TheCable

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 501 new COVID-19 cases in the country.

The agency made the announcement on Saturday night.

Lagos recorded 195 new cases, while the federal capital territory (FCT) confirmed 50 new cases.

With the latest development, a total of 3,449 new COVID-19 cases, and 65 deaths have been recorded in one week.

As of June 6, 2020, the country had confirmed a total of 12,233 cases, out of which 342 deaths had been recorded.

However, as of Saturday, a total of 15,682 COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in 35 states and the FCT, out of which 407 deaths have occurred.

Meanwhile, 210 new recoveries were recorded on Saturday, increasing the number of persons discharged from 4,891 to 5,101.

When compared to the figure for June 6, at which time 3,826 people had recovered, it shows that a total of 1,275 people were discharged from isolation centres across the country within the past week.

501 new cases of #COVID19

Lagos-195
FCT-50
Kano-42
Kaduna-27
Edo-26
Oyo-22
Imo-21
Gombe-17
Benue-12
Enugu-12
Delta-11
Anambra-11
Ebonyi-10
Nasarawa-9
Ogun-9
Bauchi-8
Kebbi-4
Akwa Ibom-3
Jigawa-3
Katsina-3
Yobe-2
Borno-2
Kwara-1
Ondo-1

15682 confirmed
5101 discharged
407 deaths pic.twitter.com/TTIfY8iciS

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— NCDC (@NCDCgov) June 13, 2020

As part of efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the NCDC has outlined measures to improve contact tracing, in line with the recent guidelines by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In its situation report for June 12 released earlier on Saturday, the agency highlighted various ways it plans to improve contact tracing, adding that the experience from previous outbreaks such as Lassa fever and Ebola will help to address the situation in Nigeria.

“We have identified innovative ways to respond to the challenges of data collection and stigmatisation related to contact tracing in Nigeria. We are generating a state dashboard that will have key performance indicators to help identify where precise intervention will be necessary,” it read.

“We are increasing our risk communications effort to counter fake news and correct misinformation. We are also working with our partners to develop necessary logistics for contact tracing and training of community contact tracers.

“There is no doubt that the use of contact tracing and other efforts will shape the future of outbreak response in Nigeria. Our commitment is to support states to strengthen their capacity for contact tracing for COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks.”