Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records 203 infections — highest daily toll in 5 months

Nigeria on Monday recorded 203 COVID-19 cases — the highest daily toll in five months. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday. 

Japan to start COVID-19 vaccination at workplaces 

Japan says it will start COVID-19 vaccination at workplaces and universities from June 21 to speed up the country’s vaccination drive.

Katsunobu Kato, cabinet secretary, said this during a news conference on Tuesday, and that the Moderna vaccine will be used for the campaign.

WHO renames COVID variants with Greek letters to avoid stigmatisation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has renamed COVID-19 variants with Greek alphabets to avoid stigmatising and misreporting of countries where they were detected.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead, disclosed this in a tweet on Monday, adding that the new system applies to variants of concern.

“While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall and are prone to misreporting,” the WHO said in a statement.

“As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatising and discriminatory.”

Today, @WHO announces new, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs)

They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public discussion of VOI/VOC

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Read more here (will be live soon):
https://t.co/VNvjJn8Xcv#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/L9YOfxmKW7

— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) May 31, 2021

The four COVID variants known as the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India variants have now been given the letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta — according to the order of their detection. Other variants of interest continue down the alphabet.

FG to prevent third wave of COVID

The presidential steering committee (PSC) on COVID-19 says Nigeria cannot afford a third wave of coronavirus infections.

Boss Mustapha, chairman of the committee, said the national response will continue to focus on testing, detection, risk communication, community engagement, finding access to vaccines, vaccination of eligible Nigerians, enhancing surveillance especially at the points of entry, among other issues.

Nigeria records 203 COVID infections 

Nigeria witnessed a leap in COVID cases on Monday as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 203 infections.

According to the agency’s update, the new cases were recorded in five states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

It said this number includes a backlog of data from Benue and Nasarawa states recorded from February to May 2021.

States that recorded new positive samples are Benue (178), Lagos (10), Ondo (6), FCT (4), Kaduna (4), and Plateau (1).

The NCDC reported 28 deaths from COVID-19 complications bringing the fatality toll to 2,099.

But 2,223 persons were discharged after recovering from the infection.

Out of a total of 166,518 COVID-19 cases now confirmed across 36 states and the FCT, 158,781 patients have recovered.

Toyota, Honda suspend vehicle production in Malaysia over lockdown

Toyota and Honda have suspended the production of vehicles at their plants in Malaysia after the country started a two-week total lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Toyota has two plants in the south-east Asian country while Honda has a motorcycle factory in Penang and a car plant in Malacca.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA