COVID-19 cases in Nigeria increased further on Wednesday with 284 cases reported by the country, despite efforts by authorities to flatten the curve of the pandemic.
The new cases, confirmed by specialist agency the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Twitter took the country’s total infections to 6,677 out of which 1,840 have been discharged with 200 losing their lives.
Data from the NCDC showed that the cases were spread across 12 states and the FCT with Lagos accounting for the highest number of infections for the day with 199 cases.
A further breakdown of the figures showed that Rivers had 26 new cases, Oyo 19 cases, the FCT and Borno eight each, Plateau seven, Jigawa six, Kano, five, Abia two, and the quartet of Ekiti, Delta, Kwara, and Taraba each recorded one case.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Nigeria Medical Association in Zamfara state confirmed that eight of its members have tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Bauchi State Government announced the lifting of the ban on religious activities in the state, suggesting that parts of the country are now choosing to resume normal activities.
More than 325,000 people worldwide have now died from the novel coronavirus, three-quarters of them in Europe and the United States, since it broke out in China in December, according to an AFP tally.
The virus has killed 325,232 people in 196 countries and infected 4,943,050, according to the tally based on official sources at 1900 GMT Wednesday.
Of those infected, at least 1,827,200 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
In the United States, 92,583 people have died, the highest figure for fatalities. The country has registered 1,539,633 cases and 289,392 people cured.
The United Kingdom has the second-worst death toll at an official 35,704 for 248,293 cases, ahead of Italy (32,330 deaths and 227,364 cases), France (28,132 deaths and 181,575 cases) and Spain (27,888 deaths and 232,555).
France revised down its death toll on Tuesday after changing the way it recorded nursing-home fatalities
Since 1900 GMT Tuesday there have been 4,951 more deaths and 94,820 new cases registered worldwide.
The United States registered the highest 24-hour death toll of 1,404 ahead of 1,179 for Brazil and 363 for the United Kingdom.
Belgium has the highest death toll relative to population with 79 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Spain (60), Italy and the United Kingdom (both 53), and France (43).
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 82,965 cases. It has 78,244 recovered cases.
Europe has a total of 169,674 deaths from 1,944,258 cases, the United States and Canada have 98,674 deaths and 1,619,714 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 32,422 deaths and 583,045 cases, Asia has 12,941 deaths and 387,127 cases, the Middle East has 8,420 deaths and 306,715 cases, Africa has 2,973 deaths from 93,772 cases, and Oceania 128 deaths from 8,426 cases.
Corrections by national authorities or late publication of data mean the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.
