Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 29 cases, one death — after three days of zero fatality

Nigeria on Friday recorded 29 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday.

Dozen of vaccinated doctors die in Indonesia 

More than a dozen of fully vaccinated doctors have reportedly died of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

The south-east Asian country is said to be battling with new virus strains, and the highly infectious delta variant first identified in India.

The country’s medical association said about 1,000 health workers have died from the virus since the pandemic started, adding that 401 doctors were among the victims — out of which 14 were fully vaccinated.

“We are still updating the data and confirming whether the other cases had been vaccinated or not,” Mohammad Khumaidi, the association COVID-19 mitigation head said.

Indonesia is said to heavily rely on Sinovac vaccine produced in China — among other jabs.

Iran supreme leader receives locally made COVID vaccine

Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Iran supreme leader, has received a dose of COVIran Barekat, the country’s first locally produced COVID-19 vaccine.

Khamenei who was vaccinated on Friday, described the development of the vaccine as “national pride”.

He said “some insisted from a while ago that I use a vaccine” adding that “I didn’t want to use a non-Iranian vaccine. I said we will wait until, inshallah, the local vaccine is produced and we can use our own vaccine”.

The COVIran Barekat vaccine underwent human trial in December 2020 and about 24,000 volunteers received the jab in the third phase that was recently concluded.

Nigeria records 29 COVID infections

Nigeria has recorded 29 new cases of COVID-19.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the infections in its update for June 25, 2021.

According to the agency, the infections were reported in seven states.

Lagos topped the chart of infected persons with 16 cases, followed by Rivers with 3 cases and Kaduna with three.

Other states that recorded cases are Kwara (2), Delta(2), Ondo (2), and Ogun(1).

The agency said 4 persons were discharged on Friday after they recovered from the infection.

After three days of recording no fatality, the NCDC said one person died of COVID-19 on Friday.

So far, 167,430 cases have been confirmed across the country, 163,937 people have been discharged, while 2,119 have died of COVID complications.

Israel reintroduce indoor mask rule amid surge in COVID cases

The Israeli health ministry has asked people to resume wearing masks in enclosed public places.

The development comes about 10 days after the country ended its mandatory indoor masking rule.

Nachman Ash, head of Israel’s pandemic response task force, said the requirement is pivotal to surge in infections owing to the highly contagious delta variant.

“We are seeing a doubling every few days. “Another thing that’s worrying is that the infections are spreading,” Ash said.

“If we had two cities where most of the infections were, we have more cities where the numbers are rising and communities where the cases are going up.”

Uganda suspends domestic tourism 

Uganda has suspended domestic tourism amid surge in cases of COVID-19.

Lilly Ajarova, chief executive officer of Uganda tourism board, said the COVID-19 national taskforce took the decision, but added that foreigners are not affected.

“Everyone should remain in one place in a bid to curb the spread,” she said.