NCDC confirms 10 new COVID-19 deaths as fatality toll nears 1,000

Ten new patients have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications in Nigeria.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced the new figure in its update for August 13, 2020.

The figure for Thursday is the highest in one week, and with the latest development, 966 people have now died as a result of COVID-19.

A total of 373 new samples tested positive for the virus, bringing the country’s current total number of confirmed infections to 48,116, out of which 12,841 are still active.

However, 366 patients were discharged on Thursday, with a total of 34,309 recoveries now recorded.

According to the breakdown of new cases, Lagos topped the list of states with 69 new infections, followed by Osun with 41, while Kaduna and Oyo confirmed 40 new positive samples each.

373 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

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Lagos-69
Osun-41
Kaduna-40
Oyo-40
FCT-35
Plateau-22
Rivers-19
Kano-17
Ondo-17
Ogun-15
Abia-14
Gombe-12
Imo-9
Enugu-7
Kwara-6
Delta-5
Niger-2
Borno-1
Bauchi-1
Nasarawa-1

48,116 confirmed
34,309 discharged
966 deaths pic.twitter.com/4ZJDiYeN8a

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) August 13, 2020

Meanwhile, the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 has emphasised the need to increase testing capacity.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Olorunnimbe Mamora, minister of state for health, noted that eight states and the federal capital territory (FCT) currently account for more than 70 percent of tests done across the country.

“Our target remains to test one percent of our population across the country. As of today, more than 70 percent of all the tests conducted have been in nine states including Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo, Ogun, Rivers, with 25 percent of the tests in Lagos alone,” Mamora said.

“We shall continue to work with state governments to ramp up case findings and sample collection activities.”

The minister also expressed concern about the rate of infection among health workers, and urged medical personnel to exercise more caution in order to limit the spread of the virus.

“We are currently investigating healthcare associated infection in a health facility in Kaduna state. Lessons learnt from this will be used to improve service delivery. I encourage our health workers not to drop their guards as the pandemic is still with us. Use your PPEs appropriately and judiciously. We have ensured that PPEs are available in all our health facilities,” he added.