The report of 1,444 new cases of the Coronavirus recorded by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Nigeria and the warning by virologists and other medical experts that 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine the country is expecting may become useless, if proper arrangements are not made for their transportation and storage are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 1,444 new cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
The NCDC disclosed this on its official website late on Sunday.
Nigeria reports that the country has tested 1,154,138 people since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was recorded on Feb. 27, 2020.
According to the public health agency, the new infections has taken the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 110,387, which includes 89,317 discharged cases and 1,435 deaths.
The agency said the 1,444 new cases were registered from 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the past 24 hours.
The health agency reported 15 COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours.
The NCDC disclosed that 3,950 patients were discharged from isolation centres across the country after the second test result returned negative.
The Punch says that virologists and other medical experts have warned that 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine the country is expecting may become useless, if proper arrangements are not made for their transportation and storage.
The experts, including the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, Dr Patrick Dakum; a medical virologist, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, and a professor of Virology at the University of Ibadan, David Olaleye, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, advised government to ensure proper storage and transportation of the vaccine to achieve its desired result.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Prof Babatunde Salako, had in an interview with Sunday PUNCH on Saturday, said there was no enough space to store the vaccine at the moment.
He also said another major challenge would be how to transport the vaccine at the temperature of -70 degree centigrade to rural areas.
Recall that the Federal Government had two weeks ago said it was expecting 100,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine before the end of the month.
The newspaper reports that the Nigerian Government on Sunday insisted that the deadlines given for the registration of all Subscriber Identification Modules with valid National Identity Numbers were still in force.
It also declared that the NIN was mandatory for diplomats who reside in Nigeria, as well as for all other lawful residents across the country.
Asked whether the Federal Government had eventually advised the Nigerian Communications Commission as regards the deadlines for SIM registration with NIN, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Ikechukwu Adinde, told our correspondent that nothing had changed.
On Thursday, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the NCC was awaiting the advice of the Federal Government as regards the stipulated deadlines.
“The deadlines are still in force; there is no update for now and just like I told you last week, if there is any change you will be communicated,” Adinde stated on Sunday.
Calls for deadline extension are mainly due to the large crowds that gather daily at the various offices of the National Identity Management Commission, as many telephone subscribers had yet to get their NINs.
The Sun says that the Organised labour has berated the Federal Government’s resort to international economic indices to determine domestic electricity tariff.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba, reacting to the crisis in the electricity sector, said something was inherently wrong in calculating in United States dollars the cost of the gas used by generation companies (Gencos) in generating electricity in Nigeria.
“The current practice violates fundamental economic theory of compaative advantage, especially for a developing economy as ours. Related to this is the calculation of ancillary electricity supply logistics in foreign currencies and transferring same to electricity consumers,” he said.
The NLC president said, from the feedback labour has so far got from its representatives in the Technical Committee on the Review of the Electricity Sector, four things stand out in the state of affairs in the electricity sector.
He noted that besides the first on foreign currency, the second was the perversity of offloading the cost of electricity capital accumulation on end consumers.
The Nation reports that the Nigerian pension industry fund assets rose to N12.29 trillion by November 30, 2020.
This represented a 1.94 percent increase when compared with N12.053 trillion recorded as at October 31, 2020.
Latest report by the National Pension Commission (Pencom) showed that the pension funds rose by 5.89 percent between September and November based on the N11.56 trillion recorded as at September 30, 2020.
However, as contributions and trade continued on a growth trajectory, the pension managers, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) invested more funds than before in Federal Government Securities.
The PFAs invested a total of N8.139 trillion in FGN Securities during the period under review, representing 66.22 percent of the total N12.29 trillion fund assets.
ThisDay says that a media firm, MoneyCentral Media Limited, has unveiled its print publication in addition to its online news, analysis and data platform.
According to the firm, MoneyCentral “is focused on the most authentic financial and business news, research and data analytics, as well as a forum with a particular goal of reaching a younger audience.
“The first edition of the print publication which hit the newsstands on January 18, 2020, is a collection of well-researched stories, investigations, analyses and market intelligence for young people, investors, shareholders, regulators, small and big businesses, providing them with the knowledge and information to help with their business decisions.”
The Editor of MoneyCentral’s print and online platforms, Bala Augie, said: “With MoneyCentral, there are no fillers, just deep analyses, insight and market moving news. We are building a team of young motivated analysts, who will be producing great stories on a daily and weekly basis that would give our readers the inside knowledge to help grow their money. We believe our unique content speaks for itself.”
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