Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 48 infections in five states

Nigeria on Monday recorded 48 COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday. 

Sweden to offer second COVID booster shot to people aged 65 and above

 Sweden says adults aged 65 and above will be offered a fourth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to boost their defences against the infection.

Sweden’s health agency announced this in a statement on Monday.

“For people aged 65 and over, it is now four months since the previous vaccine dose, and the protective effect of the vaccine diminishes over time,” the statement reads.

People over the age of 80 in Sweden had previously been offered the fourth COVID shot.

South Africa ends COVID state of disaster 

South Africa has ended its COVID-19 national state of disaster.

The COVID national state of disaster has been in place for more than two years. It was South Africa’s main mechanism for managing the pandemic.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the disaster response will end from midnight local time on Monday.

“While the pandemic is not over, while the virus remains amongst us, these conditions no longer require we remain in a national state of disaster,” the president said.

More COVID infections and deaths have been reported in South Africa than everywhere else on the continent.

Nigeria logs 48 infections

Nigeria has recorded 48 new COVID-19 infections across the country.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its update for April 4, 2022, said the fresh cases were recorded in four states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

A breakdown of the new cases are shown below:

Lagos-25
Rivers-11
Kaduna-6
FCT-5
Abia-1

The agency data showed that 62 persons were discharged after they recovered from the infection.

No death was reported as the country’s total cases stay at 3,142.

According to the NCDC, Monday’s report includes data for April 2 to 4.

Nigeria now has a total of 255,516 cases and 249,674 recoveries.

Omicron sub-variant makes up 72% of COVID variants in US, says CDC

The US national public health agency says the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is responsible for about three out of every four COVID variants in the country.

The highly transmissible BA.2 sub-variant accounts for 72.2 percent of COVID variants in the US as of April 2, up from approximately 57.3 percent the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Meanwhile, the number of cases in the US is said to have declined dramatically.

Lagos has conducted 1.162m COVID tests, says commissioner 

Akin Abayomi, commissioner of health, says Lagos state has conducted 1.162 million valid COVID tests since the beginning of the pandemic.

Abayomi spoke on Monday presenting updates on the state’s COVID situation from March 20 t 30.

According to the commissioner, 17,487 tests were completed within the reported date with a case positivity rate of infection of 1.9 percent as of March 30.