COVID-19 Update: Nigeria records 100 infections

04 Feb COVID-19 Update: Nigeria records 100 infections

Nigeria reported 100 new cases but zero deaths and discharged 217 patients on Thursday. There are now has a total of 253,505 confirmed cases, 229,893 recoveries and 3,136 deaths.

The new cases were recorded in 14 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) as follows:

Lagos-22; Yobe-18; FCT-15; Ogun-7; Osun-7; Oyo-6; Sokoto-6; Imo-5; Kwara-4; Bauchi-3; Edo-3; and Delta, Jigawa, Kano, Nasarawa 1 each

The NCDC said the report includes three confirmed cases reported from Bauchi state on February 2; 158 community discharged cases from the FCT on February 3; and 16 community discharged cases from Imo state for February 3.

* The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron has been found in five African countries, a World Health Organization scientist said on Thursday, adding she was concerned about the development because samples of BA.2 may not be spotted as a form of Omicron. The BA.2 sub-variant has begun to replace Omicron’s more common “original” BA.1 variant in countries such as Denmark. Data from there suggests no difference in disease severity, according to another WHO official.

* South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics has used the publicly available sequence of Moderna Inc’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to make its own version of the shot, which could be tested in humans before the end of this year, Afrigen’s top executive said on Thursday.

The vaccine candidate would be the first to be made based on a widely used vaccine without the assistance and approval of the developer. It is also the first mRNA vaccine designed, developed and produced at lab scale on the African continent.