Daily COVID Tracker: NCDC logs 102 cases, 69 recoveries
Nigeria recorded 102 COVID infections on Tuesday. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Wednesday.
Pfizer to commence trial of COVID vaccine in children below 12 years
Pfizer says it will commence testing its COVID vaccine for children between five and 11 years old.
The drugmaker said it plans to enroll about 4,500 children across 90 sites in the US, Finland, Poland and Spain in the phase 2/3 trial.
“Based on the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity from our Phase 1 study, we’ve select a 10 ug to advance in children from 5-11 and 3 ug between 6 months to below the age of five,” CNN quoted a spokesperson of Pfizer to have said.
The company said it expects data from the trial in September and would ask regulators for emergency use authorisation subsequently.
South Africa health minister put on leave over corruption
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked Zweli Mkhize, health minister, to proceed on a special leave following allegations of his ministry awarding COVID-related contracts to his former associates.
“This period of special leave will enable the Minister to attend to allegations and investigations concerning contracts between the Department of Health and a service provider, Digital Vibes,” statement from Ramaphosa’s office said.
The country’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing the case in which over 4,000 coronavirus-linked contracts were allegedly awarded since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Nigeria records 102 COVID cases
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 102 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday.
According to the agency’s update for June 8, 2021, the latest positive samples were recorded in nine states.
States that reported new infections are Ondo (68), Bayelsa (17), Kaduna (5), Lagos (3) and Rivers (3).
Other states are Akwa Ibom (2), Gombe (2), Ebonyi (1) and Oyo (1).
The agency said cases reported from Bayelsa are backlog of data recorded between February 9 to February 25, 2021.
The NCDC says 69 patients were discharged on Tuesday after recovering from the infection.
With the new figure, a total of 163, 259 persons have now recovered from the virus in Nigeria.
No new death was recorded on Tuesday, leaving the fatality toll at 2,117.
A total of 166,918 coronavirus infections have been confirmed across the country — out of which 1,542 are active cases.
Melbourne to ease COVID lockdown
The authorities in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, say it will relax the COVID-19 lockdown as planned.
The government of Australia’s second largest city says residents’ compliance with COVID rules has “changed the course” infection.
The relaxation is expected to take effect from 11.59 pm local time on Thursday but some restrictions will remain in place for more days.
“This is a good day. Everyone should be absolutely proud of what we have all achieved together,” Acting Premier James Merlino of Victoria state said.
Japan to vaccinate 70,000 Tokyo Games volunteers
Japan says it may vaccinate about 70,000 volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics games.
It is considering tracking thousands of media members by a global positioning system when they are under mandatory quarantine after entering the country to improve the safety of the event amid the COVID pandemic.
Tamayo Marukawa, Olympic minister, disclosed this during a briefing at parliament on Tuesday.
“We would like to consider thoroughly, with other officials concerned, the practical issues regarding what could be done to realize a safe and secure games,” she said.
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