Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 146 cases — highest single-day count in weeks

Nigeria on Thursday recorded 146 COVID infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday. 

Tunisia decries collapsing healthcare system owing to COVID-19

Tunisia says its healthcare system is on the brink of collapsing and doctors “suffering” owing to a spike in infections and deaths caused by COVID-19.

Nisaf Alaya, ministry of health spokesperson, disclosed this on Thursday.

“We are in a catastrophic situation … the health system collapsed, we can only find a bed in hospitals with great difficulty,” Nisaf Alaya said.

“We are struggling to provide oxygen … doctors are suffering from unprecedented fatigue…the boat is sinking.”

Zimbabwe receives two million Sinovac COVID doses

Zimbabwe has received two million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses from China to boost its vaccination campaign.

Thursday’s delivery is said to be its largest single shipment.

The southern African country total COVID vaccine doses — from purchase and donation — are now 4.2 million.

Africa CDC: Only 1% of Africans have been fully vaccinated

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC), says only 1.19 percent of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

The low rate of vaccination raises concerns as the continent is experiencing a third wave of infections.

Speaking at the weekly COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, Nkengasong said “as of July 5, a total of 70.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been procured by 52 member states in the continent”.

“Total doses consumed so far is 53.3 million and it represents about 75 percent. If you now look at those who are fully vaccinated, then our percentage coverage stands at 1.19 percent of the population. It is too low for us and at this point in the pandemic,” Nkengasong added.

Delta, highly contagious COVID variant, detected in Nigeria

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed the index case of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in Nigeria.

The NCDC disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, adding that the variant was detected during routine tests for in-bound travellers in Abuja.

The Delta variant is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a variant of concern and linked to the spike in COVID in many countries.

“The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has detected a confirmed case with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2. The variant was detected in a traveller to Nigeria, following the routine travel test required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja,” the statement reads.

NCDC logs 146 cases

Nigeria on Thursday recorded 146 cases of COVID-19.

According to the NCDC, the infections were reported in six states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states that recorded the cases are Lagos (110), Enugu (18), Oyo (7), Rivers (5), Gombe (3), FCT (2) and Kaduna (1).

The figure is the highest single-day toll in weeks.

It also comes hours after the NCDC said Delta, a highly infectious variant of COVID-19, has been recorded in the country.

Seven people were discharged on Thursday after they recovered from the infection.

The agency’s data indicates that no COVID related deaths were recorded on Thursday.

So far, 168,256 cases have been confirmed, 164,415 people have been discharged while 2,122 persons have died as a result of COVID complications.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA