As the second wave of COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly across Nigeria, more people are dying from the disease, a situation health officials attributed to late referral of COVID-19 patients to treatment centres.
Nigeria on Thursday posted its highest COVID-19 deaths in a single day since the pandemic broke out in February 2020.
Reports by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday showed that COVID-19 killed 23 Nigerians in the last 24 hours.
The nation has never reported up to 20 deaths in a single day since the pandemic broke out. The new figure represented a sharp rise in deaths from the nine deaths reported the previous day.
According to NCDC’s data, 10 of the deaths occurred in Oyo, 6 in Lagos, two each in Sokoto and Rivers, one each in Ogun, Plateau and Edo.
Also, on Thursday, the country posted more cases, ramping up 1,479 fresh infections, a rise from the 1,398 reported on Wednesday.
The new cases were reported from 25 states – Lagos-697, FCT-201, Nasarawa-80, Plateau-74, Rivers-72, Edo-46, Adamawa-43, Osun-39, Akwa Ibom-35, Delta-31, Anambra-27, Oyo-24, Kano-21, Abia-19, Enugu-19, Ogun-18, Sokoto-12, Bauchi-7, Taraba-7, Ekiti-4, Gombe-4, Imo-4, Bayelsa-2, Jigawa-2 and Zamfara-1.
1479 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;
Lagos-697
FCT-201
Nasarawa-80
Plateau-74
Rivers-72
Edo-46
Adamawa-43
Osun-39
Akwa Ibom-35
Delta-31
Anambra-27
Oyo-24
Kano-21
Abia-19
Enugu-19
Ogun-18
Sokoto-12
Bauchi-7
Taraba-7
Ekiti-4
Gombe-4
Imo-4
Bayelsa-2
Jigawa-2
Zamfara-1 pic.twitter.com/tM1hY1OlLo— NCDC (@NCDCgov) January 14, 2021
The 1,479 new cases on Thursday has now pushed the total number of infections in the country to 105,478.
One in every six persons (16 per cent) tested for COVID-19 in Nigeria in the past two weeks tested positive for the virus, indicating how far the virus has spread.
Our discharges today include 642 community recoveries in Lagos State, 312 in Oyo State and 99 in Plateau State managed in line with guidelines.
A breakdown of cases by state can be found via https://t.co/zQrpNeOfet pic.twitter.com/PW5itWoS60
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) January 14, 2021
Health experts believe the lowering of guard on safety and the weak enforcement of protocols especially in the country’s major airports in Abuja and Lagos could be responsible for the recent surge, warning that the situation could get worse if citizens keep violating safety protocols.
Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 about a month ago to over 20,000 due to a rise in new infections.
Of the over 105,000 cases so far, 83,830 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.
The government also said it is expecting to start receiving vaccines for the disease by the end of the month.
So far, Nigeria has conducted over a million COVID-19 tests.
