The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 464 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, March 3, 2021.
This was disclosed via a statement on the NCDC’s official website on March 4, 2021.
The statement recorded 488 community recoveries in Lagos, Imo and Akwa Ibom States, taking the number of discharged patients to 135,831.
The new 464 cases were said to be in 22 states, which put the total number of infection at 156,963.
In a similar vein, the country reported at least 16 new fatalities on Wednesday, taking the death toll to a total of 1,939 across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.
The statement read: “On the 3rd of March 2021, 464 new confirmed cases and 16 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
“Till date, 156963 cases have been confirmed, 135831 cases have been discharged and 1939 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The 464 new cases are reported from 22 states- Lagos (131), Kaduna (69), Akwa Ibom (33), Imo (31), Katsina (30), Kano (26), Ondo (23), Yobe (20), FCT (18), Ogun (13), Rivers (12), Kebbi (11), Ekiti (9), Osun (6), Oyo (6), Borno (5), Gombe (5), Plateau (5), Edo (4), Abia (3), Delta (3) and Zamfara (1).”
The NCDC added that there were “229 community recoveries in Lagos State, 144 in Imo State and 45 in Akwa Ibom State, noting that “three previously confirmed cases in Nasarawa State omitted from the cumulative report.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government on Wednesday announced that it would begin the official roll-out of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid vaccines from Friday, March 5.
Recall that the government received 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine in Abuja on Tuesday, shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib had earlier disclosed that the vaccines would be launched on Friday.
“On Friday, we are going to be launching the vaccines, we are going to be rolling them out at the treatment centres at the national hospital. Our priority will be the health workers that are frontline. We are going to be giving these vaccines to first responders,” he said.
In a related development, Secretary to Edo State Government, Mr. Osarodion Ogie on Wednesday also confirmed that it has received doses of the vaccine and would commence distribution in line with the national plan.
“The Edo state government is in custody of doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines received from the Federal Government for distribution in the state.
“We are preparing a local distribution network for rolling out the vaccines in line with the national plan,” he said.
