients have died in Lagos and Edo States, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed. NCDC, through its verified Twitter account on Friday night, however, did not give further details about the patient’s sex or medical history. It added that 20 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 210, while 25 patients have been discharged and four deaths recorded. The NCDC said that of the 20 new cases, Lagos has 11, Abuja and Edo has three cases each; Osun- two and Ondo State has one…

By Akanimo Sampson More than 50,000 human lives have so far been lost to the rampaging coronavirus pandemic globally after Italy announced 760 new fatalities in 24 hours. In Nigeria, 10 new cases have been recorded with the total national figures now 184. The figure is rising on a daily basis. However, the good news in Nigeria is that 11 more people have recovered from the killer virus and have been discharged in Lagos State. With that, the total number of people discharged in the country is 20, with two deaths recorded. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced this…