The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has disclosed that the country is averaging more than 700 new cases daily as the COVID-19 Delta variant spreads across the states.
The NCDC disclosed this via its verified website on Thursday morning
According to the organisation, the country registered 790 additional infections on Wednesday, a sharp increase from the 610 cases it registered a day earlier.
Wednesday’s increase, driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, 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 an 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 its roughly 200 million population, with an average test positivity rate of six percent.
It also disclosed that the country’s active cases had soared to 11,500.
