Nigeria on Thursday added 476 fresh COVID-19 cases with seven more deaths, taking the fatality figure to 992.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed the latest COVID-19 figures in a tweet on its official handle.

Although Nigeria had reported fewer confirmed cases in recent weeks, Thursday’s new infections – in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory – take the total cases in the West African nation to 50,964.

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A state-by-state breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

The country’s COVID-19 hotbed, Lagos, as has almost become the norm, recorded the highest number of fresh cases for the day – 235 – and is followed by the FCT with 44 more infections.

NCDC’s new data for the pandemic showed that Kaduna State had 41 new cases,  Borno – 33, Plateau – 28, Abia – 13, Edo – 13; Rivers -12, Imo – 11, Oyo – 10 and Kano – 9.

Seven more persons were infected with the virus in Kwara, Enugu – 5, Katsina  – 5, Gombe – 4, Ogun – 4, Nasarawa -1 and Zamfara – 1.

Even though the casualty number is close to a thousand, 37,569 persons who contracted the disease have been successfully treated and discharged.

As at 11:15 pm, August 20th, 2020, Nigeria, however, has 12,403 active COVID-19 cases.

‘Biggest Challenge’

While the nation has seen an increased number of recovered cases, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Thursday, said the country could have flattened the curve if Nigerians had strictly followed safety guidelines.

File photo: PTF Chairman, Boss Mustapha, speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on August 13, 2020.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, during a briefing of the Task Force, said the attitude of Nigerians is the country’s “biggest challenge” in the fight against the pandemic.

“Our biggest challenge has been the attitude of Nigeria; that is our biggest challenge,” he said, reflecting on the fact that confirmed cases in the country have exceeded 50,000 with the death toll just 15 cases shy of 1,000.

On Monday, the PTF announced that international flights would be resuming on August 29th as the government gradually reopens the economy after a lockdown it imposed in the wake of the disease.

Global Toll

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 787,918 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Thursday.

At least 22,465,840 cases have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 14,102,900 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

On Wednesday, 6,822 new deaths and 270,587 new cases were recorded worldwide.

View of a crowded street in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, on May 12, 2020 amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. EDUARDO VALENTE / AFP
File photo: View of a crowded street in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, on May 12, 2020 amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. EDUARDO VALENTE / AFP

Based on the latest reports, the countries with the newest deaths were the United States with 1,286 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 1,212 and India with 977.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 173,193 deaths from 5,530,247 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. At least 1,925,049 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 111,100 deaths from 3,456,652 cases, Mexico with 58,481 deaths from 537,031 cases, India with 53,866 deaths from 2,836,925 cases, and the United Kingdom with 41,397 deaths from 321,098 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 86 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru (81), Spain 62, United Kingdom 61, and Italy 59.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 84,895 cases (7 new since Wednesday), including 4,634 deaths and 79,745 recoveries.

#StaySafe #StayAlert

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