Nigeria records 156 new covid-19 cases as Russia presents vaccine to FG

Nigeria on Friday recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the nation’s disease control agency, as Russia presents its home-made vaccine to the Federal Government.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in a late-night tweet, added that the country has now reported 54,743 confirmed cases of the virus, with 42,816 persons recovered and 1,051 deaths.

Lagos, the country’s epicentre for the virus, reported 36 new cases while the Federal Capital Territory registered 35 new infections.

Other states with new infections include Oyo-29, Kaduna-10, Abia-9, Osun-5, Ogun-5, Enugu-5, Rivers-4, Nasarawa-3, Ekiti-3, Imo-3, Edo-2, Kwara-2, Katsina-2, Plateau-2, and Niger-1.

156 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

Lagos-36
FCT-35
Oyo-29
Kaduna-10
Abia-9
Osun-5
Ogun-5
Enugu-5
Rivers-4
Nasarawa-3
Ekiti-3
Imo-3
Edo-2
Kwara-2
Katsina-2
Plateau-2
Niger-1

54,743 confirmed
42,816 discharged
1,051 deaths pic.twitter.com/ozVzhEdqlP

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) September 4, 2020

Earlier on Friday, the Nigerian Government received samples of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Russia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Alexey Shebarshin gave the samples of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire during a visit to the Ministry in Abuja.

The Russian Ambassador also handed over to the Minister an aide-memoire which gives details about the vaccine to help the Nigerian Government conduct further research on it.

“We are exploring all knowledge in terms of therapeutics and vaccines,” the Ministry quoted Ehanire as saying.

“We are expressing our interest in the COVID-19 vaccine so that we will have the opportunity to work elaborately.”

He explained that the country has been taking part in a series of knowledge exchange and contact with several research bodies and nations in a bid to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Russian vaccine has shown promise for treating COVID-19 after patients involved in early tests developed antibodies with “no serious adverse events”, a study published on Friday showed.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says it does not expect widespread immunisation against Covid-19 until mid-2021, despite growing expectations in the United States, the worst-hit nation, that a vaccine could be released within weeks.

The Geneva-based WHO also insisted it would never endorse a vaccine that has not proven safe and effective, amid concerns over the rush to develop a jab for Covid-19.

The disease has killed nearly 870,000 people and infected more than 26 million others worldwide as well as upended hundreds of millions of lives and wreaked havoc on the global economy.

The UN health agency welcomed the fact that a “considerable number” of vaccine candidates had entered final stage trials, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.

But “in terms of realistic timelines, we are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 869,718 people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Friday.

At least 26,366,810 cases have been registered. Of these, at least 17,298,800 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

On Thursday, 5,871 new deaths and 278,631 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were India with 1,096 new deaths, followed by the United States with 1,029 and Brazil with 834.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 186,806 deaths from 6,151,101 cases. At least 2,266,957 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 124,614 deaths from 4,041,638 cases, India with 68,472 deaths from 3,936,747 cases, Mexico with 66,329 deaths from 616,894 cases, and Britain with 41,527 deaths from 340,411 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 89 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium (85), Spain (63), the United Kingdom (61), and Chile (60).

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 85,102 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,263 recoveries.

Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 285,469 deaths from 7,612,884 cases, Europe 217,285 deaths from 4,099,668 infections and the United States and Canada 195,982 deaths from 6,281,343 cases.

Asia reported 102,164 deaths from 5,522,626 cases, Middle East 37,404 deaths from 1,543,088 cases, Africa 30,631 deaths from 1,277,479 cases, and Oceania 783 deaths from 29,724 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.