Daily COVID Tracker: 25% of Nigerians exposed to virus and Macron asks US, EU to donate vaccines to Africa

February 19, 2021 8:17 am

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says about 25 percent of the country’s population has been exposed to COVID-19 without knowing it. Here are five update about the pandemic this Friday.

US to donate $4 billion for COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries

There is hope for “underprivileged” countries struggling to procure the COVID-19 vaccines.

President Joe Biden will announce on Friday the US plan to contribute $2 billion to a United Nations backed programme for poorer countries in the world.

Congress is said to have approved the funds in December 2020 for the US Agency for International Development to provide to Gavi, an international vaccine distribution alliance.

A total sum of $4 billion was approved by congress, but an initial $2 billion will be provided while the remaining $2 billion will come over the next two years as other nations fulfil and make their own pledges.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says about 25 percent of Nigerians have been exposed to COVID-19 without them knowing it.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, disclosed this on Thursday while presenting updates on the pandemic at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held in Abuja.

Nigeria is currently experiencing a second wave of the pandemic. Close to one year since the index case was recorded, the country has tested less than two million samples.

Macron asks US, EU to give five percent of their COVID vaccines to Africa

Worried by the “vaccine inequality” across the globe, President Emmanuel Macron of France has made a strong case for donation of COVID vaccines to the continent.

Macron on Thursday, asked fellow European countries and the United States to give up to five percent of their current COVID-19 vaccine supplies to developing countries in Africa.

The president who said poorer nations are paying “astronomical prices” for the vaccine, added that current uneven distribution of doses marked an “unprecedented acceleration of global inequality”.

He said some countries were being charged two or three times the price paid by the European Union for vaccines such as the one produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca.

“We are allowing the idea to take hold that hundreds of millions of vaccines are being given in rich countries and that we are not starting in poor countries,” Macron said.

“It’s an unprecedented acceleration of global inequality. It’s unacceptable when a vaccine exists to reduce the chances of a woman or a man according to the place where they happen to live.”

Pfizer/BioNTech to start vaccine studies in children

Pfizer/BioNTech has announced plans to start COVID-19 vaccine studies in children between the age of five and eleven in a few months time.

The companies’ current trial for children between 12 and 15 years started enrolling participants in October 2020 but it is now fully enrolled.

Pfizer/BioNTech said the relevant data will be submitted to the regulatory authorities in the second quarter of 2021, adding that they also have plans to study the vaccine in children younger than five later this year.

Africa ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccines

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Africa is getting ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccines.

In a statement issued from in its headquarters in Brazzaville, Congo, on Thursday, WHO said the continent was planning a rapid vaccine rollout.

The statement said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, had briefed health ministers on the region’s overall state of readiness for Africa’s largest-ever immunisation drive.