COVID-19 worsens in Nigeria with 22 deaths, 1,861 new infections on Wednesday

Nigeria recorded its second highest daily death toll from COVID-19, on Wednesday, suggesting the country has yet to reach the peak of the second wave, as infections continue to spread rapidly.

A total of 22 people died from COVID-19 on Wednesday to bring to 1,544, the total number of people who have now died from the disease in the country.

Nigeria also recorded its second highest daily infection tally with 1,861 new cases reported on Wednesday, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

The 1,861 new cases, a sharp increase from the 1,303 infections recorded on Tuesday, raised the total number of infections in the country to 126,160.

Exactly a week ago, Nigeria recorded 1,964 new cases, the county’s highest daily figure ever.

Last week was one of the worst in Nigeria’s COVID-19 pandemic era.

According to a PREMIUM TIMES’ review of data provided by the NCDC, 11,659 persons tested positive for the virus last week (January 17- 23), which is 18 per cent higher than the previous week’s record of 9,880.

Deaths

The direct adverse effect of the spike in infections has been more deaths.

In the previous 24 hours, before the latest update 15 people died from the disease.

Nigeria, about two weeks ago, recorded the deadliest day thus far in the global coronavirus pandemic, with 23 deaths under 24 hours.

Last week, Nigeria reported 82 deaths, which represents a 14 per cent increase from the previous week’s record.

Health authorities attributed the rising death toll to late referrals of COVID-19 patients to treatment centres.

Of the over 126,000 new cases, a total of 100,365 patients have recovered across the country.

Meanwhile, there are over 20,000 patients still receiving treatments in isolation centres.

Specifics

The 1,861 new cases were reported from 22 states – Lagos (773), FCT (285), Oyo (138), Rivers (111), Plateau (92), Nasarawa (83), Kaduna (59), Enugu (57), Imo (57), Edo (43), Kano (27), Kwara (20), Ebonyi (19), Abia (17), Ogun (12), Osun (12), Katsina (8), Bayelsa (6), Bauchi (5), Delta (5), Borno (4), Jigawa (4), and Zamfara (1).

Lagos, Nigeria’s COVID-19 epicentre, led with 773 new cases followed by Abuja, the second most impacted city, with 285 new infections.

Nigerian authorities a few days ago said the COVID-19 vaccines expected this month will no longer arrive until February.

Nigeria, a country of about 200 million people, has conducted just over 1.2 million tests for the virus.