Nigeria’s COVID-19 Infections Exceed 56,000

Nigeria’s COVID-19 Infections Exceed 56,000

The 188 official COVID-19 cases reported by Nigerian authorities on Friday, again one of the lowest in four months, dragged the total number of infections in the nation to 56,017 from the 55, 829 infections recorded on Thursday.

This is according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday night.

The latest COVID-19 figure also means Nigeria is yet to record more than 300 infections in a day in about three weeks.

The new cases, according to the NCDC, were found in the following 19 states: Lagos (47), Enugu (25), Plateau (21), FCT (14), Abia (11), Delta (10), Bauchi (8), Ondo (8), Kaduna (8), Ogun (6), Imo (5), Benue (4), Katsina (4), Taraba (4), Edo (3), Kwara (3), Oyo (3), Rivers (2), Yobe (2).

Lagos, Nigeria’s COVID-19 hotspot with over 18,000 infections and 2014 deaths, came tops in Friday’s tally with 47 new cases.

Enugu and Plateau followed with 25 and 21 new cases respectively while Abuja, Nigeria’s capital and the second most impacted city, came fourth with 14 cases.

Nigeria has tested over 430,000 of its 200 million population for the virus since the country reported its index case on February 28 in an Italian traveller.

Meanwhile, health experts suspect the low figures being reported of late were possibly due to the decline in the rates of testing across the country.

Collection of samples declined grossly in at least six states across the country in August, the NCDC had reported.

The number of deaths from the COVID-19 has also been low.

Only one person died of the contagion on Friday, taking the total number of deaths from the virus to 1, 076.

The NCDC in its daily update of the infection on its verified Twitter handle @NCDCgov stated that of the 56, 017 infections so far, 43, 998 persons have recovered and have been discharged