THE coronavirus yesterday claimed 11 more lives with 444 new cases confirmed in the country, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
In an update on its Facebook page last night, the agency said the fatalities took the death toll in the country to 2,160.
According to the NCDC, the new infections raised the total confirmed cases in the country to 174,759.
With rising daily infections and deaths, the Covid-19 situation may get worse as resident doctors across the country yesterday downed tools over unpaid allowances among, several other demands.
A breakdown of the NCDC data revealed that 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) contributed to the 444 new cases.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial centre and coronavirus epicentre, for the umpteenth time recorded the highest figure with 275 out of the 444 cases.
Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states followed with 63 and 62 confirmed cases respectively.
Gombe State reported 22 while Ogun State has eight infections. The FCT and Edo State recorded four cases each while Imo recorded three.
Kano, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Jigawa and Ebonyi States reported only one infection each.
According to the NCDC data, of the over 174, 000 new cases, 165,037 people have recovered and have been discharged from hospital across the country.
With the recent increase in daily cases, active cases in Nigeria have jumped to 7,151.
Nigeria has tested over 2.4 million samples out of its estimated 200 million population.
Meanwhile, the Chairman Presidential Steering Committee on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, says it will not hesitate to introduce stringent measures to protect vulnerable citizens in the country against the virus
Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, made the disclosure during the PSC briefing yesterday in Abuja.
“Nothing is off the table. Let me say very categorically, nothing is off the table when it comes to protecting the lives of the people of this country.
“We will not hesitate in taking measures that will be considered quite stringent. All the countries of the world are applying different measures.
“Countries that were adjudged to have successfully dealt with COVID-19 suddenly realised that they had to impose certain measures to ensure that they continue to balance lives and livelihood.
“And like I said, nothing is off the table. We’ll continue to study the situation.
“We’ve always been guided by science and facts and the experiences of other jurisdictions before we take informed decisions.
“We will continue to do that. Because it is very, very important the Covid-19 virus is novel, we will continue to understand the way it operates.
“The mutation and all manners of things, everybody is on a learning curve. Nobody has the full story until we get to such a situation where we are comfortable about the variant in the country,” he said.
