Coronavirus: Nigeria records 648 new cases, total exceeds 41,000

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Monday, announced 648 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the West African nation to 41,180.

Two deaths were recorded from the virus in the past 24 hours pushing the total number of confirmed deaths from the virus to 860.

According to the NCDC, out of a total of 41,180 infected persons so far, 18,203 have recovered and have been discharged after treatment in the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The NCDC in a post on its microsite said the new cases were reported in 21 states: “Lagos-180 Plateau-148 FCT-44 Ondo-42 Kwara-38 Rivers-32 Oyo-29 Kaduna-21 Osun-20 Edo-17 Ogun-17 Ekiti-11 Kano-9 Benue-9 Delta-9 Abia-9 Niger-7 Gombe-3 Borno-1 Bauchi-1 Imo-1”.

The latest update came hours after the federal government added an additional one week to the current phase of eased lockdown due to the Sallah celebrations.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who announced this at the bi-weekly Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday said the additional week will be effective from July 29 to August 6 and all existing protocols will be retained throughout this period.

Nigeria’s federal authorities have continued to announce regulations across the country even though many state governments have not been complying with the national response strategy of the NCDC.

Nigeria is Africa’s third most impacted country behind only South Africa and Egypt. The federal and state governments are working to increase testing as authorities stress that cases definitely far exceed the current tally.

In the month of June alone, Nigeria’s coronavirus cases grew by over 15,500 cases.

Over 250,000 people have been tested for the virus in a country of over 200 million people.

On April 28, the Nigerian government announced its target of testing at least two million people within the next three months. That target has not been met.