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Cristiano Ronaldo Tests Positive for Coronavirus and Enters Isolation
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of soccer’s biggest stars and among the world’s most famous athletes, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Portugal’s soccer federation announced Tuesday.
The federation’s statement said Ronaldo was not displaying symptoms of Covid-19, and that he had entered isolation, away from the rest of Portugal’s players. Those players continued their preparations for a match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon.
“Following the positive case, the remaining players underwent new tests Tuesday morning,” Portugal’s federation said in a statement. “All tested negative.”
Ronaldo played for Portugal in a friendly against Spain last week and in a scoreless Nations League draw against France on Sunday. On Monday, he posted a photo of himself dining with his smiling teammates on his social media accounts.
Ronaldo’s positive test confirmed the worst fear of some European clubs, who had fought with FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, to alter rules that require them to release players to represent their national teams during scheduled international breaks. Many clubs feared that sending their players on long trips to virus hot spots — particularly in South America, where qualifying for the 2022 World Cup began last week — could leave them vulnerable to infection or cause them to bring the virus back to their European teams.
Players who did travel now will face quarantines or other restrictions — and potentially even miss league games — upon their return to certain countries, including the United States.
Ronaldo, who plays for the Italian club Juventus, had been spared infection earlier this year when the virus swept through his team and the Italian league system. At least three Juventus players — Paulo Dybala, Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi — tested positive in the first wave of cases earlier this year.
Ronaldo is not the first soccer star to test positive this fall as Europe’s top leagues start their new seasons and players journey home for national team duty. The Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba was found to be positive when he turned up for a training camp with France’s national team in August, weeks after the Brazilian star Neymar and two of his teammates at the French club Paris St.-Germain are believed to have caught the virus during a post season vacation in Spain.
While many of Europe’s top leagues were able to resume their seasons after pausing play for several months during the height of the pandemic this spring, the coronavirus remains a significant threat because — unlike in the restricted environments set up for this summer’s Champions League knockout rounds or the recently completed N.B.A. season — players are free to circulate in their communities.
Liverpool, the reigning champion of England’s Premier League, has had several players test positive in recent weeks. Forward Xherdan Shaqiri was the most recent, though his test result was later reclassified as a false positive. It followed earlier cases involving Thiago Alcantara and Sadio Mané.
In the top league in the United States, Major League Soccer, several games have been postponed or rescheduled this year after players or staff members tested positive. On Monday, the league announced that it had postponed the next three matches involving the Colorado Rapids after an outbreak on that team.
M.L.S. said the team had not recorded any new cases, but that the decision to postpone the games “was made based on the total number of current cases and in consultation with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.”
Courtesy: nytimes
By Eric Elezuo
The Presidency has announce that President Bola Tinubu will be departing Abuja to (Wednesday) for Paris, France, on a ‘short working visit’.
A statement to the effect, signed and released by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, was however silent on the shape of international relationship the working visiting the president was embarking on will take, but noted that Tinubu will use the ‘retreat’ to review his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones, as well as review progress of ongoing reforms.
While acknowledging that the president will spend ‘about a fortnight’ on the trip, the statement added he would supervise administration while away.
The statement in details
PRESIDENT TINUBU TO EMBARK ON WORKING VISIT TO PARIS
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart for Paris, France, today on a short working visit.
During the visit, the President will appraise his administration’s mid-term performance and assess key milestones.
He will also use the retreat to review the progress of ongoing reforms and engage in strategic planning ahead of his administration’s second anniversary.
This period of reflection will inform plans to deepen ongoing reforms and accelerate national development priorities in the coming year.
Recent economic strides reinforce the President’s commitment to these efforts, as evidenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria reporting a significant increase in net foreign exchange reserves to $23.11 billion—a testament to the administration’s fiscal reforms since 2023 when net reserves were $3.99 billion.
While away, President Tinubu will remain fully engaged with his team and continue to oversee governance activities.
He will return to Nigeria in about a fortnight.
President Bola Tinubu has sacked the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari.
Tinubu also dissolved its board, removing the Chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on information and strategy, announced this in a statement on Wednesday.
Onanuga said Tinubu invoked his powers under section 59(2) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 to carry out the sweeping reconstitution, citing the need for “enhanced operational efficiency, restored investor confidence, and a more commercially viable NNPC”.
He announced that Tinubu has now approved a new 11-man board, which has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman.
According to the statement, “Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
“Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones. They are Bello Rabiu, North West, Yusuf Usman, North East, and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas( NLNG), who represents North Central.
“President Tinubu appointed Austin Avuru as a non-executive director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-executive director from the South West, and Henry Obih as a non-executive director from the South East.
“Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.”
He added said that all the appointments are effective today, April 2.
President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Americans want him to run for another term, a step banned by the US constitution but which he continues describing as possible.
“People are asking me to run,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of a third term.
“I don’t know. I never looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that, but I have not looked into it,” Trump said.
Trump was asked about the prospect of a race pitting him against former president Barack Obama, who served two terms.
“That would be a good one, I’d like that,” Trump said.
“I’m not joking” about the idea of seeking a third term, Trump said Sunday in an interview with NBC News.
The 78-year-old Republican served from 2017 to 2021 and began his second term in the White House on January 20.
The first US president, George Washington, established a tradition by not seeking a third term after completing his second one in 1797.
But this tradition was not formally added to the US constitution until after World War II, with the ratification of the 22nd amendment in 1951.
It says no one can be elected president more than two times.
