Nigeria Records Over 1000 New COVID-19 Cases On New Year's Day

The spike in the coronavirus infections is showing no signs of slowing as Nigeria recorded 1, 074 new cases on New Year’s day.

The figure, one of the highest so far since the virus began spreading in the country, indicated a slight increase from the 1,031 reported on December 31.

The total infection toll in the country, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is now 88,587.

Since early December 2020, there has been a spike in coronavirus cases in Nigeria with more deaths also recorded from the virus.

The total death toll from COVID-19 in Nigeria rose to 1,294 after five more people died on Friday, the NCDC reported.

The spike in new cases is feeding through into fatalities. Hospitals and isolation centres are increasingly becoming overwhelmed.

In the past 14 days, there have been 82 recorded deaths from the coronavirus.

The federal government warned that a significant increase in coronavirus infections in Nigeria appears imminent this January due to continued violation of safety protocols during the Yuletide period.

Active cases in the country rose sharply from about 3,000 some weeks ago to over 11,000 due to a rise in new infections.

Of the over 88,000 cases so far, 74,373 patients have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Specifics

The 1,074 new cases were reported from 15 states – Lagos (642), Kaduna (92), Rivers (78), FCT (66), Gombe (66), Kano (35), Ogun (31), Katsina (22), Plateau (20), Abia (7), Niger (4), Oyo (4), Akwa Ibom (3), Delta (2), and Osun (2).

Lagos led with 642 new cases on Friday – more than half of the daily total. The commercial city is Nigeria’s coronavirus epicenter with a total of over 30,000 confirmed cases and about 247 deaths.

With the country in the second wave of the pandemic, federal authorities have ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centres in the country.

The Nigerian government has also reintroduced new restrictions to check the spread of the virus, including closure of bars and nightclubs and limiting the number of people allowed in a public gathering.

So far, Nigeria with a population of around 200 million people has conducted over 950,000 COVID-19 tests.