Nigeria records 595 new coronavirus cases

Nigeria recorded 595 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, according to official figures.

The death tally from the disease also climbed to 769 after nine more people succumbed to the virus, the country’s infectious disease outfit, NCDC, announced early Friday.

The new figure shows a slight decrease from the 643 infections reported on Wednesday.

Apart from Tuesday’s figures, Nigeria has recorded over 500 cases in the past six days.

Since the West African nation announced its first case of the virus late February, 34,854 cases have been confirmed while 14,292 patients have been discharged after treatment in the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

There are 19,793 active cases in Nigeria.

The NCDC in a post on its microsite said the new cases were reported in 24 states including – Lagos (156), Ondo (95), Rivers (53), Abia (43), Oyo (38), Enugu (29), Edo (24), FCT (23), Kaduna (20), Akwa Ibom (17), Anambra (17), Osun (17), Ogun (14), Kano (13), Imo (11), Delta (6), Ekiti (5), Gombe (4), Plateau (4), Cross River (2), Adamawa (1), Bauchi (1), Jigawa (1), Yobe (1).

Lagos remains the epicenter of the disease with a total tally of 13,097 infections and 176 deaths. Almost 2, 000 patients have been discharged after treatment while more than 10, 000 cases are on admission in the city.

Nigeria’s commercial nerve is followed by the nation’s capital, Abuja, with 2,761 infections and 39 deaths. Oyo has since displaced Kano to become the third state with the largest case load with 1,989 cases and 19 deaths.

For more than 50 days, Zamfara has not reported a single case. Only a total of 76 cases and 5 deaths have been reported in the northwestern state.

Nigeria is the West African nation most impacted by the coronavirus.

Nearly has tested about 202,097 of its 200 million population.

Health experts believe there is gross undercount of the infection, questioning the government’s testing capacity especially after new symptoms of loss of senses of smell and taste emerged.

On April 28, the Nigerian government announced its target of testing at least two million people within the next three months.

The ambitious 90 days’ target will elapse on July 28, yet the country is yet to cover 15 per cent of the two million.

Nigeria still conducts only about 2, 000 tests per day across its molecular laboratories in the country, a source confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES.