Nigeria: Virus cases top 62,500 as infections surge

ANKARA (AA) - Nigeria’s health authorities have confirmed two more COVID-19-related deaths and 150 new infections across the western African country.
Nigeria recorded 150 new confirmed cases and two deaths on Thursday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in the latest daily update.

Till date, 62,521 cases have been confirmed, 58,249 cases have been discharged and 1,141 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, NCDC said.

With over 21,000 infections, Lagos remained Nigeria’s worst-hit city. It is followed by the Federal Capital Territory, which includes the capital Abuja, with more than 6,000 cases, and the southwestern Plateau State, where more than 3,600 cases have been confirmed.

Amid fears from a second wave of the pandemic, the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari stressed the need to avoid a new spike in the COVID-19 cases in his country as its economy “is too fragile “ to endure a new lockdown.

“Looking at the trends in the other countries, we must do all we can to avert a second wave of COVID-19 in Nigeria. We must make sure that our cases, which have gone down, do not rise again. Our economy is too fragile to bear another round of lockdown,” Buhari tweeted.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is among the five hardest-hit countries on the continent, along with South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Ethiopia.

Ever since first reported in Wuhan city of China last December, COVID-19 has affected over 45 million people across the globe.

Over 1.18 million people have lost their lives due to the coronavirus infection.