Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC reports 48 infections in nine states  

Nigeria on Thursday recorded 48 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday.

Spain drops mandatory use of face masks outdoors

Spain on Thursday dropped the mandatory use of face masks outdoors.

Spain first imposed obligatory mask-wearing outdoors in May 2020 but lifted it in June last year.

Wearing a face covering was still required for indoor public spaces.

The government re-imposed the measure just before Christmas as COVID cases exploded owing to the Omicron variant.

Even as the rule eased across the country on Thursday, in Madrid, some kept them on out of habit.

The national infection rate over the preceding 14 days has reportedly halved in three weeks, falling to 1,692 cases on Wednesday from a peak of 3,397 cases per 100,000 on January 17, prompting the authorities to ease restrictions.

Novoxax says its COVID vaccine safe for 12-year-olds and 17-year-olds

Novavax announced on Thursday that its COVID vaccine proved safe and effective in a study of 12- to 17-year-olds.

The latest study enrolled 2,247 US children ages 12 to 17 and found the two-dose vaccine was 80 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID infection.

Its shots have been cleared for use in adults by regulators in Britain, Europe, and by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and are under review by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Novavax plans to seek expanded use of its shots down to age 12. Later this year, it plans to begin testing in younger children.

Africa transitioning out of pandemic phase of COVID, says WHO

The World Health Organisation says Africa is transitioning out of the pandemic phase of its COVID-19 outbreak and moving towards a situation where it will be managing the virus long term.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said: “The pandemic is moving into a different phase. We think that we’re moving now, especially with the vaccination expected to increase, into what might become a kind of endemic living with the virus.”

“We’re very much aware that our surveillance systems problems that we had on the continent, with access to testing supplies, for example, have led to an underestimation of the cases.”

Czech Republic cancels vaccine certificate rules for restaurants, events

The Czech government has cancelled rules requiring vaccination certificates to enter restaurants and events.

The Czech Republic is the latest European country to ease restrictions as the government hopes the peak of the Omicron wave is over.

Enforcement of the vaccination certificate requirement has reportedly been weak and many places did not require guests to show them.

“We were in a perverse situation where those who followed the rules suffered while those who didn’t give a damn and even declared it openly were making money,” Tomas Prouza, head of a lobby group for commerce and tourism, said.

“The numbers are going down, hospitals are not full, this is a time when we have to start living normally.”

Nigeria records 48 COVID cases

Nigeria’s daily COVID cases continued on a low count on Thursday with 48 infections recorded.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the infections were logged in nine states.

Below is a summary of the infections:

Lagos-15

Cross River-12

FCT-8

Plateau-7

Ogun-2

Abia-1

Delta-1

Oyo-1

Rivers-1

The agency data showed that 72 persons were discharged after recovering from the infection.

For the fifth day in a row, no fatality was recorded, leaving the total deaths at 3,139.

In total, 253,923 cases have been confirmed with 230,293 recoveries.