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Nigeria on Friday recorded 196 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday. 

FG approves COVID vaccine booster shots

The federal government has approved booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine for fully vaccinated Nigerians.

The development comes days after Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the presidential steering committee (PSC) on COVID-19, said the federal government was working on making booster shots available.

Eligible Nigerians are to visit health centres and mass vaccination sites from December 10 to get their booster doses.

WHO scientist advises people not to panic over Omicron

Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist, has asked people not to be apprehensive over the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Swaminathan said it is too early to conclude that the Omicron will become a dominant strain.

“How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we’re in a different situation to a year ago,” she said.

“Delta accounts for 99 percent of infections around the world. This variant would have to be more transmissible to outcompete and become dominant worldwide.”

According to the WHO, 38 countries have now detected the Omicron variant.

No countries banned as FG reviews protocol for international travel

The federal government has reviewed its international travel protocol to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 variants of concern.

The revised protocol did not place restrictions on inbound travellers from any country.

In the new travel protocol, the federal government said COVID-19 PCR test should be done “within 48hrs before departure, post-arrival day 2 COVID-19 PCR test, self-isolation for 7 days (for unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals), day 7 post-arrival exit PCR test (for unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals)”.

More information on the new protocol can be found here.

Nigeria records 196 COVD cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 196 people tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.

The latest positive samples of COVID-19 were recorded in five states and the federal capital territory (FCT), according to the agency’s update for December 3, 2021.

Lagos topped the COVID-19 infection chart with 138 new cases, followed by Rivers and FCT with 23 and 18 positive samples, respectively.

Other states that recorded new infections include Imo (15), Bauchi while Gombe reported 1 case each.

Two persons died of COVID-19 complications on Friday, increasing the country’s fatality toll to 2,980.

Meanwhile, 46 patients were discharged on Sunday after recovering from the infection.

A total of 214,513 COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in Nigeria — out of which 207,403 persons have been discharged.