Nigeria records 749 new COVID-19 cases

Nigeria registered 749 new COVID-cases on Tuesday, almost twice the 397 announced on Monday.

Three deaths were also announced, two in Abuja and one in Kano, putting the national death toll at 1,267. Abuja has 101 death toll.

One of the dead in Abuja on Tuesday was Professor Femi Odekunle, a 77 year-old member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC).

He died at the Gwagwalada Isolation Centre.

Amid warnings by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control that COVID-19 cases will shoot up in January, Nigeria’s Covid cases have never followed a normal trajectory.

This is because the daily figures are dependent on people coming out for tests or people falling ill and requesting for tests.

Thus during the holidays, tests reduced and infection cases went southwards.

On Monday 28 December, a public holiday in Nigeria, 397 cases were confirmed.

Cases went to 749 a day after.

As of 29 December, 937,712 samples have been tested by NCDC.

Out of the samples, 85,560 COVID-cases have been confirmed so far.

NCDC said 71,937 have been discharged, with active cases now 12, 356.

The high number of cases is creating fears and resuscitating isolations centres.

In the daily cases announced Tuesday, Lagos led with 299, followed by Plateau with 131 cases.

Kaduna reported 83 cases and Abuja 74.

Here is a breakdown of the cases:

Lagos-299