COVID-19: Nigeria records 1,386 new cases, 14 deaths

Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 1,386 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths from the virus.

The 14 deaths recorded on Wednesday means Nigeria has now recorded 58 deaths from the virus in four days.

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, 15, 14 and 15 daily deaths were recorded respectively.

With 14 fatalities on Wednesday, the total deaths from the disease across the country increased to 1,478 as many states around the country struggle with mounting infections and hospitalisations.

A total of 114, 691 infections have now been reported across the nation with the 1,386 new cases found in 22 states, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

As Nigeria continues to record more coronavirus infections, the fatalities have also increased.

Last Friday, Nigeria announced its deadliest day of the pandemic with 23 lives lost under 24 hours.

Last week, which is the third week of the new year, the country recorded 70 deaths, the weekly highest in the new year. The country also recorded 50 and 48 deaths in the first and second week of 2021 respectively.

In the past four weeks, there have been over 200 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

The rise in mortality shows that the second wave of the pandemic is deadlier than the first as more patients are symptomatic and require breathing support.

Some relatives of patients who died from COVID-19 have shared harrowing experiences of how their loved ones died gasping for air due to shortage of oxygen supply in some of the isolation centres in the country.

A delay in deliveries meant many patients were left for hours on reduced oxygen, a situation believed to have contributed to the recent spike in coronavirus deaths.

But the NCDC director, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the increase in deaths is as a result of the rise in hospitalization.

Active cases in Nigeria rose sharply from about 3,000 about two months ago to over 20, 000 due to a rise in new infections.

Of the over 114, 000 cases so far, 92,336 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Specifics

The 1,386 new cases were reported from 22 states – Lagos (476), Rivers (163), FCT (116), Kaduna (114), Oyo (68), Plateau (62), Ogun (56), Imo (55), Osun (55), Edo (51), Anambra (50), Kwara (44), Kano (17), Ebonyi (14), Cross River (10), Delta (10), Jigawa (8), Bayelsa (6), Ekiti (6), Borno (2), Taraba (2), and Zamfara (1).

Lagos, again led with 476 new cases on Wednesday.

The commercial city is Nigeria’s coronavirus epicentre with a total of over 40,000 confirmed cases and over 270 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.

So far, Nigeria has conducted nearly 1.2 million COVID-19 tests.

Amidst the continuous surge in the number of coronavirus cases in Nigeria, a survey has found that nearly a fifth of Nigerians still do not believe the disease is real.

The study by the research firm, SBM Intel, in all 36 states and the FCT, found that only 68.8 per cent of Nigerians believe that the virus is real.

The report said 14.4 per cent of Nigerians were not sure that COVID-19 is real, while 16.7 per cent did not believe it is real.

It said less than 50 per cent of respondents in Ekiti, Enugu, Kogi, Nasarawa and Sokoto States thought the virus was real.

There has been a drastic drop in safety levels and enforcement of protocols across the country, a situation also blamed for the recent surge in infections.