COVID-19: Nigeria confirms 188,243 cases with additional 655 infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said the nation’s total COVID-19 infections had jumped to 188,243, across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, as of August 24, 2021.

These were the reported cases since the beginning of the pandemic in Feb. 2020 in the country.

The NCDC said this via its verified website on Wednesday morning and that the additional 655 infections, reported on Tuesday, raised the country’s total infections.

The new infections indicate an increase from the 565 cases, reported on Monday.

The NCDC attributed the country’s rise in number to the highly transmissible Delta variant and low vaccination rates across the country.

The agency also reported that five more COVID-19 related deaths were recorded as of Aug. 24, 2021, in Nigeria and deaths reported on Tuesday increased the country’s fatality figure to 2,281.

The Public Health agency noted that the number of the country’s active Coronavirus infections had again risen to 16,927, an increase from 16,494 reported on Monday.

The agency did not indicate if the majority of the known active cases were from the contagious Delta variant.

The Disease Control agency, however, stated that over 2,727,834 million samples of the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population were tested.
The NCDC stated that the new cases were reported in eight states and the FCT.

“Lagos state, the country’s epicentre now witnessing an increase in the use of oxygen for the management of severe COVID-19 patients at isolation facilities, reported 288 additional infections on Tuesday.

“The state’s utilisation of oxygen, which is vital for the treatment of severe cases, has increased from 75 cylinders per day, at the beginning of the third wave, to over 400 cylinders per day.

According to the NCDC, six States; Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Plateau and Sokoto report zero cases.

It said that the country had now successfully treated 169, 035 COVID-19 cases following the discharge of 217 additional people on Tuesday.

The NCDC added that the multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.