NCDC announce 11 deaths, 1,016 COVID-19 cases in 1 day

As the year 2020 winds down and the country comes to terms with the reality of the second wave, it was a bittersweet Wednesday of high counts for COVID-19 in Nigeria as the number of new infections and recoveries stayed above the 1,000 mark.

The figure of new deaths was also high with 11 fatalities confirmed within 24 hours. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the new figures in its update for December 30.

While 1,016 new samples tested positive for the virus, 1,385 patients were confirmed to have recovered on Wednesday – the highest figure since October 17 when over 4,000 recoveries were recorded in a single count.

The NCDC confirmed the new infections in 20 states and the federal capital territory (FCT), while the patients discharged on Wednesday included “537 community recoveries in FCT, 459 in Lagos State and 78 in Plateau State managed in line with guidelines”.

Lagos recorded the highest number of new cases with 434 positive samples, followed by FCT with 155, Plateau with 94, while Kaduna and Rivers confirmed 56 positive samples, respectively.

With the new figures, the states with the highest number of confirmed cases are as follows: Lagos with 29,618; FCT, 11,588; Kaduna, 5,127; Plateau, 4,849, and Oyo with 3,939 infections.

A total of 86,576 samples have been confirmed positive across the 35 states and the FCT, but 73,322 recoveries and 1,278 deaths have been recorded.