Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records zero deaths in 7 days, and WHO rejects vaccine passport

Nigeria recorded no COVID-19 death for the seventh consecutive day. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday. 

Global COVID-19 cases rise for eighth week in a row

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the global COVID-19 cases have surged for the eighth week in a row.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, disclosed this on Monday during a news conference in Geneva.

“Last week new cases of COVID-19 increased for the eighth week in a row with more than 5.2 million cases reported — the most in a single week so far,” Tedros said.

The WHO chief said the number of fatalities also rose for the fifth straight week with more than three million deaths now reported to the agency.

He added that infections and hospitalisations among people between the age of 25 and 59 are “increasing at an alarming rate,” possibly owing to highly transmissible variants and increased social mixing among younger adults.

Osinbajo asks US to create access to COVID-19 vaccine

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has asked the United States to ensure easy access to COVID-19 vaccine by all countries.

Speaking on Monday during a virtual conference at the 2021 Johns Hopkins University’s African studies programme, Osinbajo commended the US for helping to improve healthcare outcomes in Africa including through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDs Relief (PEPFAR).

In the same vein, Osinbajo said collaboration is needed with regard to making COVID-19 vaccines available to African countries.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need to coordinate actions to prevent and tackle pandemics while also building up public health infrastructure in developed and developing countries alike,” he said.

“This is not a time for vaccine nationalism and export bans but rather of working together towards universal vaccination against the disease.

“The US can lead in the effort to ensure that all countries and their peoples can access vaccines irrespective of the resources available to them.”

WHO rejects proof of vaccination for international travel

WHO Emergency Committee on Monday recommended that proof of vaccination should not be required as a condition of international travel.

The independent experts had in a statement issued last Thursday cited limited evidence on whether vaccination against COVID-19 reduces people’s ability to transmit the virus and “the persistent inequity in global vaccine distribution”.

In a statement issued on Monday, the committee said “do not require proof of vaccination as a condition of entry, given the limited (although growing) evidence about the performance of vaccines in reducing transmission and the persistent inequity in the global vaccine distribution”.

The panel recommendation comes amid plans by some countries to launch vaccine passports for travellers.

Nigeria records 70 infections 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the country recorded 70 cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

The latest cases of COVID-19 were recorded in five states, according to the agency’s update for April 19.

This new figure represents a 169 percent leap from Sunday’s figure of 26, which is the lowest recorded in 2021.

States that recorded new cases are Lagos (27), Kaduna (16), Ondo (16), Yobe (6), and Bauchi (5).

The NCDC reported no COVID-19 death for the seventh day on Monday which keeps the total casualty figure at 2,061.

According to the Agency’s data, 52 persons were discharged on Monday after recovering from the virus.

This brings the total number of discharged persons to 154,384.

Out of 164,303 coronavirus infections that have been confirmed in Nigeria, 7,858 are active cases being managed across the states and the FCT.

UK to reinfect participants with COVID-19

Scientists in the United Kingdom have launched a trial that will deliberately expose participants who already had COVID-19 to the virus again to examine immune responses and see if people get reinfected.

In February, the UK became the first country in the world to expose volunteers to COVID-19 to advance research into the disease.

The study launched on Monday differs from that of February as it seeks to reinfect people who previously had COVID-19.

The trial is expected to deepen understanding about immunity, rather than infecting people for the first time.

“The information from this work will allow us to design better vaccines and treatments and also to understand if people are protected after having COVID, and for how long,” Helen McShane, University of Oxford vaccinologist and chief investigator on the study, said.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA