A Chinese company sued for selling nearly half a million fake and substandard N95 respirators to US buyers in April is not a certified maker of medical masks, Chinese authorities said on Monday.

Guangdong-based King Year Packaging and Printing is not on a list of enterprises approved or registered as meeting foreign standards, China’s Commerce Ministry told AFP.

The company had shipped three batches of purported N95 masks — needed to protect medical and other personnel in the coronavirus pandemic — to US buyers, according to a complaint filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

The firm allegedly falsely claimed the 495,200 masks it shipped had met the N95 standard and that they were certified by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The mask importer paid over $1 million for them, said the complaint.

“According to our preliminary understanding, the Chinese company involved in this case is a manufacturer of non-medical masks and is not on the list of companies certified or registered as meeting foreign standards,” said the commerce ministry.

It was referring to a list issued by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products.

The ministry added that China has taken a series of measures to strengthen the quality control of exported epidemic-prevention materials, and to regulate exports.

“China is willing to strengthen cooperation with governments including that of the United States, work together, overcome the epidemic, and build a common community of health for mankind,” it said.

A government official told reporters in April that China had confiscated over 89 million poor quality face masks, after a slew of complaints about faulty protective gear exported worldwide.

Medical experts have warned that Nigeria may continue to record more cases of coronavirus infection and deaths until August because the country is yet to reach the peak of the epidemic.

In the absence of an effective vaccine, the medical experts recommended strict enforcement of non-pharmaceutical interventions like use of facemasks, regular hand washing with soap, and keeping social distance to reduce the rate of transmission.

A consultant public health physician/epidemiologist and a member of Lagos State COVID-19 Response Team, Prof. Akin Osibogun, in an interview with The Guardian yesterday, said: “The number of cases is on the increase because community transmission is progressing and we are yet to reach the peak of the epidemic. From projections and modelling, we may reach that peak by middle of July or early August.

“A full lockdown is not feasible for economic and security reasons as we have observed recently. In the absence of an effective vaccine, strict enforcement of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as use of face masks, regular hand washing, and respectful physical distancing will all combine to reduce the rate of transmission.”

Osibogun, who is the immediate past chief medical director (CMD) of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, said the increasing number of mortalities might be connected with the corresponding increase in number of cases. According to him, the mortality rate is still about two per cent; and, in absolute numbers, two per cent of 10,000 cases will naturally be higher than two per cent of 1,000 cases.

“Strict enforcement of the non-pharmaceutical interventions, in addition to case detection and management, is the only way to mitigate the outbreak,” Osibogun said.

A virologist and chairman, Expert Committee on COVID-19, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, said: “The situation is spiralling out of control.

We need more details on the deaths, the age of victims, state, co-morbidities, which hospital attended to them and so on to make an informed judgement.”

On what to do, Tomori, who, was the pioneer vice chancellor of Redeemer’s University and chairman, Expert Review Committee on Polio Eradication, said more attention and needed support should be given to the medical teams, they should be supplied with personal protective equipment and better healthcare should be given to the cases.

“We need to tell our people to take COVID-19 seriously and protect themselves from infection. If there are no COVID-19 cases, there can be no deaths from the disease.

The Director General of the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, Prof. Babatunde Salako, told The Guardian: “I believe the increase in number of deaths may have to do with people finding it difficult to access health care because most hospitals are asking for COVID-19 test results before attending to sick people, and by the time they receive care, the illness would have gone far.”

Salako urged the Federal Government to direct all government hospitals not to refuse people but rather treat them appropriately while waiting for results of COVID-19 test. He said emergency centres should be created for COVID-19 related illnesses in government hospitals to take care of mild cases who are at home but who may develop progression of their disease and condition.

President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), and former Director General of NIMR, Prof. Innocent Ujah, said: “In order to objectively make any comment on the rising deaths from COVID-19 in Nigeria, more information is needed from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). All deaths must be appropriately characterized and disaggregated, including underlying clinical conditions of hypertension, diabetes, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) and heart diseases. It is only after the information is made available by NCDC that we can objectively make an informed statement on it.”

Latest figures from the NCDC for June 17, 2020, showed 587 new confirmed cases and 14 deaths were recorded, while for June 16, 2020, 490 confirmed cases and 31 deaths were recorded. By June 16, the total number of deaths had risen to 455 from 424 in June15, 2020, and with the 14 new deaths on June 17, the total number of deaths is now 469.

Analyses of data from the NCDC showed that 31 deaths recorded on June 16 was the highest ever recorded in a day since the first case was reported in February.

Also yesterday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) alerted the world to 30 per cent rise in number of coronavirus disease cases and deaths in Africa within one week.

The WHO in its latest Situation Report on COVID-19 said: “Since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Africa in mid-February, the pace of the outbreak has accelerated, taking 98 days to reach the first 100 000 cases and only 19 days to rise to 200 000 cases.

“As of 11 June, more than 200,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 5600 deaths had been reported from Africa –a nearly 30 per cent increase in cases as compared to the previous week.”

The global health body noted that the rise in cases and deaths was despite the fact that many countries had put in place lockdowns and public health measures to promote physical distancing and good hand hygiene, while isolating cases and testing and tracing of contacts of people with COVID-19.

Meanwhile, pharmacists under the aegis of the Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN), have said that health workers in the country are getting infected every day with coronavirus because of lack of basic personal protective equipment (PPE) and non-payment of hazard allowance to them.

The National Chairman of AHAPN, Dr. Kingsley Chiedu Amibor, and National Secretary, Dr. Hafiz Ola Akande, told journalists yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari had in his maiden COVID-19 address in March 2020 promised, among other things, payment of hazard allowance, provision of PPE and special life insurance cover for health workers that are on the frontlines of the containment efforts.

“But three months on, the Federal Government is yet to keep some of its promises to health workers.

We appreciate the government on the efforts being made to contain the pandemic in the country, however, we must state that pharmacists and other healthcare workers are getting infected every day because of lack of basic PPEs. We call on government to provide adequate PPEs for pharmacists and other healthcare workers who are at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic control efforts.

“We also remind government to honour her decision to pay enhanced hazard allowance to healthcare workers since March, 2020. This pronouncement has not translated into tangible result yet. For proper motivation of healthcare workers, the Federal Government and other states in the federation who have made similar promises, should pay healthcare professionals the enhanced allowance,” they said.

The Director, Department of Planning Research and Statistics, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Garba Bulama, on behalf of the Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, has said that late funds affect the primary healthcare service delivery. “Primary healthcare should be seen as priority. It should be seen as economic investment because as you are investing in the PHCs, you are investing in the health of the nation. There should be a commitment to implement the PHC framework. The federal and state government should wake up to its responsibility and ensure adequate funding. There has to be a service package.

Bulama said this at a Health webinar themed “Negligence of PHCs Constraining The Fight Against Covid-19 In Nigeria” organised by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) via zoom.

He said the challenges primary healthcare centres are not optimising well because over the years, there had been late incomplete appropriation. “Funds are moved at the end of the physical year. Also poor engagement of the states and lack of facilities had been a challenge.

According to PTCIJ, healthcare centres have been neglected over the years despite yearly financial allocations. Despite huge budgetary allocations provided in the Zonal Intervention Budget for the construction and equipping of Primary Health Centres in Nigeria, investigations by PTCIJ through the PHC tracker and the UDEME project (as well as other civil society organisations) have revealed that the allocated funds are not commensurate with the realities on the ground.

“At NPHCDA, we are clear on what our roles are. For the outbreak response to be successful, we need to protect lives of our health workers & all Nigerians. We have to safeguard livelihood & ensure routine health services continue in our health facilities,” Bulama said.

Dr. Stanley Ukpai, a senior technical officer at Development Project Research Center said primary healthcare is one of the best investments a country could make. Improvement in physical and mental wellbeing is as a result of investment in primary healthcare. “In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, we accessed the services in some of the healthcare centres in Kaduna, Kano and Niger and discovered that PHC facilities which use to experience high patronage are now low in those locations. We also found out that people had more preference for more modern facilities in their neighbouring community.

Ukpai added: “They were willing to go to go to a better equipped facility. We discovered that service provision had dropped in primary healthcare. In Niger state 67 per cent were providing services, 46 per cent in Kano and 50 per cent in Kaduna. Effective leadership, thorough research and effective service delivery is important. To restore confidence in PHC, there must adequate infrastructure and human resource for health. We must work to maintain the timely momentum, government should release fund for PHC.

Media should continue to amplify those issues so that government can be more aware.” Dr. Terkaa Bitto, senior registrar, Epidemiology, Community/public health said when the PHCs are functional; we will actually win the fight against covid-19 faster. “This is not the time to deprioritise our primary healthcare. If we don’t find our healthcare, we will see destruction in immunisation and family planning. Also, diseases should be picked early. Training and retraining of frontline health workers is essential. Our primary healthcare should be strengthened to win the battle against COVID-19.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO), yesterday endorsed dexamethasone as ‘cure’ drug for saving lives of critically ill coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients. Dexamethasone is a breakthrough in the global race to discover a safe and effective drug for treatment and prevention of the disease.

The WHO welcomed the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that showed dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be life-saving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19.

According to preliminary findings shared with WHO, for patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth. The benefit was only seen in patients seriously ill with COVID-19 and was not observed in patients with milder disease.

WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support.

“This is great news and I congratulate the government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this life-saving scientific breakthrough.”

Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations, and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries.

The global health body, in a statement, yesterday, said: “The researchers shared initial insights about the results of the trial with WHO, and we are looking forward to the full data analysis in the coming days. WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of this intervention. WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19.”

The endorsement of dexamethasone came yesterday as President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria was ready to support any joint action plan at regional and global levels to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout.

He, therefore, urged the international community to support initiatives aimed at sharing knowledge from research and science to fight the disease.The president spoke at a virtual extraordinary China-Africa summit on solidarity against the COVID-19 organised by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). “As we face a common pervasive and invisible enemy, it is important that we all remain united to save our shared humanity, because this virus knows no borders.”

‘’The fight against a global pandemic that continues to take so many lives, threaten livelihoods and challenging the very fabric of societies, requires enhanced cooperation and worldwide solidarity.

‘’I seize this opportunity to reiterate the need for this summit to put humanity at the centre of our vision for common prosperity.

‘’We must learn lessons and share knowledge from research, as we develop more creative, responsive and humane health systems, improve crisis management protocols and support each other in the battle against COVID-19,’’ he said.

The Nigerian leader also used the occasion to commend the Chinese government, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the WHO for their actions and measures to help developing and middle-income countries in Africa to tackle the pandemic. On the UN, the President praised the Secretary-General, for launching COVID-19 response and recovery fund for low and middle-income countries to tackle the health emergency, address social and economic consequences of the crisis and, strengthen the recovery efforts of most vulnerable countries.

The leadership of the global health body, WHO, was commended for its advice that enabled Nigeria take measures and enlighten its people on steps to avoid contracting and spreading the virus.

Similarly, President Buhari acknowledged that Chinese support had tremendously strengthened Nigeria’s effort in combating COVID-19, adding that President Xi’s strong support had further demonstrated the spirit of solidarity and enhanced the bond of partnership that existed among FOCAC member-states. President Buhari also provided an update on what his administration has done since the tragedy of the global pandemic hit the country.

‘’From the outset of the pandemic, we in Nigeria instituted strong surveillance and infection prevention as well as control measures and made provisions to strengthen our testing capacities.

‘’Several well-equipped treatment and isolation centers were set up across the country to increase bed capacity.
‘’In the spirit of international collaboration, medical experts in Nigeria participated by video link in learning and experience-sharing exercises organized by experts from various countries, including China’’.

Furthermore, the President said the Nigerian government had trained several thousands of healthcare workers, provided personal protective equipment to ensure the safety of frontline workers, and offered incentives for their motivation.

With regard to restrictions in movements occasioned by the need to contain the spread of the disease, Buhari said the Federal Government created the enabling environment for farmers to safely plant and harvest during this rainy season in order to ensure that food security was not compromised.

‘’In addition, we took steps for prompt transportation of agricultural products and food items from rural production areas to the consumers and to industrial processing zones.

‘’We have also developed practical policies to protect lives and livelihoods at the same time and to ensure our economy continues to function as we maintain an aggressive response to the pandemic,’’ he said.

The Chinese President said the summit was convened to discuss joint response to COVID-19 and renew fraternity with Africa. He said the world must mobilise resources and do whatever it takes to protect lives, adding that China would do whatever it could to support procurement of supplies, sending medical experts, and in other diverse ways.

The novel coronavirus is twice as infectious within households than similar diseases such as SARS, with a substantial number of additional infections spreading before a COVID-19 sufferer shows any symptoms, according to modelling released Thursday.

Researchers based in China and the United States said their findings could have profound impacts on reducing the number of new infections as the pandemic progresses.

Using data on 350 COVID-19 patients and nearly 2,000 of their close contacts in the city of Guangzhou, China, the researchers estimated the virus’ “secondary attack rate” — that is, the probability that an infected person transmits the disease to someone else.

They found that while the average patient had just a 2.4 percent chance of infecting someone they did not live with, that figure jumped to 17.1 percent — around one in six — among cohabitants.

According to their models, which rely on data collated in January and February but have been updated to reflect the latest developments, the likelihood of household infection was highest among over-60s and lowest among under-20s.

The overall chances of infecting a family member or live-in partner with COVID-19 are twice as high as with SARS, and three times higher than MERS, another coronavirus, they found.

Significantly, the researchers found that the probability of a COVID-19 carrier infecting a family member or flatmate was significantly higher — 39 percent — before they started showing symptoms than afterwards.

This suggests that the virus is easily transmissible within its incubation period and may be passed on by individuals who don’t know they are infected.

The team said that isolation within households cut the total number of COVID-19 cases among the study cohort by 20-50 percent compared with no quarantine.

“Although the effect of case isolation seems moderate, the high infectivity of the virus during the incubation period suggests quarantine of asymptomatic contacts could have prevented more onward transmissions,” said Qin-Long Jing from the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many European nations, before implementing weeks-long lockdowns, issued public health advice only to stay at home if an individual was sick — that is, showing symptoms typical to the virus.

The research suggests that may have already been too late to prevent COVID-19 circulating widely.

Writing in a linked comment, Virginia Pitzer from the Yale School of Public Health said that a “key difference” between COVID-19 and other coronaviruses was its “substantially higher” probability of transmission in its incubation period.

She said the research, published in The Lancet, “confirms the relative importance of pre-symptomatic transmission and the relationship between older age and susceptibility, key insights which should inform design of intervention strategies.”

Kano State government is to reduce 2020 budget by 30 percent to cope with the financial constraints triggered by the current COVID-19 pandemic, the state Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has said.

Speaking at a media parley with journalists held at Government House, the governor said after ensuring workable cuts, the budget would be taken to the Kano State Assembly for further legislation and passage.

Ganduje added that, with the new budget size, the state would do everything possible to see that the security of the state, health and education, among other critical sectors, were not compromised.

He further revealed that, ongoing projects in the state would be looked at with the intention of assessing how they could match with the possible cut in the fiscal document size, ensuring that his administration’s service to humanity would continue to be a priority.

He added that his administration would ensure all projects started by his government are being completed within the time frame of his tenure.

Ganduje also revealed that the state government had engaged the services of over 5000 voluntary health workers to assist in the fight against the spread of coronavirus in the state.

According to him, the state government had also made provision for special remuneration to health officials involved in the management and prevention of the virus spread in the state.

He added that, as measures to fast track detection of the virus, the state is presently having 5 testing centres adding that house to house sample taking had commenced in some parts of the state.

Governor Ganduje also said that the state had embarked on expansion and upgrading of some major hospitals in the five emirates to 300-bed space hospitals with addition of some facilities, which include eye and dental clinics.

On the state’s Independent Power Project (IPP), the governor assured that the project would soon be commissioned, as according to him the project at Tiga dam has reached 95 percent completion and the state had secured permission from the federal government to link up with the Challawa Dam.

Turning to the issue of insecurity, Ganduje explained that in the last five years, Kano remained one of the most peaceful states in the country.

“This was achieved by putting a number of measures in place to tackle the issue of security. These include building security formations, military training base at Falgore forest and provisions of equipment used in tracking the movement of criminals among others,” he said.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has said that it has programmed $1.1 million, which is equivalent of ₦427 million, to upgrade and expand the capacity of the nine Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) for COVID-19 to strengthen the response in Nigeria in line with priorities set by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, disclosed this when he joined the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, to virtually inaugurate an EOC for the state, which she said has been equipped with support from the American people to track and control the spread of the deadly COVID-19.

In a statement issued yesterday by the US Mission in Abuja, the ambassador added that Cross River is the first of the nine states to receive the EOC upgrades.

Leonard said: “In line with priorities set by NCDC, the USAID programmed $1.1 million (₦427 million) to upgrade and expand the capacity of the nine EOCs to strengthen the COVID-19 response in Nigeria.

“The upgraded centres are now equipped as operational digital situation and communication rooms that power and coordinate the state COVID-19 response and other disease outbreaks, utilising data integration, warehousing and visualisation to provide state officials transparent and real-time information on COVID-19.

“With the inauguration of these EOCs, Nigeria can better coordinate the COVID-19 outbreak response and surveillance activities, as well as any other emergent disease outbreaks or disasters. They will help turn the tide of the pandemic within their states, ultimately the country, and flatten the COVID-19 curve.”

The upgrades, she said, have helped seamlessly and creatively transform previous investments and experiences to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 response by leveraging the existing PEPFAR, tuberculosis, and other health investments.

Other states supported by USAID for the upgrades are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Kano, Niger, and Oyo..