Coronavirus Update- Death in UK Pass 30,000; Nigeria Records 195 new cases

On Wednesday, Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 195 new cases of Covid-19 across 12 states and FCT as follows; 82-Lagos, 30-Kano, 19-Zamfara, 18-Sokoto, 10-Borno, 9-FCT, 8-Oyo, 5-Kebbi, 5-Gombe, 4-Ogun, 3-Katsina, 1-Kaduna, and 1-Adamawa. Nigeria has recorded 3,145 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 534 recoveries and 103 deaths.

Nigeria has conducted total of 21,208 tests for Covid-19 according to the data on NCDC website  as at 21:05GMT on Wednesday.

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On Wednesday, the ban on flights to Nigeria, which was placed in March to contain the spread of Covid-19 was extended by four weeks. During the daily Presidential task force on Covid-19 briefing on Wednesday, The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika said that, Nigeria’s Aviation sector loses about N21 billion per month since the out break began in the country.

In Kano, one doctor has died after testing positive for coronavirus according to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Kano. Dr Sanusi Mohammad Bala, State NMA chairman, said that, 33 other doctors had also tested positive, but they were in a stable condition. There are around 1,500 doctors in all of Kano state

There are total number of 49,867 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Africa, with 16,549 recoveries and 1,972 deaths according to the African Center for Disease Control. Northern Africa has the largest number of cases at 18,600, followed by West Africa at 13,600 confirmed cases.

In West Africa, Nigeria is the worst affected country. It is followed by Ghana at 2,719 confirmed cases, 294 recoveries and 18 deaths.

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Cote d’Ivoire has recorded the highest number of recoveries in West Africa. The country has 1,464 confirmed cases, 701 recoveries and 18 deaths.

In UK, Europe’s worst affected country, additional 649 deaths were reported, to bring the total Covid-19 deaths in the country to 30,150. Thus, becoming the first European country to report over 30,000 deaths. In terms of confirmed cases, UK is the third largest in Europe with 202,352 cases, behind Spain and Italy with 219,329 and 214,457 confirmed cases respectively.

In Russia, the number of cases of Covid-19 has been on the increase, with over 10,000 news cases recorded per day for the past 4 consecutive days. As a result, Russia has recalled its 100 Army medical team, that were sent to Italy in March, at the peak of Italy’s outbreak.

Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu said the teams would start to leave on Thursday, according to Interfax news agency.

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On Wednesday, Russian Culture Minister, Olga Lyubimova, became the third member of the government diagnosed with Covid-19. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishutin and Construction minister Vladimir Yakushev had earlier tested positive for C0vid-19.

Russia has a total of 165,929 confirmed cases, 21,327 recoveries and 1,537 deaths. In a recent poll conducted by Levada, President Putin’s approval ratings dropped to a historic low of 59% from 69% before the outbreak.

The U.S remains the world epicentre of the outbreak with 1,216,739 confirmed cases, 189,791 recoveries and 72,233 deaths.  President Trump has backtracked on the “winding down” of the Coronavirus task force which he announced on Tuesday. He said on Wednesday, that the task force will continue to work “indefinitely”.

President Trump said in the Oval office, during a meeting with nurses, “I thought we could wind it down sooner. But I had no idea how popular the task force is until, actually, yesterday when I started talking about winding it down. I get calls from very respected people saying ‘I think it would be better to keep it going, it’s done such a good job’ “.

Globally, there are 3,732,042 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 1,226,790 recoveries and 261,517 deaths. According to John Hopkins Coronavirus resource Center.  as at 21:10 GMT on Wednesday.

The race for vaccine and treatment is ongoing around the world. According to the World Health Organization, there are 102 potential vaccines with 8 given green light for clinical trials.

Written by

Ifunanya Ikueze