NCDC announces 17 deaths, 248 new COVID-19 cases

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 248 new COVID-19 cases.

The agency made the announcement on Sunday night via its Twitter handle.

A total of 4,399 cases have now been recorded in 34 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Seventeen deaths were also recorded in the last 24 hours.

NCDC had announced 11 COVID-19 fatalities on Saturday, but the agency clarified on Sunday that two of the four deaths recorded for FCT on Saturday were “wrongly announced”.

“On the 9th on May, we announced 45 discharged cases and 4 deaths in FCT. Due to system error, 32 discharged cases and 2 deaths were wrongly announced. Therefore, FCT recorded 13 discharged cases and 2 deaths on May 9, 2020. We apologise to @OfficialFCTA for this error,” the post read.

The number of fatalities is now 143, while a total of 778 persons have recovered.

Kogi and Cross River are yet to record any case.

248 new cases of #COVID19;

81-Lagos
35-Jigawa
26-Borno
26-Kano
20-Bauchi
13-FCT
12-Edo
10-Sokoto
7-Zamfara
4-Kwara
4-Kebbi
2-Gombe
2-Taraba
2-Ogun
2-Ekiti
1-Osun
1-Bayelsa

4399 cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria
Discharged: 778
Deaths: 143 pic.twitter.com/EXkXbq690g

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— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 10, 2020

Although the NCDC has announced plans to increase testing capacity over the next few months, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has expressed concern about Nigeria’s testing capacity.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Francis Faduyile, the NMA President, urged the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 to consider more involvement of the private sector as part of efforts to ramp up testing capacity.

“The Association places the responsibility on the PTF and NCDC to find the fastest workable solutions to fix this challenge, including incorporating the approved private sector laboratories that already have established specimen pick up and transport modalities,” the statement read.