Coronavirus
Nigeria Records 146 New COVID-19 Cases, Total Infections Now 4,787
EKOMIAMIBLOG – A graphic published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control displaying Nigeria’s COVID-19 statistics on May 12, 2020.
Nigeria has recorded 146 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing its total infections to 4,787
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet late Tuesday confirmed the new cases.
While the coronavirus has no definite cure yet, the number of successfully managed cases in the country rose to 959, the NCDC said. However, eight more deaths were recorded, putting the virus’s total toll at 158.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Presidential Task Force on – ekomiamiblog – COVID-19 assured Nigerians that the possible cure being procured from Madagascar would undergo the necessary checks to ensure its efficacy and safety for human consumption.
The capacity of the country’s health facilities was also boosted with the launch of the THISDAY Dome in Abuja on Tuesday.
The facility is expected to add at least 300 beds to assist in the nation’s fight against the virus.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 289,138 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Tuesday.
At least 4,226,110 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,444,700 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
Over the past 24 hours, 5,184 deaths and 77,733 new cases have been recorded. The United States registered the highest number (1,756) ahead of Britain (627) and Brazil (396).
The United States has the highest number of total deaths with 81,650 from 1,358,000 cases. At least 232,733 have been declared recovered.
Britain has the second-highest toll with 32,692 deaths from 226,463 cases. Figures compiled by British regional health agencies put the number of fatalities at over 36,000. But these include cases where COVID-19 is only suspected to be the cause, in addition to people who tested positive.
It is followed by Italy with 30,911 deaths and 221,216 cases, France with 26,991 fatalities and 178,225 infections and Spain with 26,920 deaths and 228,030 cases.
Among the most-affected countries, Belgium has the most deaths as a proportion of its population (76 deaths per 100,000), followed by Spain (58), Italy (51), Britain (48) and France (41).
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,633 deaths and 82,919 cases. It has 78,171 recovered cases.
Europe has a total of 159,204 deaths from 1,780,796 cases, the United States and Canada have 86,890 deaths and 1,429,099 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 21,829 deaths and 390,461 cases, Asia has 10,977 deaths and 309,825 cases, the Middle East has 7,737 deaths and 239,266 cases, Africa has 2,376 deaths from 68,364 cases, and Oceania 125 deaths from 8,302 cases.
Corrections by national authorities or late publication of data mean the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.
Coronavirus
Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is more than 90 percent effective in the first analysis, company reports
Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.
The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective.
The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.
Read more via statsnews.com
Coronavirus
EPL confirms eight positive COVID-19 tests
The Premier League in England said on Monday that eight people had returned positive results in its latest round of COVID-19 tests conducted on players and staff last week.
The league said the individuals who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus would now self-isolate for 10 days.
“The Premier League can today confirm that between Monday, Oct. 12 and Sunday, Oct. 18, 1,575 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, there were eight new positive tests,” the Premier League said in a statement.
A total of 42 people have tested positive for the virus in seven rounds of testing since the new campaign began on Sept. 12.
There have been more than 750,000 COVID-19 infections and over 43,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Reuters tally.
(Reuters/NAN)
Coronavirus
[#EndSARS Protests] Nigeria should prepare for increase in COVID-19 cases — FG warns
Federal Government has warned that with the on-going #ENDSARS protests across the country, cases of COVID-19 will definitely increase in the coming weeks.
Issuing the warning in Abuja, the Chairman, Presidential Taskforce, PTF, on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said despite the appreciable success recorded so far in the fight against COVID-19, the ongoing protests might spark up a second wave of the virus.
He said: “I can say it authoritatively that with the ongoing protests across the country, in the next two weeks the cases of COVID-19 would have increased. Each and everyone that attended the protests and did not put up any form of protection are likely going to spread the virus. When people contract the virus during the protest gathering, they will go back home and spread it.
“This is one of the reasons we must be extremely careful when we congregate because when you gather together in such an atmosphere where people don’t wear face masks or maintain social distance you are creating potential opportunities for carriers to spread the virus.
“So far we have done pretty well as a country but this protest is like a setback and we must avoid a situation where we will have resurgence. Countries that thought they have overcome are dealing with second wave. We are extremely lucky as a nation and we should be careful of any situation that can warrant second wave.”
Corroborating his views as reported by Vanguard, National Coordinator of PTF on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said FCT and Lagos State have successfully tested one percent of their populations, while states such as Rivers, Plateau, Gombe were half way in achieving the one percent target.
“We urge other states to work hard in achieving this target of 1 percent testing because testing rate is still low in the country. Through our various member MDAs, ‘’We have trained at least 17,000 health works in infection prevention and control, laboratory operation and case management.
“In partnership with Federal Ministry of Heath we have added over 7,000 beds in more than 130 treatment centres, 250 intensive care unit beds through support from donors and the private sector,’’ he said.
On his part, the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, said the ministry has distributed ventilator and oxygen to all federal and state hospitals.
He disclosed that one of the challenges federal hospitals were facing was irregular power supply which often leads to breakdown of equipment and disruption of services, “We receive the management of power holding to discuss way of having regular power supply to our teaching hospital and medical centres, this partnership will reduce overhead cost of the hospital,’’ he said.
He said their experience with the management of the pandemic revealed that many of the victims died could have been saved if they had access to services on time, adding that, during their intervention in Kano, ambulances were deployed to evacuate people in critical condition to the hospital.
Meanwhile, President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah, disclosed yesterday that no fewer than 1,031 doctors in Nigeria have been exposed to coronavirus in the country, while 16 mortality cases were recorded as of October 8, 2020. According to him, this puts the mortality rate at 4.98 percent.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos to announce the NMA 2020 Physicians’ Week, with the theme ‘’Strategy for health system recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria” and sub-theme: “Dental caries: The four-pronged fork.” Ujah said of the 1,031 cases, 321 were confirmed, while 16 doctors were lost in the battle against the virus.
Ujah, who expressed sadness over the deaths of members, described their death as the prize they had to pay in obedience to the Hippocratic Oath of their profession. Stating that COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of health systems around the world, the NMA president said many health systems across the world were overwhelmed by the pandemic due to inadequate emergency preparedness and response, largely due to inadequate human resources, infrastructural deficit and medical consumables, including personal protective equipment and other protective equipment.
He pointed out that most countries, such as Nigeria, were suffering due to gross under-funding of the health sector. He said: “No disease has ever before laid bare the state of the country’s health sector like COVID-19. COVID-19 has revealed acute shortages of critical and lifesaving equipment such as ventilators and intensive care beds in our hospitals.”
Ujah added that the dire shortages of medical capacity has further put a spotlight on the poor state of health in Nigeria and distance to travel to ensure that health care was affordable and accessible to all citizens for Universal Health Coverage, UHC, to be achieved.
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