The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed a total number of 410 new COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the country Tuesday night.
NCDC’s latest tally for Nigeria announced via its Twitter handle brings the total for Nigeria to 49,895 with 37,051 people so far discharged and 981 deaths.
As of August 18, the confirmed coronavirus death toll on the African continent stood at 25,884. There are 1,128,245 confirmed infections and 846,330 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
South Africa moved into level two of a five-tier lockdown on Tuesday under which liquor and tobacco sales resumed. The country, which had one of the world’s strictest anti-coronavirus lockdowns for five months, relaxed its restrictions Tuesday, permitting sales of alcohol and cigarettes in response to decreasing new cases and hospitalisations for COVID-19.
People lined up at shops across the country wearing face masks and keeping a safe distance to purchase the previously banned liquor and cigarettes.
Worldwide, the number of those diagnosed with COVID-19 has exceeded 22 million. According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases is now over 22 million, and more than 779,000 people have died, while more than 14 million people have recovered from the disease.
That is even as the World Health Organization says the planet is nowhere near the amount of coronavirus immunity needed to induce herd immunity, where enough of the population would have antibodies to stop the spread of the virus.
Typically achieved with vaccination, most scientists estimate that at least 70 per cent of the population must have antibodies to prevent an outbreak. But some experts have suggested that even if half the population had immunity, there might be a protective effect.
WHO’s emergencies chief Dr Michael Ryan largely dismissed that theory at a media briefing on Tuesday, saying we should not live “in hope” of achieving herd immunity.
“As a global population, we are nowhere close to the levels of immunity required to stop this disease transmitting,” he said. “This is not a solution and not a solution we should be looking to.”
Most studies conducted to date have suggested only about 10 to 20 per cent of people have antibodies.