Abuja leads as Nigeria records 198 new coronavirus cases

Nigeria recorded 198 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 66,805, according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The death toll to the contagion remains 1,169 after no death was recorded in the last 24 hours.

Three out of every five deaths from the virus in Nigeria are in people over 50 years old, the health agency said, indicating the impact of the virus on the elderly.

Nigeria’s new COVID-19 infections have increased in the last four weeks, a PREMIUM TIMES review of official data shows, suggesting a possible resurgence in COVID-19 cases after weeks of low numbers.

Meanwhile, more people have recovered from the virus. Of the over 66,000 infections in the country, about 62,493 persons have been discharged from hospitals, after treatment, while about 3,000 active cases remain.

The 198 new cases are reported from 13 states. These are the FCT (53), Lagos (48), Ogun (40), Akwa Ibom (20), Bauchi (9), Plateau (8), Kaduna (5), Kano (4), Benue (3), Jigawa (3), Nasarawa(3), Edo (1), Kwara (1).

Although Abuja had the highest number of new cases on Wednesday, Lagos remains the epicentre of the virus with about a third of the total cases recorded across Nigeria.

Almost 750,000 of Nigeria’s 200 million population have been tested so far.