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Nigeria on Thursday recorded 566 COVID-19 infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday. 

WHO donates ventilators, fingertip oxygen pulse to Nigeria

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has donated 26 ventilators and  3,560 fingertip oxygen pulse to Nigeria to boost the country’s fight against the pandemic.

Walter Kazadi, WHO representative, presented the equipment to Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, on Thursday in Abuja.

Kazadi said the items will assist the country in the management of patients in isolation and treatment facilities.

“We wish to demonstrate our continued support of the ministry’s efforts in further strengthening the country’s capacity in case management,” he said.

“This is in addition to our ongoing support across all pillars of the country’s COVID-19 response at federal and state levels.

“To this end, we wish to donate 26 ventilators and 3,560 fingertip oxygen pulse oximeters for the management of patients in isolation and treatment facilities, as well as home-based patients.”

AU ships 400m COVID vaccine doses to member states

The African Union (AU) on Thursday commenced the monthly shipments of COVID-19 vaccines acquired by the AU/African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) to its member states.

Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

Ramaphosa said the development is a significant milestone in the COVID response on the continent.

“By working together and by pooling resources, African countries have been able to secure millions of vaccine doses produced right here in Africa,” he said.

“This will provide impetus to the fight against COVID-19 across the continent and will lay the basis for Africa’s social and economic recovery .”

“It also marks the first time that the AU member states have collectively purchased vaccines to safeguard the health of the African population, 400 million vaccines are sufficient to immunise a third of the African people and bring Africa halfway toward its continental goal of vaccinating at least, 60 per cent of the population.”

COVID infections surged globally in four weeks

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says COVID-19 infections have continued to rise globally for more than a month — with over four million cases reported in the past week alone.

The agency attributed the increase to “substantial” caseload increases of 33 percent in the western pacific and 37 percent in the Eastern Mediterranean – where coronavirus fatalities also rose 48 and 31 percent, respectively.

It said the number of deaths in the four remaining WHO regions of Africa, Americas, Europe and South-east Asia matched with previous weeks, apart from the Americas, which dropped by 29 percent.

Tokyo Olympics logs 29 COVID-19 cases

The Tokyo Olympics organising committee has confirmed 29 COVID-19 cases associated with the Games.

The organising body disclosed this in its update for Friday. This brings the total number of infections since July 1 to 382.

Nigeria records 566 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 566 COVID infections across the country.

According to the agency, the fresh cases were recorded in 11 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos, the hardest-hit state by the pandemic, logged 283 cases, followed by Akwa Ibom with 88 infections and Oyo with 62 cases.

Other states with fresh infections are Rivers (62), FCT (18), Ogun (17), Ekiti (12), Kwara (11), Plateau (6), Zamfara (3), Kaduna (2) and Katsina (2).

The NCDC said 115 patients recovered from the virus on Thursday, while 11 persons died as a result of COVID complications.

So far, Nigeria has confirmed 176,577 infections, 165,323 recoveries and 2,178 deaths.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA