The number of recorded COVID-19 cases in Nigeria reached 185,571 on Friday, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), with 304 new cases reported on the day.

Friday’s results seen on NCDC verified website on Saturday morning shows that the new cases were recorded in 12 states and the FCT on August 20.

“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 data said.

Lagos, the epicenter of the pandemic in Nigeria was not captured in the data for the day.

NCDC says there have been 168,124 recoveries from the infections while active cases stand at 15,200.

The 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 the majority of the infections were from the contagious Delta variant.

On August 2, NCDC 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 recommended home-based care to be provided to COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms only at the advice of 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)