Breaking: Nigeria’s coronavirus infections exceed 45,000

The number of coronavirus infections in Nigeria exceeded 45,000 on Thursday after 354 new cases were found in the nation in the past 24 hours, authorities have said. 

The latest figure – one of the lowest in over two weeks – brings the total number of infections in the country to 45,244, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The update came barely hours after the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 approved the gradual reopening of international flights and train services across the country.

It was part of the decisions reached at the end of the second extension of the second phase of eased lockdown which was renewed a third time by another four weeks by the PTF.

The NCDC said three deaths were recorded from the virus on Thursday, the lowest in the past three days. This brings the number of fatalities in the West African nation to 930.

The number of deaths on Wednesday was 17. About 14 people succumbed to the disease on Tuesday.

The new cases, according to the NCDC, were reported from 17 states: FCT (78), Lagos (76), Kaduna (23), Ebonyi (19), Oyo (18), Nasarawa (17), Rivers (17), Delta (16), Kwara (15), Akwa Ibom (13), Edo (12), Ogun (12), Plateau (11), Kano (9), Bauchi (6), Borno (6), Ekiti (6).

Even though Abuja had the highest daily figure of 78 on Thursday, Lagos has the highest burden of the disease in Nigeria with over 15,000 cases and 192 deaths.

Abuja has had a little over 4,000 cases with 45 deaths to become the country’s second most impacted city by the virus.

Over 306,000 people have been tested thus far in the country of over 200 million people.