Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs one fatality in seven weeks

Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 13 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday. 

It’s easier to develop COVID vaccines for specific variant

Albert Bourla, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pfizer, says it is easier to develop a COVID vaccine that targets a specific variant than to develop one that works against all strains.

“It’s easy to do something only against Omicron,” he said.

“What is scientifically and technically more challenging … is to be effective against everything known so far, so you don’t have two different vaccines for different variants.”

US renews its COVID-19 public health emergency

The United States has renewed its COVID-19 public health emergency.

The public health emergency allows Americans to get free tests, vaccines and treatments for at least three more months.

The health emergency was launched in January 2020 at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been renewed quarterly since then. The current one was set to expire on April 16.

Nigeria logs 13 COVID infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 13 cases of COVID-19.

The agency in its updates for April 13, 2022, said the infections were logged in four states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos recorded six infections, followed by Rivers with three and Delta with two. The FCT and Kano logged one case each.

Seventeen persons were discharged after they recovered from the infection.

According to the NCDC data, one person died of COVID complications raising the total fatalities to 3,143.

This is the first death to be reported in seven weeks. The most recent COVID fatality reported by the NCDC occurred on February 19, 2022.

Britain approves sixth COVID shot