Coronavirus: Nigeria’s Daily Figure Jumps Again To 20

Coronavirus: Nigeria’s Daily Figure Jumps Again To 20

The Nigeria government has announced 20 cases of COVID-19 as the tally of confirmed cases in the country rose to 343 Monday night.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease in a tweet said the new cases were reported in Lagos, Edo, Kano, Ogun and Ondo States.

The figure is four times the number reported on Sunday, which was the lowest in the last one week.

A breakdown of new cases shows that 13 cases were reported in Lagos, while Edo, Kano and Ogun recorded two apiece and Ondo had one case.

NCDC said “as at 09:50 pm 13th April there are 343 confirmed cases of COVID19 reported in Nigeria.

“Out of the total confirmed cases, 242 are still active, 91 have been discharged with 10 deaths reported.”

As of time of reporting, 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory have confirmed at least a case of the virus in Nigeria.

Lagos State has now reported 187 cases, followed by FCT – 56, Osun – 20, Edo – 14, Oyo – 11, Ogun – 9, Bauchi and Kaduna – 6, Akwa Ibom and Katsina – 5, Enugu, Ekiti, Rivers has two cases each, Kwara – 4, Kano, Ondo and Delta, 3 cases, while Niger, Benue, and Anambra have recorded one each.

Extension of lockdown

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday extended the lockdown in Lagos Ogun and Abuja by two more weeks.

According to the NCDC, a proportion of new infections are now occurring in the communities, through person-to-person contacts.

Mr Buhari said that the government has continued to intensify its contact tracing efforts as 92 per cent of the contacts of confirmed cases have been identified.

He said the objective remains to contain the spread of the COVID-19 and provide time and resources for an aggressive and collective action.

“As a result of the overwhelming support and cooperation received, we achieved a lot during this initial lockdown of 14 days,” he said.

Mr Buhari added that the government in the last 14 days had raised the nation’s testing capacity to 1,500 tests per day.

“As a nation, we are on the right track to win the fight against COVID-19,” he said.

“I urge Nigerians to continue to take responsibility in implementing recommended measures. We must not lose the gains achieved thus far.”