Daily COVID Tracker: Nigeria reports 601 infections in 17 states, seven deaths

September 17

08:19 2021

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Nigeria on Thursday recorded 601 cases of COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Friday.

World Bank, IMF seek more COVID doses for poor countries

The leaders of the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have asked rich countries to send COVID vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the group said it will not be possible to vaccinate at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 without urgent action.

They asked rich countries to release COVID vaccine companies from contracts so that more shots can be shipped to low-income countries.

Biden accuses Republican governors of undermining COVID safety response

US President Joe Biden has accused some governors of the Republican party of “undermining life-saving” COVID effort.

Some governors, including Greg Abbott of Texas, Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Tate Reeves of Mississippi, kicked against the vaccine mandate for big companies that Biden rolled out last week.

Reeves described Biden’s COVID mandate as “tyranny”.

“I propose a requirement for COVID vaccines, and the governor of that state calls it a ‘tyrannical-type move?” Biden said on Thursday.

“This is the worst type of politics…and I refuse to give in to it,” the president added.

France suspends 3,000 unvaccinated health workers

France says health facilities in the country have suspended about 3,000 workers for failing to comply with mandatory COVID vaccination.

Olivier Veran, health minister, said the impact of the suspension “hasn’t been chaos,” adding that there are about 27 million workers in the sector.

“Most of the suspensions are only temporary … many have decided to get vaccinated as they see that the vaccination mandate is a reality,” Veran said.

Nigeria records 601 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 601 cases of COVID-19 across the country.

According to the NCDC update, the infections were logged in 16 states and federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos reported the highest number of cases with 173 infections followed by Edo with 97 cases.

Other states are FCT (68), Rivers (50), Delta (45), Kaduna (28), Ondo (28), Akwa Ibom (25), Bayelsa (16), Imo (16), Plateau (15), Anambra (12), Ekiti (11), Cross River (6), Oyo (6), Gombe (3) and Benue (2).

The agency’s data shows that 429 people were discharged on Thursday while seven persons died from COVID complications.

So far, 200,957 infections, 189,346 recoveries and 2,647 deaths have been recorded across the country.

Over 1 billion people fully vaccinated in China

China says it has fully vaccinated more than 1 billion people against COVID-19 — over 70 percent of its total population.

Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health Commission, said a total of 2.16 billion doses have been given in China as of September 15.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Africa got only two percent of the 5.7 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said only two countries in Africa have reached the 40 percent vaccination target, which is the lowest of any continent.