Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed about three countries in Africa to be considered for the installation of local production capacity for the COVID-19 vaccines, improved availability of the vaccine. This was made known by the WHO Country representative, Dr. Kazadi Mulombo during a joint press briefing on updates on COVID-19 vaccination with the WHO, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Eighteen people have died on Thursday following COVID-19 complications, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Twitter. The deaths recorded raised the total COVID-19 death toll in Nigeria to 2,117 as the country has witnessed a spike in new cases. Lagos recorded the highest number of new cases with 105 new cases, Imo and Kaduna recorded 4 cases each, Akwa Ibom had 3, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded 2 cases, while Delta, Rivers, Oyo, and Ekiti States recorded 1 case each, making the total cases on Thursday to 122.

China has on Thursday disclosed that it is providing COVID-19 vaccine to nearly 40 African Nations, Director of the Foreign Ministry official, Wu Peng said. According to Peng, the development is altruistic in apparent intensification, describing it as “vaccine diplomacy”, adding that the vaccines have been donated or sold at “favourable prices”.

The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) has disclosed that about 513,626 persons have so far received the Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine since it commenced administering in Nigeria.

Following the skepticism surrounding the myth of the coronavirus vaccine, the Federal Government has disclosed that no Nigerian would be compelled to take the dose of the vaccine against their wish.

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has declared Kogi State a high-risk zone for failing to acknowledge the existence of the virus. The PTF said that the Kogi government had failed to report testing, lacked isolation centers and therefore cautions Nigerians to be wary of visiting the state. It said having analysed the pandemic in the country, 22 high burdened Local Government Areas within 13 states in the country had been identified. The National Incident Manager (NIM) of the PTF COVID-19 pandemic, Mukhtar Muhammad who said this yesterday, urged Nigerians to avoid traveling to the State.