TheCable

Five months after Nigeria confirmed its first coronavirus-related death, the country has crossed the 1,000 mark on its fatality toll.

The country’s first COVID-19 death occurred on March 22.

According to the update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for August 23, five people were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications, bringing the country’s current death toll to 1,002.

From March 23 till date, the country’s fatality numbers have increased steadily, but more deaths have been recorded between June and August.

As of April 23, NCDC had confirmed 33 fatalities; by May 23, it increased to 221; one month later, the toll had jumped to 533, and by July 23, Nigeria had recorded 833 deaths.

Lagos currently has the highest figure with 202 fatalities, followed by Edo with 100 and Rivers with 57, while Kogi has the lowest with two coronavirus deaths.

Meanwhile, the total number of confirmed cases exceeded 52,000 on Sunday with 322 new positive samples recorded in 17 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The figure of new cases represented a significant drop over the past 24 hours, as 601 samples were comfirmed positive on Saturday.

Also, although Lagos topped the list of states with new cases, there was a marked difference in the daily count over the past 24 hours, as the state dropped from 404 new infections on Saturday to 130 positive samples on Sunday.

However, the daily recovery count dropped to its lowest in close to two weeks with 178 people discharged on Sunday — the last time the country’s number of discharged patients went below 200 was on August 10 when 160 people were confirmed to have recovered from COVID-19.

As of August 23, 2020, a total of 52,227 samples have been confirmed positive, out of which 12,280 are still active cases.

322 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

Lagos-130
Bauchi-36
FCT-25
Edo-17
Bayelsa-14
Ogun-14
Oyo-14
Anambra-13
Kaduna-12
Ondo-11
Abia-10
Osun-6
Plateau-5
Kwara-5
Kano-4
Ebonyi-3
Sokoto-2
Borno-1

52,227 confirmed
38,945 discharged
1002 deaths pic.twitter.com/HvHcYSS3PS

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) August 23, 2020

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