By RACHEAL ABUJAH

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 53 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 165,612.

The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Thursday night.

The agency stated that the 53 new cases were reported from three states in the country.

It said Lagos topped the list with 36 new infections, followed by Rivers-14 and Akwa Ibom-3.

The NCDC noted that no death was recorded from the virus, which had already claimed 2,066 lives in the country.

It said the number of deaths from the disease had declined, with five deaths recorded in the last 28 days.

The public health agency said 13 people were discharged on Thursday after testing negative to the virus, which brought the total number of discharged cases to 156,387.

The NCDC, however, said over 7,000 cases were still active in the country.

It stated that the country had tested 1,977,479 people since the beginning of the pandemic on Feb. 27, 2020.

The agency noted that with the risk of an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country, it encouraged collective responsibility.

“Wear a face mask properly to cover your nose and mouth in public.

“Wash your hands regularly with soap under running water.

“Practice physical distancing,” it advised.

Meanwhile, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said the second dose of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine had started in the country.

The NPHCDA urged Nigerians who had received the first dose of the vaccine to ensure they checked their vaccination cards to know when they were due for the second jab.

The agency said over two million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine had been reserved for the second dose in the first phase of vaccination.

It explained that with 1,763, 552 Nigerians vaccinated as at May 13, the percentage targeted with the first jab was 87.7 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the country received 4.1 million doses of the vaccine.

Also, the NPHCDA said it planned to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.

It added that due to the uncertainty in global vaccine supply, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) made a choice to utilise the current COVID-19 supply to administer double rather than single doses.

NPHCDA said this would ensure that every Nigerian who received a vaccine from the present supply received his/her second dose before the recommended time span between doses passed, which was between six weeks and 12 weeks.

“Administering these two doses of the vaccine within the recommended time frame is very important to ensure full inoculation benefits.

”This means that with the current supply, Nigeria will fully inoculate roughly two million Nigerians, rather than partially inoculate four million,” the agency noted. (NAN)

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