Nigeria on Saturday reported 195 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily infections in about seven months as the country commences vaccination for the viral disease.
The 195 new cases is the lowest reported since August 31, 2020, when there were 138 new infections.
Nigeria suffered its worst phase of the COVID-19 outbreak between December and January as daily infections averaged over 1,000.
Recently, however, infection figures have been relatively low with daily cases hovering between 300 and 700 in the past two weeks except for the 709 infections recorded on Thursday and the 195 recorded Saturday.
With the latest figure, the total infection tally in the country is now 158238, according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Saturday night.
Also on Saturday, Nigeria recorded 10 deaths from COVID-19 as President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took their first doses of the newly acquired Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at the Presidential Villa.
While daily infections have reduced, the fatality toll in the country has relatively been high. Saturday’s death tally raised the fatality toll in the past five days to 57 in total.
With the latest figure, the total fatality toll in the country is now 1,964, according to the NCDC.
Health experts believe the official data under-reports both infections and deaths because of the country’s limited testing capacity.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has so far conducted about 1.54 million tests, less than one per cent of the country’s 200 million population.
Specifics
The 195 new cases were reported from 17 states – Lagos (70), Kaduna (22), Abia (20), Edo (18), Kano (10), Akwa Ibom (9) Rivers (7), FCT (7) Borno (6) Bauchi (5), Osun (5), Oyo (5), Plateau (3), Ekiti (3), Niger (2), Ogun (2) and Zamfara (1).
Lagos had the highest daily figure with 70 new infections to extend its lead as the most impacted city in Nigeria.More than two-third of the over 158,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria have recovered after treatment.
According to NCDC data published Saturday night, a total of 137,645 people have recovered after treatment.
Meanwhile, over 18,000 infections are still active in the country.
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