TheCable

Nigeria on Sunday recorded 459 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Monday.

Japan to issue digital COVID vaccine certificates in December

Japan will issue digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates starting in December, according to Nikkei newspaper.

The digital certificate will be processed via a smartphone app by scanning a QR code. The code will then provide vaccination information.

The newspaper said Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and cabinet members will attend a digital society promotion conference on Monday to officially approve the digital vaccine certificate which was launched on September 1.

Brazil health regulator suspends use of 12m Sinovac vaccine doses

Brazil has suspended the use of over 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Limited.

The federal health regulator, Anvisa, said the vaccine doses were produced in an unauthorised plant.

“The manufacturing unit … was not inspected and was not approved by Anvisa in the authorisation of emergency use of the mentioned vaccine,” Anvisa said in a statement, adding that it is “a precautionary measure to avoid exposing the population to possible imminent risk”.

Nigeria records 459 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 459 people tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday.

The latest positive samples of COVID-19 were recorded in 18 states and the federal capital territory (FCT), according to the agency’s update for September 5, 2021.

Lagos, the hardest-hit state by the pandemic, topped the COVID-19 infection chart with 185 new cases, followed by Abia and Oyo with 38 positive samples each.

Other states that recorded new infections include Akwa Ibom (33), Cross River (33), Osun (24), Ekiti (23), Benue (15), Kwara (14), Kano (12), Delta (10), FCT (10), Edo (9), Kaduna (5), Ogun (3), Katsina (2), Nasarawa (2), Rivers (2), and Bayelsa (1)

The NCDC, on Sunday, confirmed that 30 persons died of COVID-19 complications, raising the country’s fatality toll to 2,552.

The agency, however, said the deaths reported include a backlog of 23 deaths from Lagos state for September 3.

According to the NCDC, 2,066 new recoveries were recorded across the country in the past 24 hours.

A total of 195,511 COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed — out of which 184,529 persons have been discharged.

Lagos considers other sources of COVID-19 vaccines

The Lagos state government says it is considering getting COVID-19 vaccines from other sources in a bid to speed up vaccination.

Akin Abayomi, the commissioner of health, said the state is considering vaccinating its entire population in order to achieve herd immunity and prevent the emergence of new strains of the virus.

“While the first national target of vaccination is 60 percent, we in Lagos are looking for vaccines to create full coverage that will be safe,” he said.

“We’re looking for avenues and activities to speed this up; donor partners, private sector, through advocacy because it appears that this virus is not going away anytime soon.”

Ex-UK PM Brown tackles rich countries for ‘stockpiling’ COVID vaccine

Gordon Brown, former British prime minister, has accused rich countries of allegedly stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries battle to get supplies.

The United Nations (UN) special envoy asked US President Joe Biden and other world leaders to urgently supply vaccines to countries in need of it.

“We are in a new ‘arms’ race — to get vaccines into people as quickly as possible — but this is an arms race where the West have a stranglehold on the vaccine supplies,” Brown said.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA