By Abujah Racheal

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 341 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 155,417.

The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Saturday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it is exactly one year ago, Feb. 27, 2020, that Nigeria recorded its COVID-19 index case, believed to be the first in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Till date, 155,417 cases of the disease have been confirmed, while 133,256 patients have been discharged and 1,905 COVID-19 related deaths recorded in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

In the past 24 hours, the NCDC has recorded three COVID-19 deaths, raising the total fatalities in Nigeria to 1,905.

The Nigerian health agency said that the new infections were reported from 20 states and the FCT.

According to the agency, the new cases were reported in Lagos-96; Rivers-41;  Kaduna-33;  Edo-21;  Osun-20;  Akwa Ibom 17 and the  FCT-17.

Ondo reported 15; Gombe-11; Kano-11; Imo-10;  Ekiti and Kebbi had nine each; Kwara and Oyo state recorded eight each, while Borno had six;  Enugu and Plateau. three each; Delta, Niger, and Ogun had one each.

The NCDC stated that Saturday’s discharged cases included 319 community recoveries in Lagos State, 121 in Kaduna State and 38 in Rivers.

The agency said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, had continued to coordinate the national response activities in the country.

The public health agency said that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country currently stood at 20,183 in the last 24 hours. (NAN)

By Abujah Racheal

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, has confirmed that Nigeria will on Tuesday, March 2, receive the first tranche of COVID-19 vaccines.

Mustapha, who is also the chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, made the disclosure on Saturday in Abuja while evaluating the country’s fight against the disease.

“They (vaccines) should depart India on March 1, 2021 in the night and arrive in Abuja on the 2nd of March, 2021, ” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria is set to receive its first four million shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a global scheme set up to procure and distribute vaccines for free, as the world races to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

COVAX, which was set up in April 2020 to help ensure a fairer distribution of coronavirus vaccines between the rich and poor nations, said it would deliver two billion doses to member-states by the end of 2021.

Nigeria’s four million vaccines would be its first COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility.

The facility promised access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population with an initial supply beginning in the first quarter of 2021 to inoculate three per cent of their populations.

The Nigerian government had earlier announced that the first four million doses of the vaccines would arrive in the country by the end of February.

The SGF disclosed that the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) would be organising the shipment from Mumbai, India, with the World Health Organisation (WHO), both backers of COVAX.

Meanwhile, the PTF chairman praised Nigeria’s health workers and the various frontline workers for working hard to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Mustapha, while evaluating the county’s response to COVID-19 in the past year, said the PTF had performed “very well’’ with a very robust national response.

“We have succeeded in discharging our mandate of managing the pandemic with a well-defined process and a robust national response,” he noted.

The SGF said that the strategies evolved by his committee to manage the pandemic had been replicated in some other countries, especially the compulsory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for travellers.

He explained that the pandemic had helped the country to scale up its health infrastructure, citing the increase in the number of infectious diseases testing laboratories from four to 132 across the country.

NAN recalls that the Nigeria’s health minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, on Wednesday admitted that the country may have to wait till March to receive its first doses of the vaccines.

Ghana received 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines on Wednesday, making it the first country on the continent to benefit from the COVAX programme.

Cote d`Ivoire, a country with more than 32,000 COVID-19 cases and 188 deaths, also received over 500,000 doses of the Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.

It is exactly one year ago, Feb. 27, 2020, that Nigeria detected its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), believed to be the first reported case in Sub-Saharan Africa.

With more than 150,000 cases reported since then, the NCDC said Nigeria’s response had been led by science and driven by the power of coordination, collaboration and solidarity among federal and state governments, partners, the private sector and the citizens. (NAN)

By Abujah Racheal

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 600 new cases of the Coronavirus （COVID-19), bringing the total number of infections in the country to 155, 076.

The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Friday.

The agency also registered 11 COVID-19 deaths, raising the total number of fatality in the country to 1,902

NCDC stated that the new infections were registered across 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory （FCT）, in the past 24 hours.

It stated that the 600 new cases were reported from 21 states， namely： Lagos (169), Taraba (92), Ogun (65), Cross River (57), FCT (38), Rivers (28), Kwara (26), Akwa Ibom (25), Osun (21), Plateau (12), Borno and Gombe （nine each）.

Abia and Ebonyi recorded eight each, while Ekiti and Kano confirmed seven each, just as Delta reported six, and Oyo- eight.

Bauchi and Nasarawa states rcorded three cases each, and Sokoto had one.

According to the centre， a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, continues to coordinate the national response activities in the country.

The NCDC said its discharge for Friday included 204 community recoveries in Lagos state, 124 in Kwara state, 121 in Osun state， and 73 in Rivers state managed in line with its guidelines.

The health agency also said that it added data registered from Taraba State over the past two days.

The NCDC said that the  number of active COVID-19 cases in the country  currently stood at 20,608 in the past 24 hours.

It will be recalled that the country recorded its first COVID-19 case, an imported case from Italy on Feb. 27, 2021 through an Italian man who travelled to Lagos state, the country’s largest city and one of the continent’s biggest metropolises.

Nigeria registered its first death  from COVID-19 on March 23, 2021 – the case of a 67-year male who returned home following medical treatment in the United Kingdom.

Till date, the country has confirmed 155,076 cases, out of which 132，544 cases have been discharged after successful treatment，and 1，902 deaths have sadly been recorded in 36 states and the FCT.

So far， the country has tested 1,489,103 people since the first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced a year ago. (NAN)

By Hussaina Yakubu

The Kaduna State Government has reiterated its commitment to invest more in the health sector, to give citizens access to quality health services.

The State Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, made the commitment on Friday in Kaduna at a Roundtable discussion on Public Investment in Health, organized by Palladium.

Balarabe said that the government had carefully designed programmes anchored toward improving the quality of lives of citizens through improvement in access to basic social service, particularly health care.

She described health care as fundamental to human development, and a basic right.

According to her, lack of maintenance in the past had prevented citizens from getting very strong and functional health system.

Balarabe, however, said that the present administration in the state has been investing massively on transforming the health care system.

The deputy governor said in spite of the investment, there is still the need for more funding and commitment for better outcome.

“We need to do a rethink on how we have been doing things; are they enough to give us better outcome and what other things contribute to effective health services.”

The deputy governor assured that the government would continue to do its best for better health care services across the state.

Balarabe called on relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and partners to continue to collaborate for more positive impact in the sector.

She appreciated the team for the partnership and working for better health care services in the state.

On her part, Amina Baloni, the state Commissioner for Health, said a lot of work needed to be done in transforming the health sector.

She saluted the state government for improving budgetary allocation and providing needed environment for the health sector.

The Commissioner, however, noted that priority should be accorded to operational and overhead funding, “so that we can move to areas where we can deliver services.”

“If we manage to get the social determinant right, we cut what we need in health by about 50 per cent.

“Government has already committed more than 50 per cent of its budget to social sector in recognition that you have to have good water, sanitation, nutrition and education,” she added.

Earlier, Mustapha Jumare, the co-chair, maternal and child accountability mechanism and chairman, open government partnership, called on the state government to invest more in health care.

According to him, this will bring about more improvement in various sectors, including the economy.

He noted that funding remains the major challenge for the health sector in Kaduna State.

“Investment in health does not only save lives, but is also vital to the wider economy, while poor health adversely affects education outcomes.”

Jumare advised the government to release funds for all approvals made, while the health ministry should track the utilisation of the funds. (NAN)