Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC reports 110 new infections, one death

Nigeria on Sunday recorded 110 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Monday.

Thirteen persons arriving Netherlands from South Africa flights test positive for Omicron variant

The new coronavirus variant Omicron has been detected in 13 people who arrived in the Amsterdam, Netherlands, on two flights from South Africa.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health announced the 13 Omicron cases on Sunday, adding that its investigation had “not yet been completed”.

Hugo de Jonge, the country’s health minister, made an “urgent request” for people who have returned from southern Africa to get tested for COVID “as soon as possible”.

“It is not unthinkable that there are more cases in the Netherlands,” he said.

Israel to impose travel ban for foreigners over new variant

Israel is to ban foreigners from entering the country for 14 days and use surveillance to halt the spread of the new COVID variant, after one case was detected in the country.

In addition to the entry ban for non-Israelis, a three-day mandatory quarantine will be required for all vaccinated Israeli nationals, and a seven-day quarantine for those who have not been vaccinated.

There will be a surveillance of confirmed coronavirus patients by the Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and phone-tracking technology will be also used.

Third case of Omicron COVID variant detected in UK

A third case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected in the UK.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the person is no longer in the UK but had visited Westminster in London.

It added that this person in the third UK case had been linked to travel in southern Africa.

The agency said testing is being carried out at locations they visited in London’s Westminster area, adding that it was “very likely” more cases will be found in the coming days.

Omicron variant vaccine could be ready in early 2022, says Moderna

Moderna says it could roll out a reformulated vaccine against the omicron coronavirus variant by early next year.

“We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks, but the remarkable thing about the MRNA vaccines, Moderna platform is that we can move very fast,” Paul Burton, the company’s chief medical officer, told the BBC.

“If we have to make a brand new vaccine I think that’s going to be early 2022 before that’s really going to be available in large quantities.”

Nigeria records 110 COVID cases, one death

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 110 cases have been reported across the country.

The agency the fresh infections were recorded in 11 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states with new cases are Lagos (27), Katsina (23), Rivers (20), Ondo (11), Kaduna (9), FCT (6), Oyo (6), Plateau (3), Osun (2), Ekiti (1), Gombe (1), and Zamfara (1)

The NCDC data showed that 70 people recovered from the infection.

One COVID fatality was reported on Wednesday leaving the fatality figure at 2,976.

So far, Nigeria has confirmed 214,092 infections and 207,254 recoveries.