Five new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Kano state.

The state’s ministry of health disclosed the development in a tweet on Wednesday. With the announcement, a total of nine persons have tested positive for coronavirus in the state.

Wednesday, 15th April 2020. As at 10:25 am, 5 additional cases of #COVID19 have been confirmed in @KanostateNg @NCDCgov @FMICNigeria @dawisu @NOA_Nigeria @Chikwe_I @NphcdaNG
#StaySafeNigeria #StayHome pic.twitter.com/8KfIOT2Bih

— Kano State Ministry of Health (@KNSMOH) April 15, 2020

Kano confirmed its index case of the virus on April 11, 2020.

The patient, a former diplomat, was said to have travelled to Lagos, Abuja, and Kaduna respectively over the past few weeks, and returned from Kaduna on the 25th of March, 2020.

He had several engagements with family, friends and close associates, and also attended a wedding fatiha and Juma’at prayer.

On Tuesday, Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, announced a total lockdown of the state, beginning on Thursday, April 16, 2020, as a part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

The state government also said efforts were ongoing to trace possible contacts of persons who tested positive for the disease.

So far, 373 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in 19 states across Nigeria. Of that figure, 99 persons have been discharged, while 11 deaths have been recorded.

he Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 30 new COVID-19 cases in five states across the country.

The agency made the announcement in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

In the first set of tweets made around 9:20 pm, NCDC announced 19 new cases.

However, barely two hours after the NCDC confirmed 19 new cases, 11 new cases were recorded.

As at 11:00 pm 14th April, number of states with confirmed cases of #COVID19: 19 + FCT

Lagos- 214
FCT- 58
Osun- 20
Edo- 15
Oyo- 11
Ogun- 9
Bauchi- 6
Kaduna- 6
Akwa Ibom- 6
Katsina-5
Kwara- 4
Kano- 4
Ondo- 3
Delta- 3
Enugu- 2
Ekiti- 2
Rivers-2
Benue- 1
Niger- 1
Anambra- 1

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 14, 2020

Mr Victor Ikwuemesi, Founder and CEO of Sosoliso Airlines dies in London today after testing Positive for COVID-19 and being admitted to the hospital on Saturday 11th April 2020. May his soul rest in peace.

According to Independent, Mr Victor Ikwuemesi, the Chairman of the defunct Sosoliso Airline died today in London, United Kingdom few days after he was diagnosed for coronavirus pandemic.

A source close to the family confided in our correspondent that Ikwuemesi was admitted to an unnamed London hospital after brief illness.

He later tested positive for COVID-19 in the result that was released on today (Tuesday).

He was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on oxygen since he arrived at the London hospital.

The source added:

“But, when the oxygen was removed for him to eat he couldn’t breath on his own.

“So they put him on a ventilator and he died shortly after.”

Taribo West, former Super Eagles defender, has revealed that some of his 1998 World Cup teammates sneaked women into their hotel rooms a night before their round of 16 clash against Denmark in France.

Taribo blamed his teammates’ actions for their lackluster performance and exit from the tournament.

The team had topped their group with six points from three games, ahead of Paraguay, Spain and Bulgaria.

They were then paired against Denmark, group C runners-up in the round of 16, where they were eventually knocked out after a 4-1 defeat at Stade de France.

Tijani Babangida scored Nigeria’s only goal which was not enough to inspire a comeback for the squad.

“But what I know is that some players sneaked women into camp, I saw that,” West told the PUNCH.

“I read reports about Eagles visiting nightclubs and driving limousines during the World Cup in France, honestly, I don’t know about that.

“The women were Africans who came to watch the tournament and fell in love with our team, because of the way we played in the group stage. So, it was easy for these players to woo them to their rooms.

“That is why on match day, you could see a lot of the players didn’t have the strength to curtail the Danish players.

“They were tired after overworking themselves the night before with the women. I was yelling at them on the pitch, I was very angry with them.

“They did all these because they thought we were going to beat Denmark.”

The Eagles were the only African country to progress to the knockout stage of the tournament in France.

A Nigerian COVID-19 survivor, John Opabola who lives in Longford in the Republic of Ireland, has explained what he went through after contracting the virus.

Opabola, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, said it started with a cough.

According to him, he contracted the virus at work when an infected colleague came into his department to pick up a laptop.

“When I started having dry cough, I called a General Practitioner who booked me for a COVID-19 test. After a few days I began to vomit and experience diarrhea; at this point, I couldn’t stand by myself and breathing became very difficult for me.”

Asked if the symptoms were similar to something he had experienced in the past that could have confused him, he answered in the negative.

“It started with a dry cough and you know when you experience dry cough here in Ireland around this time, we assume that it is just a flu so I quickly began to exercise and practise the normal procedure to cure myself from flu but it degenerated so quickly to a fever. I was having a very strong fever as well as aches and pains which were very painful. The fever was between 38.9 and 39 degrees.

“The policy in Ireland says if you find it difficult to breathe or your respiratory system is affected, you need to call the hospital straight away; however, in my own case, I started vomiting blood and immediately I vomited blood around 4am one Saturday morning, my wife called the ambulance system and they came, checked and even gave me a choice of either going for treatment or not,” he said.

Opaloba said he was grateful his condition did not affect his lungs or cause other severe sicknesses.

“I noticed the cough started around March 25 which was a Friday and by the weekend I had to call off work; I told them that I can’t come in anymore. I had started having severe tiredness and general weakness of the body. By Wednesday of the following week, I had started vomiting and had diarrhea so by 7 to 8 days it was full blown in my system and on Saturday by 5am, I called the ambulance because I vomited blood and when I got to the hospital, the second vomit I had was a brown coffee colour.

“The doctors told me then that that was extremely dangerous for the system so at the hospital I was put on IV and was given antibiotics. I remember them giving ma an IV Paracetamol and at that point I passed out and came back later in the day.”

A 22-year-old Nigerian student has been arrested in Budapest, the Hungary’s capital after a sex worker accused him of rape.

According to the police statement, a woman made a complaint on Saturday that she was raped in an apartment in District 7.

The woman told the detectives that she had met the man on a website which advertises sexual services. According to the woman, on April 11, at around 3 PM, the man came to her house to have sex with her. When she asked him to pay before having her, he refused and that was when she told him to leave her house.

The woman further said the Nigerian man refused to leave her home and instead started choking her, after which he allegedly raped her and then fled the scene.

The police officers of the 7th district of Budapest started looking for the perpetrator immediately. They checked out the information the woman could provide about the man as well as footages from nearby security cameras.

The accused was identified as an international student of University in Hungary. He was arrested in the 6th district the same day, at 6:40 PM.

The police questioned the Nigerian student, who has a valid visa. He denied committing the crime, but is now being held in custody.

Watch the video of Joseph’s arrest below;

Nigeria’s economy will face the worst recession in 30 years the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected.
It said the economy will recede by 3% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted global supply chains.

This would be the worst recession in 30 years after a negative economic growth of 1.51% in 2016.

In 1987, Nigeria’s economy receded by -10.87 and -0.6 in 1991.

The IMF projection was contained in the April 2020 World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday in Washington.

IMF chief economist and director of the research department, Gita Gopinath said the recession to be experienced would be the worst since the Great Depression between 1929 and 1932 when the advanced economies shrunk by 16%.

It is projected that the Nigerian economy will rebound by 2.4% in 2021.

“For the first time since the Great Depression, both the advanced economies and emerging and developing economies are in a recession,” she said in a briefing that marked the beginning of the April 2020 Spring meetings that is holding virtually.

“For 2020, growth in advanced economies is projected at -6%. Emerging markets and developing economies which typically have normal growth levels well above advanced economies are also projected to have negative growth of -1% and -2.2% if you exclude China.”

Gopinath also said the fund has projected 170 countries across the world would experience a shrinkage in their income per capita.

The economist said the recovery in 2020 would be partial and the projections provided in the report are the baseline scenario.

Nigeria on Tuesday received a grant of N21 billion (50 million Euros) from the European Union to fight COVID-19.

Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, Head of EU delegation in Nigeria, announced the grant at a meeting with President Buhari in Abuja.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, also confirmed this in a tweet on Tuesday.

Adesina said “EU gives Nigeria a grant of 50 million Euro to fight COVID-19. Head of EU delegation, Amb Ketil Karlsen, at the event commended President Buhari for “your powerful address to the nation last night,” and for “the bold and necessary measures you’ve taken.”

The federal government has terminated the contracts of two payment service providers (PSP) for failing to meet up with the contractual agreement to commence conditional cash transfer (CCT) to beneficiaries in four states.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sadiya Umar Farouq, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, listed the affected states as Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Zamfara.

She earlier said the ministry had commenced cash transfer to the poorest households in the country to cushion the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The PSP which contracts were terminated are Data Mining Company and Innovative NIPOST.

According to her, the termination is in line with the World Bank procurement guidelines to ensure that payments commenced in the affected states on or before April 28.

“The Federal Government cannot accept delays in the current payment round of N20,000 stipends to beneficiaries in poor and vulnerable households under any excuse in the four states or any other state of the federation,” she said.

“The failure of any payment service providers to meet their contractual agreement is unacceptable.

“The Federal Government through the Ministry cannot allow contractors to derail the immediate CCT to the poor and the vulnerable.”

On Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari extended the lockdown in the federal capital territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states.

The president said he decided to extend the lockdown to ensure that the disease which is now being spread within communities is checked.