COVID-19: Anambra records highest daily infections as Nigeria’s figure rises

Nigeria recorded an increase in COVID-19 cases Tuesday as Anambra State recorded its highest daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

With 344 new cases from Anambra, a total of 1,368 infections were reported across Nigeria on Tuesday.

The total coronavirus infections recorded in Nigeria is now 148,296, according to the Nigeria Centre Disease Control (NCDC).

The rise in cases comes after Nigeria saw relative reductions in infections and deaths in the previous two days.

Tuesday’s figure is higher than the 574 cases recorded Monday and the 690 on Sunday.

The decline in the previous two days occurred, largely, due to a reduction in the daily figures from Lagos, the country’s coronavirus epicentre with more than a third of Nigeria’s total infections.

However, Tuesday’s relatively high figure occurred despite the non-inclusion of data from Lagos.

A similar situation of no data from Lagos occurred on Sunday but the NCDC later provided an update on the omitted data from Lagos.

The NCDC did not give any specific reason why there was no data from Lagos on Tuesday but the agency’s director, Chikwe Ihekweazu, had explained previous ommissions which have now occurred four times this year.

“On some days, there are delays with harmonizing and analyzing data at state-level. Lagos has a high number of laboratories in any single state. Given our commitment to ensuring accurate reporting to Nigerians, we are prioritizing quality over speed,” he said.

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States are largely in charge of coronavirus management and response while the NCDC supports and receives daily reports from them.

The daily infection update is then published by the NCDC which ultimately serves as the yardstick Nigeria’s COVID-19 outbreak is measured.

Deaths

At least 16 people died from COVID-19 complications in Nigeria on Tuesday, taking the total fatalities in the last 48 hours to 24.

Tuesdays’ death toll doubled the eight fatalities reported on Monday and raised Nigeria’s fatality toll to 1,777 in total.

Specifics

The 1,368 new cases were reported from 28 states – Anambra (344), Oyo (172), FCT (148), Benue (107), Rivers (95), Ogun (59), Ondo (56), Ebonyi (53), Kaduna (52), Plateau (46), Kwara (36), Enugu (30), Akwa Ibom (26), Osun (22), Edo (20), Abia (17), Kano (16), Borno (15), Cross River (10), Delta (8) Gombe (8), Imo (7), Ekiti (5), Sokoto (4), Jigawa (3), Bayelsa (3), Nasarawa (3), and Zamfara (3).

Anambra had the highest toll in Tuesday’s tally with 344 new cases followed by Oyo and the FCT with 172 and 148 infections respectively.

The NCDC report for Tuesday also included 762 community recoveries in Anambra State, 132 in Plateau State and 126 in Abuja.

Of the over 148,000 new cases, a total of 124,483 patients have recovered across the country.

Meanwhile, there are nearly 24,000 patients still receiving treatments in isolation centres.

Since the pandemic broke out in February last year, the country has carried out over 1.3 million tests.