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Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 91 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Wednesday. 

Sultan asks traditional rulers to mobilise people to get vaccinated

Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, has called on traditional rulers to use their position to mobilise people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Abubakar said this at the 2021 second quarter review meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on primary healthcare delivery (NTLC).

Represented by Samaila Muhammad, Emir of Argungu, the sultan commended the traditional rulers, adding that more work needs to be done to mobilise people to receive the vaccine.

“As a committee, we shall continue to work assiduously towards mobilising the people to accept the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination exercise,” he said.

“The committee played a very prominent role in the fight against polio, we need to replicate such effort in the task ahead.

“I am encouraged by the roles already being played by some traditional rulers, especially those who presented themselves publicly for vaccination.

“That is a good example and message to the people and such images can be used to massively mobilise the people to participate in the exercise.”

WHO warns against lifting COVID restriction too soon

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked governments around the globe to be cautious about lifting the COVID-19 restrictions.

Mike Ryan, WHO emergency expert, warned that a new wave of infections could be triggered if governments do not take necessary precautionary measures.

“All of the countries of the Americas, we still have nearly one million cases a week,” Ryan said.

He added that it is the same in “Europe…with half a million cases a week. It’s not like this thing has gone away. It isn’t over”.

COVAX negotiating with new COVID vaccine suppliers

COVAX, the global alliance against COVID-19, says it expects to have 1.9 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines with 1.5 billion allocated to poor countries by the end of 2021.

Aurelia Nguyen, COVAX managing director, disclosed this on Tuesday in a meeting with WHO.

COVAX, which is co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and GAVI Alliance, suffered setbacks in its COVID vaccine distribution exercise after Serum Institute of India, its main supplier, suspended shipment owing to the spike in infections in India.

Nigeria registers 91 COVID cases — but no death

Nigeria, on Tuesday, recorded a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections on Monday.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 91 new cases of COVID-19.

According to the agency’s update for July 6, the new cases were confirmed in seven states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, reported 66 cases, followed by Kwara with 12 cases, and Rivers with four infections.

Other states include Kaduna (3), Oyo (3), Ekiti (1), FCT (1) and Plateau (1).

The agency said the data reported for Kaduna was from July 5.

No death was recorded on Tuesday and the total number of fatalities remains 2,122.

Five patients were discharged after recovering from the infection, bringing the total number of recoveries to 164,405.

Since the first COVID-19 case in February 2020, 168,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, while 1,473 patients are currently receiving treatment.

Japan to launch infectious diseases databank to tackle COVID-19

The Japanese government is set to launch an infectious diseases databank before the end of July with the initial plan of collecting data of 10,000 COVID-19 patients in March 2022.

The project will help the government to collect blood and saliva samples as well as the treatment records of COVID-19 patients to make them available for firms and universities carrying out research on respiratory disease.

The project will enable researchers to understand what type of people tend to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms.

“It is very important for the state to take the lead in continuously operating the databank from the standpoint of national security,” Wataru Sugiura, director of Center for Clinical Sciences at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, said.

“It is also necessary to nurture people who can conduct research using the collected data.”

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA