Three new deaths as Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases exceed 61,000

Nigeria’s total count of confirmed coronavirus cases crossed 61,000 on Friday with 212 new infections recorded across the country.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the new cases in seven states and the federal capital territory (FCT) in its update for October 16.

Lagos topped the list of states with 85 new positive samples, while Oyo followed closely behind with 72 infections, and Osun recorded the least with one new patient.

Meanwhile, after 48 hours of zero deaths, three new fatalities were confirmed on Friday, increasing the toll to 1,119.

With 110 people discharged on Friday, the daily count of recoveries also recorded a slight increase, compared to 31 patients who tested negative on Thursday.

More than 570,000 samples have now been tested, with 61,194 cases confirmed across the country, out of which 52,304 recoveries have been recorded.

212 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

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Lagos-85
Oyo-72
FCT-21
Ogun-11
Plateau-11
Katsina-6
Kaduna-5
Osun-1

61,194 confirmed
52,304 discharged
1,119 deaths pic.twitter.com/b6fDJ6JiFU

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) October 16, 2020

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) insists that dexamethasone is the only drug that has shown some level of effectiveness on treating patients with serious complications as a result of COVID-19.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, stated this at a media briefing on Friday.

According to him, there are other ongoing trials with efforts to ensure that all countries have access when the vaccines are available.

“The Solidarity Trial is still recruiting about 2000 patients every month and will assess other treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and new antivirals,” he said.

“For the moment, the corticosteroid dexamethasone is still the only therapeutic shown to be effective against COVID-19, for patients with severe disease.

“There are still many other ongoing trials of therapeutics identified through the Research and Development Roadmap for COVID-19.

“Through the ACT Accelerator, WHO remains totally committed to speeding up the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for COVID-19, and to ensuring their equitable distribution.”