By John Ikani
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it can confirm a global decline in COVID-19 cases and fatalities.
The confirmation made by the WHO via its official Facebook account is the first time the global health organisation would confirm a reduction in infections since the declaration of the 4th wave of the pandemic in 2021.
It however, insisted that it is “far too early to declare victory” over the pandemic, stressing that
the Omicron variant has been responsible for a significant increase in the number of hospitalisations and deaths.
In a video, the director-general of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said some countries are experiencing a decline in infections and fatalities, and have been able to ease restrictions with low rates of hospitalisation.
“It is encouraging to see that there’s from COVID-19 are now declining globally and in most regions and it’s pleasing to see some countries being able to relax restrictions without their health systems being overwhelmed,” he said.
Mr Ghebreyesus also re-emphasised that the only sustainable way out of the pandemic is to reach high vaccine coverage in all countries.
“We must now turn our attention to addressing the crucial question of how we turn vaccines into vaccinations. How we ensure all countries have enough tests, enough oxygen to treat patients, and enough PPE to keep health workers safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, latest statistics released by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) late Monday night, revealed that Nigeria recorded only two cases on Monday, the lowest daily infections since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
According to the data, Nigeria’s fatality toll remains at 3,142 while the infection toll now stands at 254,659.
The breakdown of the latest cases shows that Kaduna State in the North-west and Rivers State in the South-south reported a single case each.
NCDC also noted that Lagos State and the FCT have not recorded cases for the past three and two days respectively.
