BURUSSIA DORTMUND TEAM NEWS

Borussia Dortmund could be without star striker Erling Haaland for this weekend’s game against Hertha Berlin.

Haaland injured his knee after colliding with the referee during Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich last week. He missed Sunday’s win over Paderborn as a result. And according to BILD, the Norwegian international could be out for a longer time, and is a major doubt for this weekend’s clash against Hertha Berlin.

BILD say that Haaland has not been able to take part in team training yet, and he won’t be involved in tomorrow’s session either.

Being without Haaland against Hertha Berlin would be a big blow to Borussia Dortmund. Even though the 19 year old wasn’t missed in the 6-1 win over bottom club Paderborn, the Berliners will offer a much tougher test to the Black and Yellows.

In addition to Haaland, Borussia Dortmund will also be without Dan Axel Zagadou and Mahmoud Dahoud, who have already been ruled out for the season. It is also very unlikely that Marco Reus and Nico Schulz will be fit in time to be involved. Mats Hummels will also miss the game through suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Paderborn.

But key midfielder Axel Witsel could return to the starting XI after coming off the bench in each of the last two games.

NEXT: Bundesliga Team of the Season so far

Haaland has 13 goals in 14 appearances since moving to the Westfalenstadion in January, and Borussia Dortmund will want to have him back in the team as soon as possible, as they look to make sure of their place in the Bundesliga top four.

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LAUTECH: pay us our salary or we go on strike, Lautech doctors demanded from oyo state governor

The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, on Tuesday accused Oyo state Government of neglecting their 24 months salary arrears.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by its President, Dr Abraham Akinbola and General Secretary, Dr Abubakar Usman, and made available to Mouthpiece NGR. 

The doctors are demanding for the immediate payment of the backlog arrears to prevent industrial action. 

The statement said: “There is a need to urgently commence the payment of our two years half salary arrears from January 2016 to December 2017”

“This payment has commenced for other affected institutions in the state. Our assumption as an association is that we are not different from other Oyo State workers.

“But we feel the government of the day is neglecting our concerns. This alone has put the government in bad light in the eyes of our members,” it added. 

The association demanded the installation, repair and maintenance of some of their sophisticated medical equipment for upmost service deliveries.

It called for the employment of more staff to lessen the burden of the present workers and improvement of doctors salary scale to corrected CONMESS as enjoyed by other health workers in the country since 2014.

The association also demanded payment of new minimum wage to health workers same way other state workers started enjoying since January 2020.

“As an association of resident doctors, we have upheld the best of professional conducts in delivering our services to the good people of Oyo State and its environs.

“We strongly admonish the government to change her disposition towards LAUTECH Teaching Hospital Ogbomoso to usher in the real Omituntun experience.

“Time to act is now to save LAUTECH Teaching Hospital Ogbomoso from imminent collapse,” it said.

It said that the hardship experienced by workers in the hospital saw to the exit of brilliant hands and others who could not bear it.

“Only those who believe in the founding vision of the institution stayed behind and are still presently working in the hospital to achieve those dreams within scarce resources,” it said.

The association said that it never got the opportunity to present their daunting challenges in spite of all efforts to meet the governor.

According to the association, “We have done many press releases to keep the world abreast of our challenges while drawing the attention of the state government to the pressing issues.

“This year alone, we wrote two different letters to the governor and this is the second press release in the last four weeks. No response to address our agitations whatsoever.

“The only mention we got was when His Excellency mistook us for Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) LAUTECH in one of his briefings. Our agitations have not changed.”

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USA PRESIDENT: Donald trump visits white house church destroyed by protester

President Donald Trump had announced he would soon be addressing the nation from the White House Rose Garden, as a 7 p.m. curfew in the city loomed and a mass of law enforcement, including U.S. Secret Service agents, Park Police and National Guardsmen, stood sentry, many dressed in riot gear.

Moments before 6:30 p.m., just when Trump said he would begin his address, the officers suddenly marched forward, directly confronting the protesters as many held up their hands, saying, “Don’t shoot."

Soon, law enforcement officers were aggressively forcing the protesters back, firing tear gas and deploying flash bangs into the crowd to disperse them from the park for seemingly no reason. It was a jarring scene as police in the nation's capital forcefully cleared young men and women gathered legally in a public park on a sunny evening, all of it on live television.

With smoke still wafting and isolated tussles continuing in the crowd, Trump emerged in the Rose Garden for a dramatic split-screen of his own creation.

“I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters," he declared, before demanding that governors across the nation deploy the National Guard "in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets." And he warned that, if they refused, he would deploy the United States military “and quickly solve the problem for them.”

As an additional show of force, Trump announced he was deploying even more of the military to Washington, D.C., giving it the feel of an armed, locked-down city after days of violent clashes, arson and looting.

“As we speak I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers," he said, as explosions rang out in the background. “We are putting everybody on warning.”

Then, before departing, Trump announced he wasn't done for the evening, and would be "going to pay my respects to a very very special place.”

Moments later, the White House press pool was quickly summoned for a surprise movement. And soon after, Trump strolled out of the White House gates — something he had never done before — and walked across the park that had just been cleared to accommodate his movements.

Trump walked slowly, followed by an entourage of his most senior aides, security and reporters. The faint residue of pepper spray hung in the air, stinging eyes and prompting coughing.

Sections of the park and surrounding sidewalks were strewn with garbage, including plastic water bottles and other debris. Some sections had been scrawled with graffiti.

Trump crossed H Street and walked toward St. John’s Episcopal Church, the landmark pale yellow building where every president, including Trump, has prayed. It had been damaged Sunday night in a protest fire.

Trump, standing alone in front of cameras, then raised a black-covered Bible for reporters to see.

“We have a great country,” Trump said. “Greatest country in the world.”

He didn’t talk about Floyd, the church or the damage it had suffered, or the peaceful protesters police had cleared. He said nothing about the coronavirus pandemic, the parallel crisis that has continued to ravage the nation as Trump campaigns for a second presidential term. And then he invited his attorney general, national security adviser, chief of staff, press secretary and defense secretary — all white — to join him for another round of photos before he walked back across the park to the White House.

At one point, he stopped and pumped his fist in the air at National Guard members in the distance.

“We’re going to keep it nice and safe," he said

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COVID-19: ex-lautech student and his colleague making further research in d USA to develop vaccine

Ex- Student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Mujeeb Shittu and his colleague his colleague Femi Afolabi both Doctoral students at the Michigan Technological University, United States of American have pioneered a research on Covid-19, 

The putative mechanism by which zinc can improve the activity of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine(HCQ/CQ) in the management of Covid-19 was stated.

Explaining the implications of the research, Shittu  said “Zinc is referred to as an essential trace element because it is required in small amount for human health, since our bodies does not store it ,it must be constantly consumed to maintain homeostasis”.

“One way zinc is essential in COVID-19 treatment is that it may slow down the replication of the virus by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme RNA in infected cells of the host”.

“Based on this mechanism, we opined that the administration of HCQ or CQ alone might not be effective against the treatment of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-COV-2) especially in a zinc deficient patient ,therefore we recommend clinical trials based on a synergistic administration of  Zinc and HCQ against SARS-COV-2 be conducted”, he pointed out.

This article titled – “Improving the efficacy of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine against SARS-CoV-2 may require Zinc additives – A better synergy for future COVID-19 clinical trials” 8has gained acclaims from respected academics and fellow researchers across the globe. Following the recommendation, a group of researchers from Grossman School of Medicine at the New York University published a retrospective observational study to compare hospital outcomes amongst patients who received HCQ ,azithromycin  and zinc against patients who received HCQ and arithromycin alone, according to Afolami,it was discovered that the addition of zinc sulfate to the treatment of Covid-19 patients increased the frequency of their recovery and discharge. He said it also decreased the need for ventilation, admission to Intensive Care Unit and mortality rates.

Prominent researchers such as Pharmacist David Kossor of the US National Institute of Health, in an email to the authors, said he had advised his colleagues on the need to use zinc supplements for better COVID-19 treatment outcome. Also, several US journalists and researchers have used this article has a reference point to advise US COVID-19 team led by Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on the way forward in clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment.

It will be recalled that The Nation and other news agencies reported that chloroquine trial will be continued in Nigeria, according to the National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which contrary to the suspension of trials by the World Health Organization. 

Shittu and Afolami however strongly recommend to the NAFDAC to look into their research and the ones published by the New-York researchers.

“There is no need for NAFDAC to repeat the same clinical trial that has caused mixed reactions in several countries” ,they advised.

The duo, being patriotic Nigerians, feel the need and responsibility to advise the Nigerian government on the way forward in the fight against COVID-19. “We therefore urge the Minister of Health ,the NCDC and other relevant authorities to consider combining zinc with HCQ and CQ in their upcoming clinical trials”.

“We would like the Nigerian government and the Lagos State, being the epicenter of the virus outbreak to access the potential therapeutic synergistic mechanism of zinc sulfate with hydroxychloroquine in their clinical trials”, they recommended.

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