Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 52 infections — but no deaths

Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 52 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Wednesday.

WHO says COVID-19 deaths in Europe may top two million by March 2022.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says deaths across Europe from COVID-19 are likely to exceed two million by March next year.

The agency said deaths have risen to nearly 4,200 a day, a double of the number being recorded in September while cumulative reported deaths in the region, which includes the UK, have already surpassed 1.5 million.

“We can expect that there will be high or extreme stress on hospital beds in 25 countries, and high or extreme stress in intensive care units in 49 out of 53 countries between now and 1 March 2022. Cumulative reported deaths are projected to reach over 2.2 million by spring next year, based on current trends,” a statement by WHO reads.

US adds Germany and Denmark to ‘do not travel’ list over COVID-19 surge

The US has issued a travel advisory for Germany and Denmark owing to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the two European countries.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention now considers both Germany and Denmark as ”level four: Very high”, and the state department also issued “Do Not Travel” advisories for both countries.

Other European countries on the CDC’s list of “level four” countries are Austria, Britain, Belgium, Greece, Norway, Switzerland, Romania, Ireland and the Czech Republic.

“Avoid travel to these destinations. If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel,” the advisory reads.

Germany hits another COVID-19 record

Germany saw another COVID-19 record on Tuesday, with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control recording a seven-day incidence rate of 399.8 new infections per 100,000 people.

According to the latest RKI figures, there were 45,326 new cases within the past day, a significant rise compared to a week earlier when 32,048 new infections were reported.

The data showed that 309 people had died of COVID-19 complications across the country within the past 24 hours, up from 265 a week ago.

The latest figure brings the national death toll to 99,433.

The new figures bring the total number of infections in Germany since the start of the pandemic to 5.4 million, though officials believe the actual total to be significantly higher as many cases go undiagnosed.

US COVID-19 deaths in 2021 surpass that of 2020

COVID-19 deaths in 2021 surpassed the total from 2020 this week, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There have been a total of 771,576 deaths owing to the infection since the pandemic started. But since January 1 of this year, 386,233 people have died of COVID complications compared with last year’s toll of 385,343.

NCDC reports 52 new COVID cases, no deaths

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 52 new cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

According to the agency’s update for November 23, the new infections were reported in seven states.

The states with fresh infections are Rivers (20), Lagos (15), Plateau (8), Jigawa (6), Delta (1), Gombe (1), Kaduna (1).

The NCDC said 19 persons were discharged on Tuesday after recovering from the infection.

There were no deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, leaving the total number of fatalities at 2,974.

The NCDC said the report includes a backlog of 15 confirmed cases reported for Lagos on November 17 (6) and November 19(9).

So far, 213,677 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Nigeria with 206,797 discharges.