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Nigeria on Boxing day recorded 829 new coronavirus cases as the country continues to experience the second wave of the virus.
With the latest figure which was an increase from the 712 cases reported on Christmas day, the total infections in the country has increased to 83, 576.
One more person died from the virus on Saturday taking the total fatality to 1,247.
This is according to an update Saturday night by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Nigeria is currently battling its worst phase of COVID-19 with the recent surge in new infections officially declared the second wave last weekThursday by federal officials.
Health experts believe the non-adherence to safety protocols and the weak enforcement of protocols by officials, especially in the country’s major airports in Abuja and Lagos, could be responsible for the recent spread, noting that the situation could get worse if citizens keep violating safety protocols.
Active cases in the country have risen from about 3,000 some weeks ago to over 11,000 due to a rise in new infections.
Of the over 83,000 cases so far in Nigeria, 70,495 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.
Specifics
The 829 new cases were reported from 15 states – Lagos (296), FCT (291), Kaduna (79), Rivers (40), Kano (35), Nasarawa (25), Bauchi (19), Benue (8), Borno (7), Edo (7), Oyo (7), Sokoto (7), Cross River (3), Jigawa (3), and Ogun (2).
Again, Lagos and Abuja led with 296 and 291 new cases respectively on Saturday – more than half of the daily total.
With the country sliding into the second wave of the pandemic, federal authorities ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centres in the country.
The Nigerian government has also reintroduced new restrictions to check the spread of the virus including closure of bars and nightclubs and limiting the number of people allowed in a public gathering.
Nigerian authorities say they are expecting to receive in January one of the vaccines developed globally for COVID-19 but evidence on the ground at the country’s National Strategic Cold Store suggest an exaggeration of the claims.
So far, Nigeria has tested over 900,000 of its 200 million people.
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