Nigeria Records 339 New Cases Of COVID-19, Total Infections Exceed 7,000

Nigeria reported 339 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, bringing its total infections to 7,016.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, in a tweet via its official handle, confirmed the new figures.

According to the health agency, Lagos reported 139 new cases, Kano had 28, Oyo 28, Edo 25, and Katsina 22.

Other states with new cases include Kaduna with 18, Jigawa with 14, Yobe and Plateau with 13 cases each, the FCT with 11, eight in Gombe, five in Ogun, four in Bauchi and Nasarawa each, three in Delta, two in Ondo, and one each in Rivers and Adamawa.

NCDC also reported the discharge of 67 patients, bringing the number of successfully treated cases to 1,907.

However, deaths also increased by 11, taking the country’s death toll from the virus to 211.

339 new cases of #COVID19;

139-Lagos

28-Kano

28-Oyo

25-Edo

22-Katsina

18-Kaduna

14-Jigawa

13-Yobe

13-Plateau

11-FCT

8-Gombe

5-Ogun

4-Bauchi

4-Nasarawa

3-Delta

2-Ondo

1-Rivers

1-Adamawa

7016 cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria

Discharged: 1907

Deaths: 211 pic.twitter.com/tSmPZvB7gs

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 21, 2020

Earlier on Thursday, the Presidential Task Force on the virus asked states relaxing coronavirus restrictions because of Sallah celebrations to exercise caution.

Chairman of the PTF, Boss Mustapha, also urged all Nigerians to take personal responsibility during the festivities in order not to cancel the gains of the past weeks.

Nigeria has been under some form of lockdown since March, as federal and state governments work to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 329,799 people worldwide since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Thursday.

At least 5,049,390 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,867,800 are now considered recovered.

The number of infections is almost double the toll of 2,513,117 one month ago on April 21.

Latin America, in particular, has seen a rapid rise in the number of cases, led largely by Brazil.

Since 1900 GMT Wednesday, there were 4,563 new deaths and 106,338 new cases recorded worldwide. The countries with the highest number of new deaths were the United States with 1,280, Brazil with 888, and Mexico with 424.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

The United States remains the country with the highest number of deaths overall with 93,863 from 1,562,714 cases. At least 294,312 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Britain with 36,042 deaths from 250,908 cases, Italy with 32,486 from 228,006 cases, France with 28,215 deaths, and 181,826 cases, and Spain with 27,940 and 233,037 cases.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 82,967 cases. It has 78,249 recovered cases.

The country with the highest death rate is Belgium, with 79 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Spain with 60, Italy 54, Britain 53, and France 43.

Europe overall has 170,776 deaths from 1,963,531 cases, the United States and Canada 100,087 deaths and 1,643,991 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean 34,049 deaths from 617,811 cases, Asia 13,183 deaths from 401,458 cases, the Middle East 8,519 deaths from 315,935 cases, Africa 3,057 deaths from 98,237 cases, and Oceania 128 deaths from 8,435 cases.

Corrections by national authorities or late publication of data mean the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.