COVID-19

Unusual tactics to fight Covid-19 from around the world

Published

4 years ago

April 21, 2020

Unusual tactics to fight Covid-19 from around the world

Daily life around the world is changing dramatically as countries and local governments employ different methods to fight Covid-19 spread of the coronavirus — while allowing society to keep functioning in some form.

Many nations are testing new techniques to help ease restrictions without causing a second wave of infection, while others are trying radical strategies to fight Covid-19 case numbers from climbing. These are some of the more unusual tactics:

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, speaks to students sitting two meters away from each other during the reopening of Lykkebo School in Copenhagen.

Classrooms 2.0

For many countries, schools will need to reopen first, enabling parents to return to work and children to resume their education on an equal footing.

Denmark is showing how that can be done, starting with students aged under 12. Schoolyards have been split into sections with tape and classes are smaller so that desks can be placed two meters apart. Children arrive and take breaks at staggered intervals, wash their hands on arrival and every two hours and remain outside as much as possible. Surfaces including sinks, toilet seats and door handles are disinfected twice daily.

ALSO, READ:

The Czech Republic has also begun a phased return starting with final-year students at college and universities, which is likely to be followed by primary school children, and high school students for one-on-one consultations.

A person wearing a protective mask pushes a grocery cart through a decontamination chamber at the La Vega Central fruit and vegetable market in Santiago, Chile.

Immunity cards

Chile will begin issuing digital immunity cards this week to people who have recovered from the coronavirus, according to a Monday announcement from health officials. The so-called “Covid cards” will be issued to people who tested positive for the virus and who have shown signs of recovery, following a 14-day quarantine.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this month that the UK was “looking at” the idea of an “immunity certificate,” or passport, to allow those who have antibodies to “get as much as possible back to normal life.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, said the idea of Americans carrying certificates of immunity to prove they have tested positive for the antibodies to the coronavirus might “have some merit under certain circumstances.”

A man with his bike surrounded by pigeons in a nearly empty Yenicami Square, at the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, during the weekend lockdown.

Weekend-only lockdowns

Turkey has enforced weekend-only lockdowns — 48-hour curfews affecting three-quarters of the population in 31 provinces.

During the week, the stay-at-home order only applies to those under the age of 20 or over 65. All other citizens are in theory allowed to go out, although many small businesses are closed, restaurants are open for delivery or pick-up only, public places like parks are off limits, and banks have limited hours.

The Navajo Nation in Arizona has also enacted strict weekend lockdowns during which members cannot leave their homes.

In Libya, members of the public are only “permitted to walk” between the hours of 7am and 12pm and stores are only opened during these hours.

Swedish authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing and asked those over 70 to stay at home, but still allow a large amount of personal freedom.

Age-specific restrictions

Turkey isn’t the only country that has decided to restrict movement by age. In Sweden, those aged 70 and over have been asked to stay at home. Earlier this month, researchers from Warwick University in the UK proposed that young adults aged 20-30 who do not live with parents should be released from lockdown first.

Gender-based lockdowns

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra announced on April 2 that it was adopting a gender-based measure because of its simplicity in visually detecting who should and shouldn’t be out on the streets. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, only men can be outside; on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, only women are allowed.

Panama has been doing this since April 1, arguing the measure encourages people to stay at home since their loved-ones are not allowed to be outside. Some cities in Colombia, including its capital Bogota, are also only allowing men and women to leave the house on alternate days.

Luck of the draw

Some parts of Colombia have also implemented additional measures. Cities including Cali and Medellin only permit citizens to leave their homes at certain times depending on their ID card numbers. This does not affect essential workers.

Under their eye

Several countries have used drones to monitor locked-down citizens. Italy’s National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) authorized the use of drones to monitor the movements of citizens back in March. Not long after the UK announced lockdown measures in late March, one police force posted a video of drone footage showing people walking through Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park, amid growing concern around draconian tactics from the authorities.

Commercial drone company Draganfly this month partnered with Australia’s Department of Defesse and the University of South Australia to deploy “pandemic drones” to “monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds.”

China and Kuwait have used “talking drones” to order people to return home.

Join Us On Facebook

COVID-19

PCR Tests for Travellers Fraudulent, Probe NCDC, Ministry – WHO Envoy

Published

2 years ago

March 18, 2022

GiftUgbede

PCR Tests for Travellers Fraudulent, Probe NCDC, Ministry – WHO Envoy

The World Health Organisation’s Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, Ayoade Alakija, has called for an investigation of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Ministry of Health over the required COVID-19 PCR tests for inbound passengers to Nigeria.

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK

Alakija, in a tweet via her official Twitter handle, @yodifiji, wondered why the PCR tests were done with no reagents.
According to reports, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Ifedayo Adetifa, had earlier insisted that Nigeria would not scrap COVID-19 tests for inbound passengers into the country.

Adetifa had said the country was reporting a high rate of COVID-19 cases from inbound passengers, hence the need for the insistence of the tests.
Alakija, reacting to a tweet by a journalist, David Hundeyin, tweeted, “It’s a scam. The entire thing is a criminal enterprise and should be exposed. “Diagnostic tests to enter a country where the government officials have interest in Dx test centres. PCR tests with no reagents? NCDC and MOH should be investigated. It is a scam, period.”

COVID-19

Austria Suspends Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccine Law

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2022

GiftUgbede

Austria has announced that it is suspending mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for all adults this came weeks after the legislature took effect in an EU first.

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK

The Alpine nation of nine million people was among few countries in the world to make jabs against the coronavirus compulsory for all adults.
The law took effect in February and called for fines up to 3,600 euros ($3,940) from mid-March for those who do not comply.

However, minister Karoline Edtstadler said the law’s “encroachment of fundamental rights” could no longer be justified by the danger posed by the pandemic.
“After consultations with the health minister, we have decided that we will of course follow what the (expert) commission has said,” Edtstadler told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
“We see no need to actually implement this compulsory vaccination due to the (Omicron) variant that we are predominantly experiencing here.” He noted

According to him,the highly-contagious variant is widely believed to be less severe than previous strains of the virus, and so far Austrian hospitals have been able to cope with a surge in cases.

COVID-19

F.G. Commences Vaccination with Over 30 Million J&J Vaccines

Published

2 years ago

February 25, 2022

GiftUgbede

Following efforts to increase the COVID-19 vaccination coverage of eligible persons across the country, the Federal Government has launched the service delivery, communication, accountability, logistics, electronic reporting, and supportive supervision (S.C.A.L.E.S) strategy.

The SCALES 2.0 strategy, which will ensure that more Nigerians can easily locate a nearby health facility to get vaccinated by visiting the website (www.vacsitefinder.nphcda.gov.ng), will also integrate childhood immunisation alongside other primary health care services.

YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK

Also, eligible persons can now get vaccinated with a single shot of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines, as there are over 30 million vaccine doses available.

Nigeria has received over 64 million COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca, Moderna, J&J and Pfizer. Furthermore, 48 million vaccines are expected before mid-year.

Latest vaccination data showed that as of February 21, 2022, a total of 17,199,853 eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination, while 7,663,560 have received their second dose. In total, 24,863,413 vaccine doses have been administered.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, made this known in Abuja during the launch of the SCALES 2.0 strategy with the use of the single dose J&J vaccine.

Dr Shuaib said: “We want to ensure that we not only decentralise COVID-19 vaccination, but make sure that we improve coverage and access to COVID-19 vaccination. Today, we are vaccinating just a little over 200,000 people per day. For us to reach our target of reaching 70 per cent of eligible populations before the end of 2022, we have to hit 550,000 people per day. This will ensure that we reach herd immunity.

“We are also going to be launching the single shot vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) for everyone. We understand that one of the reasons there is a gap between our first and second doses is because people experience adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination. Although the adverse events are very mild, we know that the opportunity to have a single shot not only in the hardest to reach areas, but everybody having access to one single shot will definitely increase our coverage of COVID-19 vaccination.

“The COVID-19 vaccination ‘site finder’ will improve the ability of Nigerians to assess COVID-19 vaccines. If you are able to sign on to this website, you will be shown the nearest COVID-19 vaccination centre.”

In her remarks, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Moeti Matshidiso, hailed the Federal Government’s vaccination strategy and efforts in ensuring that more Nigerians are covered.

She said: “I think we have learnt many lessons on how to leverage the capacities and lessons in delivering such campaigns in a country like Nigeria and internationally.

“I understand that there is going to be a great deal of emphasis on decentralisation – on really leveraging the decentralised nature of the Nigerian system and government to engage decision makers at the state and local government level, so that they can drive the very much action needed to speed up delivery of vaccines to the population.

“There will also be the need to expand the delivery capacity because at the same time the country is carrying out this important work, there is other work of delivering vaccines, responding to public health emergencies going on.”

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, added: “Let me assure Nigerians that we have adequate stock of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, as we have over 30 million doses in stock. I call on all eligible persons that are yet to receive their vaccination to go to the nearest COVID-19 vaccination site and get vaccinated. This single dose offers the same protection you get from two doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer Bio-N-Tech and Moderna vaccines.