The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 520 new infections of COVID-19 Sunday.
In a Twitter update via its verified handle, the government agency said there are now 146,184 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in Nigeria.
It said a total of 120,838 people have so far been discharged from hospital, while the number of deaths so far is 1,752.
As of Sunday, more than 108 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 60.5 million of those cases listed as recovered or resolved in a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.3 million.
Another 258 people have died with COVID-19 in the UK in the lowest death toll recorded for seven weeks, Metro has reported.
The paper quoted the latest figures by the UK Department of Health, saying a further 10,972 people have tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.
This is the lowest daily case rate since October 2 when 6,968 positive tests were returned, while today’s figures are the fewest reported daily deaths since December 28. Yesterday, there were 621 fatalities and 13,308 new cases, while last Sunday’s death toll was the lowest in six weeks with 373 deaths and 15,845 positive test results.
Japan on Sunday, the CBC reported, formally approved its first COVID-19 vaccine and said it would start nationwide inoculations within days, months behind the US and many other countries. Japan’s health ministry said it had approved the vaccine co-developed and supplied by Pfizer Inc. The announcement comes after a government panel on Friday confirmed that final results of clinical testing done in Japan showed that the vaccine had an efficacy similar to that of overseas tests. Pfizer’s vaccine has been used elsewhere since December.
Meanwhile, according to the CBC, Lebanon started its COVID-19 vaccination drive on Sunday by inoculating the head of critical care at its biggest public hospital, followed by 93-year-old celebrated Lebanese actor and comedian Salah Tizani. Battling a sharp spike in infections in recent weeks which has overwhelmed its healthcare system, Lebanon took delivery of 28,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday.
Germany on Sunday implemented tight border controls on its frontiers with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol province in an effort to stem the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants. The new restrictions limit entry from those areas to German citizens and residents, truck drivers, transport and health service workers and a few others, who have to register online and show a negative coronavirus test.
