By ABUJAH RACHEAL

Nigeria’s commercial capital city, Lagos State, is driving Nigeria’s latest COVID-19 surge as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 332 additional infections between June 25 and June 29.

The NCDC made this known via its official website on Thursday, saying that out of the 332 new infections recorded, Lagos had 251 cases, while Rivers state reported 50 additional cases.

It said that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and three other states contributed the remaining figure.

The Centre said that the latest cases had increased the country’s infection toll to 257,290, while the fatality toll still stood at 3,144.

The NCDC website, in its breakdown of the latest infections, showed that Lagos state had continued to maintain the first position with a huge gap in the country.

Of the 257,290 total cases recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in Feb. 2020, Lagos State confirmed 100, 376 infections followed by the FCT and the Rivers with 28,759 and 16,811 respectively.

It also stated that 3,917 people were currently down with the virus, while 250,229 people had been treated and discharged nationwide since the outbreak in 2020.

The agency said that FCT came third on the log with 21 infections.

While Kano State in the North-west logged seven cases, Delta reported two and Oyo confirmed one respectively.

The Public Health Institute said that eight states, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Kaduna, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau and Sokoto recorded zero cases.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in weeks 21 & 22, the number of samples tested in the country decreased to 15,347 from 28,118 reported in weeks 19 & 20. These were reported in 36 states and the FCT.

In the country, in weeks 21 & 22, the new confirmed cases increased to 267, representing 1.7 per cent from 166 0.6 per cent reported in weeks 19 & 20.

These were reported in nine states and the FCT and include a backlog of cases reported from Imo State.

The country’s number of discharged cases, in weeks 21 & 22, also decreased to 47 from 66 in weeks 19 & 20. There was no death reported in the last two weeks.

Cumulatively, since the outbreak began in Week 9, 2020, about 257,290 cases and 3,144 deaths have been reported giving a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 1.2 per cent.

The number of inbound international travellers tested in weeks 21 & 22, was 1,070 of which 15, 1.4 per cent were positive compared to 12, 1.2 per cent out of 988 tested in weeks 19 & 20.

While the number of outbound international travellers tested was 3,382 of which 25 0.7 per cent were positive compared to 18 0.6 per cent out of 3,104 tested in weeks 19 & 20.

Meanwhile, with the breakthrough of the COVID-19 vaccine, also considered the most effective way to curb the continuous spread of the virus.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has inoculated only 20.5 per cent of its 70 per cent target population in the country has been fully vaccinated.

The NPHCDA said that as at June 29, 2022, about 22,938,601 of total eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination, were fully vaccinated while 11,972,251 of total eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination, were partially vaccinated.

The five performing states, still maintaining their position in the country’s mass vaccination campaign were; Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Nasarawa account for 51 per cent of the total number of doses administered in the country.

However, Lagos state is currently administering about 23,000 daily, which makes the state the second-highest number of COVID-19 vaccine doses per day in the country. (NAN)

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