London, May 23, 2020 (Reuters/NAN) Two people from two English Premier League (EPL) clubs have tested positive for the coronavirus after a second batch of testing, the Premier League said on Saturday.

Since the players returned to limited group training on Tuesday, eight positive tests for the virus have been confirmed from Englands top flight clubs.

The Premier League can today (Saturday) confirm that on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 996 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, two have tested positive from two clubs, the league said in a statement.

The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency.

Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days.

The Premier League said it would not be providing details of the identities of the two new positive tests.

A total of 748 tests of players and club staff made up the initial round of testing on Sunday and Monday.

Watfords Adrian Mariappa and two members of the clubs non-playing staff and Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan were among six positive tests.

They are all still in their seven-day isolation period.

Two other Watford players are also self-isolating after coming into close contact with people who tested positive, according to manager Nigel Pearson.

No matches have been played in the Premier League since March, but the government has given the green light for elite sports to resume from June 1, including top flight football.

The Premier Leagues Project Restart hopes to resume action in June, although no date has been fixed.

Another round of tests are scheduled to take place on Monday and Tuesday.

All 20 clubs will hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide whether they can move to phase two of the restart and allow full contact training.

Chief executive Richard Masters said on Friday the Premier League is as confident as we can be about a resumption of the top flight.

He added that the remaining 92 games would be completed.

We wouldnt have taken the first step to get back to training if we werent convinced we had created a very safe environment for our players, he said.

Britains death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is the highest in Europe with an official figure of 36,675 as of Saturday.

Germanys Bundesliga returned to action last week with matches in empty stadiums and strict safety protocols.

Spains government on Saturday gave the go-ahead for La Liga to resume from June 8.(Reuters/NAN)
OLAL

Source: NAN News

Bio-bubble

Cape Town, May 22, 2020 (Reuters/NAN) Cricket South Africa (CSA) plan to isolate players and support staff in a bio-bubble to minimise their exposure to COVID-19 and hasten a return to play.

CSA has studied the best practises used by the German Bundesliga, which resumed last weekend, and hope to implement them when India are scheduled to visit for three lucrative Twenty20 Internationals in late August.

But the tour remains in doubt as government models suggest the virus could peak in South Africa during August or September.

It poses the question of how to minimise exposure for players, coaches and support staff.

Team doctor Shuaib Manjra said they had worked on a plan, having also liaised with the cricket boards in England and Australia.

The bio-bubble would be a sanitised cricket biosphere with strict entry standards and limited movement out of this cordon, he told reporters via a teleconference.

This will require regular testing of all of those within the bubble.

We want to create a sanitised cricket eco-system that will ensure we account for the entire chain of operations that are sanitised and grant protection to all role-players.

We have drawn from our colleagues in England and Australia, and we have learned from (soccers) La Liga and the Bundesliga.

Manjra said they are facing unknown risk factors, including what effect COVID-19 has on the health of infected athletes once they have recovered.

What is the impact of intense physical activity on players infected with COVID-19 when they return to play?

What happens when one of our players contracts COVID-19, and I have no doubt that many will.

When are they safe to return to play and what are the (health) risks to them when they do? We need to understand this.

All South African sports are preparing to petition government to allow them to renew activities, with the country still under a tight lockdown. (Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN News

AC Milans veteran star Zlatan Ibrahimovic

AC Milans veteran star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has pulled a muscle during training session at the teams Milanello camp, a spokesperson for the Serie A club said on Monday.

The 38-year-old Swede injured a calf during a match that wrapped up a training session, but he left the facility without using crutches.

The extent of the injury will be assessed on Tuesday.

Ibrahimovic had returned from Sweden on May 11, two months after leaving Milan as a nationwide lockdown halted the Italian Serie A with 12 games to go.

He trained with Stockholm side Hammarby, which he co-owns, for part of his stay in Sweden.

Group workouts have been allowed in Italy last week as a government decision about the mid-June restart of the league is expected on Thursday.(dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports Development

By Muhyideen Jimoh

Mr Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports Development, has inaugurated a 12 -member committee to ensure COVID-19-compliant infrastructure and protocols for the 20th National Sports Festival tagged Edo 2020.

The virtual inauguration by Dare in Abuja is a follow-up to the extraordinary National Council on Sports meeting on May 18, which called for the hosting of the postponed festival later in the year.

The minister urged members of the committee to interface with relevant agencies to ensure COVID-19-compliant infrastructure for the festival.

Your terms of reference include ascertaining the level of COVID-19 compliance to infrastructure put in place by the Edo government,

You should also work out and put in place requirements to manage any foreseeable and unforeseeable crises that may arise as a result of the organisation of the 20th festival, he said.

Dare also advised the committee to prepare a code of operations (COVID-19 protocols) that would guide athletes, officials, spectators and relevant stakeholders for the successful hosting of the event.

He called on the committee to come up with a new date for the festival to be hosted not later than November.

Earlier, Mr Tonobok Okowa, Chairman of the Committee and Executive Chairman, Delta State Sports Commission, had pledged to deliver on the national assignment.

I can assure you that the committee is committed to ensuring it deliver on this national assignment, Okowa said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee is made up of sports commissioners from the six states in the south-south geo-political zone, officials from the ministries of health, youth and sports, NCDC, State Directors of Sports Forum, and Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

Mr Peter Nelson, Acting Director, Planning, Monitoring and Information, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, is to serve as the Secretary of the committee.

The committee has till June 18 to submit its report.

The 20th sports festival was initially scheduled for March 22 to April 1, but was postponed following an outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Sport Minister Mr Sunday Dare

By Emmanuel Afonne

The e-Sports Federation says preparations for the 2020 On-line National League Games has begun in spite of the coronavirus pandemic affecting sporting activities in the country and beyond.

Mr Christopher Yaba, Secretary of the federation said on Wednesday in a statement after the federations virtual board meeting on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that e-sports (electronic sports) is a form of sport competition using video games.

Yaba said that the board urged its athletes to brace up for the league games, noting that a portal for registration would soon be made public.

The meeting commended the Federal and State Governments for their efforts in containing the dreaded coronavirus pandemic that had so far claimed the lives of over a million people across the world.

We thank our members for their compliance with the lockdown directives aimed at holistically fighting the global scourge,

The e-Sports federation further reassures its young and energetic followers of their commitment to continue to build on the solid foundation laid by the founding fathers of the game.

As a body that focuses on sports, the organisation commends its partners for their consistent support, he said.

The federation scribe called on investors to take advantage of the huge opportunities embedded in e-sporting activities in Nigeria.

E-sports often take the form of organised, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Source: NAN News

By David Adeoye

The Oyo State Task Force on COVID-19 on Wednesday activated three sites for COVID-19 samples collection in different communities in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigera (NAN) reports that the community testing initiative was intended to accommodate about 10,000 samples.

The community testing drive which was supervised by Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun, the state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, beganat the Alegongo Primary School, Lagelu West Local Council Development Area, Ibadan.

Olatubosun said that the community testing was free, and encouraged Oyo people to get tested when the team would reach their communities.

Gov. Seyi Makindes administration believes that the health of the citizenry is paramount and that government would pursue with vigour, its commitment to the sound health of the citizenry.

We are treating this as an emergency; no amount spent by government on this is a waste.

We believe the citizenry will contribute meaningfully to the productivity of the state and, invariably, increase the gross domestic product of the state when they are healthy; by so doing, it will improve the economy of the state further.

That is the reason we are doing everything possible to make sure that the people have access to medical care, most especially against anything that has to do with COVID-19, he said.

He said that the task force started with selective testing and later engaged in Drive-Through/Walk-Through Testing at Adamasingba, where it advised the people to drive in and get tested.

But we are reaching a stage where we have to go to the community, and that is why we are decentralising testing, which we call community testing.

We are now moving to communities, local government areas. where we have encouraged people from all the communities to come out and get tested.

The essence of this is that we cannot sit down somewhere and be assessing people.

In figures, Oyo State is rated fourth or fifth but we have tested far more than many states.

We are doing this to have adequate and exact data to work with and arrest the spread of the virus from the community level, the commissioner said.

The Incident Manager of the states Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Dr Taiwo Ladipo, said that the community testing drive was the response of the State COVID-19 Task Force to the rising number of cases in the state.

We have 10 facilities across 10 local government areas and are targeting 10,000 people, but we are starting with three LGAs today.

These are Ibadan South East, Ibadan Oluyole and Lagelu, Ladipo said.

Source: NAN News

COVID-19

By Afusat Agunbiade-Oladipo

Source: NAN News

NDIC pledges to support EFCC in war against corruption

The International Police (Interpol) has extended its globalised information platform to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Spokesperson of the commission, Mr Dele Oyewale, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, said that the platform, codenamed 1P-247, was extended to the EFCC at a brief ceremony attended by the acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu.

The IP-24/7 is a global police communications system that connects law enforcement agencies in all the 194 member- countries.

It enables users share sensitive and urgent police information with their counterparts around the globe, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

With the extension of IP-247 to the EFCC, the commission now has direct and quick access to 18 databases through which information about criminal activities across the world can be accessed, he said.

Oyewale also quoted the Head of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in Abuja, Garba Umar, as congratulating Magu on the new milestone achieved by the commission.

Garba said that the extension of the platform was made possible by the EFCC chairmans passion and determination in the fight against financial crimes in Nigeria.

He described the platform as a great breakthrough in criminal investigations.

According to him, with access to the platform, the EFCC can now manage the 18 databases itself without going through the Interpol secretariat in Lyon, France.

Responding, Magu thanked the Interpol for extending IP-247 to the EFCC and its role in facilitating arrests and investigations of many high profile corrupt individuals.

Things get done when you work with Interpol. We have been planning this since 2018 and I thank God it is happening today, he said.

Magu also expressed delight that the platform would energise every enforcement initiative of the EFCC, stressing that enforcement is the greatest deterrent to corruption.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the EFCC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Interpol on Nov. 29, 2018, as part of its collaborative efforts, aimed at tackling the menace of corruption in Nigeria.

Source: NAN News

Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai

By Sumaila Ogbaje
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has tasked officers and soldiers undergoing Main Battle Tank Training at Nigerian Army Armour School, Bauchi, to exhibit proficiency in the handling of war equipment.

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, in a statement on Thursday, said that Buratai made the call while on visit to the school on Wednesday.

One hundred and fifty five officers and soldiers were currently undergoing training for competent commanders, crew men, drivers and technicians at the school.

Buratai expressed satisfaction on the quality and level of training, commitment and discipline of the participants.

According to him, they should continue to learn in order to efficiently operate the new platforms in readiness for deployment into the mission areas.

While I commend your efforts to the training, let me warn that you must operate/handle the new equipment proficiently. We will not accept cowardice, sabotage or inefficiency under any guise whatsoever.

You must maintain high standards of professionalism, effectiveness and discipline in whatever roles they might be assigned or deployed to, he said.

The Army Chief commended the Commandant, instructors and staff of the school for a good job and directed the participants to cooperate fully in order to apply the knowledge effectively in the war front.

They course participants commended the inspiring leadership of Buratai and his efforts in the struggle to end terrorism in Nigeria.

They assured him of their unflinching support and commitment to bring terrorism to an end while leveraging on the newly acquired equipment.

Buratai also assessed the accommodation of some soldiers in Shadawanka Barracks, 33 Brigade Bauchi whose roofs were destroyed by rainstorm on which repairs are already ongoing.

The construction and renovation of accommodation for personnel of the Nigerian Army is equally ongoing in most of the Nigerian Army Barracks across the country just like in Lagos, Jos, Enugu and Portharcourt.

Instructively, some of the accommodation works have already been completed and commissioned especially in Lagos, PortHarcourt and Abuja areas, he said.

Source: NAN News