Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 209 cases in 12 states — 52% from Gombe

Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 209 COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday. 

Turkey to commence COVID booster shots campaign Thursday, says minister

Turkey says it will start to administer COVID booster shots to people who have received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to Fahrettin Koca, health minister.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday, Koca said the booster shots vaccination campaign for Pfizer/BioNTech recipients would commence on Thursday with the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, health workers and people in high-risk jobs.

Study: Mothers’ COVID antibodies provide benefit for newborns 

A study recent shows that COVID-19 antibodies passed from infected mothers to their breastfeeding newborns provide benefit to the baby.

According to the report published by JAMA Network Open, researchers studied 21 babies born to mothers who were infected with the coronavirus at the time of delivery.

The researchers discovered that different classes of immune molecules in the breast milk, known as IgA antibodies, had stimulated active immunity in the newborns, triggering their immune systems to produce their own IgA antibodies.

“We have shown for the first time that the mother can also trigger the active immune response of the newborn through the transfer of (immune molecules) in breast milk resulting in the production of salivary antibodies,” Rita Carsetti and Gianluca Terrin said.

WHO approves India’s Covaxin COVID vaccine for emergency use

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved India’s Covaxin COVID vaccine for emergency use.

The health agency said the vaccine is “extremely suitable for low and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements”.

Mariangela Simao, WHO’s assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said the emergency use listing expands the availability of vaccines, which is necessary to end the pandemic.

Nigeria records 209 COVID cases

Nigeria’s COVID single-day cases rose by 111 percent on Wednesday.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 209 fresh infections were reported on Wednesday compared to the 99 cases logged on Tuesday.

The agency said the new infections were reported in 11 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states with new infections are Gombe (109), FCT (21), Rivers (21), Lagos (13), Bauchi (9), Ondo (9), Plateau (9), Enugu (7), Benue (5), Oyo (4), Ekiti (1) and Ogun (1).

The NCDC said the 109 cases reported from Gombe include backlog from Oct 16 to November 1.

The agency’s data showed that 486 patients recovered from COVID while one person succumbed to the infection.

Nigeria now has a total of 212,359 confirmed cases, 204,010 recoveries and 2,900 fatalities.

COVID-19: UI grants only first class graduands access to convocation hall

The management of the University of Ibadan (UI) has asked graduands without first-class honours not to attend the 2021 convocation ceremony physically.

According to a circular, the graduands without first-class and their parents are to join the ceremony billed for November 15 and 17 virtually.

Olatunji Oladejo, the university’s spokesperson, said the directive became imperative to curb the spread of coronavirus which is currently ravaging the world.