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Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 64 COVID infections. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Thursday. 

US to donate 500 million Pfizer vaccine doses to other countries

President Joe Biden plans to donate 500 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to about 100 countries over the next two years, according to Reuters.

The wire service quoted sources as saying the US will distribute 200 million shots this year and another 300 million in the first half of next year to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union (AU).

The doses will be donated to the countries through the COVAX vaccine programme that distributes COVID-19 shots to poor countries.

According to one of the sources quoted by the news agency, Biden will announce the deal on Thursday.

Nigeria records 64 COVID cases 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 64 new coronavirus infections across 10 states on Wednesday.

The new cases bring the total number of infections in the country to 166,982.

Yobe topped the chart of positive samples recorded on Wednesday with 18 cases followed by Lagos with 16 and Delta with 10.

Other states that recorded positive samples include Katsina (7), Gombe (5), Edo (2), Kano (2), Rivers (2), Kaduna (1), and Kwara (1).

The agency also reported that 72 persons recovered from the infection. The number of discharged patients now stands at 163,331.

No death was recorded for the fifth day on Wednesday leaving the total number of fatality at 2,117.

FEC approves N895bn supplementary budget for COVID-19 vaccines and military

The federal executive council (FEC) has approved a draft supplementary budget of N895 billion to boost military operations and facilitate procurement of COVID-19 vaccine.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing journalists after the cabinet meeting in Abuja.

Ahmed said the budget includes costs of 30 million COVID-19 vaccines from Johnson and Johnson and the logistics costs related to the deployment of the vaccines.

“The total of this expenditure is made up of N83.56 billion for COVID-19 vaccine programme, covering 30 billion vaccines from Johnson and Johnson vaccines and the logistics cost related to the deployment of that vaccine,” she said.

Olympic body: Visitors will not be tracked real-time by GPS

Toshiro Muto, CEO of the Tokyo Olympic organising committee, says the plan to use a global positioning system (GPS) as one of the measures against COVID-19 is not aimed at monitoring the whereabouts of people from abroad.

Mutu said the plan is to trace and confirm their movements retroactively if a problem arises.

“If we have to monitor the movements all the time, it would require manpower…when there are problems, I think it is important to have the GPS function to allow visitors to make sure they did not do anything wrong,” Muto said.

The clarification comes about 24 hours after Tamayo Marukawa, Olympic minister, said the country is considering tracking thousands of media members by GPS.

Man charged for ‘stealing’ blank COVID-19 vaccine cards

Muhammad Rauf Ahmed, a Los Angeles County worker, has been charged for allegedly stealing over 500 blank COVID-19 vaccination cards from a centre at the Pomona Fairplex in April.

According to a statement from the district attorney’s office, Ahmed was charged with one count of a felony of grand theft.

Each card is said to have a value of about $15 if illegally sold.

“Selling fraudulent and stolen vaccine cards is illegal, immoral and puts the public at risk of exposure to a deadly virus,” George Gascón, the district attorney, said in a statement.

Ahmed is expected to be arraigned on August 25.