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Nigeria recorded three new deaths from the coronavirus on Sunday, according to official figures.
A total of 1,197 deaths have now been recorded thus far in Africa’s most populous country.
Nigeria also recorded 418 new infections on Sunday, according to an update Sunday night by the country’s infectious disease outfit, NCDC.
The latest figure came barely 48 hours after the country recorded its highest ever daily figure of 796, smashing the previous record of 745 reported on June 19.
New cases have been on the rise since early December with new infections still concentrated in Nigeria’s two major cities and hardest hit regions – Lagos and Abuja.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how Nigeria, last week, recorded its highest weekly figure of new COVID-19 cases in over four months.
In the past 11 days, over 5,000 new infections were reported, indicating a possible resurgence in cases after weeks of low numbers.
With the 418 new cases, Nigeria has now recorded a total of 73,175 cases.
Meanwhile, of the over 73,000 persons infected by the disease in Nigeria, 66,090 have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.
Hospitalizations have also increased as active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3, 000 to over 5, 000 due to rise in new infections.
The 418 new cases were reported from 17 states – Lagos (113), FCT (86), Abia (47), Kaduna (39), Rivers (27), Katsina (22), Benue (14), Oyo (13), Kano (12), Enugu (8), Edo (7), Imo (7), Bauchi (6), Ebonyi (6), Ogun (6), Ondo (4), and Nasarawa (1).
Again, Lagos and Abuja, the two most affected cities, led in Saturday’s tally with 113 and 86 new cases respectively – more than half of the total.
With the possibility of a second wave, the Nigerian government on Thursday ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centres in the country.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, at a Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing said the move was to prepare the country for a possible second wave of the pandemic noting that everyone had a role to play in the effort to prevent the spread of the infection in the country.
However, there is optimism in the treatment of the virus as at least two vaccines have shown over 90 per cent effectiveness during trials, according to the manufacturers.
Nigeria has so far tested nearly 850,000 of its 200 million population for the virus.
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