In line with global standards for aviation operations in view of Covid-19, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has conducted simulation excercise at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to test all the protocols designed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at the Airports ahead of flight resumption.

During the simulation excercise which took place at about 8am ,passengers went through all the protocols before boarding the Aero Contractor operated on a B737 marked NG110 flight at about 11:20am with 51 passengers on board.

Recall that Nigerian airports have been shutdown for over three months to avert spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aviation sector is now preparing to reopen again.

During the simulation excercise , 1.5m physical distance markings, two hand wash areas and bags disinfecting area were observed. Hand sanitizers were also placed in strategic locations in addition to which Port Health workers were seen taking temperature levels of intending passengers.

Passengers were urged to follow all protocols at all times.

Speaking after the exercise, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika said: “The flight simulation is to achieve five things: firstly it is to maintain physical distance with each other, secondly, it is to wear protective materials such as face mask and face shield, thirdly, It is to maintain hygiene, fourthly, it is to clean the area and surfaces and that is a function of the robot itself apart from identifying the passengers. Lastly, it is to also seat in a environment that is clean and hygienic maintaining physical distancing. So we can board the aircraft decontaminated so we don’t contaminate others. All of the things that has happened here is to ensure we don’t spread COVID-19 19” he explained.

He added that the authorities “are ensuring efficient facilitation of passengers so time is not wasted in adopting the new normal.”

“We will announce all the protocols again before opening. But you need to be at the airport three hours ahead of your flight” he stated.

“The experience is quite nice but it takes a bit of time which is why you will need to be at the airport three hours before your local flight.

“For international flight, we may do five hours” he said.

Sirika further said that “we have demostrated here in a mock manner a sick person. You saw how the area was condoned off, the sick taken away to safe area and the scene disinfected. You saw the health workers in their PPEs come around to evacuate the sick person. All these is to adhere to the new normal he said”.

“You also saw that if you are served tea or beverages, you pick it yourself in a disposable cup” he said.

“Everything for me in this demo excercise worked very well. We came and began maintaining physical distance right from the outside. All the markings are there, and we respected that. During the checking procedure, we were shielded from the check-in officials, we got our boarding passes and during boarding, we detached our boarding passes and dropped the other end without physical contact. So contacts with people have been reduced so we can remain safe” he further explained.

Explaining the protocol inside the flight he said: “There will also be social distancing in the aircraft. But new ideas are coming on board on how to remain seated to make the carbon economical okay and to ensure we don’t infect each other. Those new norms are coming and we will implement them in such a way that flights are profitable. WHO and ICAO have developed protocols of the sitting.”

Police in Nigeria have rescued 300 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown.

Police in Nigeria have rescued 300 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown.

From the end of March the men were allegedly not allowed to leave the mill in the northern city of Kano.

The workers were promised an additional $13 (£10) a month on top of their $72 monthly salary – those who did not accept were threatened with the sack.

Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.

The company, called Popular Farms, has not responded to BBC requests for comment.

Police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna told the BBC that the plant had now been shut down and the owners were being investigated for “holding the men against their will”.

Some of the men say were forced to work most of the time during their incarceration, with little food.

“We were allowed to rest for only a short time, no prayers were allowed, no family visits,” 28-year-old Hamza Ibrahim, one of those rescued, told the BBC’s Mansur Abubakar in Kano.

‘Living like animals’

The police were tipped off about the men’s plight after one of them called a human rights organisation.

“What I saw was heart breaking. Where the company kept these people to live isn’t fit for animals,” Karibu Yahaya Kabara of the Global Human Rights Network told the BBC.

“Their meals weren’t enough and there were no drugs for those that took ill,” he said.Mr Kabara said his organisation was taking up the case to ensure that the men got justice.

Nigerian businesses were asked to close up shop in late March as part of government guidelines to halt the spread of coronavirus.

The country has more than 20,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Lagos, in the south, remains the epicentre of the virus, but Kano – Nigeria’s second-biggest city and the capital of Kano state, has the most cases in the north.

Lockdowns elsewhere in the country have been eased – but in Kano people are still only allowed to go out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to buy food at stipulated times

Popular Farms workers say they were asked to double their hours in February as their employers wanted to stockpile in preparation for a shutdown.

By March they say it was decided to keep the plant going by offering them more money – or the sack – to stay on working.

However, having agreed to stay on the workers discovered they had been prevented from ever leaving the mill.

Source: BBC

Zindzi Mandela, daughter of South African liberation hero Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died, according to officials.

She was 59.

State broadcaster SABC said on Monday Mandela, who has been serving as South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark since 2015, died in a hospital in Johannesburg on Sunday evening. No other details were given.

Pule Mabe, spokesman for the governing African National Congress, described her death as “untimely”.

“She still had a role to play in the transformation of our own society and a bigger role to play even in the African National Congress,” Mabe said, adding further details would be provided in due course.

There was no immediate statement by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Educated in South Africa and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Zindzi Mandela spent many years involved in South Africa’s freedom struggle, and embraced roles in the arts, philanthropy and business.

She rose to international prominence when she read out her father’s rejection of then-President PW Botha’s offer for freedom in 1985.

Tobias Elling Rehfeld, Denmark’s ambassador to South Africa, said he was “saddened” to learn about her death.

He wrote on Twitter: “I am so saddened to learn that Ambassador Zindzi Mandela has passed away. Zindzi was a dear colleague working tirelessly and with a smile to nurture and grow the strong friendship between SouthAfrica and Denmark. My deep condolence to the Mandela family!”

Zindzi Mandela is survived by her husband and four children

Source: Aljazeerah

THREE wards at the Ughelli Central Hospital in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State have been temporarily shut down after four doctors at the wards tested positive to COVID

A medical laboratory scientist working at the hospital laboratory department and a nurse in one of the wards also tested positive to the disease.

The wards are Male ward, Medical Outpatient Ward and the Surgical Outpatient Ward.

It was gathered that the incident has also affected the admittance of patients into the respective wards in the hospital as such patients are now being referred to the Warri Central hospital for treatment

Though efforts by newsmen  to speak with the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Bernard Ojekudo were fruitless as at press time, a doctor at the hospital who confirmed the incident to Vanguard, said the medics include three House Officers all of whom have been removed from the hospital’s holding facility and taken to the Isolation Center in Warri for treatment.

The source who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Aside these doctors, lab scientist and nurse, other medics in the hospital who may have come in contact with them have also been advised to go on self-isolation.

For now, there are no patients in the respective wards because the doctors who are supposed to attend to such patients are in isolation after they were exposed to COVID-19 patients without wearing proper Personal Protective Equipment, PPE.

“Even nurses in some selected wards like the emergency ward amongst others have also been advised to go on self-isolation. It is just some few wards that are fully in operation in the hospital.”

The Economic Community of West African States has certified the candidacy of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealafor the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation.

This was contained in a statement signed by the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, on behalf of the Heads of State and Government.

Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Coordinating Minister of the Economy, had been nominated for the top job by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The leaders of the regional bloc “acknowledged the strong academic and professional background of Dr Okonjo-Iweala and her very large experience in national affairs as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister briefly in 2006”.

They said their endorsement of Okonjo-Iweala’s candidature is conditioned on her academic and over 30 years of experience as a Development Economist.

The leaders also called on other African and non-African States to support the former minister.

Nominations for the job are expected to close on July 8 following which candidates will be invited to meet with WTO Council members at a special General Council meeting.

The successful candidate will succeed the current Director-General, Mr Roberto Azevêdo, who has announced that he will step down on August