COVID-19: Lagos sees upsurge in infections as Nigeria records 442 new cases

By ABUJAH RACHEAL

Lagos state witnessed an upsurge in daily new COVID-19 cases as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), reported additional 422 infections on Aug 9, 2021.

The NCDC made this known via its verified website on Tuesday morning.

It confirmed that the additional 422 cases were from nine states and the FCT.

The agency said that Lagos state was standing at a dire inflection point, with the coronavirus cases surging and most of its population not yet fully vaccinated.

Driving the latest wave was the highly contagious Delta variant with Lagos continuing to report more than half of the daily cases in the country.

The state recorded the highest cases with 190 out of the 422 additional Infections.

The public health agency tracking the coronavirus case surges in states across the country said that the additional coronavirus cases were rising across the country with 86 in Rivers.

Ogun recorded 85, Oyo, 22, while FCT had 20,

Kwara had 7, Edo, 5, Abia, 4, and Bayelsa, 3.

The NCDC announced that 219 people had recovered and were discharged from various isolation centres in the country on Saturday.

It said that till date, 165,982 recoveries had been recorded nationwide in 36 states and the FCT.

According to it, the country had tested more than 2.5 million samples for the virus out of the roughly 200 million population.

It stated that the country’s COVID-19 average test positivity rate was six percent.

The agency said that five new deaths were recorded on Monday, raising the total number of fatalities in the country to 2,192

The NCDC said that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continues to coordinate the national response activities.

According to it, the country’s COVID-19 infections continues to rise as the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria  as of August 9, 2021, is 178,508.

Meanwhile, the agency added that driving down infections starts by staying home and doing everything Nigerians can, to protect themselves and others from getting sick.

“Vaccines are just one part of our COVID response and we must continue to rely on public health measures to keep our populations and our country safe.

“While we have all been affected by this pandemic, we have not been impacted equally. To fight COVID-19 effectively, we must address these inequalities and support the most vulnerable as they struggle to protect themselves,” it advised. (NAN)