COVID-19: Fatalities surge as Nigeria records 21 deaths, 1,305 new infections

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 1,305 new cases of coronavirus in the country.

The agency, in its latest update for December 25, said the cases were reported across 14 states.

A breakdown of new cases showed that Lagos state — the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria — recorded the highest number of new infections with 705 new positive samples, followed by Oyo with 234 and Ondo with 88.

Other states that reported new infections include Kaduna (79), Rivers (78), Ogun (30), Anambra (25), Kano (24), Enugu (12), Ekiti (11), Jigawa (6), Osun (6), Plateau (6) and Zamfara (1).

The agency said the report includes a backlog of 103 cases from Kaduna, Enugu, Anambra, Jigawa and Zamfara states.

21 persons were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications on Saturday, bringing the fatality toll across the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) to 3,014.

The death toll recorded on Saturday contains a backlog of fatalities from Kaduna (4) and Imo (16).

Meanwhile, 120 new recoveries were recorded on Saturday, and according to the agency, the figure includes a backlog of discharged patients from Enugu (16) and Kaduna (10).

With the new figure, the total number of COVID-19 recoveries in Nigeria stands at 212,357, while 236,014 coronavirus infections have been confirmed since the index case on February 27, 2020.