Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 118 cases — but no fatality

Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 118 cases of COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Wednesday. 

Catching COVID may cause changes to the brain, says study

Scientists says they have found significant differences in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans before and after infection.

The study is published in the journal nature.

It found that the overall brain size in infected participants had shrunk between 0.2 and 2 percent, there were losses in grey matter in the olfactory areas, linked to smell, and regions linked to memory and that those who had recently recovered from COVID-19 found it a bit harder to perform complex mental tasks.

The researchers said they do not know whether the changes are permanent but said the brain could heal.

Hawaii to drop mask mandate

Hawaii’s mask mandate will end on March 25, making it the last US state to announce that the requirement will be dropped.

David Ige, Hawaii’s governor, announced this on Tuesday.

“It’s taken the entire community to get to this point — with lowered case counts and hospitalisations,” he said.

“If we see another surge, we will be ready to reinstitute the mask policy, if needed.”

US warns citizens against travel to New Zealand

The United States has warned its citizens against travelling to New Zealand.

New Zealand recently recorded its highest daily coronavirus case numbers since the pandemic started as the Omicron variant drives community transmission.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked Americans to avoid travel to New Zealand, Hong Kong and Thailand over COVID-19 cases.

The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High” for the three destinations.

In total, the CDC asked Americans to avoid travel to about 135 countries and territories.

WHO reports global decline in COVID infections

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says COVID-19 cases and fatalities are declining globally.

Speaking on Tuesday, Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said some countries are experiencing a decline in infections and fatalities, and have been able to ease restrictions with low rates of hospitalisation.

He said it is, however, far too early to declare victory over the pandemic.

“It is encouraging to see that there’s from COVID-19 are now declining globally and in most regions and it’s pleasing to see some countries being able to relax restrictions without their health systems being overwhelmed,” he said.

Nigeria logs 118 infections

Nigeria has recorded 118 COVID-19 infections across the country.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the new infections were logged in three states.

A breakdown of the fresh infections is shown below.

FCT-68

Lagos-49

Rivers-1

The agency data showed three persons were discharged after they recovered from the infection.

No death was reported on Tuesday making it the 18th day with no fatality.

The NCDC said the report includes 68 cases reported for the FCT for March 7, 2022 with 60 of the cases being returnees from Ukraine.

It also includes a backlog of 49 cases reported for Lagos from March 7 (8), 6 (23), 5 (18).

In total, 254,657 cases have been confirmed with 249,199 recoveries and 3,142 deaths.