68-year-old Nigerian woman gives birth 46 years into marriage

After 46 years of marriage, a 68-year-old woman has finally given birth to twins in Nigeria’s Lagos state, an act that has brought her immense joy. Margaret Adenuga and her 77-year-old husband, Noah Adenuga,.

Nigeria records 248 new coronavirus cases

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Sunday confirmed 248 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total confirmed cases to 4,399.

With Sunday’s update, Nigeria fatalities increased from 128 to 143, while recoveries increased from 745 to 778 persons.

Lagos had the highest with 81 new cases while Kigawa recorded 5 new cases of the virus. Borna also confirmed 26 new cases.

In Kano, NCDC said 26 were recorded and 20 new cases were confirmed in Bauchi while Abuja got 13 new cases.

NCDC also confirmed 12 new cases in Edo, Sokoto had 10 new cases and Zamfara recorded seven new cases of the virus.

Kwara and Kebbi recorded four new cases each and Gombe, Taraba, Ekiti and Ogun confirmed two new cases each.

Osun and Bayelsa had one case each.

A five-week lockdown declared by the Nigerian Government in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT was relaxed on May 4, 2020.

While the NCDC has mulled the lockdown might be reenacted, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Saturday said if residents refused to adhere to the guidelines issued for preventing the spread of the virus, there would be another lockdown.

“As a Government elected to uphold security of its citizens, which include health security, we will not hesitate to review the terms of the easing of lockdown if we do not see an improvement in adherence to our public health guidelines in the next couple of days,” Sanwo-olu said.

“We will be forced to take a painful decision of bringing the entire system under lockdown if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules.”

The Guardian

Medic who discovered Nigeria's first confirmed Covid-19 case: 'It was scary'

As Dr. Amarachukwu Allison examined the Italian patient who walked into her consulting room in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria, complaining of fever, headache and fatigue, she suspected instantly what his ailment was.

It was February and the world was just waking up to the realities of Covid-19 as the highly contagious disease ravaged nations and locked down economies.

"I had been following the news trends at the time so when he walked into my consulting room with his complaints, he had a fever, it was high grade, headache, muscle pain and fatigue. I took his medical history and he said he had just come from Italy ... so I knew it was likely Covid-19," she told CNN in an Instagram live interview.

The unnamed Italian man had arrived in the country from Milan just 48 hours before he visited the private medical center where Allison worked.

Trying not to panic about the risk of contracting the disease herself, Allison said she counseled the man and gave him a face mask.
"I told him I would need to isolate him and he was very cooperative," she said.

'A scary experience'

She didn't know it at the time but Allison, 32, had just detected Nigeria's first confirmed case of coronavirus and her quick thinking has attracted praise from many Nigerians who hailed her a hero for helping to contain the spread of the virus in Africa's most populous nation.

The Ogun state government recently celebrated Allison and hailed her "singular brilliance."
"The Ogun State Government appreciates the young female doctor who suspected the index case in Nigeria in our State, Dr. Amarachukwu Karen Allison of Lafarge Nigeria. Her singular brilliance led to the early diagnosis and rapid containment of the first Covid-19 infection," the statement read.

The man was later transferred to an isolation center in the neighboring city of Lagos and Allison was promptly placed in quarantine.

"It was a really scary experience and I am so thankful that I tested negative," recalled Allison, who said it was her third experience of being quarantined.

"Strangely it was my third time going into quarantine because during the Ebola period, I had secondary contact and was quarantined and then I was exposed to viral hemorrhagic fever in November and was also quarantined.

"When I had to go at this time, I thought to myself, 'What is happening?' and I had to call my parents. My organization brought a psychologist to call in every day to support us and I cried a lot," she told CNN.

A sharp rise in cases

Despite her best efforts, Nigeria's cases have risen sharply from one case in February to 3526 confirmed cases as of May 8, with 601 recovered cases and 107 deaths, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Many fear the official numbers don't present the true picture of cases in the country as the NCDC says that just over 22,000 samples have been tested, which is less than 1% of the estimated 200 million population.

"The pandemic is a really difficult time for any government and anybody anywhere," Allison said.
"Everybody is trying to do the best that they can and as much as they can to handle things. ... We are not only dealing with the pandemic but also the poverty crisis, and getting information across to people is somewhat of a problem," she said, highlighting the challenges the country faces in the pandemic.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a lockdown in key states in March, including Ogun state where she works, but five weeks later, that lockdown has now been eased to get Nigeria's economy going again.

"I think that as the lockdown is being eased, we the people need to play a role in stopping the spread by wearing our face masks, washing our hands with the right technique under running water with soap, respiratory etiquette covering your cough, sneezing and social distancing," she said.

A newfound 'hero' status

Allison has drawn comparisons to another Nigerian female doctor, Stella Adadevoh, who detected Nigeria's first case of Ebola in July 2014 and consequently saved Africa's most populous nation from a mass outbreak of Ebola.

Adadevoh suspected Liberian national Patrick Sawyer had Ebola when he arrived at her hospital in Lagos, and successfully kept him there despite resistance from him and pressure from government officials to release him from the hospital.

Adadevoh succumbed to the Ebola virus while in quarantine and died August 19, 2014.
"It makes me feel humbled and honored. I am thankful to her for what she did," said Allison when asked about the comparisons to Adadevoh.

"It's been overwhelming and it makes me happy when my fellow human beings appreciate me. I feel loved," she said.

CNN

Nigeria Eases Lockdown Measures Despite Increases in Coronavirus Cases

ABUJA, NIGERIA - Computer specialist Michael Kundun left for work early Monday, as Nigeria's coronavirus lockdown eased at 6 a.m.

Kundun had not been to his shop in Abuja’s Nyanya Market since late March, when authorities announced the lockdown. When he opened, he had to clean and dust to get ready for business.

"It is going to be gradual," he said. "It's not going to be as it was from the beginning, but by the grace of God it will pick up. Business will pick up with time."

Nigeria relaxed its 35-day lockdown in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states following President Muhammadu Buhari's order, given last week during his national address.

Harm to economy

Buhari concedes the lockdown has hurt the Nigerian economy, especially in non-essential sectors that depend on daily income for survival.

Much like Kundun’s business.

"The lockdown affected my business drastically," he said. "In fact, I found it difficult to work. I found it difficult to meet my customers."

But the decision to relax the lockdown came as Nigeria's number of coronavirus cases has been increasing.

Daily figures publicly reported by Nigeria's Center for Disease Control doubled in the last week, reaching more than 2,500 on Monday. By Thursday, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., the total had climbed past 3,100.

This is why critics like Abuja resident Abubakar Ahutu have challenged the president’s position.

"I'm not happy about the planned relaxation of the lockdown," Ahutu said. "If the federal government or the president in particular is having good advisers, I think it is very bad for them at this point in time to start thinking about reopening the lockdown."

Before easing lockdowns for certain areas, authorities issued new regulations, including an overnight curfew, the mandatory use of face masks in public and strict social distancing restrictions.

But thousands across Abuja city on Monday flooded marketplaces and banks, thereby violating the physical distancing orders.

Look at Ghana

Economic analyst Audu Siyaka had this warning:

“Ghana tried to ease their lockdowns, and what happened was not palatable." They had to reverse their initial decision. I'm not saying that may happen to Nigeria, but it's a likelihood, because of our population."

Only 17,000 people have so far been tested for the coronavirus in Nigeria — an exceptionally small number when compared with figures in other African nations. But Buhari has promised aggressive testing and contact tracing in the coming weeks.

Critics will hold him by his words.

By Timothy Obiezu

VOA

Nigeria extends flight ban amid pandemic

Airports in Nigeria will remain closed for an additional four weeks as part of the measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, the government said on Wednesday.

The extension is the second since March 23 when the Nigerian government suspended all of its commercial flights.

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, said the federal government decided to extend the flight ban after due consultation.

"We have assessed the situation in the aviation industry and have come to the conclusion that given the facts available to us and based on the advice of experts, the ban on all flights will be extended for an additional four weeks," Mustapha said.

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control announced on Wednesday that the country has recorded 3,145 case of COVID-19 with 103 deaths.

Xinhua