Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records 187 new infections and EU to issue ‘virus certificate’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use in countries where COVID-19 variants of concern are circulating. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday. 

About one in 8 Americans fully vaccinated

More than 113 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States.

According to data published on Wednesday by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 113,037,627 total doses have been administered — about 77% of the 147,590,615 doses delivered.

About 22% of the US population — nearly 74 million people — have received at least one dose, and about 12% of the population —nearly 40 million people — are fully vaccinated, data from CDC showed.

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine effective in countries with variants

WHO vaccine advisers on Wednesday recommended Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for use in countries where variants of concern are circulating.

Alejandro Cravioto, chair of the WHO strategic advisory group of experts (SAGE) on immunisation, said the vaccine has proved effective “in the countries where there is a high spread of the variants”.

“After reviewing the evidence, we have a vaccine that shows to be safe and it shows to have the necessary efficacy to be recommended for use by us in people over the age of 18, without an upper age limit,” Cravioto said.

Last Friday, WHO approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use in all countries.

Australia asks EU to send one million COVID-19 vaccines to PNG 

Australia on Wednesday asked the EU to release one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to help Papua New Guinea (PNG) battle a dangerous outbreak that authorities fear could spread to other parts of the region.

The EU recently blocked an Australia-bound shipment of the doses.

Scott Morrison, Australia prime minister, said the vaccines were for Australia and are now badly needed to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases in PNG, parts of which are just a short boat ride from Australian territory.

“We’ve contracted them. We’ve paid for them and we want to see those vaccines come here so we can support our nearest neighbour, PNG, to deal with their urgent needs in our region,” Morrison said.

“They’re our family, they’re our friends. They’re our neighbours. They’re our partners… This is in Australia’s interests, and is in our region’s interests.”

No new data from FCT as Nigeria records 187 fresh infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the country recorded 187 new cases of COVID-19 across 18 states on Wednesday.

This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 161,261.

But there was no data from the federal capital territory (FCT) in the NCDC update.

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, tops of the list with 42 fresh infections, followed by Taraba 29, and Edo 17 cases.

Other states with new cases include Abia (13), Rivers (11), Kaduna (10), Katsina (9), Oyo (9); Kwara (7), Plateau (7), Ondo (5), Bayelsa (4), Cross River (4), Ogun (4), Osun (4), Akwa Ibom (3), Borno (3), Nasarawa (3).

However, the agency said Wednesday’s report include “data from Taraba state recorded over the last four days”.

Also, 323 new recoveries were confirmed on Wednesday, including 131 community recoveries in Lagos — bringing the total recovery tally to 146,395.

The NCDC reported nine new deaths, raising the number of fatalities to 2,027.

EU plans rollout of travel certificate 

The European Commission on Wednesday announced plans to create a travel certificate to facilitate safe free movement within the EU.

The aim of the digital green passport is to enable anyone vaccinated against COVID-19, or who has tested negative or recently recovered from the virus to travel within the EU.

The certificate will be available free, in digital or paper format. It will include a QR code to ensure security and authenticity of the certificate.

Ursula von der Leyen, president EU commission, said the certificate will show ”whether the person has either been vaccinated, or has a recent negative test, or has recovered from COVID, and thus has antibodies”.

“With this digital certificate, we aim to help member states reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe, responsible, and trusted manner,” she said.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA