Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria records 18 cases, and infections surge in India, Brazil

May 04

07:31 2021

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Nigeria on Monday recorded 18 COVID-19 cases. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday.

Lagos to sanction travellers who fail to self-isolate

The Lagos state government says inbound travellers who provide fake phone numbers and addresses to avoid mandatory self-isolation will face severe sanctions.

Akin Abayomi, Lagos commissioner for health, in a statement on Monday, said inbound travellers are likely to import new COVID-19 strains into the state, which may trigger the third wave of infections.

He said passengers are to isolate for the required seven days, adding that anyone found to have broken the rule to escape the protocol would be made to mandatorily isolate at a government isolation centre with an extra cost.

UNICEF seeks more medical supplies to India

Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has called for more medical supplies to India.

According to CNN, she said UNICEF has sent some supplies to the South Asian country but that they are not enough.

“We are calling on the world to help us,” she said.

“And then, because India is such an enormous vaccine manufacturing component of the world’s supply chain, we need to get India back into the business of making vaccines for the world.”

Fore also asked countries to lift import and export restrictions related to vaccines.

India is currently battling to contain a brutal third wave of COVID-19.

India deploys navy personnel to COVID facilities

India has deployed navy personnel across the country to assist in tackling the pandemic.

“Naval Personnel are being provided Battle Field Nursing Assistant Training to augment medical personnel deployed in COVID hospitals,” a statement issued on the deployment said.

It added that the navy is also assisting in the transport of “oxygen containers as well as other supplies from Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore to India”.

Nigeria records 18 COVID cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 18 new cases of coronavirus infections across four states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

This was reported in the agency’s update for May 3.

The states that recorded infections on Monday are Lagos (8), FCT (6), Edo (2), Rivers (1), and Ogun (1).

No death was recorded, leaving the fatality toll at 2,063.

According to the agency’s data, 10 persons were discharged on Friday after recovering from the infection.

Those discharged “include two community recoveries in FCT managed in line with guidelines”.

So far, 165,199 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country with 155,371 recoveries made, but 7,757 cases are active.

More global COVID-19 cases reported in last two weeks than first six months of pandemic

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), says there have been more COVID-19 cases reported in the last two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Tedros said India and Brazil accounts for more than half of global COVID cases last week.

“More cases of COVID-19 have been reported globally in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic,” he said.

“India and Brazil account for more than half of last week’s cases. But there are many other countries all over the world that face a very fragile situation.”

The WHO chief also warned that the situation in India and Brazil could happen in any country if the necessary public health precaution is not put in place.