Nigeria on Monday recorded 30 cases of COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday.
Mustapha: FG working to make COVID booster shots available
The federal government says efforts are underway to make available booster shots of the COVID vaccine.
Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the presidential steering committee (PSC) on COVID-19, said this on Monday at a media briefing in Abuja.
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Mustapha also said the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has enough COVID vaccine doses to administer to 50 percent of Nigeria’s target population within the next three months.
He said the mass vaccination efforts are being accelerated with arrangements to roll out a plan effective November 20.
German chancellor calls for improved research on virus origins
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German chancellor Angela Merkel says there is a need to probe the origins of diseases, lending her voice to the creation of a new World Health Organisation advisory group on dangerous pathogens.
Merkel spoke on Monday at a summit organised by the WHO on lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United States has been pushing for research on the origins of COVID-19.
“We need to be better equipped when it comes to finding out where diseases and epidemics have originated,” Merkel said.
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Nigeria records 30 COVID infections
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 30 new cases of COVID-19 across the country.
According to the agency’s update for November 15, the new cases were reported in eight states.
The states that reported new infections are Abia (9), Bauchi (7), Kaduna (4), Kano (4), Cross River (2), Rivers (2), Bayelsa (1), and Jigawa (1).
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The agency said the report include seven cases reported for Bauchi on November 14 (1) and November 15 (6).
No deaths were recorded on Monday, leaving the number of fatalities at 2,968.
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Meanwhile, 38 persons were discharged after recovering from the infection.
Since the index case in February 2020, 213,177 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed with 205,770 recoveries across the country.
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AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID vaccine makes two billion supplies worldwide
The AstraZeneca says two billion doses of its vaccine have been supplied worldwide.
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In February, the WHO listed the vaccine for emergency use.
The vaccine is a contributor to the COVAX facility backed by WHO and is being supplied to more than 170 countries.
UK to extend COVID booster rollout to people aged 40 and above
The UK says it will extend the eligibility of the COVID booster shots to people over the age of 40.
Before the new measure was put in place, only people aged 50 and above, those with underlying health conditions and frontline health workers were eligible for the booster shots.
“I believe, therefore, that if the booster program is successful with very high uptake, we can massively reduce the worry about hospitalization and death due to Covid at Christmas and for the rest of this winter for literally millions of people,” Jonathan Van-Tam, UK’s deputy chief medical officer, said.
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