Nigeria confirms 3 more COVID-19 deaths, over 200 cases

ANKARA (AA) - Health authorities in Nigeria have confirmed three new deaths caused by the novel coronavirus and 238 more infections in last 24 hours.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in its latest update on Monday that 160,895 cases had been confirmed, 145,752 recovered and 2,016 deaths have been recorded across 36 states and the capital Abuja.

This came while Abuja says it is working to curb the issuance of fake COVID-19 results.

The NCDC's Director Chikwe Ihekweazu "reaffirmed government's determination to curb the issue of fake #COVID19 test results. He also reminded Nigerians to only use accredited private laboratories for travel related #COVID19 tests," the NCDC tweeted Monday evening.

"We have developed & piloted a tool to verify #COVID19 test results, which will go live in a few days," Ihekweazu said, according to the NCDC.

He went on to say that his agency was now confident that COVID-19 test results from accredited private labs in the country "can now be verified anywhere in the world."

Since March of last year, Nigerian health officials have conducted some 1,684,305 COVID-19 tests in Africa's most populous country with over 211 million inhabitants, according to the NCDC's figures.