Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria reports 10 infections — but no fatalities

Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 10 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic. 

CDC: Vaccine protection against moderate illness waned among adolescents

The US centre for Disease Control (CDC) says five months after immunisation, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to offer no defence against moderate illness caused by the Omicron variant among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

It, however, said booster shots dramatically increased the protection.

The agency’s study did not exclude unvaccinated adolescents who had some immunity from a prior infection, which may have made vaccination seem less effective than it was.

And the researchers offered only limited data on hospitalisations, a more reliable proxy for severe disease than emergency room and urgent care visits.

“One limitation of this data is that parents may bring their children to an urgent care or emergency department for a variety of reasons, and vaccine effectiveness by immunocompromised status, underlying health status, or vaccine product have not yet been examined,” the CDC said in a statement.

Queen Elizabeth resumes work nine days after positive COVID test

Queen Elizabeth II is returning to work after testing positive for COVID-19 on February 20.

The Bukingham palace said the Queen was feeling well enough to resume virtual engagements and other duties, including audiences with representatives from other countries.

It was unclear where or from whom the queen had contracted the infection, but several others in her residence also tested positive, suggesting an outbreak there.

In the days after she first tested positive, Elizabeth cancelled some virtual engagements at least twice after showing mild symptoms but continued with “light duties”.

China post to test all overseas mail for the COVID

China’s state-owned postal service said it would conduct COVID-19 tests on all overseas mail, even opening the packages, parcels and letters to examine their contents with the recipient’s consent.

The notice was published on the official WeChat channel of China Post Group Corporation on Monday after 15 of China’s 34 provinces and municipalities reported new cases last week.

Under the new measure, all international mail will be disinfected and held for 24 hours, then the service will conduct nucleic acid testing on samples taken from the contents.

The mail will be delivered 14 to 20 hours after a negative test result, China Post said.

Biden announces initiative to pair COVID tests with treatment

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday night sketched out the next phase of his pandemic response, including a new “test to treat” initiative aimed at providing patients with new antiviral medications as soon as they learn they are infected.

Under the programme, Biden said, Americans could get tested for the coronavirus at a pharmacy and, if they are positive, “receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost”.

Although the pills, made by Pfizer, have been relatively scarce since the Food and Drug Administration approved them late last year, Biden said in his speech that “Pfizer is working overtime to get us one million pills this month and more than double that next month”.

Nigeria records 10 cases of COVID

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 10 new cases of COVID-19.

According to the agency’s update for March 1, the new cases were recorded in two states — Edo (8) and Cross River (2).

The agency said 11 people were discharged after they recovered from the infection. There were no deaths from the virus, leaving the fatality toll to 3,142.

With the new confirmed cases, Nigeria has now recorded a total of 254,560 infections and 249,079 recoveries.