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Concerns Rise Amid Surge Of COVID Variants Globally

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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says it is on red alert following global concerns about new strains of COVID-19.

At a press conference in Abuja on Monday, Director General, NCDC, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, warned that the resurgence of coronavirus in China and the increase in hospitalisation and death rates have renewed fears that the disease may be coming back stronger.

Recall that China had relaxed its zero-COVID policy leading to the circulation of new variants, mostly the BA.5.2 and Bf.7. types of the virus.

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The NCDC while calling for caution amid the increase in variants and cases, warned that over 663 million confirmed cases and over 6.7 million deaths have been reported globally, already.

“In the Americas and Western Pacific (including China), there has been a 74 and 29 percent increase in cases and a 49 and 35 percent increase in deaths respectively, although in the African Region reports a 73 percent and 32 percent decrease in new cases and deaths compared to the previous week”, according to Adetifa.

Meanwhile, the NCDC boss revealed that Nigeria has tested 5,708,974 samples, confirmed 266,463 cases, discharged 259,850 covid patients and recorded 3,155 deaths.

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As the virus mutates, experts claim the XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron is the most transmissible form but it is not clear yet, if it is more dangerous than its ancestors.

However, the COVID virus has continued to take a different epidemiological course in the country as most cases, admissions and deaths have only been related to the Omicron sub-lineages.

READ ALSO: NARD: Resident Doctors Warn Of Nationwide Industrial Action

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NCDC said, “Since the detection of the Omicron variant in December 2021, its sub-lineage (BQ.1/BQ.1.1) has been dominant in Nigeria.

“Despite the mutations and continuous spread, the NCDC warns that the most effective preventive strategy against the disease remains full vaccination.

The most important action for Nigerians to take is to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as the vaccine is the most important intervention for preventing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.”

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Mosquitoes Discovered In Iceland For First Time

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Mosquitoes have been discovered in Iceland in a first for the island nation, which has long been one of the world’s mosquito-free places, a researcher told AFP Monday.

Three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes, two females and one male, were sighted around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital Reykjavik, according to Matthias Alfredsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland.

“They were all collected from wine ropes… aimed at attracting moths,” the researcher said in an email, referring to a method of adding sugar to heated wine and dipping ropes or strips of fabric into the solution, which are then hung outside to entice the sweet-toothed insects.

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READ ALSO:Govt Kicks As Controversial Influencer Tagged Lagos Smelly, Mosquito-infested City

Along with Antarctica, Iceland has long been one of the few places on earth without a mosquito population.

It is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland. A single Aedes nigripes specimen (arctic mosquito species) was collected many years ago from an airplane at Keflavik airport,” Alfredsson said, adding that “unfortunately, that specimen is lost”.

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Their presence could “indicate a recent introduction to the country, possibly via ships or containers”, he said, but further monitoring in spring would be necessary to determine their further spread.

READ ALSO:Teenager Becomes Nigeria’s ‘Vice President For A Day’

Rising temperatures, longer summers, and milder winters, all brought on by climate change, create a more favourable environment for mosquitoes to thrive.

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But Alfredsson did not believe that a warmer climate explained the discovery.

The species “appears to be well adapted to colder climates”, which “allows them to withstand long, harsh winters when temperatures drop below freezing”, he said.

He added that its “diverse breeding habitats… further enhances its ability to persist in Iceland’s challenging environment”.
AFP

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Trump Urged Ukraine To Give Up Land In Peace Deal Talks — Official

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United State President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to give up the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace during “tense” talks last Friday in Washington, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.

The source added that the talks with Trump were “not easy”, and that diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war felt like they were being “dragged out” and “going in circles”.

Zelensky met Trump at the White House last week, hoping to capitalise on the US leader’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to accept a ceasefire.

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But he instead left empty-handed after Trump — who spoke with Putin the day before — denied his request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and pressured him into making a deal.

When asked if Trump urged Zelensky to pull out of land Ukraine still controlled — one of Putin’s key demands — the Ukrainian official told AFP: “Yes, that’s true.”

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Following his meeting with Zelensky, Trump said on social media that their talks were “very interesting and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing and make a DEAL!”

READ ALSO:White House Slams Trump’s Nobel Prize Snub

Trump promised to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion within “24 hours” of his inauguration in January, but has failed to extract any concessions from Putin.

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His position on the war has repeatedly shifted following his conversations with both Putin and Zelensky.

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Voters In Turkish Cyprus Reject Erdogan-backed Leader In Presidential Election

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The breakaway territory of northern Cyprus has voted overwhelmingly to replace its outgoing leader, who had the backing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, election officials said Sunday.

Almost 63 per cent of voters in the territory, whose claim to statehood is recognised only by Turkey, backed former prime minister Tufan Erhurman as next president at the expense of Turkey’s pick, Ersin Tatar, who polled 35 per cent.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish invasion following a coup in Nicosia backed by Greece’s then-military junta eventually led to the creation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.

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READ ALSO:US Imports Eggs From Korea, Turkey To Help Ease Prices

The internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, controls the island’s majority Greek Cypriot south.

While Tatar has toed the Turkish line of two separate states on Cyprus, Erhurman has indicated he favours a federal state that would include both sides of the island.

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Erhurman said there were no losers in the election and that “the Turkish Cypriot people have won together”.

READ ALSO:Turkey Deports 103 Nigerians

“I will exercise my responsibilities, notably in terms of foreign policy, in consultation with the Republic of Turkey,” he said, trying to soothe concerns from Ankara that he may try to break away.

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Erdogan congratulated Erhurman in a post on social media, adding that Turkey would “continue to defend the rights and sovereign interests” of the breakaway territory.

The last major round of peace talks to negotiate a settlement to the island’s divided status collapsed in Switzerland in 2017.

The leaders of both sides met in July at the UN headquarters in New York for talks that were hailed as “constructive” by UN chief Antonio Guterres.

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AFP

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