Nigeria records 122 new coronavirus infections as UK approves vaccine use

Nigeria recorded 122 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday marking a sharp decline from the 281 infections reported on Tuesday.

According to new data from the country’s infectious disease agency, NCDC, the 122 new cases were reported from 11 states- Kaduna (37) Lagos (29), Plateau (25), Ekiti (9), Rivers (5), Ogun (5), Edo (4) Kwara (4), Bayelsa (2), Bauchi (1), and Kano (1).

The update takes Nigeria’s caseload to 67,960, the fifth-highest in Africa behind only Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.

A total of 1,177 fatalities has been recorded in the nation after one person died from the disease on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, of the over 67,000 persons infected by the disease in Nigeria, 63,839 have been discharged from hospitals after treatment, but over 3, 000 active cases remain in the country.

Nigeria has so far tested over 755,000 of its 200 million population for the virus.

Amid fears of a possible second wave of COVID-19 in the country, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 advised Nigerians to suspend their Christmas and New Year travels to limit the risk of contracting the virus.

There is hope in the treatment of the virus though as at least two vaccines have been proven to be over 90 per cent effective against it.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the UK, on Wednesday, became the first country to approve the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine which has been proven to be 95 per cent effective.

The UK government has bought 40 million doses of the vaccine but will receive an initial batch of 800,000, which will be rolled out next week, according to a report on BBC News.

Nearly 1.5 million people around the world have died from the novel coronavirus, with more than 271,000 deaths in the U.S. and nearly 60,000 in the UK.

The vaccine by Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical giant, and its German partner BioNTech, is one of three front-runners that have delivered promising results in recent weeks. Clinical trials found it was 95 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

ALSO READ: UK becomes first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

In Nigeria, the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, had said efforts are being made to ensure that Nigerians have access to the COVID-19 vaccines when available.

“We have to start preparing Nigerian population for vaccine delivery when it becomes available,” he said.

“Access is a very key issue when it comes to vaccines; that a vaccine is developed does not necessarily translate to being available to those that need it the most.”

The Nigerian government has also inaugurated an 18-member national COVID-19 task team to ensure “vaccine security” when it finally gets to the country.