TheCable

Nigeria on Monday recorded 584 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday. 

Sri Lanka replaces health minister as COVID cases surge

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, has replaced Pavithra Wanniarachchi, the health minister, amid the country’s spike in COVID-19 cases.

Last year, Wanniarachchi reportedly endorsed “sorcery and magic potions” to battle COVID-19.

Wanniarachchi was later admitted into intensive care in January after contracting the virus.

According to a statement by the president’s office on Monday, Wanniarachchi’s health portfolio has been given to Keheliya Rambukwella, the media minister.

Wanniarachchi will now head the ministry of transport.

FG begins second phase of COVID vaccination

The federal government on Monday commenced the rollout of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination in the country.

Faisal Shauib, the executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said 40,739 personnel have been trained to carry out the vaccination.

“In preparations for the commencement of Phase 2 vaccination, we have trained 40,739 state-level personnel comprising of our health workers and partners on our phase 2 strategic vaccine roll-out plan with attention on what we will be doing differently around logistics, data, and communications to improve the overall delivery of vaccination in the country,” he said.

AfDB secures $20m investment agreement on COVID-19 recovery platform

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has secured a financing agreement for a $20 million concessional investment from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) for the COVID-19 Off-Grid Recovery Platform (CRP).

The CRP is a five-year, $50 million blended finance platform designed to unlock private capital for energy access (EA) companies to mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic while advancing access to clean electricity and ensuring a green economic recovery.

AfDB said the concessional loan agreements were signed with fund managers; Lion’s Head Global Partners, Triple Jump, and Social Investment Managers and Advisors.

Nigeria records 584 cases

Nigeria has recorded 584 new cases of COVID-19 in 14 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed this in its update for August 16, 2021.

According to the data provided by the agency, Lagos state recorded the highest number of cases with 201 new infections, followed by Rivers with 149 and the FCT with 82.

Other states that recorded fresh cases are Ondo (73), Ekiti (17), Cross River (13), Oyo (11), Ogun (9), Delta (8), Osun (8), Bayelsa (4), Kaduna (4), Kano (2), Kwara (2), and Sokoto (1).

The NCDC said four persons died from the virus on Monday bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,223.

Also, 178 people were discharged on Monday after recovering from the virus.

To date, 183,087 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Nigeria with 167,310 recoveries.

Senate panel begs doctors to call off strike

Ibrahim Oloriegbe, chairman of the senate committee on health, has appealed to the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to call off its nationwide strike.

Speaking on Monday at the commencement of phase two of the COVID vaccination exercise, Oloriegbe said the vaccine doses will not be effectively distributed with the doctors on strike.

“As we speak today, we have some sections of health workers who are not working. And for vaccine delivery for ethical delivery, we need health workers. Human resource is a huge challenge in our country,” the lawmaker said.

COVID-19 IN NIGERIA