![A COVID-19 patient being attended to in the isolation center [PHOTO: TW: @NCDCgov]](https://i1.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2020/08/EevF32uWAAAwVsV.jpg?fit=1080%2C720&ssl=1)
Nigeria on Saturday recorded 1,598 new coronavirus infections and seven deaths, according to an update by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The seven new deaths raised the number of deaths across the country to 1,420 in total.
With 1,598 new cases, the total tally of coronavirus infections increased to 108,943.
Cases have been on the rise as the fast-spreading second wave of the coronavirus continues to make its presence felt.
One in every six persons (16 per cent) tested for COVID-19 in Nigeria in the past two weeks, tested positive.
On Friday, barely a day after Nigeria announced its worst day of the pandemic with 23 lives lost, a total of 1, 867 new infections were found in 23 states across the country – the highest daily infection toll ever.
With the recent surge in coronavirus cases feeding through into fatalities, Nigeria has been having a consistent spike in deaths from the disease.
In the past 27 days, there have been over 200 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.
Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 about two months ago to over 20, 000 due to a rise in new infections.
Of the over 108,000 cases so far, 85, 376 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.
Specifics
The 1,598 new cases were reported from 24 states:
Lagos-461 FCT-206 Plateau-197 Rivers-168 Kaduna-116 Anambra-53 Ogun-49 Ebonyi-47 Edo-42 Sokoto-32 Imo-31 Katsina-31 Oyo-30 Akwa Ibom-27 Delta-16 Kano-16 Abia-15 Niger-15 Ondo-11 Bayelsa-10 Borno-9 Kebbi-8 Ekiti-7 Jigawa-1.
Lagos, again, led with 461 new cases on Saturday. The commercial city is Nigeria’s coronavirus epicentre with a total of over 37, 000 confirmed cases and over 260 deaths.
The Minister of State for Health, Mr Mamora, warned Nigerians against complacency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic as the much-awaited vaccines may not arrive the country as soon as expected.
The government said it is expecting to start receiving vaccines for the disease by the end of the month but many medical experts told PREMIUM TIMES that that is “almost likely impossible”.
So far, Nigeria has conducted over a million COVID-19 tests.
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