By ABUJAH RACHEAL

Nigeria’s latest surge in coronavirus infections gathered pace on Wednesday with new confirmed cases rising above 500 for the first time in four months following the spread of the more contagious Delta variant.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) figures on Thursday morning, showed another 535
cases were reported on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 535 is the highest daily number, which is now the biggest daily increase in the country since March 4, 2021, when 708 cases were registered.

After months of low recorded numbers, the country’s infection have been on the rise in the past two weeks shortly after the discovery of the 10 Delta variant, first identified in India and is considered by government scientists to be between 60 per cent and 80 per cent more transmissible than the previous dominant strain.

The NCDC noted that the additional 535 cases registered was an increase in the previous high figure of 404, which was reported on July 27 as the highest daily record in four months.

The Public Health agency said that the Infection rates have largely been concentrated in Lagos state, which is the country’s epicenter.

It added that Lagos again recorded the highest number on Wednesday’s infection tally.

It stated that the country’s epicenter of the virus recorded 219 out of the 535 daily total, representing a decline from its previous high figures of 356, followed by Akwa-Ibom state with 142 new cases and Oyo with 47.

Amongst others were; Rivers state with 17 reported cases, Jigawa and Edo 13 each, Ekiti and Bayelsa 11 each, Ondo -10, Osun-9, Plateau-8, Ogun and Kaduna 7 each, Kano and the FCT 5 each, while Gombe and Nasarawa reported 4 and 3 respectively.

The agency regrettably recorded five additional COVID-19 related death on Wednesday, keeping the death toll at 2,139 in the country.

The Public Health institute said that 49 people have recovered and were discharged from various isolation centres in the country on Wednesday.

The agency added that till date, 164,886 recoveries have been recorded nationwide.

It added that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continues to coordinate the national response activities.

It noted that the country has also tested more than 2.4 million samples for the virus out the country’s roughly 200 million population.

The NCDC said that the country’s active cases stood at over 4,000, and the country’s total infections rose to 172,263 as at July 28. 2021. (NAN)

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