By ABUJAH RACHEAL

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country increased to 15,200, with 304 new cases confirmed in 12 states and the FCT on Aug. 20, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

“Rivers (154), Ekiti (33), Edo (20) FCT (18), Oyo (17), Cross River (15), Delta (15), Akwa Ibom (13), Ogun (11), Bayelsa (4), Sokoto (2), Gombe and Nasarawa reported (1) each respectively, made up the list of states that registered the new cases.

The NCDC, who stated this on its verified website on Saturday morning, reported that the number of confirmed cases in the country increased to 185, 571 with 168,124 recoveries.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the additional number of known active cases in the country is an increase from 15,100 reported on Thursday.

The Public Health Agency, did not state if majority of the infections were from the contagious Delta variant.

The agency had on Aug. 2 reported that 32 Delta variant cases of COVID-19 were detected in five states, Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Oyo and the FCT, where at least one case of the Delta variant of COVID-19 had been confirmed with Akwa Ibom State alone registering 19 cases.

”The trajectory of the active cases in Nigeria is “steep” and “worrying”. There has been a very steep rise in the country’s active cases in the last one month”, the NCDC said.

The latest data further showed that three more COVID-19 patients succumbed to their infections, increasing the nation’s death toll from the pandemic to 2,247.

According to NCDC, over 2.6 million samples of the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population were tested, with an average test positivity rate of six percent, although not everyone infected with COVID-19 showed any symptoms.

It also stated that the multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.

The public health agency, however urged Nigerians to remember to maintain a high index of suspicion for COVID-19 and adhere to all preventive measures, by wearing a face mask properly in public places, while maintaining a physical distance of 2 metres.

It also recommended home-based care to be provided to COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms only at the advice of a trained and designated health workers.

“Patients and caregivers should adhere strictly to the home-based isolation criteria and other infection prevention and control measures,” the NCDC said. (NAN)

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