Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records zero death for Thursday and Africa may experience a ‘third wave’

March 19, 2021 9:46 am

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that African countries may start experiencing a third wave of COVID-19 in the coming weeks. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday.

EU drug regulator backs AstraZeneca vaccine after safety investigation

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday announced that it has come to a “clear scientific conclusion” that the benefits of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks.

EMA conducted an investigation into the safety of the vaccine following reports of blood disorders that prompted more than 15 countries to suspend its use.

Emer Cooke, head of the EMA, said the vaccine “is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots”.

“I want to reiterate that our scientific position is this, is that this vaccine is a safe and effective option to protect citizens against Covid-19,” Cooke said.

“It demonstrated that at least 60% efficacy in clinical trials and preventing coronavirus disease and in fact the real-world evidence suggests that the effectiveness could be even higher than that”.

Following the EMA announcement, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Bulgaria said they will resume administering the vaccine.

US to ‘loan’ AstraZeneca vaccines to Canada and Mexico

The United States says it will send four million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries.

Mexico expects 2.5 million doses of the vaccine while Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses.

“I can confirm that we have 7 million releasable doses available of AstraZeneca,” Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said.

She added: “2.5 million of those, we are working to finalize plans to lend those to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.”

African countries may experience a third wave of COVID-19

The WHO has warned that several African countries may experience a third wave of COVID-19 in the coming weeks.

Matshidiso Moet, WHO regional director for Africa, who gave the warning at a virtual news briefing on Thursday, cited population fatigue toward health measures and easing of restrictions as part of the reasons that may spike infections.

“At WHO, we anticipate that several countries are likely to experience a third wave in the coming weeks,” Moet said.

“Governments are easing restrictions, and there is population fatigue frankly in adhering to public health measures, and people will soon be travelling and visiting family for Easter holidays in many countries and some countries have upcoming elections with potential for mass gathering, and also variants are circulating that appear to be more transmissible.”

Nigeria records 135 fresh infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the country recorded 135 COVID-19 cases within 24 hours on Thursday.

The fresh infections were reported in 16 states, including the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic reported 41 infections, Imo with 20 and Ogun with 14.

Other states that reported fresh cases are FCT (10), Kebbi (11), Rivers (10), Akwa Ibom (8), Plateau (4), Ebonyi (3), Kaduna (3), Kano (3), Osun (3), Oyo (2), Ekiti (1), Gombe (1), and Nasarawa (1)

The NCDC noted that the infections in Kebbi state were recorded over the last two days.

The agency, however, said 426 recoveries were recorded on Thursday — this includes “162 community recoveries in Ebonyi state managed in line with guidelines”.

No new death was reported on Thursday.

The country now has a total of 161,409 confirmed COVID-19 infections across 36 states and the FCT, 146,890 recoveries, 2,027 deaths and 12,429 active cases.

One person enters intensive care every four minutes in France

Jean Castex, France prime minister, says the COVID-19 pandemic is “accelerating considerably” and it “becoming clearer and clearer that it’s a third wave”.

According to Castex, one person is entering intensive care every four minutes in France with COVID-19.

Castex who expressed worry over the surge in infections said compared to previous waves, people being hospitalised with the disease are younger.

Castex had told lawmakers on Tuesday that the country has seen a rise in cases of new COVID-19 variants, adding that the third wave has been “characterised by variants, a lot of them”.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA