Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 144 infections in 13 states, five deaths

Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 144 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Wednesday. 

NPHCDA: Over 5m people fully vaccinated against COVID

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says over 5.8 million people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Deborah Oladipo, Kwara coordinator of NPHCDA, disclosed this on Tuesday in Ilorin, the state capital.

Oladipo said 5,891,305 Nigerians representing 5.3 percent of the eligible population have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 3,252,067 representing 2.9 percent have been fully vaccinated.

“As we are all aware, the overall population of eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination to enable the country to reach herd immunity against the disease is 111,776,503,” she said.

Fauci: COVID booster shots key to US putting pandemic under control

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the US can shrink from a COVID pandemic to endemic status next year if vaccination rates are upscaled and those fully immunised take booster shots.

The top infectious diseases expert said this on Tuesday in an interview with Reuters.

“To me, if you want to get to endemic, you have got to get the level of infection so low that it does not have an impact on society, on your life, on your economy,” Fauci said.

“Look what other countries are doing now about adopting a booster campaign virtually for everybody. I think if we do that … by the spring we can have pretty good control of this.

“For me, endemicity means a lot more people get vaccinated, a lot more people get boosted, and although you don’t eliminate or eradicate it, that infection is not dominating your life,” he said.

COVID-19: Kwara launches mass vaccination campaign 

Kwara government has launched a COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign across all LGAs in the state.

Kayode Alabi, the state’s deputy governor, inaugurated the campaign on Tuesday in Ilorin.

The deputy governor said COVID vaccines are a relief to the ravaging pandemic, hence people must be vaccinated.

“The Kwara government will leave no stone unturned to see that the introduction of the vaccine in the state suffered no hitch by promptly releasing counterpart funds to aid the implementation,” he said.

Alabi appealed to residents to take advantage of the campaign and get vaccinated.

Philippines approves emergency use of Novavax COVID vaccine

The Philippines has authorised the emergency use of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.

The approval makes it the ninth COVID vaccine to be authorised in the south-east Asian country.

Novavax received its first emergency use approval from Indonesia early this month and has also filed for approval in Europe and Canada through the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Nigeria records 144 cases

Nigeria recorded a 380 percent surge in single-day COVID cases on Tuesday.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said 114 cases were reported in 12 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states with the new confirmed cases are Imo (38), Plateau (20), Lagos (17), FCT (16), Kwara (15), Zamfara (15) and Ondo (7).

Others are Rivers (5), Taraba (4), Oyo (3), Bauchi (2), while Edo and Ekiti reported one case each.

The NCDC said a total of 436 recoveries were made, while five persons succumbed to the infection.

The agency said Tuesday’s report includes 269 recoveries for the FCT for 15th and 16th November, including community discharges.

It also includes 20 infections reported in Plateau on 15th and 16th November as well as 17 cases logged in Lagos on 15th and 16th November, 2021.

So far, 213,321 infections have been confirmed out of which 206,206 patients have been discharged, while the country’s fatality figure stands at 2,973.