President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday implored Nigerians to comply with the government’s directive on movement restriction “once more” in order to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic that had infected 305 Nigerians in the last few weeks.[color=#000099][/color]

The president in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, thanked Nigerians for their patience, resolve and strong determination to defeat the coronavirus.

He also promised more interventions for vulnerable citizens in the country.

President Buhari had on March 29 ordered a total cessation of movement in Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory for an initial period of 14 days in a bid to check the spread of the disease in the country.

He said: “But we must ask you – once more – to observe restrictions on movement where they are in place, and follow the instructions of our scientists and medical advisers: stay home, wash your hands, save lives.

“The freedoms we ask you to willingly forsake today will only last as long as our scientific advisers declare they are necessary. But they are essential – world over – to halt and defeat the spread of this virus.

“For those who suffer most egregiously, the Government has announced multiple measures to assist: 70,000 tonnes of grain is being released from the National Strategic Grain Reserves for distribution to those in most need; distribution of small cash payments are also being made, and will continue to be made by the federal government in the states and local government areas.”

The president urged members of the public to follow public announcements via the mass media for instructions as to how to receive government support, and learn of more public assistance in the coming days.

Buhari added: “All that the government is asking you to endure is because nowhere in the world today is there any known way of defeating this pandemic. There is no vaccine. And that means there are choices to be made: between continuing as usual, or accepting the restrictions even when they come with unintended consequences.

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Saturday confirmed the discharge of four new COVID-19 patients from the state’s isolation facilities.

The governor, who disclosed this on his verified Twitter handle – @jidesanwoolu – said the patients have now tested negative for the disease following their treatment at the state’s isolation facilities.

According to him, four male patients, including an 11-year-old boy, were discharged from the Lagos State Isolation facilities to reunite with the society.

He said: “Today, four more patients; all male, including an 11-year-old boy have been discharged from the Lagos State Isolation facilities to reunite with society.”

Sanwo-Olu, however, appealed to Lagos residents to stay at home and practice social distancing.

The Ondo State government Saturday announced the cancellation of the Easter Sunday church services following the confirmation of the second case of coronavirus in the state.

The state Commissioner for Information, Donald Ojogo, who disclosed this in a statement, said the government has declared that there would no church services on Easter Sunday.

He urged all Christians to worship in their houses.

The government had earlier lifted the ban on religious gatherings to enable the Christians worship in the church on Easter Sunday only.

This followed the agreement reached by the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu and the leadership of the Christians Association of Nigeria.

But the new development has forced the government to change its mind on the matter.

The government said the emergence of second case of coronavirus in the state had once again, reinforced the need to “deepen our collective efforts to combat the pandemic.”

The commissioner said: “The Ondo State COVID-19 Response Team has reported that the second case, having travelled from Lagos to Ondo State must give the government greater concern to avoid community transmission.

“Against the backdrop of the above, the Ondo State Government has directed the cancellation of the special concession granted churches across the state to celebrate the Easter Sunday/Service. This decision was taken after due consultations with the leadership of the CAN. All measures and steps taken in respect of the COVID-19 still remain in force. In particular, government has taken further steps to effectively man the boundaries in the light of reported cases of compromise and breach of the directive to close all inter-state entry points into Ondo State.”

In a similar vein, the Chairman of the CAN in the state, Rev. Ayo Oladapo, said the association had agreed with the state government because of the current development in the state.

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has revealed that he listens to the Afrobeat songs of Nigeria's music stars Wizkid and Davido especially before every game for his club. The Dutch have named to two musicians as his favorite Afrobeat musicians.



In an interview with Premier League Productions, the 2019 Ballon d'Or nominee Virgil Van Dijk told his interviewer, Simon Crabtree:

"I listen to a lot of Afrobeat music particularly by Nigerian musicians. I love Wizkid and Davido. I know you might not know them just go check them out," the Dutch international said.



In the about 26 minutes interview, Van Dijk also picked his five aside team of Premier League players comprising of Manchester City trio of Ederson (goalkeeper), Aymeric Laporte (defender) and Kevin De Bruyne (midfielder); Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal's Pierre Emerick Aubameyang as the striker.

The Dutch defender has proved to be a bargain for the Reds since his arrival from Southampton and has gone to win 3 trophies with the Reds in the last 11 months.
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May her soul rest in peace .

I think this is a nice forum .

Yeah that's true .

Nice .

Lagos State government has announced the death of another coronavirus patient, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease to five in the state.

The State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, made the announcement via his Twitter handle on Sunday.

According to him, the patient died of complications from the coronavirus infection.

With the development, Lagos State has 177 confirmed cases, while 50 persons have so far been discharged from the isolation centre.

The tweet read, “With the latest development, numbers of discharged (for) #COVID19 Lagos patients now stand at 50.

“Unfortunately, Lagos recorded another death from #COVID19 related complication bringing numbers of such sad occurrence to five.

“We, therefore, urge early test for #COVID19 infection and prompt commencement of treatment for adequate intervention to save lives.”

When the Coronavirus which is also known as COVID-19 entered Nigeria through an Italian, and other returnees, nobody new it would cause so much headache to Nigerians.Within a short time, the virus increased rapiddly in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja. The virus was also found in Oyo, Osun, Edo, Ekiti, kaduna, Bauchi, and Rivers States, to mention just a few.

The gradual but steady rise in the number of affected persons in the country, made both the Federal and the State Governments to consider the closure of Schools throughout the country. The closure was one of the proactive measures to prevent the catastrophic spread of this dangerous virus to all the nooks and crannies of this big country.

During the stay-at- home order of the Governments, Students were instructed to make very good use of the Internet, where a lot of teaching and learning activities abound.

However, after staying at home for many days, the students and their parents were confused and tired.The Students were eager to leave their homes for school. The Internet was bombarded with many research terms as "when is school resuming in Nigeria 2020,? news on School resumption dates, and the School resumption date in Nigeria 2020..." e.t.c.

Upon this simple findings, the Federal and the State Governments are now trying to ensure situation in the country is returned to normalcy, so that Schools could resume without much delay. One giant step the Government has taken to solve the problems of COVID-19 in Nigeria is the invitation of Chinese experts to Nigeria to assist us in dealing with the monster virus.Other steps taken recently also included fumigation of some sensitive areas,purchase of more equipment to fight the virus and building more laboratories.

As much as the Federal and State Governments are ready to open schools for the students to resume, all depends on the monster virus to decide.The new tentative date of resumption was silated for the 4th of May 2020,but all depends on whether COVID-19 has departed from the country or not.If it drastically reduce or totally eliminated, the schoolls would happily resume, if not, the Schools would remain closed.

Hmm

Kaduna State Government has expressed fear that violation of the lockdown order in the State may jack up its cases of COVID-19 to as high as 57,000.

The fear was expressed by the state’s Task Force on COVID-19, saying that, the risk assessment of the pandemic is troubling and could be up to 57,000 new cases if there is no effective enforcement and implementation of the lockdown order.

The Task Force was reacting to the sixth confirmed COVID-19 case involving a male patient who returned from Lagos state to Kaduna through a commercial vehicle after he tested positive for the deadly disease.

It, however, said that, it has commenced massive enforcement of the lockdown, especially to stop interstate travels till further notice as part of measures to avoid community transmission of the disease.
Leader of the Task Force and Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, noted in an interview that it is important for people to observe the lockdown for as long as it is in effect for their own safety.

According to him, “with the pandemic gradually spreading to neighbouring states coupled with the sixth imported case from far away Lagos into Kaduna, we are not happy that the safe corridor provided for travelers has been serially abused since the lockdown was imposed, as people from elsewhere have been coming into Kaduna in droves in violation of the quarantine order.

“Now, security agencies have been issued an executive order to turn back any unauthorised vehicles into the state.

“Vehicles without approvals have been intercepted along Kachia road and Sabon Tasha area, with some commercial drivers abandoning their buses and fleeing in a bid to escape arrest,” he said.https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=CfGAwwZmUXvzkC8qE-wboxbT4C_-W3blbvtHzwKIJxPnU-6EWEAEgrpz1FGC3vIOF9DCgAdexxYMDyAEDqQJA_WvG_--0PqgDAcgDCKoElQJP0BvzYg5-K2LST_BytR5FUna4qq6oHByySERU-DV6vL-SXCcSw1g8y-aMgNiG9oJE2MiCCC0E2h0yh7F5DqE-pRJa4YJXMW_8008ppqSoPAaxzHWpSyf6_Xad-_ZIJ9Uyq_qlrDbjAG2TTSaLV1hmSS2N_J8G0Db28iNHDpY-QpimBdFcHlHBarbUsL1XfQE_4-4am_YsnTYuuTdOi70zmcawMLzJy6w-Mlcwoh6Q1yw2vtEi7tQaHi7B0n63ACqJXCravCPNkeerzFHzPaEcz-xAmjPd_T0V90TL8enS2XvgiYFv2H1Yw6Bt0DkJZphoAqw_yI4hpGlRk4BvSISd4WQb6RBjSp9mw8OPvPXmschFk_ghwASNzNjI_gGIBc6XksIHkAYBoAYD2AYCgAeRzrp8iAcBkAcCqAeOzhuoB9XJG6gHk9gbqAe6BqgH8NkbqAfy2RuoB6a-G6gH7NUbqAfz0RuoB-zVG6gHwtob2AcBoAiq_6kEsAgC0ggGCAAQAhgasQk6bDCdXWDuMYAKAZgLAcgLAdgTDYIUFxoVdGhlbmF0aW9ub25saW5lbmcubmV0&ae=1&num=1&cid=CAMSeQClSFh3EGkMFWOKSzqBBoaKv4wZsVfN1syvb6yv2VUzAk70QVjifWNDnna9y0gPwHTZjXvRZ5WwA4LaqQpaS3Gz8BxPqLqSaZgqTjqjQyVbxVs6fTvgvlv75ZbKUPCsOpQpbfTGA2YrTsACp64AkEwRIc_Fs8PDfAg&sig=AOD64_0fZExtLCEwMKHE6U1NJ_UfLe0PWg&client=ca-pub-5089981496810613&nx=CLICK_X&ny=CLICK_Y&nb=2&adurl=https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/join-international-members/%3Fgclid%3DCj0KCQjwm9D0BRCMARIsAIfvfIZ8Y5f9PjPgUjoUALZgBhlUR1B0-45TlITLRREujKcGQgtSjKQFm10aAuuMEALw_wcB

Smart cities can help us combat the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, in a growing number of countries, smart cities are doing just that. Governments and local authorities are using smart city technology, sensors and data to trace the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus. At the same time, smart cities are also helping in efforts to determine whether social distancing rules are being followed.

On the one hand, such applications of smart technology are exciting and invaluable, particularly in nations that have managed to keep Covid-19 case numbers relatively low, such as South Korea.

But on the other hand, the use of masses of connected sensors makes it clear that the coronavirus pandemic is–intentionally or not–being used as a testbed for new surveillance technologies that may threaten privacy and civil liberties. So aside from being a global health crisis, the coronavirus has effectively become an experiment in how to monitor and control people at scale.

One recent example of this comes from the University of Newcastle, which last week reported on how they’ve been using an array of smart city technology to monitor the effectiveness of the UK government’s social distancing measures.

In particular, the team at the Newcastle University Urban Observatory have analysed more than 1.8 billion pieces of observational data collected in and around the city of Newcastle since the UK’s nationwide lockdown began in March. Much of this data comes from pedestrian sensors, which monitor pedestrian flows in two directions every hour, and which the team compares against data from 2019.

Analysing this data, the Newcastle University team found that pedestrian traffic has fallen by a massive 95%, in comparison to the usual annual average. Likewise, they’ve also made use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, and discovered that vehicle traffic has declined by around 50%.

The researchers have also produced models capable of measuring the distance between pedestrians. Making use of a traffic light indicator system, their algorithm is able to anonymously identify and label people who maintain safe distances, while flagging violations.

On its website, the Newcastle University Urban Observatory says it works with “government” and “local authorities” to “make our cities smart.” Dr Luke Smith, a lecturer focusing on data-centric approaches to civil engineering, tells me that the Observatory has provided a range of data to the UK government during the coronavirus pandemic. This includes pedestrian data to the Department of Transport (prior to the nationwide lockdown), as well as vehicle flow and car park data (since the lockdown). The Urban Observatory has also had several discussions regarding using CCTV cameras to measure physical distance between people.

The UK isn’t the only country to harness smart city technology like this in the fight against the coronavirus. In South Korea, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Science and ICT, have been using a system called the Smart City Data Hub. The two governmental departments use this platform for the purposes of contact tracing. Essentially, it allows them to analyse and monitor data collected from cameras and other sensors, so as to identify who a known coronavirus patient had recently come into contact with.

The South Korean government has been using the Smart City Data Hub since March 16th. It’s hard to say how much of positive impact it has had on stemming the transmission of the coronavirus, but given that South Korea has witnessed a doubling of cases over the past 41 days (while the likes of the US and the UK are doubling cases every eight or nine days), the country has clearly been doing something right.

Again, other countries are turning to smart cities and smart city technology in similar ways. Various Indian cities have been making use of smart city tech to contact trace and also to monitor people under quarantine. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, where some 1.72 million people live, the local authorities have called upon Indian firm Tech Mahindra to update the capabilities of the existing smart cities infrastructure it already provides the area.

In particular, Tech Mahindra’s smart cities platform can now make use of traffic cameras to monitor people’s movements. In addition, it’s now using drones for aerial surveillance and is in the processes of rolling out a geo-fencing solution to make sure that patients are restricted to a certain area. Its platform even provides real-time info on when stores and pharmacies are open.

According to officials, such smart city solutions have helped India curb its coronavirus numbers.

“Using tech along with community-led initiatives […] has helped contain the growth in numbers,” said Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation commissioner Shravan Hardikar, speaking today to India’s The Economic Times.

But as effective as the utilisation of smart cities appears to be (it took 21 days for the number of coronavirus cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad to double from 12), the ramping up and expansion of smart city capabilities raises some serious questions for the post-coronavirus future. Because after having developed the capacity to monitor individual and group movements, as well as the ability to trace our contacts, what’s to stop governments from using such capacities to monitor us all under more normal circumstances? What’s to stop them from using smart city technology to monitor and suppress protests and political dissidents?

Already, figures such as Edward Snowden have warned that the coronavirus pandemic could end up giving governments invasive new surveillance and data gathering powers. Speaking via video-link at the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival a couple of weeks ago, Snowden suggested that new powers may remain in place after the pandemic has subsided.

“Five years later the coronavirus is gone, this data’s still available to them–they start looking for new things,” Snowden said. “They already know what you’re looking at on the internet, they already know where your phone is moving, now they know what your heart rate is. What happens when they start to intermix these and apply artificial intelligence to them?”

Last week, Apple and Google announced that they’re collaborating on a contact-tracing app. Meanwhile, countries such as the US, Singapore, France, China, and the UK are developing or deploying similar apps. So when combined with the emergence of smart cities capable of monitoring our movements, the long-term implications of the coronavirus pandemic for privacy and civil liberties becomes deeply worrying.

Soon enough, a significant number of nations will be harnessing smart technology to monitor vehicle and pedestrian traffic, to check whether we’re observing social distancing rules, and to trace our contacts. And after the pandemic, such technology could end up being used to monitor and nudge human behaviour in general. Needless to say, those doing the monitoring and nudging may not always have our best interests at heart.

Governments–for example, the South Korean government–have offered assurances that the smart technology being rolled out will be used only during the coronavirus outbreak. However, assurances are not legal guarantees, and it’s hard to image governments giving up new surveillance capabilities without them facing massive opposition and protest. This is particularly the case when the pre-existing surveillance activities of, for example, Britain’s GCHQ have already been found to violate human rights, yet little has been done in response to curb such activities.

However, while there are dangers, Newcastle University’s Luke Smith suggests that certain technologies will be safer than others.

“I think we should be quite relaxed about anonymous and aggregate transport statistics,” he tells me. “I’d like to see a more coherent national transport data strategy post-pandemic, where high-level data on the origins and destinations of journeys across all modes of transport are published as routine.”

Smith notes that this could require legislation to be conducted at national levels, but that it would be feasible, since much of the necessary data is already out there. That said, he does affirm that technology used to monitor individual movements should be treated with a healthy dose of caution.

“There are serious risks associated with tracking individual movements,” he says. “As the mobility reports released by Google show, mobile phone data can characterise the purpose of journeys in addition to volumes. As anyone that uses location services has probably noticed, it isn’t always accurate.”

As Smith adds, what’s needed is for a serious debate and discourse on data collection to take place once the coronavirus pandemic has ended. Indeed, because if we don’t have such a debate, we may end up replacing an overt health crisis with a more insidious privacy and civil liberties crisis.

Hope they he the killers.

Hope they the the killers.

No answers