COVID-19 worsens in Nigeria as country records highest daily cases ever

Nigeria has reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases in a single day, breaking a record set just one week ago as the virus continues to spread rapidly across the nation.

On Friday, barely a day after Nigeria announced it’s worst day of the pandemic with 23 lives lost, a total of 1,867 new infections were found in 23 states across the country – the highest daily infection toll ever.

Cases have been on the rise as the second wave of the coronavirus continues to spread.

One in every six persons (16 per cent) tested for COVID-19 in Nigeria in the past two weeks were positive.

The 1,867 new cases pushed the total number of infections in the country to 107,345.

Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 about two months ago to over 20,000 due to a rise in new infections.

Of the over 107,000 cases so far, 84,535 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Deaths

Eight people died from coronavirus in Nigeria on Friday, according the daily update by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The new death tally has raised the number of deaths to 1,413 in total.

On Thursday, 23 people succumbed to the disease to mark Nigeria’s deadliest day in the pandemic era.

With the recent surge in coronavirus cases feeding through into fatalities, Nigeria has been having a consistent spike in deaths from the disease.

In the past 28 days, there have been about 200 fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

Health authorities attributed the rising death toll to late referral of COVID-19 patients to treatment centres.

The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing last week, said caregivers are holding on to suspected cases for too long before presenting them for treatment.

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But the NCDC director Chikwe Ihekweazu attributed the spike in deaths to the surge in infections. “Once infections numbers are rising there will be a rise in the fatality toll”, he said in a virtual conference Thursday.

Specifics

The 1, 867 new cases were reported from 23 states:
Lagos-713
Plateau-273
FCT-199
Kaduna-117
Oyo-79
Enugu-58
Ondo-53
Kano-49
Sokoto-43
Ogun-37
Osun-37
Nasarawa-36
Rivers-28
Benue-24
Delta-24
Niger-24
Gombe-18
Edo-15
Taraba-12
Bayelsa-10
Ekiti-9
Borno-6
Zamfara-2
Jigawa-1

Lagos, again led with 713 new cases on Friday, nearly half of the daily total. The commercial city is Nigeria’s coronavirus epicentre with a total of over 37,000 confirmed cases and about 260 deaths.

The Minister of State for Health, Mr 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.

The government said it is expecting to start receiving vaccines for the disease by the end of the month.

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