COVID-19: Nigeria records highest cases tally in 6 months amid Delta variant worries – NCDC

As states across the country struggle to curb the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, the nation is now averaging more than 700 new case...

As states across the country struggle to curb the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, the nation is now averaging more than 700 new cases, says the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

The NCDC, which disclosed this via its verified website on Thursday morning, added that the country registered 790 additional infections on Wednesday, a sharp increase from the 610 cases it registered a day earlier.

Recall that owing to a sudden surge, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, the country’s average daily COVID-19 cases showed that Wednesday’s increase was the highest since February.

The surge resulted in the federal government calling on citizens to take responsibility and adhere to preventive measures in the country, especially as the caseload keeps rising on the heels of ongoing doctors’ strike.

The NCDC noted that states nationwide were struggling to curb the spread of the Delta variant, with the situation becoming alarming, particularly in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Oyo states and the FCT, where the strain was accounting for a large number of the cases.

Due to the spread, NCDC observed that Lagos state set a new record for COVID-19 on Wednesday with 574 cases, and infections in Rivers state jumped to 83, Ondo-38, Ogun-31, Oyo-23, Delta-10, the FCT-9, Ekiti-7, Edo-6, Osun-4.

Anambra and Bayelsa recorded 2 cases each and Plateau-1, while three states, Kano, Nasarawa and Sokoto, reported zero cases, NCDC said.

One new death was also recorded on Wednesday, bringing the nation’s fatality count, since the start of the pandemic, to 2,195.

A total of 74 people recovered and were discharged from various isolation centres in the country on Wednesday, with total recoveries nationwide since the onset of the pandemic clocking 166,203, the NCDC added.

The agency said that the country had tested more than 2.5 million samples for the virus out of its roughly 200 million population, with an average test positivity rate of six per cent.

It also disclosed that the country’s active cases had soared to 11,500.

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