A total of 453 coronavirus cases were recorded in Nigeria on Wednesday. That brought to 47,743, the total number of infections recorded in the West African nation. No deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, making the fatality to remain at 956, the figure reached on Tuesday after six people succumbed to the disease.

This was disclosed by the NCDC, the agency heading Nigeria’s national response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the dangerous pneumonia-like disease that has spread to over 200 countries, infecting more than 20 million. Nigeria has continued to report less than 500 daily coronavirus infections for about two weeks.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it has targeted 2.1 million children for the 2020 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign in Borno. SMC is designed to prevent and protect children against malaria.

The National Consultant Malaria Emergencies in Nigeria, Iniabasi Nglass, disclosed this during the inauguration of the SMC programme at the Elmiskin Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri. Ms Ngalss said that the targeted children aged between three and 59 months would benefit from the exercise in 25 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.

Despite various reforms to address the extensive issues in the health care system, the country’s healthcare space remains weak due to lack of sufficient health personnel, poor health infrastructure, and inadequate remuneration of healthcare workers among others.

Also, over the years, the incessant strike actions by health care workers across the country have cast a lot of doubt on the care system, hence lack of public trust in the healthcare space. Frequent healthcare workers’ strikes result in the closure of public healthcare institutions preventing Nigerians’ access to quality health services.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it was looking forward to reviewing clinical trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia.

President Vladimir Putin declared Russia the first country to approve a vaccine on Tuesday even though final stage testing involving more than 2,000 people was only due to start on Wednesday. The WHO says 28 of more than 150 potential vaccines are currently being actively tested on humans, among which six have reached Phase 3, the final stage when candidate drugs are tested on large groups of people.

In support of the country’s national response to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Novo Nordisk Nigeria donated medical supplies containing personal protective equipment (PPE) to 12 tertiary and secondary hospitals in Nigeria.

The protective equipment to support front-line healthcare workers includes 216 boxes of facemasks, 216 boxes of surgical gloves and 180 boxes of surgical head covers. The company’s Country Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Jude Abonu, said the donation is in line with the company’s global resolve to work closely with countries, especially where it operates, as they strive to halt the spread of the virus.

China’s first patent for a COVID-19 vaccine has been granted by the country’s National Intellectual Property Administration. The Daily Times Nigeria learnt that the patent was jointly applied for by a research team with the Academy of Military Sciences and CanSino Biologics Inc., a Chinese high-tech biopharmaceutical company, said a report in People’s Daily. 

The team led by Chen Wei, a Researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the academy, developed the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine, with the modified defective adenovirus as the vector.

DIRECTOR-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu on Monday claimed that the numbers of COVID-19 positive cases in certain states have started to drop. The states are Lagos, Kano, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Plateau and Borno.

He explained that the reason for the reduction in the positivity rate in those states was the result of consistently testing high numbers of persons. Ihekweazu stated these during a television interview in Abuja. 

The number of people in Nigeria infected with the coronavirus exceeded 50,000 on Wednesday, the country’s health authority said, with 593 cases reported in the last 24 hours. 

Wednesday’s tally, which would be the first time Nigeria is reporting over 500 cases in about a month, brings the total number of infections in the country to 50,488. A total of 37,304 infected persons have recovered and have been discharged after treatment in the country’s 36 states and federal capital, Abuja. Four deaths were recorded from the virus in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of confirmed deaths from the virus to 985.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, has said there have been over 25,000 COVID-19 deaths on the African continent. The UN health agency gave the update on its regional official Twitter account @WHOAFRO.

WHO stated on its dashboard that “there are over 1.1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 846,000 recoveries and more than 25,000 deaths cumulatively.” It stated that South Africa had 589,886 cases and 11,982 deaths, followed by Nigeria with 49,485 confirmed cases and 977 deaths, while Ghana had 42,653 confirmed cases and 239 deaths.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria said it has sealed 268 pharmacies in Lagos for violations that vary from not registering with the authority, not renewing their registration and other infringements. The PCN Registrar, Pharm. Elijah Mohammed, at a briefing in Lagos, condemned the increase in illegal medicine sales outlets in the country.

Mohammed, who was represented by the PCN Director, Inspection and Monitoring, Pharm. Anthonia Arya, said the national enforcement team of the association toured different parts of Lagos State during which it handed out compliance directives to 15 premises for various lapses in professional practice.