Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases rise to 550, highest in 15 weeks

Nigeria hit a major record on Tuesday with over 550 new positive samples of COVID-19 cases confirmed, the highest daily count in the past 15 weeks.

The last time the daily count was over 550 was on August 22, when 601 infections were confirmed.

The Tuesday figure is a significant increase over the past 24 hours, as 390 cases were recorded on Monday.

With the new cases, the country’s total count of coronavirus infections has now surpassed 70,000.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 550 new cases were confirmed in 16 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) on Tuesday.

Lagos, which recorded less than 100 cases on Monday, was top of the list with 219 new infections, followed by FCT with 168, and Kaduna with 52.

Meanwhile, the country’s recovery count has now exceeded 65,000 with 163 patients discharged on Tuesday.

One person was, however, confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications, increasing the toll to 1,182.

Out of 70,195 cases recorded across the 36 states and the FCT, 65,110 people have recovered, while the number of active infections has now increased from 3,517 to 3,903 within 24 hours.

FCT takes the lead with 1,170 active cases, followed by Lagos with 707, while Kaduna now has the third-highest figure with 355 infections.