Nigeria’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 31, 987 as 664 new infections were announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Saturday evening.

The death toll from the virus has hit 724, as 15 new deaths were reported. The fatality rate from the virus in Nigeria is about 2.2 per cent.

The NCDC in a tweet said the new cases were reported in 18 states including Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Edo, Ondo, Kaduna, Imo, Osun, Plateau, Oyo, Osun, Delta, Adamawa, Enugu, Nassarawa, Gombe, Abia, and Ekiti.

Al 36 states and the FCT have recorded at least a case of the disease.

Lagos State remains the epicentre for the disease with the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the country, while Zamfara has not reported any new confirmed case in the past 54 days.

The other five states with the highest number of confirmed cases are: FCT, Oyo, Edo, Delta and Rivers State.

The 664 new cases were reported from 18 states: Lagos – 224, FCT – 105, Edo – 85, Ondo – 64, Kaduna – 32, Imo – 27, Osun – 19, Plateau – 17, Oyo – 17, Ogun – 17, Rivers – 14, Delta – 11, Adamawa – 10, Enugu – 7, Nasarawa – 6, Gombe – 3, Abia – 3 and Ekiti – 3.

“Till date, 31,987 cases have been confirmed, 13, 103 cases have been discharged and 724 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” it stated.

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Since the outbreak of the disease in Nigeria in February, a total of 178, 265 samples have been tested.

Data from the health agency also indicates that the country is witnessing a high level of community transmission of the virus as 73 per cent of the total diagnosed cases reported unknown sources of exposure to the virus.

Also NCDC said that the predominant age-group affected is 31 to 40.

A breakdown of the 31,987 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 12, 275 cases, followed by FCT – 2,538, Oyo – 1,706, Edo – 1, 678, Delta – 1, 359, Rivers – 1,357, Kano – 1,303, Ogun – 1,080, Kaduna – 978, Ondo – 670, Katsina – 655, Borno – 586, Gombe – 530, Bauchi – 519, Plateau – 516, Ebonyi – 508, Enugu – 476, Abia – 405, Imo – 386, Jigawa – 321, Kwara – 311, Bayelsa – 299, Nasarawa – 244, Osun – 231, Sokoto – 153, Niger – 135, Akwa Ibom – 134, Benue – 121, Adamawa – 110, Anambra – 93, Kebbi – 86, Zamfara – 76, Yobe – 62, Ekiti – 49, Taraba- 27, Kogi – 5, and Cross River – 5.