Physical activities reduce impact of COVID-19 on patients — Experts – Newstrends
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Physical activities reduce impact of COVID-19 on patients — Experts

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Health experts have said that physical activities could reduce the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients, even as they warned of an increasing Lung COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

The experts spoke to Good Health Weekly, shortly after the opening ceremony of the 5th scientific conference and Annual General Meeting of the Association of Clinical and Academic Physiotherapists of Nigeria, with the theme, “Physiotherapy in pandemic and beyond”.

They maintained that physical activities were required right from prevention, onset of the disease to the management of the disease at the chronic stages.

According to them, the debilitating lung COVID also known as Viral Post-COVID Syndrome which is gradually increasing in numbers in Nigeria, can be prevented with physical activities.

Speaking, the National President, ACAPN, Dr. Chris Okafor, noted that with adequate care and exercise, the rate of COVID-19 infection can be minimised by introduction of physical activities by physiotherapists.

“Physical activity helps to manage COVID 19.  You can be isolated but you need physical activity even in isolation.

“During infection, physiotherapist helps to boost the lung capacity of the patients by introducing exercises that will make the patients physically active.

“When there is minimal function in the lungs, the patients will have other complications and when it happens, the patients may present with things like weakness, loss of muscle power, muscle tones etc.

“And only physical activities an reduce the impact and prevent patient from having lung COVID or  get into lung collapse.”

Also, speaking, immediate past acting Vice Chancellor of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, CMUL, Prof Folashade Ogunsola, decried the debilitating impact of lung COVID.

She noted that the human body was designed to move, and when people do not use their muscles, such muscles grow smaller and weaker, hence, the need for physical activity.

Ogunshola said COVID-19 attacks, reduces the lung function and physiotherapists are needed to help patients to get rid of these risks when they recover.

She said COVID-19 has been a game-changer, disrupter of life that gives a glimpse into the future and has accelerated the world’s movement into digital technology.

“For the elderly people, in particular, I was concerned about the elderly, many of them were not moving around at all such that by the end of the year, many of them were extremely weak.

“In addition to that, some had started having dementia; physiotherapists are required for this era where there is a lot of atrophy.”

She explained that though there has been an increase in Lung COVID in Nigeria it was not a pandemic but a post-viral syndrome, adding that, “because it is a new disease, it is affecting people differently.”

She said they are seeing a lot of lung COVID even in young people but for some, it is debilitating while for some, it is not so bad and shorter than others.

“We don’t totally understand the disease or what predisposes us to have lung COVID.   It works in progress to fully understand it and how to stop it.”

Speaking, the Chairman, Scientific Council, Dr Chidozie Mbada, said that COVID-19 was a catastrophe that brought the world to a near halt, adding that the delicate and vulnerable nature of the world became apparent during the pandemic.

Mbada who noted that COVID-19 brought in a lot of new and unfamiliar policies said the most significant, for them was the lockdown restrictions which led to economic and health consequences, among other things.

 He said for their profession, there was a shift from skepticism to optimism on the adoption of telerehabilitation (digital therapy) in Nigeria.

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China records nearly 13,000 COVID deaths in a week

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China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population had already been infected.

The death toll came a week after China said nearly 60,000 people had died with Covid in hospitals in just over a month – but there has been widespread scepticism over official data since Beijing abruptly axed anti-virus controls last month.

China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Saturday that 681 hospitalised patients had died of respiratory failure caused by coronavirus infection, and 11,977 had died of other diseases combined with infection over the period.

The figures do not include anyone who died at home.

Airfinity, an independent forecasting firm, has estimated daily Covid deaths in China will peak at about 36,000 over the Lunar New Year holiday.

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The firm also estimated that more than 600,000 people have died from the disease since China abandoned the zero-Covid policy in December.

China has passed the peak period of Covid patients in fever clinics, emergency rooms and with critical conditions, Guo Yanhong, an official from the National Health Commission told a news conference on Thursday.

‘No second wave’
Tens of millions of people have travelled across the country in recent days for long-awaited reunions with families to mark Sunday’s Lunar New Year, raising fears of fresh outbreaks.

China’s transport authorities have predicted that more than two billion trips will be made this month into February, in one of the world’s largest mass movements of people.

President Xi Jinping Wednesday expressed concerns over the spread of the virus in rural China, much of which lacks medical resources.

But a top health official said China would not experience a second wave of infections in the months after the festive migration, because nearly 80 per cent of the population had already been infected by the virus.

“Although a large number of people travelling during the Spring Festival may promote the spread of the epidemic to a certain extent… the current wave of epidemic has already infected about 80 per cent of the people in the country,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the CDC, said in a post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform on Saturday.

“In the short term, for example, in the next two to three months, the possibility of… a second wave of the epidemic across the country is very small.”

Residents in central China’s Wuhan, where the first coronavirus infections were reported in late 2019, celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit on Saturday night with fireworks, flowers and offerings to loved ones they lost to the virus.

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Nigeria records 42 fresh cases of COVID-19 in 14 days

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Fresh 42 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Nigeria in two weeks, with Lagos State topping with 27 cases, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has said.

The NCDC made this known via its official website on Sunday, adding that Edo, Kano, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory contributed the remaining cases.

This is coming amid resurgence of the new variant of the disease from China where the authorities said nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospitals in about a month.

The NCDC said that the new cases brought Nigeria’s total of COVID-19 infections to 266,492 and that the fresh cases were recorded between December 31, 2022 and January 13, 2023.

”From December 31 to January 6, 13 new confirmed cases have been recorded in Nigeria. The 13 new cases are reported from two states – Lagos (12) and Edo (one),” it said.

It confirmed that the country recorded 29 new cases from January 7 to  13; and the new cases are reported from, Lagos (15), FCT (five), Kano (four), Nasarawa (three), Kaduna (one) and Plateau (one).

It also said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre activated at Level 2, had continued to cordinate the national response activities.

Meanwhile, the country registered 266,492 COVID-19 confirmed cases, 3,155 deaths, and 259,858 cases had been discharged across 36 states including the FCT.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said, “If you are yet to be vaccinated, visit the nearest vaccination site to receive your Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine. All COVID-19 vaccines are free, safe and effective.”

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Panic spreads as China records 60,000 fresh COVID deaths in 34 days

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China says almost 60,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 were recorded between December 08, 2022 and January 12, 2023 in the country.

A major wave of the virus surfaced in China after President Xi Jinping abruptly lifted zero-Covid policy restrictions last month, UK Guardian reports on Saturday.

A report from Peking University said 900 million Chinese people are already infected with the virus.

It also said some major cities had experienced infection rates of between 70% and 90% of their populations since then.

The surge in infections has been attributed to the Chinese government’s emphasis on shielding the 1.4 billion people that make up its population rather than inoculating them effectively against the Covid-19 virus.

However, authorities have announced the fatalities resulting from the wave was 59,938.

The head of the Bureau of Medical Administration, Jiao Yahui, on Saturday announced there had in fact been 59,938 Covid deaths between December 8 and January 12.

This figure included about 5,500 individuals who died of respiratory failure, while the rest also had underlying health conditions. The average age of those who died was 80, Jiao said, with 90.1% aged 65 and above.

The holidays in China officially start January 21 and involve the world’s largest annual migration of people.

Some two billion trips are expected to be made and tens of millions of people have started to travel – although they have been urged not to visit their elderly relatives, in order to prevent them from becoming infected.

Jiao claimed case rates were declining and the peak had passed in most areas. She said the daily number of people going to fever clinics peaked at 2.9 million on 23 December and had fallen by 83% to 477,000 on Thursday.

“These data show the national emergency peak has passed,” she said.

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