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Nigeria on Friday recorded 120 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday. 

G20 wants 70% of world’s population vaccinated by mid-2022

Finance and health ministers from G20 countries on Friday said they would take steps to ensure that 70 percent of the world’s population is vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-2022.

The ministers said they have set up a task force to explore financing options to achieve the goal and tackle future pandemics.

“To help advance toward the global goals of vaccinating at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, we will take steps to help boost the supply of vaccines and essential medical products and inputs in developing countries and remove relevant supply and financing constraints,” the G20 ministers said in a statement.

Moderna to supply over 56m COVID doses to GAVI alliance 

Moderna says it will supply 56.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the GAVI vaccine alliance in the second quarter of next year to boost vaccination of low and middle-income countries.

The drugmaker said the pact, signed on Friday with GAVI, is an addition to its earlier commitment to supply 60 million doses in the second quarter of 2022.

GAVI co-leads the COVAX facility backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for equitable distribution of COVID vaccines around the world.

Eleven states sue US government over vaccine mandate

Eleven US states have sued President Joe Biden’s administration over the COVID vaccine mandate for federal workers.

Biden, a Democrat, had issued an executive order on September 9, requiring federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated.

But the Republican governors described the mandate as unconstitutional.

The states which filed the joint lawsuit are Arkansas, Alaska, Missouri, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Texas was said to have filed a separate suit on the same matter, while Florida filed one on Thursday.

Nigeria records 120 COVID infections

Nigeria on Friday confirmed 120 fresh COVID-19 cases.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the cases were reported in 10 states and the federal capital territory (FCT)

According to the agency’s data, FCT topped the list of infections with 26 new cases, followed by Imo with 25 and Lagos with 23.

Other states with new infections are Rivers (17), Osun (15), Kano (5), Gombe (3), Edo (2), Ekiti (2), Bayelsa (1), and Delta (1).

The NCDC said the report includes 21 community discharges reported from Imo state for October 29, 2021.

According to the agency, 77 patients were discharged on Friday after they had recovered from the infection.

Three persons were said to have died of COVID complications.

To date, Nigeria has confirmed a total of 211,798 cases, 202,962 recoveries, and 2,895 deaths across the country.