As Recoveries Near 43,000
By Olamilekan Alani
Nigeria has confirmed one hundred and twenty-five (125) fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday even as the number of persons who have recovered from the pandemic in the country inched close to 43,000.
While disclosing the latest COVID-19 data, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said the new cases take the number of infections in the West African nation to 54,588.
The new cases, the NCDC data showed, were reported from twelve states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Nigeria’s commercial centre and one of the pandemic hotbed, Lagos, had the highest number of infections from the disease – 42 – for the day and is trailed by the FCT – 25, Katsina – 14 and Kaduna – 11.
Eight more persons were infected in Kwara State, Ondo – 7; Delta – 4; Anambra – 3; Oyo – 3; Edo – 2; Ogun – 2; Osun – 2 and Cross River -1.
‘Modifying The Curfew’
Although 1,048 persons have died from COVID-19 complications, 42,627 cases have been treated and discharged in the country as the Federal Government further eases the lockdown it imposed in the wake of the pandemic.
During its briefing on Thursday, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19,adjusted the curfew and said it will now be from 12 midnight through 4 am.
“We are modifying the curfew to commence from 12 midnight to 4 am nationwide, effective from 12:00 tonight,” the chairman of the PTF, Boss Mustapha, said.
“This does not apply to people on essential services and international travellers that might be returning from abroad.”
Global Picture
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 863,679 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Thursday.
At least 26,074,140 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 17,071,200 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
On Wednesday, 5,944 new deaths and 265,250 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on the latest reports, the countries with the newest deaths were Brazil with 1,184 new deaths, followed by the United States with 1,080 and India with 1,043.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 185,752 deaths from 6,115,030 cases. At least 2,231,757 people have been declared recovered.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 123,780 deaths from 3,997,865 cases, India with 67,376 deaths from 3,853,406 cases, Mexico with 65,816 deaths from 610,957 cases, and Britain with 41,514 deaths from 338,676 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 89 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium (85), Spain (62), the United Kingdom (61), and Chile (59).
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 85,077 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,251 recoveries.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 282,980 deaths from 7,514,827 cases, Europe 216,845 deaths from 4,061,430 infections and the United States and Canada 194,923 deaths from 6,244,721 cases.
Asia reported 100,879 deaths from 5,427,187 cases, the Middle East 37,014 deaths from 1,526,761 cases, Africa 30,316 deaths from 1,269,758 cases, and Oceania 722 deaths from 29,460 cases.
