Daily COVID Tracker: One death recorded as NCDC reports 71 new cases

April 10

07:24 2021

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The European medicines regulator says it is reviewing reports of rare blood clots in people who received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Saturday.

Kogi inaugurates team to monitor vaccine tolerance

Kogi has inaugurated a state research team to monitor and investigate the effect, adverse reactions and level of tolerance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kogi on Wednesday kicked off COVID-19 vaccination — a day after receiving 16,900 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the federal government.

According to NAN, Saka Audu, commissioner for health, said the team consist of specialists drawn from across the health sector.

Audu said the team will conduct research on a few areas of attention regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, including investigating why Kogi had been relatively spared by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that the team would also monitor the utilisation of the COVID-19 vaccine, monitor the adverse reactions that might follow the vaccination exercise and come up with a reliable report.

Lagos eases restrictions on event centres

The Lagos government has eased COVID-19 restrictions imposed on social and event centres in the state.

In the new guidelines, the state government pegged the occupancy limit for event centres at 500 while social events can now have up to 200 people at a time.

According to a statement issued on Friday, safety marshals will be deployed in any social event with over 200 people and event centre exceeding the 500 limits.

The statement added that “all event centres must hold a valid license of The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture prior to operating as an event centre in the State”.

Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic, had previously shut and revoked the licences of some social and event centres in the state for violating its COVID-19 protocol.

European medicine regulator investigate reports of blood clots in J&J COVID-19 vaccine

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) says it is reviewing possible links between Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and blood clots.

EMA said there were reports of four serious cases of people who had developed blood clots after they were vaccinated with the J&J jab.

“Four serious cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelets have been reported post-vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen. One case occurred in a clinical trial and three cases occurred during the vaccine rollout in the USA. One of them was fatal,” the agency said in a statement.

EMA added that Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) is investigating the cases and will decide whether regulatory action may be necessary.

One death recorded as NCDC reports 71 fresh COVID cases

Nigeria has recorded one new death from COVID-19 — after six consecutive days of recording no deaths.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed this in its update for April 9, 2021.

The new death brings the total number of COVID-19 death toll in the country to 2,059.

The agency also said 71 persons were infected with the virus in nine states and the federal capital territory (FCT) on Friday.

Lagos state topped the list with 24 new infections.

Other states with new infections include Yobe (13), Rivers (9), Akwa Ibom (6), FCT (6), Kano (6), Osun (3), Delta (2), Jigawa (1) and Plateau (1)

But 68 persons were discharged on Friday after recovering from the infection.

Since the start of the pandemic, 163,652 cases have been confirmed and 154,073 persons have been discharged in 36 states and the FCT. 7,520 are active cases.

Football club to buy COVID vaccines for fans

Athletico Paranaense, topflight Brazilian football club, said it plans to buy COVID-19 vaccines and make them available to players, officials, and fans with paid memberships.

Brazil’s congress had passed a law earlier in the week allowing private firms to buy vaccines.

Athletico expressed readiness to buy vaccines in conjunction with other businesses when the law comes into force.

The club said it will make the vaccines available “for all their employees, players, backroom staff and [members] who are helping by paying their monthly membership dues during the pandemic, even though they can’t go to the stadium”.