Nigeria recorded one death and 203 new cases of coronavirus infections on Sunday, authorities have said.
According to the data released on its Facebook page on Sunday night by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), this is the first time the country is recording more than 200 cases since May 31 when the same number was reported.
The new figure has indicated a sharp increase from the 123 recorded a day earlier, and has taken Nigeria’s total infections to 169,532.
Also, the death recorded on Sunday has raised the country’s total fatality to 2,127.
Breakdown
The disease centre said the new cases were recorded in six states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT).
Lagos State, for the umpteenth time, recorded the largest share of Sunday’s toll with 186 infections, amounting to 91 per cent.
The trio of Edo, Oyo and Rivers States reported four new cases each while the FCT reported three and Kwara, two.
Meanwhile, the NCDC data showed that a total of 164,699 patients have been discharged from hospitals across the nation after treatment.
There are, however, more than 2,000 cases that are still active in the country.
Nigeria has also tested more than 2.3 million samples for the virus out of its roughly 200 million population.
Almost four million Nigerians have also been vaccinated with either one or two doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Weekly review
Meanwhile, for the week-long period ending Sunday, Nigeria recorded a total of 963 new infections, an average of approximately 136 cases per day. That’s the first time in more than two months the weekly average of daily infection figures would surpass 100.
The increase started with 166 infections last Monday shortly after the discovery of the delta variant in the country.
Daily infections were between 109 and 203 throughout the week except on Wednesday when 48 cases were recorded. The low figure recorded on Wednesday was also linked to the non-inclusion of the data from Lagos, the nation’s epicentre for the pandemic.
Delta variant in Africa
Across Africa, the Delta variant of the virus is fuelling an aggressive third wave of infections, with case numbers climbing faster than earlier peaks, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO experts warned last week that infections across Africa have increased for six consecutive weeks, up by 25 per cent last week, reaching 202,000 positive cases.
It said South Africa accounted for more than half of Africa’s cases last week. On July 1, the country reported more than 21,000 cases. This may, however, not be unconnected to the country’s aggressive testing capacity, as the only nation on the continent conducting extensive testing for the virus.
Authorities in South Africa have been unable to stem the spread of the new variant, and have resolved to impose new restrictions.
There have been 4.5 million cumulative cases of the virus in Africa with about 107 fatalities recorded, according to the WHO African regional dashboard.
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