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Nigeria on Thursday recorded 52 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday.

New COVID-19 variant of concern discovered in South Africa

A new variant of COVID-19, B.1.1. 529, has been discovered in South Africa.

The variant is said to have a high number of mutations, which are concerning for predicted immune evasion and transmissibility.

Confirming the discovery in a statement on Thursday, the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said 22 positive cases of the new variant have been detected in the country so far.

“Twenty-two positive cases of variant B.1.1.529 have been recorded in the country following genomic sequencing collaborations between the NICD and private laboratories. In addition, other NGS-SA laboratories are confirming more cases as sequencing results come out.”

WHO: Only 27 percent of health workers in Africa have been vaccinated against COVID-19

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says its preliminary analysis revealed that only 27 percent of health workers in Africa have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said this during at a virtual news conference on Thursday.

She said the analysis of data reported from 25 countries finds that since March 2021, 1.3 million health workers were fully vaccinated, with just six countries reaching more than 90 percent while nine countries have fully vaccinated less than 40 percent.

Portugal announces new COVID-19 rules

The Portuguese government has announced a tightening of COVID-19 restrictions including tougher border controls.

The county’s Prime Minister António Costa said passengers flying into Portugal will have to show a negative test before boarding and airlines will face a fine of €20,000 per passenger for failing to check.

Vaccine certificates will be obligatory for entry into hotels, restaurants, gyms and cultural events; masks will again be required for indoor public spaces while visitors to care homes, hospitals, bars, dance halls and big sports and cultural events will have to show negative tests. 

Total number of COVID-19 cases in UK surpass 10 million

The number of COVID cases the UK has recorded since the start of the pandemic has passed 10 million.

According to government data, the latest number of people to have tested positive is 47,240, bringing the total number of COVID-19 infections to 10,021,497.

The figures also showed the cases reported between November 19 and November 25 were up by 9.5% compared with the previous seven days.

Nigeria records 65 COVID cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 65 cases have been reported across the country.

The agency said the fresh infections were recorded in nine states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The states with new cases are Lagos (20), FCT (12), Kaduna (11), Oyo (9), Bauchi (4), Kano (4), Edo (2), Ekiti (1), Plateau (1) and Rivers (1).

The NDCD data showed that 78 people recovered from the infection.

The agency said one discharge case reported for Lagos is for November 24, while 50 discharged cases for the FCT are from November 25.

One COVID fatality was reported on Wednesday leaving the fatality figure at 2,975.

So far, Nigeria has confirmed 213,883 infections and 207,094 recoveries.