The Federal Government will recover millions of naira wrongly paid to 588 medical doctors across the country. Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, stated this when he fielded questions from State House correspondents in Abuja.

He explained that affected doctors wrongly benefitted from Medical Residency Training Fund meant for a particular category of doctors. He said the names of the doctors were uncovered after a thorough scrutinisation of the 8000 names submitted by Chief Medical Directors of Federal Government health institutions for the training programme.

The Federal Government, on Tuesday, hinted that it might sanction anybody who refused to take COVID-19 vaccines after they had been made available to all Nigerians. The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, gave the hint of possible sanctions at a press briefing in Abuja.

This was as a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday, barred the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, from enforcing compulsory COVID-19 vaccination in the state.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, is set to resume as the Assistant Director-General of Health Emergency Intelligence at the World Health Organisation on November 1, 2021, The PUNCH has learnt.

This was disclosed in a letter signed by the WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus. The letter, which was sighted by our correspondent was addressed to all staff members of the organisation.

Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and 14 other states reported 582 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to figures released on Thursday by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The health agency also reported 11 COVID-19 related deaths. The NCDC disclosed this on its official website on Thursday. According to the agency, 582 new cases were recorded from Rivers, Lagos, the FCT and 14 other states.

An Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Dr. Kamil Shoretire says pregnant women with abnormally sited placenta could bleed after having sex.

According to him, this usually occurs when the placenta is sited very close to the mouth of the womb also known as placenta previa. Shoretire said some women may bleed during pregnancy depending on the location of the growing embryo or the location of the placenta.

Child health experts have cautioned mothers against giving their under-five children whole nuts such as groundnut, warning that children could choke to death in the process of swallowing the nuts. According to the experts, the household practice of giving whole nuts to children should be discouraged among mothers, noting that it is very risky because children have small airways.

They explained that because children play while eating, the whole nut can go into the narrow airway, adding that the children could suddenly choke on the nut or even end up with a health problem that might require a surgical intervention.

Health authorities in Guinea on Monday confirmed a case of Marburg virus disease in the southern Gueckedou prefecture. This is the first time Marburg, a highly infectious disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, has been identified in the country, and in West Africa.

Marburg, which is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, was detected less than two months after Guinea declared an end to an Ebola outbreak that erupted earlier this year. Samples taken from a now-deceased patient and tested by a field laboratory in Gueckedou as well as Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory turned out positive for the Marburg virus.

As at 11:20 pm 15th April, 407 COVD-19 cases have been recorded in Nigeria since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country, Vanguard can report.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC announced 34 new cases Wednesday night, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 407.

Nigerian Government on Tuesday warned against patronising a fake coronavirus vaccine, which it said was on sale in Kano State. “You must ignore the Vaccine being hawked in Kano which is called ‘COVID19 Vaccine’. It is yellow in color, it’s not certified by anybody, please don’t patronize the hawkers,”Nigeria’s information minsiter Lai Mohammed said during the presidential taskforce on COVID19 briefing. 

Mohammed further said the government has increased its enlightenment programs about the virus with over 90% Nigerians

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday insisted that there was no approved vaccine in Nigeria or any part of Africa for COVID-19 saying researches are still ongoing on the deadly viral disease.

WHO Immunisation Team Lead, Dr Fiona Braka, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the efforts of the world body on the reported vaccines for the deadly virus. Braka said COVID-19, being a new disease, has no ready vaccines, adding that public safety was the key consideration of WHO campaign for now.