Coronavirus: More infections, less recoveries recorded

In the latest update from the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Nigeria has recorded more new cases of the coronavirus than recoveries last week.

According to the data from NCDC, confirmed COVID-19 infections increased by 3,135 new cases; unlike 2,630 cases recorded in Nigeria two weeks ago (from Sunday August 9 to Saturday August 15). With this, from a total 48,770 confirmed cases two weeks ago, Nigeria now has 51,905 cases (as at Saturday August 22).

Last week's data from NCDC also indicated that 23 people died as a result of complications arising from COVID-19 infection in Nigeria; while 2,477 cases were discharged after they had recovered from their illness – less than the figure posted the week before.

Two weeks ago, 2,954 patients were discharged within a period of seven days across the country. As at August 22, with 38,767 people discharged after recovering from their infection, total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria stood at 51,905. Over the last six months, the country has recorded 997 deaths so far, with a total of 374,077 tests carried out as of August 22. However, there are still over 12, 000 active cases in the country.

In Africa, there appears to be a glimmer of hope as average daily Coronavirus cases in the continent fell from 11,000 to slightly above 10,000 last week. So far, Africa has recorded over 1,147,369 cases, more than half of which are in South Africa, and about 26,000 deaths.

Clearly, South Africa leads in the continent in both the number of tests conducted and positive cases.

According to experts, recorded cases and deaths are relatively low in Africa compared to Europe, Latin America and the United States, which alone has more than 5,500,000 cases.