Delta variant fuels 6 deaths in Lagos daily

New data from the Lagos State government on Monday showed that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria was fully on. It is no hoax.

The highly contagious Delta variant is fuelling a rise in positivity rate from 1.1 percent at June end to 8.9 percent as of August 1.

The spike under the third wave only has claimed six infected patients daily across various COVID-19 care centres in Lagos, to a total of 30 so far.

“This is an 8-fold increase over the recorded figure a month ago, an increase over the recorded figure a month ago and it should rightly alarm us,” Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor said during a briefing.

The state has seen a total of 64,032 cases since the beginning of the outbreak in February 2020, with 390 fatalities.

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However, the majority of cases, 56,336 have recovered in the community, while 2,755 are currently being managed in the community as well.

Sadly, just 1 percent of the state has received vaccination where at least 60 percent needs vaccines to reach herd immunity level.

In between it is an effort to ramp up vaccine access; the governor has urged that all existing guidelines around social and public gatherings are complied with.

“In addition to the non-pharmaceutical interventions of mandatory face masks and physical distancing in public places, regular hand-washing and avoidance of all non-essential movements must be taken seriously,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“All establishments and offices, entertainment spots, commercial spaces, and religious houses are mandated to provide hand washing or sanitising facilities, and ensure that no persons are admitted without the use of face masks.”