By Grace Audu (HEALTH CORRESPONDENT)
Rivers took the top spot with 267 coronavirus cases, On Thursday, while the country saw 835 new infections on Aug. 26.
According to data released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday, the cases were dispersed among 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
NCDC noted that, the country confirmed 835 new illnesses on Thursday, up from 637 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 189,715.
According to the Public Health Agency, Rivers had the most infections on Thursday with 263, followed by Lagos with 217.
Amongst others were: Oyo-128, Edo-45, Kwara-42, the FCT-37, Ekiti-35, Ogun-13, Akwa Ibom-11, Imo-11, Bayelsa-10, Plateau-7, Delta-4, Kaduna-3, Benue-2, Niger-2, Sokoto-2; while Abia, Ebonyi and Nasarawa reported one each respectively.
Adding that, Borno and Kano state did not report any case.
The agency noted that 10 COVID-19 related deaths were recorded, increasing the country’s fatality figure to 2,298.
The agency had attributed the rise in cases to the Delta variant, which was surging in five states. It noted that the Delta was much more contagious than previous versions of COVID-19.
“The Delta variant is highly contagious. It infects more people and spreads faster than previous variants that cause COVID-19.
“Vaccines face masks and washing of hands remain the best protection to reduce a person’s risk of contracting COVID-19, including all the variants of concerns,” it said.
NCDC said the number of the country’s active coronavirus infections stood at 17, 210 on Wednesday, from 16,927 reported on Tuesday. There were no data for Thursday.
However, the agency did not indicate if majority of the known active cases were from the contagious Delta variant or other variants of concern stated by the World Health Organisation, (WHO).
It added that over 2.7 million samples of the virus were tested, out of the nation’s estimated 200 million population.
NCDC said the country had successfully treated 169, 626 COVID-19 cases following the discharge of 244 additional people on Thursday.
The Public Health agency noted that the multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.
Meanwhile, the NCDC urged all eligible Nigerians to get inoculated to protect themselves and their communities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the country has adopted “the whole of family” approach in the second phase of vaccination.
This is to integrate the COVID-19 vaccination with other basic Primary Health Care (PHC) services such as childhood vaccination, screening for hypertension, among others.
The NCDC said this would ensure that while protecting eligible Nigerians against COVID-19, the total health of the citizens was protected.