By ABUJAH RACHEAL

Nigeria on Tuesday recorded 31 COVID-19 related deaths, the highest number of fatalities, the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) has said.

The centre also confirmed 490 new cases of the COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 17,148.

The NCDC announced this on it’s official Twitter handle.

It said that, as at June 16, 2020, the new cases were recorded in 16 states while no new state reported a case in the last 24 hours.

The NCDC said that Lagos reported the highest number of cases with 142 new cases and FCT was second with 60 new infections.

”The 490 new cases are reported from 16 states- Lagos(142), FCT(60), Bayelsa(54), Rivers(39), Delta(37), Oyo(30), Kaduna(26), Imo(23), Enugu(19), Kwara(17), Gombe(11), Ondo(10), Bauchi(8), Ogun(7), Borno(6), Benue(1).

The NCDC said that till date,17,148 cases have been confirmed, 11,070 active cases 5,623 cases have been treated and discharged deaths, 96, 402 samples have been collected, and 455 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Meanwhile, NCDC said that Lagos State recorded 25 deaths between June 12 and 15 ; and they were all announced on June, 16.

NAN reports that Investigators working on the United Kingdom-based recovery trial announced that Dexamethasone, a low-cost and widely available steroid that lowers inflammation, improved patients’ chances of surviving severe COVID-19.

During the study, about 2,100 COVID-19 patients were treated with dexamethasone for 10 days. Patients on mechanical ventilation who were given Dexamethasone were 35 percent less likely to die compared to patients on ventilators who did not get the treatment.

In patients on less invasive forms of breathing support, Dexamethasone decreased the risk of death by 20 per cent while patients who did not require any respiratory help saw no improvements after taking the steroid.

The NCDC said that it is aware of recent outcomes from a UK-Government funded clinical trial for COVID-19.

It said that the results support the use of Dexamethsaone as a possible treatment to reduce the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, who require oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

The health agency called on Nigerians to note that the Government of Nigeria has not validated or approved any treatment for COVID-19.

In addition, the NCDC said that the use of Dexamethasone for COVID-19 treatment has not been validated by World Health Organisation (WHO).

“We are aware of ongoing clinical trials conducted by scientists in the UK and will work with our sister agencies to evaluate this emerging data on the use of Dexamethasone.

“We will inform the general public on outcomes following scientific review and validation,” it said. (NAN)

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