The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Wednesday, announced that the country has recorded its highest daily figure of new COVID-19 cases. The newly recorded 790 cases brings the total number of infections in Nigeria to 26,484.
The NCDC disclosed this on its verified Twitter handle on Wednesday night.
The announcement of the new record of infected cases came barely twenty-four hours into the next phase of the eased lockdown, which is scheduled to run for another four weeks beginning on June 30.
Wednesday’s announcement also showed that a new twist is being added in the states where the highest number of infected cases are being recorded as Delta topped the list of states with 166 new infections, just as Nigeria’s total number of discharged patients crossed the 10,000 mark, while over 600 deaths have now been recorded.
While 406 people were discharged on Wednesday, bringing the total to 10,152 recoveries, 13 people were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications.
A total of 26,484 samples have now been confirmed positive in 35 states and the FCT.
According to NCDC, “On the 1st of July 2020, 790 new confirmed cases and 13 deaths were recorded in Nigeria. No new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours.
“Till date, 26484 cases have been confirmed, 10152 cases have been discharged and 603 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The 790 new cases are reported from 21 states; Delta-166, Lagos-120, Enugu-66, FCT-65, Edo-60, Ogun-43, Kano-41, Kaduna-39, Ondo-33, Rivers-32, Bayelsa-29, Katsina-21, Imo-20, Kwara-18, Oyo-11, Abia-10, Benue-6, Gombe-4, Yobe-2, Bauchi-2, Kebbi-2,” the NCDC said.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has decried the continuous flouting of guidelines by some members of the public, in spite of the rising cases of Coronavirus infection in the country.
Addressing newsmen on Wednesday, the National Coordinator of the PFT said,
“COVID-19 is far from over globally, neither is it over in Nigeria.
“There is no doubt that a lot of community transmission is happening and it continues to increase across the states.
“Now more than ever before, if you go out you’re more likely to get COVID-19 than before.
“Your risk of contracting the virus because of the numbers we have now is more than three, four weeks or five weeks ago when we had a lockdown, so there is really no room or relaxation at this point.
“The reason we had to relax the lockdown was in order to sustain the livelihood of Nigerians, particularly those who depend on a daily income for survival as well as to sustain the economy.
“But it was not because COVID-19 has gone and it wasn’t because we should be more relaxed in terms of our prevention measures,” he said.
The coordinator said that in order to balance the issue of livelihoods with public safety, the government issued advisories, protocols that would guide the relaxation of the lockdown in order to mitigate the high risk of transmission.
Also onWednesday, director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, has called on countries across the world to ensure that despite easing restrictions, guidelines on containing the pandemic are adhered to, as the number of positive cases is still expected to rise.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, Ghebreyesus disclosed that 60 percent of the more than 10 million cases recorded worldwide were confirmed in June.
“More than 10.3 million cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, and more than 506,000 deaths,” he said.
“For the past week, the number of new cases has exceeded 160,000 on every single day. 60% of all cases so far have been reported just in the past month.
“We will never get tired of saying that the best way out of this pandemic is to take a comprehensive approach.
“Find, isolate, test and care for every case, trace and quarantine every contact, equip and train health workers and educate and empower communities to protect themselves and others.
“Not testing alone. Not physical distancing alone. Not contact tracing alone. Not masks alone. Do it all. Countries that have adopted this comprehensive approach have suppressed transmission and saved lives.
“Flare-ups are to be expected as countries start to lift restrictions. But countries that have the systems in place to apply a comprehensive approach should be able to contain these flare-ups locally and avoid reintroducing widespread restrictions.”
