Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria begins vaccination drive and Czech seeks help in treating patients

March 6, 2021 8:03 am

Nigeria on Friday administered its first COVID-19 vaccine to frontline health workers, exactly one year and six days after the country confirmed its index case on February 27. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday morning.

COVAX distributed 20 million doses of vaccines in first week

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Friday, said COVAX has delivered 20 million vaccine doses to 20 countries in the first week of distribution.

“This was a landmark week for COVAX with the first vaccinations starting in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. In total, COVAX has delivered 20 million doses of vaccine to 20 countries,” Ghebreyesus said.

The WHO boss said COVAX will deliver 14.4 million vaccine doses to an additional 31 countries next week.

COVAX, which is co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and GAVI Alliance, was launched in 2020 to mobilise resources to ensure that low and middle-income countries have equitable access to vaccines.

Czech Republic asks Germany, Poland and Switzerland for help in treating COVID-19 patients

The Czech Republic has asked Germany, Poland and Switzerland for help in treating COVID-19 patients by allowing them to be transferred there.

According to a statement issued on Friday, Jan Blatny, health minister, said that there has been a surge in the number of newly infected patients and that many hospitals have run out of capacity, with only 14% of intensive care unit beds currently available.

“We are in a situation nobody wanted to end up in,” Blatny said.

“Despite increasing hospital capacities to the maximum possible, despite maximizing the use of health care staff and despite their enormous effort, we have reached the limit.

“Hospitals in some regions have already run out of capacities and are no longer able to provide adequate care without the help of other health care facilities.”

Nigeria administers first dose of COVID vaccine

Nigeria on Friday administered its first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to frontline health workers.

On Tuesday, the long-awaited vaccines arrived in the country courtesy of the COVAX facility which donated 3.9 million doses to Nigeria.

The first shot of the vaccine was given to Cyprian Nyong, a medical doctor at the National Hospital, Abuja.

Faisal Shuaib, chief executive officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), administered the dosage. He said the doctor has been on the frontline since Nigeria’s first case of COVID-19.

The second medical doctor who was administered the vaccine was said to have attended to 10,549 patients since the pandemic.

The historic moment came exactly a year and six days after Nigeria confirmed its index case on February 27.

President Muhammadu Buhari and vice president Yemi Osinbanjo are expected to be vaccinated on Saturday.

Canada approves Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Canada on Friday authorized the use of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) single-dose vaccine in the country.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “This is the fourth vaccine to be deemed safe by Canada’s health experts – and with millions of doses already secured, we’re one step closer to defeating this virus.”

The approval of the J&J vaccine now brings to four the number of vaccines authorized in Canada after Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

Rwanda is first African country to use Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

Rwanda began its COVID-19 vaccine distribution on Friday, becoming the first African country to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The East African country, on Wednesday, received about 103,000 doses of the vaccine at Kigali, its capital city, through the United Nations-led COVAX initiative.

Many countries, including Nigeria, opted for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in place of Pfizer’s over storage convenience.

While the Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs can be stored at regular fridge temperature, Pfizer is required to be stored at an extremely cold temperature of -70 degrees celsius.

Pfizer said the first shipment of its vaccine to Africa represents “an important milestone for the region, for Rwanda, and for the global health partners working tirelessly to fight this pandemic”.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA