COVID-19: Nigeria records five new deaths, 197 new infections

Five new patients were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications on Thursday, increasing the country’s current fatality toll to 1,075.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the new figure in its update for September 10, 2020.

The agency also confirmed 197 new cases in 12 states and the federal capital territory (FCT), representing a slight increase from Wednesday when 176 samples tested positive for the virus.

According to the breakdown, Plateau recorded the most cases with 83 new infections, followed by Lagos with 48, and Kaduna with 17.

A total of 200 patients were discharged on Thursday, increasing the number of recoveries to 43,810.

197 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

Plateau-83
Lagos-48
Kaduna-17
FCT-16
Ogun-11
Katsina-7
Imo-4
Edo-3
Nasarawa-3
Rivers-2
Bayelsa-1
Oyo-1
Osun-1

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55,829 confirmed
43,810 discharged
1,075 deaths pic.twitter.com/e7MmZf9MK9

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) September 10, 2020

Although the daily case count has hovered between 120 and 300 cases in the past two weeks, signifying that the infection rate may be declining, according to the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, the coronavirus is still very active.

Boss Mustapha, chairman of the PTF and secretary to the government of the federation, at a media briefing on Thursday, called for increased caution and strict adherence to the safety protocols for preventing the spread of the virus.

“COVID-19 is real; it’s virulent; it’s dangerous, and is still spreading like wildfire. Don’t be deceived by the figures you see. If we ramp up our testing, we’ll find. If you do not seek, you’ll not find. So, it is important for the sub-nationals to ramp up their testing,” he said.

“I know we’re fatigued. We’ve been in this business for the past six months. Everybody is tired. The frontline workers are tired. Even the media people are tired. That’s human nature. We’ve gotten to a point where we need to recalibrate. Any slack in this response, COVID-19 will take advantage of it and it will continue to cause a lot of havoc.”

Meanwhile, out of a total of 55,829 people confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus across the country, 10,944 are still active cases.