COVID-19: Nigeria registers additional 159 infections, one death

By ABUJAH RACHEAL

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has registered an additional 159 new COVID-19 infections and one death across 13 states of the federation on Saturday.

The NCDC in an update shared on its website on Sunday morning, said the country’s fatality toll from the virus now stood at 2,856.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 159 additional cases reported on Saturday, indicate a decreased from the 176 cases posted previously in the country.

It added that the latest figure of confirmed cases had also increased the country’s infection toll to 210,295, stating that the active cases are 9,248, with 198,191 cases been discharged across the country.

According to it, Kaduna State in the Northwest ranked first on the log with 47 cases, followed by Enugu State in the Southeast and Benue in the North central with 44 and 36 cases, respectively.

While Delta in the South South reported 10 cases, Lagos State, the epicentre of the disease, reported seven cases followed by Plateau with five cases.

Amongst others were Rivers State which also recorded three cases, Nasarawa State two; while five states of Bauchi, Bayelsa, Edo, Jigawa and Kano reported a single case each.

The public health agency also noted that Jigawa reported no case on Saturday.

It said that over 3,207,523 million samples of the virus from the nation’s roughly 200 million population had been tested.

The NCDC noted that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.

NAN also reports that in Week 41, the number of new confirmed cases increased to 1,604 from 1,556 reported in week 40 in the country.

These cases were reported in 26 states and the FCT. It also includes backlog of cases reported from Lagos State.

In Week 41, the number of discharged cases increased to 1,869 from 1,177 in week 40. These were reported in 22 states and the FCT. It also includes community discharges reported from Edo and Lagos States.

There were 90 deaths reported in the last one week in the country. It includes backlog “45 deaths” reported from Lagos State.

Cumulatively, since the outbreak began in Week 9, 2020, there have been 209,298 cases and 2,837 deaths reported with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 1.4 per cent.

In week 41, the number of in-bound international travellers tested was 3,673 of which 34 were positive compared to 53 (out of 4,152 tested) in week 40.

The number of out-bound international travellers tested was 5,923 of which 77 were positive compared to 102 (out of 6,241 tested) in week 40 in the country. (NAN)