COVID-19: Nigeria records 12 additional deaths, 1,544 new cases

As the second wave of the COVID-19 continues to spread in Nigeria, more people are dying from the disease and health officials are advising stricter adherence to safety measures as the only way to slow further spread.

Nigeria on Friday recorded one of its highest coronavirus-related deaths, with 12 people dying from the virus on Friday.

The latest figure – an increase of about 50 per cent from the six fatalities recorded the previous day – has taken the death toll to 1342 in total.

In the past 21 days, there have been 130 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

The government has blamed the increasing deaths on later referral of COVID-19 patients to treatment centres.

The spike in new infections is also showing no signs of slowing as Nigeria recorded yet another relatively high daily figure of 1,544 reported from 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Friday.

The figure, one of the highest so far since the virus began spreading in the country, indicated a slight decrease from the 1,565 reported on Thursday.

This week, Nigeria has been smashing previous records of highest daily tallies to indicate how swift the officially declared second wave of COVID-19 is spreading.

On Monday, Nigeria recorded 1,204 new cases as the country’s highest daily figure, a record smashed by the 1,354 infections reported from 21 states on Tuesday.

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On Wednesday, the country recorded yet another highest daily tally ever with 1,664 cases.

The 1,544 new cases on Friday pushed the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic in the country to 97,478.

This is according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

In Africa, Nigeria is the 9th most affected country by the coronavirus after South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Libya, Kenya and Algeria.

The federal government recently warned that a significant increase in coronavirus infections in Nigeria appears imminent this January due to continued violation of safety protocols during the Christmas period.

Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 about a month ago to over 17,000 due to a rise in new infections.

Of the over 97,000 cases so far, 78,552 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Specifics

The 1,544 new cases were reported from 21 states – Lagos (739), Plateau (168), FCT (153), Oyo (91), Nasarawa (90), Rivers (80), Kaduna (35), Edo (33), Kano (29), Ogun (21), Delta (19), Sokoto (16), Akwa Ibom (11), Ebonyi (11), Enugu (10), Osun (10), Niger (9), Bauchi (8), Kebbi (8), Katsina (2), and Taraba (1).

Lagos led with 739 new cases on Friday – nearly half of the daily total. The commercial city is Nigeria’s coronavirus epicenter with a total of nearly 35,000 confirmed cases and about 252 deaths.

With the country in the second wave of the pandemic, federal authorities have 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.

The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, warned Nigerians against complacency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic as the much awaited vaccines may not arrive the country as soon as expected.

So far, Nigeria has conducted over a million COVID-19 tests.