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Nigeria on Monday recorded 1,368 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday.

Israel adds US to red list

The Israeli government has approved the ban of all non-essential travel to 10 countries including the United States to prevent the spread of the Omicron coronavirus strain.

The other countries include Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.

“The cabinet ministers have now approved (in a telephone vote) the expansion of the list of red countries, in accordance with the recommendation of the Health Ministry State Classification Committee, pursuant to a discussion that was held yesterday at the Cabinet meeting,” the prime minister’s office said.

The red list’s expansion has to be approved by the parliament’s legal committee. If approved, it will take effect on Wednesday.

Africa COVID cases exceed 9.15m

The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 9,155,691.

It said the death toll across the continent stands at 225,967 and some 8,329,481 patients have recovered from the infection so far.

South Africa with 3,292,609 cases, Morocco with 952,628, Tunisia and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said Africa CDC.

COVID: New Zealand reports three deaths from heart muscle failure after Pfizer vaccination

New Zealand’s COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board on Monday said three people have died from heart muscle inflammation in New Zealand after receiving Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.

“The Board met to review the available information related to these cases to determine whether the Pfizer (Comirnaty) COVID-19 vaccine was a factor,” the statement said.

The three cases included a 13-year-old child, a 26-year-old man, and a man in his 60s.

The board did not find a causal link between the vaccination and myocarditis in the 60-year-old man and said more information is needed to determine the role of vaccination in the death of the 13-year-old child.

Regarding the 26-year-old’s cases, it said “the current available information, the board has considered that the myocarditis was probably due to vaccination in this individual”.

Nigeria reports 1,368 COVID cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 1,368 cases were reported across the country on Monday.

The agency in its update for December 20 said the new cases were logged in 19 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states include Lagos (844), FCT (209), Oyo (58), Abia (51), Ondo (39), Ogun (30), Kaduna (26), Delta (20), Akwa Ibom (17), Osun (15), Ekiti (12), Anambra (7), Zamfara (7), Cross River (6), Kano (6), Kwara (6), Rivers (6), Bauchi (5), Gombe (3), Plateau (1).

The report contains a backlog of 33 cases from Anambra and Kaduna, and a backlog of 24 discharges from Anambra and the FCT.

The NCDC said 123 persons were discharged after recovering from the infection. There were no fatalities. The country’s death toll stands at 2,985.

With the newly reported cases, Nigeria has now confirmed a total of 225,255 cases.

Booster dose appears protective against Omicron, says Moderna

Moderna on Monday said the booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appeared to be protective against the Omicron variant in laboratory testing.

The company said a two-dose course of its vaccine generated low neutralising antibodies against the Omicron variant, but a 50 microgram booster dose increased neutralising antibodies against the variant 37 fold.

It added that a higher 100 microgram booster dose of the same vaccine drove antibody levels even higher – more than 80 times pre-boost levels.

The data, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, tested blood from people who had received the vaccine against a pseudovirus engineered to resemble the Omicron variant.