Daily COVID Tracker: Fatalities surge as Nigeria records 19 deaths, 281 infections

Nigeria on Thursday recorded 281 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday

NPHCDA recommends COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has recommended that pregnant and lactating women should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Faisal Shuaib, executive director of NPHCDA, said this on Thursday.

Shuaib said pregnancy testing is not a requirement for receiving any of the approved COVID-19 vaccines by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He asked obstetricians and gynaecologists to lead by example by getting vaccinated and also encourage eligible patients to be vaccinated as well.

WHO calls for more COVID vaccines to Africa

WHO and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) say only 15 of Africa’s 54 countries have fully vaccinated 10 percent of their populations against COVID-19.

WHO and ICN said this on Thursday, adding that many frontline health workers remain at risk.

They called for the distribution of more COVID doses to the continent.

Japan ends COVID-19 state of emergency

Japan has lifted the state of emergency imposed since April to fight the spread of COVID-19.

The state of emergency, which covered Tokyo and 18 other prefectures, including a quasi-state of emergency, ended Thursday following a decline in new cases of COVID-19.

Nigeria records 281 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 281 COVID-19 infections have been reported across the country.

The agency in its update for September 30, 2021 said the infections were recorded in 12 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states that reported the new cases are FCT (111), Lagos (34), Edo (33), Kwara (20), Plateau (20), Rivers (17), Abia (10), Imo (8), Delta (7), Nasarawa (7), Ekiti (6), Akwa Ibom (3) and Oyo (2).

The NCDC data showed that 135 persons were discharged after they recovered on Thursday.

According to the agency, 19 persons died of COVID complications.

The agency added that “10 deaths reported for Delta state are for August 19th (1), September 9th (1), 10th (2), 11th (1), 17th (1), 19th (1), 23rd (2), and 24th (1)”.

So far, 205,765 infections, 193,617 recoveries and 2,720 deaths have been recorded across the country.

COVID-19: YouTube bans ALL anti-vaccine misinformation

YouTube says it will now block all anti-vaccine content on its video-sharing site to tackle misinformation about COVID-19.

Youtube also said it would remove content that alleges vaccines cause chronic health effects or contains misinformation.

“We’re expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” it said.