COVID-19 affects kidney – Lagos health commissioner (Punch)
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.
The commissioner warned that obese, diabetic, and hypertensive persons should be “very careful” as their condition pose a likely risk of being infected with the lethal virus.
“There are new discoveries about the COVID-19 virus. For instance, it is not a straightforward respiratory problem. We have found out that it impacts the blood, the kidneys. Read more
COVID-19: Panic grips residents where Tinubu’s dead CSO lived (Vanguard)
Following the public announcement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) National leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that his Chief of Staff, Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, Lateef Raheem, died of COVID-19 complications, there has been serious panic among the residents of Maplewood Estate, Lagos Island, where the deceased lived until his death.
Tinubu, had on Monday, through a statement by his media aide, Mr. Tunde Ramon, confirmed that Raheem died of COVID-19 complication aside from his underlying diseases like High Blood Pressure and Diabetes.
Consequently, a concerned resident, identified as Jumu’ah Abiodun, a social commentator, political analyst and journalist based in Lagos, stated raised the alarm among residents in an open letter to COVID-19 Incident Commander, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the need to act fast over Tinubu’s CSO death. Read more
Woman laments disappearance of daughter in Lagos (Guardian)
A Lagos businesswoman, Mrs. Bola Chidi, has declared her 24-year-old daughter, Bianca Ada Chidi, missing. Chidi, who spoke amidst tears, said Bianca went for her National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) mobilization at Ile Ife, Osun State and did not come back home till now.
According to her, “she was returning from Ife on March 16, and she called me when she got to Ojodu-Berger, Lagos. She called me later when she entered a bus going to Iyana Ipaja. After a while, she called me again that she would soon alight at the last bus stop in Iyana Ipaja, which is quite close to Abule-Egba where we live. Read more
Police rescue newborn baby in Ekiti (Punch)
The police in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Monday evening rescued a newborn baby from an uncompleted building at the Goshen Avenue, Adebayo area of the city, where it was dumped by the mother.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Mr Sunday Abutu, said residents of the community alerted the police to the dumped baby, following which the security agents rose to the occasion.
Abutu said, “We got a call from that a newborn baby was abandoned in an uncompleted building in Adebayo. We have recovered the baby and we immediately moved it to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti. The baby is now undergoing some treatment and care.” Read more
Union rejects 25% deduction from workers’ salaries by Kaduna Government (Guardian)
The Joint Unions of Tertiary Institutions of Kaduna State (JUTIKS) has rejected the deduction of 25 per cent of workers’ salaries by the state government.
The union in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Mr Noah Danlami and the Secretary, Mr Jibril Makama in Kaduna on Wednesday, rejected the decision, describing it as an “illegal imposed levy”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government had on April 26 announced its decision to embark on the monthly deduction of 25 per cent of workers salaries pending when the coronavirus pandemic will end. Read more
Court rejects Maina’s fresh bail variation request (Punch)
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday rejected a fresh application by the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, for the review of the bail condition imposed on him in respect of his ongoing trial for money laundering.
Justice Okon Abang, in his ruling, dismissed the application which sought the second review of the bail conditions since November 26, 2019, when Maina was first granted the bail by the court.
Maina, who was granted bail by the court since November, has remained in detention in prison due to his inability to meet the conditions imposed by the court. Read more
COVID-19: Enugu government confirms new positive case (Guardian)
The Enugu State Government has announced a new positive case of COVID-19 in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ikechukwu Obi, said this in a statement issued in Enugu.
Obi said that the new case was detected two weeks after the two former index cases were discharged.
He explained that the index case had a travel history.
“The confirmed case reportedly travelled out of Enugu on the 28th of March, 2020, and returned from Jos, Plateau State, two weeks ago on April 14. Read more
National grid collapses, plunges generation to 2,983mw (Vanguard)
The national electricity grid system suffered collapse early Wednesday, but was restored shortly by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), leaving power generation at 2,900 megawatts afterwards.
The TCN, which confirmed the system disturbance, in a statement Wednesday in Abuja noted the incident occurred at 1 am but could not immediately confirm the cause of the power loss.
The General Manager, Public Affairs at TCN, Ndidi Mbah, explained the National Control Centre (NCC) of TCN in Osogbo commenced immediate restoration of the grid which has been completed nationwide except for that of the Eastern axis which was to be completed shortly as at when TCN announced the system disturbance. Read more
Economy to reopen within six weeks staggered in three phases of two weeks, says PTF (Tribune)
In line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari issued during his last nationwide broadcast, the Presidential Task Force on the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has released sector-specific guidelines to contain the spread of the virus in the country.
The chairman of the task force and Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, who announced the guidelines during its briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, also outlined the plan to reopen the economy within six weeks staggered in three phases of two weeks each.
He said the idea of a phased reopening was to reduce the pains of socioeconomic disruptions and strengthen the response to the disease outbreak.
He said: “In line with the president’s directive in paragraphs 38-41 of his broadcast, the PTF has developed sector specific guidelines. The gradual reopening of the economy will span a total of six weeks broken into three tranches of two weeks each. Read more
Microsoft Word now says a double space after a full stop is wrong (Metro)
Typing two spaces after a full stop is wrong, according to Microsoft Word. Microsoft’s famous word processing application is set to start flagging the practice as incorrect – displaying the wavy blue line of bad grammar. According to the program, it’s a formatting ‘error’ to double space after a period. The practice comes from the days of the typewriter when equal-width characters of ‘monospaced’ fonts called for clearer sentence endings. Read more
Berlin’s new airport to take off nine years late (BBC)
There may be no passengers on the horizon because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Berlin’s long-awaited new airport has finally been given clearance for take off on 31 October.
Berlin-Brandenburg was due to open in March 2011 but delays and scandals put it on hold for almost a decade.
Building authorities have now given it the green light, 14 years after construction began. Read more
Pfizer coronavirus vaccine could be ready for emergency use by this fall (NYPost)
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Tuesday that a new coronavirus vaccine could be tested as early as next week — with the potential for emergency use by fall, a report said Tuesday.
“This is a crisis right now, and a solution is desperately needed by all,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla told the Wall Street Journal.
Pfizer is working with German-based BioNtech to deliver the possible vaccine. Clinical trials on human volunteers in Germany have already started. Read more
Slumdog Millionaire star Irrfan Khan dies aged 53 after battling colon infection (Metro)
Bollywood icon Irrfan Khan has died at the age of 53 after battling a colon infection, it has been confirmed. The Life of Pi star was rushed to a Mumbai hospital for treatment on Tuesday (28 April) and placed in intensive care. However, he died on Wednesday (29 April).
Confirming the sad news, Irrfan’s representatives said in a statement: ‘“I trust, I have surrendered”, these were some of the many words that Irrfan expressed in a heartfelt note he wrote in 2018 opening up about his fight with cancer. Read more
Coronavirus: Outcry as Spanish beach sprayed with bleach (BBC)
Authorities in a Spanish coastal resort have apologised after spraying a beach with bleach in an attempt to protect children from coronavirus.
Zahara de los Atunes, near Cadiz, used tractors to spray more than 2km (1.2 miles) of beach with a bleach solution a day before Spain allowed children out of lockdown for the first time.
Environmentalists say the move caused “brutal damage” to the local ecosystem.
Spain has been badly affected by the coronavirus, with 23,800 deaths. Read more
Vaping damages arteries and blood vessels just like smoking, scientists claim (Metro)
Vaping damages the arteries and blood vessel function much like smoking traditional cigarettes, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of Boston studied more than 400 men and women aged between 21 and 45 for the study. The group was made up of non-smokers, cigarette smokers, e-cigarette users and people who both smoked and vaped. They studied measures of blood vessel function in e-cigarette and dual users who had been using e-cigarettes for at least three months. All e-cigarette users were former cigarette smokers. Read more
Oscars change streaming rules amid battle for future of cinemas (BBC)
The body behind the Oscars has changed its rules so films that debut on streaming or video on demand services are eligible for next year’s awards.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ current rules say films can only enter if they have been shown in a Los Angeles cinema for at least a week.
But with cinemas shut during the coronavirus crisis, organisers said a “temporary” exception was necessary.
Many film releases have been delayed, with others going straight to digital. Read more
COVID-19: Dybala tests positive ‘for fourth time’ (Punch)
Paulo Dybala has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus for the fourth time in six weeks.
The Argentinian ace confirmed last month he had contracted COVID-19 shortly after Serie A action had been suspended due to the global pandemic.
He was one of three Juventus stars to test positive for the illness with Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi.
But, according to Spanish TV programme El Chiringuito, Dybala is struggling to shake off the disease. Read more
Man Utd given permission to trial safe standing at Old Trafford (Guardian)
Manchester United have been granted permission to install 1,500 safe-standing seats for use in a trial when Old Trafford has opened again to supporters.
The use of barrier seating has been approved following a change in regulations and a feasibility study carried out by the club.
Fans are not expected to be permitted to attend matches for at least a number of months with English football indefinitely suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Even when matches do return, they will likely take place behind closed doors for the foreseeable future. Read more
La Liga plans training return as soon as possible after government go-ahead (Metro)
Professional sports leagues in Spain can go back to training from 4-11 May
La Liga is working towards its clubs returning to training as soon as possible after being given the green light by the Spanish government.
Football in Spain was suspended indefinitely in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country’s top division has created a detailed protocol for the return to training so proper health safeguards are observed.
The aim is a potential restart to the league in mid-June behind closed doors. Read more
Dimitar Berbatov told Manchester United scout to sign ‘unbelievable’ Anthony Martial (Metro)
Dimitar Berbatov has revealed that a Manchester United scout asked for his opinion on Anthony Martial before the Frenchman’s move to Old Trafford. Berbatov and Martial were together at Monaco before United signed the French forward in a £36 million deal in September 2015. And the Bulgarian says he gave a glowing report to the scout and predicted that Martial would become a ‘great player’. ‘I had a wonderful time at Monaco,’ Berbatov told talkSPORT. Read more
MotoGP: German, Dutch, Finnish races are all cancelled due to coronavirus (BBC)
The German, Dutch and Finnish MotoGP races scheduled to take place in June and July have all been cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The new season is yet to start with the first 11 races affected and a revised calendar has not been published.
Races in Spain, France and Italy have so far been postponed but are now looking more uncertain to take place.
The next race on the original calendar is the Czech Grand Prix in Brno on 9 August. Read more
Virtual tennis king Andy Murray calls for patience over sporting return amid coronavirus crisis (Metro)
Andy Murray has called for the sporting world to remain patient amid the coronavirus crisis, with a return to normality the priority. Britain’s most famous tennis export has been competing against other tennis players this week in the Virtual Madrid Open – and has proven himself to be as handy with a virtual tennis racquet as he is with a real one. As well as hammering great rival Rafael Nadal for the loss of just a point – before mocking the Spanish world No. 2 after victory – Murray, viewed as one of the tournament favourites, has seen off Benoit Paire and Denis Shapovalov in the group stages, securing his spot in the quarter-finals. Read more
Watford announce signing of Pape Gueye (Independent)
Watford have confirmed the signing of French midfielder Pape Gueye from Le Havre.
The deal will go through on July 1, when Gueye’s contract with the Ligue 2 side expires, with the 21-year-old signing a five-year deal at the Hornets.
With his contract set to run out in the summer, Gueye was able to talk to clubs from January and was subject to interest from the likes of Marseille, Sevilla, AC Milan, Udinese, Valencia and Arsenal. Read more