The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has certified the AstraZeneca vaccine safe for use in Nigeria.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, announced this on Friday at an event held at the National Hospital in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He explained that the government agency cleared the vaccine for use in the country after it concluded its final test on it.
“The long-awaited day is here on which Nigerians can now join others in the global community to be vaccinated against the dreaded COVID-19 virus.
“For us in the health sector, it is a relief and the marking of the start of a tedious but hopeful exercise to see our fellow citizens develop immunity against this virus,” he told the gathering at the event.
Ehanire added, “I am also relieved again to announce that at 12 minutes past midnight today (Friday), I got a text message informing me that NAFDAC has certified this vaccine for use, otherwise we will not be sitting here today.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed 473 new cases of Coronaviruses cases in Nigeria, bringing total number of infections in the country to 177,615.
165,472 have been discharged, while 2,185 deaths have been recorded.
For Saturday’s figure, Lagos state continues to lead others with 323 cases.
Other new infections are as follows;
Akwa Ibom-46
Rivers-41
FCT-20
Ekiti-12
Osun-9
Oyo-9
Ogun-6
Bayelsa-3
Anambra-1
Edo-1
Nasarawa-1
Plateau-1
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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has confirmed 407 new cases of COVID19 in Nigeria.
The breakdown shows that Lagos has 160, Akwa Ibom -75, and Ondo-51.
Others include Abia-33, Oyo-29, Kaduna-18, Katsina-7, Gombe, and Ogun have 6 each.
Ekiti has 5, Delta-4, FCT-4, Ebonyi-3, Edo, and Niger have 2 each, while Bayelsa and Nasarawa have 1 each.
So far, Nigeria has had 174,315 confirmed cases, with 165,005 discharged and 2,149 deaths.
Today’s report includes 0 cases reported from Kano, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, and Sokoto States.
New infections have remained high in recent weeks after the figures became negligible in the last months before the deadly Delta variant was detected in the country.
As usual, Lagos had the largest figure 211. It is followed by Akwa Ibom with 80. Other new infections are as follows:
Kwara-73
Osun-29
Oyo-17
Rivers-17
Cross River-15
Edo-14
Anambra-9
Ogun-8
Ekiti-6
Bayelsa-4
FCT-4
Plateau-4
Bauchi-2
Nasarawa-2
Kaduna-1
Jigawa-1
This is now 173,908 total confirmed cases in Nigeria with164,994 discharged and 2,149 deaths.
