A hospital director in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, the epicentre of a new coronavirus outbreak, died from the disease on Monday, state media reported.

Liu Zhiming, director of Wuchang Hospital, died from infection with the new coronavirus, which has so far spread to more than 72,000 people across China, the state-owned newswire China News Service said on microblogging site Weibo. His death comes as more medical personnel on the front lines of China’s battle against Covid-19 are falling ill with the disease. China reported last week that more than 1,700 medical workers have been infected, and at least six have died.

The Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Mohammed Nasir Sambo, has emphasised that Nigeria is under a pressing need to work at double-speed to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in accordance with the global agenda of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

But in realisation of this challenge, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the Federal Government will recruit 50,000 health extension workers who will be deployed to public health facilities. He pointed out that the recruitment was part of Federal Government targets to ensure healthcare delivery to Nigerians in 2019/2020; while the government is also striving to make health insurance mandatory for all Nigerians.

The Federal Government has denied abandoning about 60 Nigerians living in Wuhan, China as coronavirus ravaged the city.

Nigerian citizens, including students living and studying in China, had accused the Federal Government of failing to aid their evacuation from the Chinese province where the deadly coronavirus was first reported and had its largest number of victims. But while reading a communiqué released at the end of an emergency meeting of the Ministers of Health of the Economic Community of West African States on regional preparedness and response to the ongoing Covid-19

Access Bank, in partnership with The ENDFund, the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS and Hacey Health Initiative have embarked on a campaign to sensitise Nigerians on how to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS, as well as the risk of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

According to the Head of Sustainability and Corporate Communications, Access Bank Plc, Ms. Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, over 3,000 attendees were reached with the awareness of best practices to manage their health and wellbeing during the Lagos City Marathon held recently.

The World Health Organisation, United Nations Children’s Fund and The Lancet, have ranked Nigeria 174th out of 180 nations that are compared to determine their performance on child flourishing and survival. The report, which was released on Wednesday, said Nigeria ranked below Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and South-Sudan. 

It added that the ranking was done by a commission that was convened by the three global health agencies. It said, “In a landmark report released today (Wednesday) by a commission convened by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and The Lancet, Nigeria ranked in the bottom 10 for performance on child flourishing. “The ranking is based on factors including measures of child survival and well-being such as health, education, nutrition, equity and income gaps.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has said the state has placed 63 persons under surveillance following the confirmation of an index case being isolated at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba. Abayomi made this disclosure at a press briefing on Wednesday, calling on the public not to panic. 

Meanwhile, the National Centre for Disease Control on Wednesday confirmed that 103 people had been killed by Lassa fever in the country since the beginning of this year.

The Nigeria Medical Association has debunked claims on social media that chloroquine phosphate is a cure for coronavirus, aka COVID-19, saying the anti-malaria drug is not a proven antidote.

According to the China News Service, in late January, Chinese medical researchers stated that, in exploratory research considering a selection of 30 drug candidates, three of them, remdesivir, chloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir, seemed to have “fairly good inhibitory effects” on coronavirus at the cellular level.

There was anxiety at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Wednesday as medical consultants withdrew their services in protest against a circular that prescribed acquisition of PhD for clinical lecturers in Nigerian universities. 

They were protesting under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria. The National Universities Commission had, in the circular dated December 24, 2019, addressed to vice-chancellors of all Nigerian universities and the registrar

The Representative of the World Health Organisation, in Nigeria, Tereza Kasaeva, has said Nigeria ranks first in Africa among countries with the highest cases of tuberculosis infection. She also said the country ranked among the top 10 countries globally. 

Kasaeva stated this on Wednesday when she led a delegation of the United Nations Programming Mission on a visit to the Senate President,  Ahmad Lawan,  at the National Assembly, Abuja.

The Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria has declared an indefinite strike to press home its demand for the National Universities Commission to withdraw the circular requiring clinical lecturers to acquire a PhD as a condition for career progression in the Nigerian universities.

The National President of MDCAN, Prof. Kenneth Ozoilo, announced the strike at a press conference in Jos on Tuesday. The MCAN President said, “The decision of the NUC to embark on this policy direction, without due attention to the consequences and implications is to say the least, embarrassing.