…As Nigeria records 667 new cases
The Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that COVID-19 pandemic has entered a ‘new and dangerous phase’.
Six hundred and sixty-seven fresh cases were recorded in Nigeria as at Friday night by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), bringing the total in the country so far to 19,147.
The figures came as the Nigerian universities’ scientists under the aegis of COVID-19 Research Group announced the discovery of a vaccine for the prevention of Coronavirus while the Ogun State Government suspended its planned lifting of the ban on places of worship because of the increasing rate of infection.
Tedros told a virtual briefing in Geneva that “the virus is still spreading fast, is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible.”
Nearly half of the new cases are in the Americas.
Many of the new cases also came from South Asia and the Middle East, Tedros added.
The European regional director of WHO, Dr Hans Kluge, said a second wave in the autumn was possible.
“We have the seasonal influenza. There is the possibility of a seasonal effect on the virus – but we’re not sure yet – that then we will see a second wave,” Kluge said.
He said: “The lesson is that we have to implement what we know works – at the core of the strategy is to find as early as possible, isolate, test suspected people from Covid, and if needs be, treat them without any stigma or discrimination.
“At the same time (governments need) to track and quarantine contacts – contact tracing is an essential element of this strategy. But there is no single solution.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in an update Friday night, said 667 new cases were recorded yesterday, taking the country’s total so far to 19147.
The breakdown is as follows: Lagos-281; Abia-48; Oyo-45; FCT-38; Ogun-37; Enugu-31; Ondo-23; Plateau-21; Edo-19; Delta-18; Rivers-18; Bayelsa-17; Akwa Ibom-17; Kaduna-14; Kano-12; Bauchi-9; Gombe-4; Osun-3; Benue-3; Nasarawa-3; Kwara-3; Ekiti-2 and Borno-1.
Six thousand, five hundred and eighty-one cases have been discharged while 487 deaths have occurred.