Nigeria Records Fresh Cases As COVID-19 Figure Rises

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has announced that the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 97 as eight fresh cases were confirmed on Saturday evening.

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Giving the update on its verified Twitter page, the Centre tweeted: “As at 10:40 pm 28th March, there are 97 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria with 1 death.”

The virus has been recorded in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with Kaduna State joined the list on Saturday after Governor Nasir El-Rufai revealed that he tested positive for the pandemic.

The governor said he is in self-isolation and his deputy governor is chairing the COVID-19 Task Force in the state.

A breakdown of the cases, according to NCDC, shows that Lagos has the highest number of cases with 59 infections followed by FCT with 16 infections.

Elsewhere, there are seven confirmed cases in Oyo, three in Ogun, while Enugu, Edo, Bauchi, and Osun have two cases each.

Ekiti, Rivers, Benue and Kaduna have one case each, in the meantime.

The growing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria has paralysed economic and socio-religious activities in the country as several states across the federation have closed down schools and markets as part of measures to curb the surge.

The Lagos State Government recently expressed fear over the spread of the virus, saying that Nigeria, which closed all its international airports to curb further importation of COVID-19, maybe moving from the importation stage to the community transmission stage.

Oyo state, after announcing 84 suspected cases in the state, restricted movements in the state with a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Social distancing is being preached in the country to avert the community transmission of the pandemic which has infected over 600,000 people globally with over 27,000 deaths.

The Federal Government recently opened up all National Youth Service Corps orientation camps in the country as isolation while some stadiums around the country were also converted for the same purpose.