The state of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an alarming turn as Prof. Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, says 42 persons have died from COVID-19 related complications in the state between Aug. 1 and Aug. 8.
Disclosing this on Tuesday in a Facebook post on the state’s COVID-19 update for Aug. 8, Prof. Abayomi said that eight deaths were recorded on the reported date, bringing the number of the state’s fatalities to 426.
2,368 tests were conducted on Monday, out of which 219 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed.
“The new infections increased the state’s total COVID-19 infections to 66,241,” he said.
3,897 persons with active COVID-19 cases are currently receiving treatment under the state’s home-based care, the commissioner revealed.
57, 282 out of the infected persons have recovered so far in various communities, while 4,481 recovered in the state’s COVID-19 isolation centres.
Prof. Abayomi disclosed that there were currently 152 patients receiving treatment in the state’s COVID-19 isolation centres.
He added that the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the state since the outbreak of the pandemic stood at 628,120.
In the meantime, Nigeria will resume COVID-19 inoculations on 16th August, this time with the Moderna vaccine, of which it had taken delivery of 4 million doses.
Shipments of Johnson & Johnson vaccines are also being expected according to Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, who revealed this on Tuesday.
Nigeria has so far vaccinated only a tiny fraction of its population of 200 million, largely due to a lack of supply.
The latest data, in June, showed that 2 million people had received one dose and 700,000 had received two.
The rollout of vaccines was halted on July 9 because supplies had run out.
The Moderna doses, which arrived in Nigeria from the United States last week, were being prepared for rollout, Shuaib said.
In particular, he said labels with barcodes were being prepared that would allow for efficient record-keeping of administered doses.
“We want to call on all Nigerians to remain assured that the vaccines that we have are safe and will be deployed next week,” Shuaib told reporters.
Since the start of the pandemic, Nigeria has recorded about 175,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 2,000 deaths, but the real figures could be much higher as testing is patchy.
The highly contagious Delta variant has recently been detected in the country and authorities have warned infections are rising. (with agency reports)
