Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records 43 infections, and AU orders 400m doses of J&J vaccine

Malawi destroys 19,610 expired COVID vaccine

Malawi has destroyed 19,610 doses of expired AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, health minister, said the country has a policy of not using expired vaccines.

“We are destroying [these vaccines] because as government policy no expired health commodities are to be used,” she said.

“We are destroying publicly in order to stay accountable to Malawians. The vaccines that expired are not being used during the vaccination campaign.”

The doses were part of a batch of 102,000 doses of vaccine donated to Malawi by COVAX programme in March.

African Union orders 400 million doses of J&J COVID vaccine

Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the African Union vaccine delivery alliance, says an order has been placed for about 400 million COVID doses.

Most African countries are beneficiaries of the United Nations-led COVAX  programme which is facilitating the procurement of vaccines for poor countries.

But Serum Institute of India (SII), the main supplier of the AstraZeneca vaccine to COVAX, said it may not resume export of vaccine doses until the end of 2021.

SII said it will focus on boosting the vaccination drive for India as the country battles a major spike in its infection rate.

Speaking during a programme on CNN, on Wednesday, Alakija said the AU have now “had to go to Johnson & Johnson and actually have orders in place or options in place for up to 400 million doses. 240 million we are expecting this year”.

FG partner UN to launch campaign on sustaining preventive behaviour

The federal government in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) in Nigeria on Wednesday inaugurated “POWERFUL H.A.N.D.S’’ campaign to develop, change and sustain long term preventive behaviour to eliminate spread of COVID-19 among residents.

According to NAN, the project is to be implemented by Centre for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI), an NGO with technical support from UNICEF and funding from the European Union (EU) to prevent spread of COVID-19 and other similar diseases.

Babafunke Fagbemi, executive-director of CCSI, said the project timeframe is four months and its focus will be on Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Oyo, Plateau, and Rivers which have high cases of COVID-19.

Nigeria records 43 cases of COVID-19

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the country recorded 43 new COVID-19 infections in six states across the federation on Wednesday.

This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria to 165,852.

The states that recorded new positive samples are Lagos (19), Rivers (14), Kastina (5), Jigawa (3), Kano (1), and Oyo (1).

NCDC said “today’s report includes 0 case report from Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, FCT, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, and Ondo States”.

Also, no death was recorded for the second-consecutive day, leaving the casualty toll at 2,067.

Furthermore, 36 persons were discharged on Wednesday, bringing the total number of recoveries in Nigeria to 156,456.

Pfizer to produce 6 billion COVID vaccine doses within 18 months

Pfizer has announced plans to produce six billion doses of its COVID vaccine over the next 18 months.

According to CNN, Albert Bourla, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pfizer, disclosed this on Wednesday.

“In the next 18 months, I expect to do six billion doses,” he said.

“We are going to make three billion doses this year — one that we had in the first half, so two billion doses more in the second half. That means on an annualized basis in 2022: four billion doses.”

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA