Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has on Thursday recorded 433 new COVID-19 infections.
The agency, in its update for September 23, 2021, said the cases were reported in 16 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).
The nation’s capital recorded the highest number of cases (191), followed by Lagos with 79 infections.
Other states that reported new cases are Anambra (63), Rivers (27), Plateau (13), Oyo (10), Delta (9), Ondo (8), Edo (7), Gombe (6), Akwa Ibom (5), Borno (5), Ekiti (4), Bayelsa (2), Zamfara (2), Enugu (1) and Kano (1).
The number of recoveries from the virus has been relatively high within the past few days as 341 people were discharged on Thursday.
NCDC said two persons died of the infection, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,668.
So far, Nigeria has confirmed 203,514 infections and 191,942 deaths across the country.
In other news, a World Health Organisation (WHO) panel has recommended the regeneron antibody-drug cocktail — casirivimab and imdevimab — for the treatment of COVID-19.
The agency said the drugs are effective in patients who are not severely ill but at high risk of being admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
The statement reads;
WHO cautions in order not to exacerbate health inequity and limited availability of the therapy, patients who are non-severe and at higher risk for hospitalisation be treated and those that are severe or critical with seronegative status (those who have not developed natural antibodies against COVID-19 determined through accurate rapid tests) be treated; as these two patient groups are the patients that stand to benefit most from the treatment.
Meanwhile, European Medicines Agency (EMA) has set early October to decide whether to endorse a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Marco Cavaleri, EMA head of vaccines strategy, disclosed this during a media briefing on Thursday.
“The outcome of this evaluation is expected in early October unless supplementary information is needed,” Cavaleri, said.
