Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases exceed 9,000 - Premium Times Nigeria

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Nigeria exceeded 9,000 on Friday as 387 new infections were reported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) .

With the update, the total tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 9, 302 as of Friday evening.

This is the second highest daily figure within the week from confirmed COVID-19. The highest figure so far reported since the beginning of the outbreak was reported this week on May 27, with 389 cases.

Also, two deaths were recorded from the virus on Friday bringing the total number of confirmed deaths from the virus to 261 from 259 reported on Thursday.

Lagos recorded the highest number of cases with 254 infections. The state also remains the epicentre for the disease.

The number of confirmed cases in the country has been fluctuating as there was an increase in the number of infections reported on Friday (387) compared to the number reported on Thursday (182).

The agency in a tweet late Friday night said the 387 new cases were reported in 14 states. These are Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Jigawa, Edo, Oyo, Kaduna, Rivers, Borno, Kano, Plateau, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Ondo.

“Till date, 9, 302 cases have been confirmed, 2, 697 cases have been discharged and 261 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” it said.

The 387 new cases are reported as follows: Lagos – 254, FCT – 29, Jigawa – 24, Edo – 22, Oyo 15, Rivers – 14, Kaduna 11, Borno – 6, Kano – 3, Plateau – 2, Yobe – 2, Gombe – 2, Bauchi – 2, and Ondo – 1.

BREAKDOWN

Since the beginning of the outbreak in Nigeria in February, 58,726 samples have been tested by NCDC, out of which 9, 302 were positive.

Out of the 9, 302 positive cases, there are 6, 334 active COVID-19 cases in the country, 2,697 people have recovered and discharged from the virus with 261 deaths recorded.

A breakdown of the 9, 302 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 4,337 cases, followed by Kano – 942, FCT – 564, Katsina – 358, Borno – 264, Oyo – 275, Ogun – 246, Jigawa – 265, Edo – 262, Bauchi – 236, Kaduna – 232, Rivers – 190, Gombe – 156, Sokoto – 116, Plateau – 101, Kwara – 86, Zamfara – 76, Nasarawa – 62, Delta – 57, Yobe – 49, Osun – 44, Adamawa – 38, Ebonyi – 40, Akwa Ibom – 45, Imo – 34, Kebbi – 33, Niger – 30, Ondo – 25, Ekiti – 20, Enugu – 18, Taraba – 18, Bayelsa – 12, Anambra – 11, Abia – 10, Benue – 7 and Kogi – 2.

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In the last one week, there has been a drastic increase in the number of infections in most states especially Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Borno, Bauchi and Rivers among others.

Despite the increasing figures, many Nigerians are alleging that Nigeria is not testing enough and the figures might not be the right presentation of the real situation in the country.

The Director General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on Thursday had highlighted the need to intensify efforts to improve COVID-19 testing in Nigeria.

“We’re working very hard to scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to every state across the country using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is most reliable,” he said.