Nigeria Records 454 New COVID-19 Cases, Total Infections Rise To 27,564

Nigeria has recorded 454 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the country to 27,564

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed this in a tweet on Friday.

Nearly five months since Nigeria recorded its first case in the country, the figures have continued to rise with Lagos still the epicenter after a record 10,910 cases, followed by the FCT with 2,080 and Oyo with 1,451.

Measures had been put in the place by the Federal Government to curb the spread of the virus including a total lock down on some of the most hit states, strict curfews and a shut down of schools, churches and places of large social gatherings.

Subsequently, other states began to impose varying degrees of curfews and governors eventually agreed on interstate lockdowns as they began to record new infections.

But weeks after the FG-Imposed lockdown, President Muhammadu Buhari announced again that there would be a gradual easing of the lockdown in order to allow economic activities resume as the country could not sustain an extended period of economic inactivity.

While essential workers and several other levels of workers have been allowed to resume, the government has still appealed to those who can afford to stay at home, to do so even as schools, churches, cinemas, clubs and other places of mass social gatherings have so far, remained shut.

However, another sector that is set to be reopened is the aviation sector.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced the dates for the reopening of flight operations on Wednesday.

According to him, the Abuja and Lagos airports will resume domestic operations on July 8, while the Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri airports would resume on the 11th.

Other airports are also expected to resume operations on the 15th.

Sirika, however, noted that a date for the international airports will be announced in due course.

With the rising number of infections, there have been split opinions over the reopening of more sectors of the economy.

But for the aviation sector, the minister had stated in May that the sector was one of the worst-hit since the pandemic ravaged the country, resulting in a monthly loss of up to N17 billion due to the grounding of flight operations.

Global Toll

Since the outbreak emerged in China last December, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 522,246 people, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Friday.

At least 10,922,300 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 5,619,700 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.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 128,740 deaths from 2,739,879 cases. At least 781,970 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 61,884 deaths from 1,496,858 cases, the United Kingdom with 44,131 deaths from 284,276 cases, Italy with 34,833 deaths from 241,184 cases, and France with 29,893 deaths from 203,367 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 84 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by United Kingdom with 65, Spain 61, Italy 58, and Sweden 54.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 83,542 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 78,499 recoveries.

Europe overall has 198,615 deaths from 2,695,472 cases, the United States and Canada 137,450 deaths from 2,844,905 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 121,888 deaths from 2,740,996 cases, Asia 36,384 deaths from 1,397.730 cases, Middle East 17,129 deaths from 798,008 cases, Africa 10,647 deaths from 435,608 cases, and Oceania 133 deaths from 9,585 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.18 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Eighty-Seven of the cases were recorded in Lagos, 63 in Edo, 60 in FCT Abuja, 41 in Ondo, 32 in Benue, 31 in Abia, 29 in Ogun, 19 in Oyo, 17 in Kaduna, 16 in Delta, 15 in Enugu, 14 in Borno, nine in Plateau, eight in Nasarawa, five in Kano, four in Bauchi, two in Gombe, one each in Katsina and Kogi States.

The agency also stated that 11,069 persons had been discharged while 628 persons have died.