The United Nations has allocated $15 million (N5.8 billion) to fight the fresh Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr Mark Lowcock, who announced this on Tuesday, said it was an initial rapid allocation from the organisation’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
Briefing newsmen, UN spokesman, Mr Stephane Dujarric, quoted Lowcock as saying the funding would help Guinea and DRC respond to the outbreak and support the preparedness of neighbouring countries.
“Detailed allocation decisions will be made in the next few days as we receive more details about specific requirements and needs on the ground,” Dujarric said.
Guinea declared the new outbreak on February 14, four years after the world’s worst Ebola crisis in West Africa between 2013 and 2016.
That outbreak claimed no fewer than 11,300 lives mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
For its part, Congo announced its latest and 12th outbreak on February 7 after a woman died of the disease in the northern province of Kivu.
It came after the World Health Organisation declared the world’s second-deadliest outbreak over in Congo in 2020.
The WHO has warned that the latest cases posed a risk to other African nations, and allied for “exceptional vigilance”.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 1,368 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 148,296.
The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Tuesday.
The new infections registered today doubled the 574 cases reported as at February 15.
The Agency also registered an additional 16 COVID-19 deaths, raising the total fatality in the country to 1,777 in the last 24 hours.
It stated that the 1,368 new infections were reported from 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The NCDC stated that Anambra State registered the highest infections for the first time since the pandemic broke out in February 2020, in the country.
It noted that of the 1,368 new cases, Anambra posted 344 cases, in spite of not recording any case the previous day, followed by Oyo state which also witnessed a rise in infections after recording 172 cases and the FCT in third position confirmed 148 infections.
The agency noted that 107 of the virus were found in Benue state, Rivers had 95, Ogun-59, Ondo-56, Ebonyi-53. Kaduna-52, Plateau-46, Kwara-36 and Enugu-30.
Other states with registered cases were Akwa Ibom-26, Osun-22, Edo-20, Abia-17, Kano-16, Borno-15, Cross River-10, Delta-8, Gombe-8, Imo-7, Ekiti-5, Sokoto-4, Jigawa-3, Bayelsa-3, Nasarawa-3 and Zamfara-3.
The public health agency stated that at least 1,474 people had recovered and been discharged from isolation centres across the country in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who had been discharged after recovery to 124,483.
It noted that the discharged recorded on Tuesday included 762 community recoveries in Anambra State, 132 in Plateau State and 126 in FCT.
The NCDC stated that this included data reported from Enugu State over the last two days and a backlog of deaths reported from Abia State.
It said a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, is coordinating response activities nationwide.
The Nigeria’s public health institute said there were now 22,036 active cases across the country in the last 24 hours.
Recall that the country has tested 1,441,013 people since the first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced on February 27, 2020.
