…As China, WHO in talks for assessing COVID-19 vaccines for global use***
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday announced only 120 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the country.
NCDC’s announcement of the new infections on its official twitter handle late on Monday takes the total number of infections in the country to 59, 465.
According to the agency, no death has been recorded for the second consecutive day.
This keeps the COVID-19 death toll at 1,113 in the country.
Based on data released by NCDC, 183 persons were discharged after recovering from the virus.
It disclosed that the new infections were reported from 13 states from across the country.
The NCDC said that Rivers recorded the highest number of new infections with 65, followed by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which reported 12 cases
Other states are Ogun (9), Katsina (8), Anambra (7), Bauchi (5), Oyo (5), Nasarawa (3), Kaduna (2), Kwara (1), Taraba (1), Imo (1), and Delta (1).
According to it, till date, 59, 465 cases have been confirmed, while 50,951 cases have been discharged, just as 1, 113 patients have lost their lives to the virus in 36 states of the federation and FCT.
The public health agency said that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, has continued to coordinate national response activities across the country.
Also read: NCDC records no death, only 58 new COVID-19 cases, on Sunday
Meanwhile, the agency has urged Nigerians to understand that it is their collective responsibility to stay safe and protect each other from COVID-19 as schools gradually reopen.
“Parents, students, and school management all have roles to play in reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread.
“Download, share, and read guidelines via: covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/media/files/CO… ,” the agency said.
In another development, China is in talks to have its locally-produced COVID-19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organisation, as a step toward making them available for international use, a WHO official said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locally-developed vaccines even as clinical trials had not been fully completed.
Meanwhile, the locally-developed vaccines had raised safety concerns among experts.
Socorro Escalate, WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies in the Western Pacific region, told a news conference conducted online that China had held preliminary discussions with WHO to have its vaccines included in a list for emergency use.
“The WHO’s emergency use listing procedure allows unlicensed vaccines and treatments to be assessed to expedite their availability in public health emergencies.
“This helps assist the WHO’s member states and UN procurement agencies to determine the acceptability of the vaccines.
“Potentially through this emergency use listing the quality and safety of these vaccines and efficacy could be assessed and then this could be made available for our licensees,” Escalante said.
Additional reports from Reuters