Nigeria on Saturday night recorded 664 fresh COVID-19 cases.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which confirmed this on its Twitter handle, said the fresh cases were announced in 17 states of the federation and Abuja.
It added that 15 persons died from complications resulting from the virus on Saturday.
Consequently, the number of COVID-19 fatalities increased from 709 to 724.
Also, the total number of confirmed cases increased to 31,987.
Meanwhile, 13,103 patients had been discharged from various isolation facilities across the country as at Saturday night.
The breakdown of the figure on a state-by-state basis revealed the following: Lagos (224), FCT (105), Edo (85), Ondo (64), Kaduna (32), Imo (27), Osun (19), Plateau (17), Oyo (17), Ogun (17), and Rivers (14).
Others are – Delta (11), Adamawa (10), Enugu (7), Nasarawa (6), Gombe (3), Abia (3) and Ekiti (3).
The NCDC said: “31,987 cases of #COVID-19 in Nigeria.
“Discharged: 13,103 AND Deaths: 724.”
So far, the NCDC has conducted 178,265 tests across the country, averaging a positive case in almost every 45 persons examined.
With 18,160 active cases and 13,103 recoveries, it means one in over three infected have recovered from the virus while the fatality rate is currently at around 1.8.
The Federal Government’s decision to temporarily halt the West Africa Senior School Certificate Exams has split opinions among Nigerians, especially with the Guber elections in Edo and Ondo States set to go ahead.
“It is not safe to reopen schools now,” Minister of Education Adamu Adamu said on Wednesday.
However, the only justification could be that potential reopening of schools has seen a spike in cases in other countries which were forced to shut down once again.
