By ABUJAH RACHEAL

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has registered 758 new infections of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak in the country bringing the nation’s total of confirmed cases to 74,132.

The NCDC made this known via its verified website on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the country has conducted about 848,194 tests since the first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced.

The public health agency sadly recorded three additional deaths in the last 24 hours in the country.

The NCDC said that the new infections were from 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The health Agency said that 180 COVID-19 patients had recovered and discharged from various isolation centers across the country in the last 24 hours, raising the number of successfully recovered patients to 66,494.

“Our discharges today include 29 community recoveries in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines.

“Our confirmed cases today include data reported from the FCT over two days,” it said.

The health agency stated that FCT took the lead with 305 cases, while Lagos, Kaduna and Bauchi reported 152, 103 and 44 cases respectively.

Amongst other states with new infections were; Gombe-35, Plateau-31, Rivers-17, Sokoto-15, Kwara-13, Kano-9, Ebonyi-8, Ogun-5, Osun-5, Oyo-4, Edo-4, Anambra-4, Bayelsa-2, Ekiti-1 and Taraba-1.

It said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, continued to coordinate the national response activities.

The NCDC noted that as at Dec. 15, 2020, no fewer than 758 new confirmed cases and three deaths were recorded in Nigeria.

According to it, till date, 74,132 cases have been confirmed, 66,494 cases have been discharged and 1,200 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

NAN recalls that the country, in its week 50, registered an increase in infection to 3,918 from 1,843 in week 49. These were reported in 33 states including FCT.

The number of discharged cases decreased to 1,316 from 1,726 in week 49. These were reported in 25 states including FCT.

Cumulatively, since the outbreak began in Week 9, there have been 1,197 deaths reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.6 percent.

The number of reported deaths in the last one week in states, including FCT is 17.

In week 50, the number of in-bound international travellers at Nigerian airports was 15,805 compared to 11,711 in Week 49.

In Week 50, the number of international travellers with a positive result after the 7th day of arrival was 129 compared to 81 in week 49.

In Africa, the count for confirmed COVID-19 cases is 2,379,094 with 56,337 deaths resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.4 percent.

Globally, the count for confirmed COVID-19 cases is 70,829,855 with 1,605,091 deaths resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.3 percent.

Meanwhile, two new cases were erroneously reported for Osun state in week 50. (NAN)

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