Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 16 deaths from COVID-19 as the country ramps up plans to commence vaccination after taking delivery of four million Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs on Tuesday.
The fatality toll in the country has relatively been high though daily infections seem to be declining.
Wednesday’s death tally raised the fatality toll in the past three days to 32 in total.
With the latest figure, the total fatality toll in the country is now 1,939, according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Wednesday night.
According to the NCDC, 464 new COVID-19 cases were found in 22 states on Wednesday.
The figure is slightly lower than the 479 infections on Tuesday. In the past 12 days, daily infection figures have been hovering between 300 and 600 after weeks of high numbers.
Nigeria recorded its lowest daily figure for new coronavirus infections in about six months with the 240 new cases reported on Sunday.
The total number of cases in the country is now 156,963.
While it is hoped that the decline will make the beginning of the end of the outbreak, health experts believe the official data under-reports both infections and deaths because of the country’s limited testing capacity.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has so far conducted 1.54 million tests, less than one per cent of the country’s 200 million population.
Specifics
The 464 new cases were reported from 22 states- Lagos (131), Kaduna (69), Akwa Ibom (33), Imo (31), Katsina (30), Kano (26), Ondo (23), Yobe (20), FCT (18), Ogun (13), Rivers (12), Kebbi (11), Ekiti (9), Osun (6), Oyo (6), Borno (5), Gombe (5), Plateau (5), Edo (4), Abia (3), Delta (3) and Zamfara (1).
Lagos had the highest daily figure on Wednesday with 131 new cases to extend its lead as the most impacted city in Nigeria.
Over 55,000 infections, nearly a third of Nigeria’s total cases, and over 400 deaths have been recorded in Lagos.
More than two-third of the over 156,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria have recovered after treatment.
According to NCDC data published Monday night, a total of 135,831 have recovered after treatment.
Meanwhile, over 20,000 infections are still active in the country.
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