Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 54 infections in five states

March 24, 2022 8:04 am

Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 54 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday.

Singapore to scrap quarantine for vaccinated arrivals

Singapore has announced plans to lift more COVID-19 restrictions including suspending most curbs for fully-vaccinated international travellers arriving in the country from April 1.

The government also plans to drop mask-wearing requirements outdoors.

Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong made the announcement at a briefing on Thursday.

“Earlier, we were cautious because of uncertainty over Omicron’s impact,” Lee said.

“Now the Omicron situation is well under control. Nearly all our cases our domestic, originating within the community. Arrivals from abroad constitute only a very small proportion of cases. We can therefore safely open up our borders.”

We lost 9,000 jobs during the pandemic, says Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe says the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the loss of 9,000 jobs and the closure of 37 facilities over the past two years.

Monica Mutsvangwa, information minister, however, said investments in the country’s tourism sector grew from $86 million in 2020 to 142 million in 2021, boosted by a slew of government investment promotion efforts.

According to Mutsvangwa, the government has implemented a recovery and growth strategy launched to grow the tourism industry to $5 billion by 2025.

Moderna to seek regulatory approval for COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than six

Moderna says it will ask regulators to authorise its COVID-19 vaccine in children younger than six years old.

The drugmaker said its “interim analysis showed a robust neutralizing antibody response in both age groups after a 25 µg two-dose primary series of mRNA-1273 along with a favorable safety profile”.

Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said the “latest results from the KidCOVE study are good news for parents of children under 6 years of age. We now have clinical data on the performance of our vaccine from infants six months of age through older adults”.

“Given the need for a vaccine against COVID-19 in infants and young children we are working with the U.S. FDA and regulators globally to submit these data as soon as possible,” Bancel said.

Nigeria logs 54 infections

Nigeria has recorded 54 COVID-19 infections across the country.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the infections were reported in four states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

A breakdown of the new cases is presented below: