BY Samuel Akpan
Nigeria on Monday recorded 86 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Tuesday.
WHO to set up mRNA COVID vaccine tech hub in South Africa
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says plans are underway to establish a hub in South Africa to grant companies in Africa the licences to produce mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, disclosed this at a briefing on Monday.
“Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,” he said.
“The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, which will act as the hub both by manufacturing mRNA vaccines itself & by providing training to a manufacturer Biovac.”
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa said the initiative “will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development”.
Union in South Africa asks Nigerians to comply with COVID lockdown rules
The leadership of the Nigerian community in South Africa has asked Nigerians living in the country to comply with the lockdown protocol.
Adetola Olubajo, president of Nigeria Union South Africa (NUSA), made the call in a statement issued on Monday.
“We are aware of the new lockdown announced by the South Africa Government. It is aimed at checking further spread of COVID-19,” he said.
“We have set up a monitoring mechanism aimed at reaching out to Nigerians in emergency cases occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The leadership of NUSA in the Provinces and Wards will liaise with the national secretariat on areas of assistance.”
World Bank, AU partner to vaccinate 400m Africans
The World Bank Group and the African Union (AU) have partnered to support the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) to vaccinate 400 million people on the continent.
In a statement on Monday, the bank said resources are available to support the AVATT in the purchase of vaccine.
“The World Bank has 12 billion dollars in vaccine financing available to help countries purchase and distribute vaccines and address readiness issues,” it said.
“The bank has already approved operations to support vaccine roll-out in 36 countries and by end of June, it expects to be supporting vaccination efforts in 50 countries, two-thirds of which are in Africa.
“As such, the bank has been working closely with AVATT to see that countries in Africa could use the bank’s financing to purchase COVID-19 doses through the AVATT initiative as well.”
Nigeria records 86 infections
After a steady decline in COVID cases last week, Nigeria has recorded a sharp rise in infections.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 86 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.
According to the Agency’s update for June 21, the new cases were reported in three states.
The states that recorded new infections are Lagos (52), Ondo (31) and Adamawa (3).
It added that Monday cases include “Data from Lagos State for the 19th & 20th of June, 2021”.
The NCDC said one person died of the infection on Monday — after 16 conservative days without a record of fatality.
It said 240 persons were discharged on Monday after recovering from the infection.
The agency said the recoveries include “139 community discharges from Ondo and 100 from Enugu State managed in line with guidelines”.
In total, 167,292 cases have been confirmed, 163,797 patients have been discharged and 2118 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).
Poor countries lack enough COVAX shots to continue vaccination
Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO), says more than half of poorer countries receiving doses via the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme do not have enough supplies to continue.
“I would say of the 80 AMC countries at least well over a half of them would not have sufficient vaccine to be able to sustain their programmes right now,” Aylward said.
WHO had warned that some parts of the continent are witnessing a full-blown third wave of infections.
COVID-19 IN NIGERIA
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