More than 150,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Nigeria, about a year after the country recorded its first case in February, public health agency announced.
According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s Thursday’s data, the total infection figures stood at 150,246, including 877 new cases reported from 26 states.
877 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;
Lagos-273
Kaduna-87
Rivers-58
Akwa Ibom-47
Ebonyi-47
Edo-46
Ogun-46
Abia-34
Imo-34
Kano-34
Oyo-26
Osun-22
Gombe-20
Ekiti-19
Cross River-15
FCT-15
Plateau-11
Enugu-9
Kebbi-8
Borno-7
Niger-6
Bayelsa-5
Nasarawa-4
Kwara-2
Katsina-1
Sokoto-1 pic.twitter.com/XD6pkT8F2H— NCDC (@NCDCgov) February 19, 2021
It took about nine months for Nigeria’s tally to reach 120,000 on January 24, 2021 from 1,000 cases reached on April 25, 2020.
However, the figure reached 150,000 in less than a month to indicate how fast the disease is currently spreading.
An average of about 1,000 cases has been reported daily since the beginning of 2021.
Nearly half of Nigeria’s infections were recorded this year alone with about 65,000 infections reported since January 1, 2021.
The recent surge in coronavirus cases has led to increased fatalities. About 16 people died from COVID-19 in Nigeria on Thursday raising the country’s fatalities to 1,803 in total.
Nigeria on January 30 recorded its highest daily death tally of 27 deaths to topple the previous record of 23 deaths reported on January 15.
About 100 deaths were recorded from the disease last week while about 69 persons died due to COVID-19 in the previous week.
Our discharges today include 275 community recoveries in Lagos State and 91 community recoveries in Kwara State managed in line with guidelines.
A breakdown of cases by state can be found via https://t.co/zQrpNeOfet pic.twitter.com/3mZWnJ7mMR
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) February 19, 2021
Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of the over 150,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria have recovered after treatment.
The figure indicates the level of success the country’s health professionals have recorded in containing the virus.
According to NCDC data published on Thursday night, a total of 126,417 have recovered after treatment.
Although people who recover from a viral infection often develop immunity against the same disease, it remains unclear whether this is the case with COVID-19 infection.
Meanwhile, about 24,000 infections are still active in the country.
Since the pandemic broke out in February last year, the country has carried out over 1.3 million tests.
As Nigeria struggles to get enough vaccines to keep its populations safe, authorities are imposing several restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.
