NCDC updates Nigeria’s COVID-19 report for Sunday

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has provided an update on Sunday’s COVID-19 data which now includes figures from Lagos that was earlier omitted.

On Sunday night, the NCDC reported 520 new cases from 19 states for Sunday, the lowest daily figure since the beginning of the second wave in December 2020.

Five people also died from the disease on Sunday according to the agency, which indicated that there was no data from Lagos State, Nigeria’s COVID-19 epicentre.

No reason was given by the NCDC for the non-inclusion of data from Lagos.

But the agency Monday evening released an update which now includes 170 new cases and one death from Lagos.

“Supplementary update for 14th February 2021 690 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria were reported. Includes ‘170’ new confirmed cases reported in Lagos State, not included in yesterday’s report,” the agency wrote on its official Twitter handle @NCDCgov.

With the new addition, Sunday’s figure rises to 690 and is no longer the lowest daily tally since last December. The 685 new cases recorded on February 1 is still the lowest within the period.

The total coronavirus infection in the country also increased to 146,354 instead of the 146,184 earlier reported.

One additional death from Lagos makes Sunday’s fatalities six and raised the death toll to 1,753 in total.

“Why Lagos was Omitted”

This is not the first time data from Lagos will be omitted from the daily tally.

A similar situation had occurred twice this year with NCDC saying Lagos State health authorities did not turn in samples.

In a WhatsApp message to PREMIUM TIMES om Monday evening, the NCDC director, Chikwe Ihekweazu, explained the reason for the ommission.

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“On some days, there are delays with harmonizing and analyzing data at state-level. Lagos has a high number of laboratories in any single state. Given our commitment to ensuring accurate reporting to Nigerians, we are prioritizing quality over speed,” he said.

States are largely in charge of coronavirus management and response while the NCDC supports and receives daily reports from them.

The daily infection update is then published by the NCDC which ultimately serves as the yardstick Nigeria’s COVID-19 outbreak is measured.

Specifics

The 690 new cases were reported from 20 states – Lagos (170), Ondo (120), Borno (41), Ebonyi (37), Benue (33), Plateau (30), FCT (29), Nasarawa (25), Ogun (25), Edo (24), Osun (24), Katsina (22), Kaduna (21), Niger (20), Kwara (14), Ekiti (13), Yobe (10), Oyo (4), Bayelsa (1), and Jigawa (1).

Lagos remains the epicentre of the virus in Nigeria with over a third of the total infections.

Nearly 50,000 infections and about 371 deaths have been recorded in the commercial city.

More than 23,500 patients are still bedridden receiving treatment for COVID-19 in hospitals across the nation.

Meanwhile, a total of 120,838 people have recovered after treatment out of the over 146,000 infected.

Since the pandemic broke out in February last year, Nigeria has carried out over 1.3 million tests.