Nigeria has reached another gloomy milestone in the coronavirus pandemic forty-five weeks after the country confirmed its first case of the virus on February 27, 2020.
The new figure disclosed on Sunday night by the NCDC indicates 1,024 people testing positive for COVID-19 across 16 states including the FCT. This has now skyrocketed the county’s total to over 100,000.
Lagos alone accounted for more than half of the new cases with 653 positive samples, followed by Plateau with 63 infections, and Benue with 48.
Eight persons were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications on Sunday, increasing the current fatality toll to 1,358.
The number of active cases currently stands at 18,699, with Lagos and FCT at the top of the list with 6,858 and 5,563 infections, respectively.
A total of 100,087 cases have now been confirmed across the country, but 80,030 patients have been discharged.
Some specialists had hoped that Nigeria and much of the African continent would be spared by the pandemic in its early stages. However, since the second wave began in early December, the virus has been fast spreading.
The government has blamed the increasing deaths on later referrals of COVID-19 patients to treatment centers.
The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday said caregivers are holding on to suspected cases for too long before presenting them for treatment.
But 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.
The federal government recently warned that a significant increase in COVID-19 infections in Nigeria appears imminent this January due to the continued violation of safety protocols during the Christmas period.
