Nigeria recorded 790 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday.
WHO approves three new drugs for clinical trials
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says three new candidate drugs are being tested in the new phase of its global solidarity clinical trials to find effective treatments against COVID-19.
The drugs — artesunate, imatinib and infliximab — will be tested on hospitalised COVID-19 patients in 52 countries under the Solidarity PLUS programme.
Solidarity PLUS is the largest global collaboration among WHO’s 194 member states, with thousands of researchers in over 600 hospitals as participants.
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Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said there is a critical need to find more effective and accessible COVID-19 therapeutics.
Researchers develop saliva test to detect COVID variants
Scientists have developed a device that allows users to test themselves for COVID-19 and multiple variants of the virus using a sample of their saliva.
The device was created by researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and several Boston-area hospitals.
All that is needed is for the user to spit into the sample preparation chamber, transfer the collection disc to the reaction chamber and press a plunger, which then activates the reaction.
Collaborative effort needed to wipe out COVID, says FG
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The federal government says collaborative effort is needed to wipe out COVID-19.
Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, said this on Wednesday in an interview with NAN.
Mohammed said the virus knows no boundaries and therefore all hands must be on deck to curtail its spread.
“One thing about COVID-19 is that it has no boundary, it has no geographical boundary, it has no physical boundary and then until and unless we wipe out COVID-19, no one is safe,” he said.
“The Risk Communication Pillar of the PSC is working with the traditional rulers, religious leaders, and the media in particular and also influencers to really encourage people to take the vaccine.”
He advised Nigerians to get vaccinated against the virus to flatten the curve of infection.
NCDC records 790 COVID cases
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 790 COVID-19 cases across 12 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s figure is the highest single-day count in six months. The last time the country recorded infections above 790 was on February 18, when 877 cases were recorded.
Lagos, the worst-hit state by COVID-19, recorded 574 positive samples representing 72.66 percent of the total daily count on Wednesday.
Other states that recorded cases include Rivers (83), Ondo (38), Ogun (31), Oyo (23), Delta (10), FCT (9), Ekiti (7), Edo (6), Osun (4), Anambra (2), Bayelsa (2), and Plateau (1).
Seventy-two persons were discharged on Wednesday, while one death was recorded.
So far, Nigeria has 179,908 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 166,203 recoveries, and 2,195 fatalities across the 36 states and the FCT.
Lai: There are more COVID cases at NYSC camps than reported
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Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says the number of COVID-19 cases recorded at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps across the country is more than reported.
Lai said if more tests are conducted, “there will be more cases”.
He said consistent testing and non-compliance to non-pharmaceutical interventions are responsible for the rising cases of infection across the camps.
COVID-19 IN NIGERIA
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