Nigeria's COVID-19 cases rise to 334,259 with 643 new cases on Wednesday

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

By Charles Joseph

July 16, 2020 - A total of 643 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Nigeria on Wednesday bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 34,259, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) revealed.

Of the new cases, Nigeria's commercial hub Lagos accounted for 230 of the cases representing 35.7 per cent of the cases, while Oyo and the Federal Capital territory accounted for 69 and 54 cases respectively.

The NCDC disclosed on its official twitter handle on Wednesday that 6 deaths were also recorded while no new state has reported a case in the past 24 hours.

So far, the v=centre disclosed that 13,999 cases had been discharged, while 760 deaths had been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Further breakdown of the states who accounted for the new cases show that Edo state had 43, Osun (35), Rivers (30), Ebonyi (30), Kaduna (28), and Ogun (27).

Others were, Ondo (23), Plateau (20), Benue (17), Enugu (16), Imo (10), Delta (6), Kano (4), Nasarawa (2), Kebbi (1), and Ekiti (1).

Meanwhile, the agency in line with the national strategy on testing, has continued to scale up diagnostic capacity for COVID-19 in the country.

"‪Fifty three laboratories have now been activated for COVID-19 testing across 31 states in the country.

”These include Federal‬, State‬, Private, and GeneXpert laboratories,” it announced.

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The NCDC re-emphasized the need for of face masks in public places and when around people not living in ones household, stressing that COVID-19 spreads mainly among people, who are in close contact with one another less than six feet.