Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria’s fatalities surge as NCDC logs 590 cases, eight deaths

Nigeria on Friday recorded 590 COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday. 

Aviation industry needs more financial intervention, says FAAN

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says the aviation industry needs more support and financial intervention from the federal government to recover from the negative impact of COVID-19.

Rabiu Yadudu, managing director of FAAN, said this at the 25th annual conference and awards ceremony organised by the League of Aviation and Airports Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos.

“Without financial relief, I do not see a quick recovery. We need aggressive policy and we need to do much more on implementation that is very aggressive,” Yadudu said.

“As you are aware, the pandemic has put the global economy to the test, with air transport being undoubtedly the hardest hit by the pandemic.”

COVID-19: Biggest public health crisis, says CSO

Aminu Garba, coordinator of Africa Health Budget Network, a not-for-profit organisation, says coronavirus constitute the biggest public health crisis in the world.

Garba said this in a keynote address at a security summit organised by the crime correspondents association of Nigeria in Abuja.

“That is why the civil society organisations will continue to dialogue with the media and the security apparatus to address the security challenges,” he said.

“The lockdown that was associated with the COVID-19 created a lot of mental and psychological trauma to the people, resulting in domestic violence within the family, neighbourhood and the society.

“The pandemic created a lot of economic depression across the world and increase in substance abuse because of idleness.”

WHO: Hard-won gains in jeopardy as delta variant spreads

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the world is at risk of losing the hard-won gains in fighting COVID-19 as a result of the highly transmissible delta variant.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said this on Friday, adding that COVID-19 infections have increased by 80 percent over the past four weeks in most regions of the world.

“Hard-won gains are in jeopardy of being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed,” he said at a media conference.

According to the agency, the delta variant has now been detected in 132 countries.

WHO asked countries to speed up vaccination, adding that approved vaccines offer significant protection against all the variants.

Nigeria records 590 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 590 COVID-19 cases across 17 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) on Friday.

The states that recorded positives cases are Lagos (308), Akwa Ibom (54), Katsina (40), Oyo (39), Rivers (26), Niger (23), Gombe (19), Ogun (16), and Ekiti (15).

Others are FCT (10), Nasarawa (10), Delta (9), Bayelsa (5), Plateau (5), Imo (4), Ebonyi (3), Jigawa (3), and Kano (1).

The NCDC in its update said the report for Friday includes 12 cases reported for Niger state for July 28 and 11 cases for July 29.

It added that the report also contains cases reported for Delta state for July 10 (1), July 11 (1), July 13 (3), and July 29 (4).

According to the agency, 48 persons were discharged after recovering from the infection.

The NCDC also said eight persons died from the infection on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,149.

Currently, Nigeria has 173,411 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 164,978 recoveries.

Tokyo Olympics logs 21 COVID-19 cases

The Tokyo Olympic organising committee on Saturday reported 21 COVID-19 cases linked to the games.

The 21 cases bring the cumulative infections to 241 as compiled by the committee since July 1.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA