TheCable

Nigeria recorded a significant drop in its daily recovery count with 42 new recoveries confirmed on Tuesday.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the new recoveries in its update for September 29, 2020.

The Tuesday figure is the country’s lowest daily recovery count in 21 weeks.

Before September 29, the last time the figure dropped below 40 was on May 4 when 26 people were discharged — at the time, the country had recorded less than 3,000 recoveries.

Meanwhile, NCDC also confirmed 187 new cases in 12 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

According to the breakdown, Lagos recorded the most cases with 74 new positive samples, followed by Plateau and Rivers with 25 infections each.

No new death was recorded on Tuesday.

Out of a total of 58,647 confirmed coronavirus infections across Nigeria, 49,937 patients have recovered.

187 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

Lagos-74
Plateau-25
Rivers-25
Gombe-19
FCT-19
Osun-10
Kaduna-5
Borno-3
Ogun-2
Katsina-2
Nasarawa-1
Bayelsa-1
Edo-1

58,647 confirmed
49,937 discharged
1,111 deaths pic.twitter.com/QikQqhary1

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— NCDC (@NCDCgov) September 29, 2020

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to increase the country’s testing capacity, the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), with support from the Faith foundation, has developed a COVID-19 test kit that can produce results in less than 40 minutes.

The NIMR presented the SARS COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) test kits to the federal ministry of health on Tuesday.

Speaking on the development at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 media briefing in Abuja, Olurinnimbe Mamora, minister of state for health, said the kits would be validated before it is made available to the public.

The minister also added that tests using the SIMA kit will be “ten times cheaper than the PCR”, and can be performed by “low skilled personnel with minimum training”.