Nigeria on Sunday recorded an increase in new Covid-19 cases after 203 infections and one death were confirmed across the country.
According to data from the Nigeria Centre of Disease Control, Lagos took the lead with 186 new cases.
The rest of the cases were from Edo (4), Oyo (4), Rivers (4), FCT (3), and Kwara (2).
This brings the number of cases recorded in the country to 169,532 – although 164,699 have been discharged – and a death toll of 2,127.
The surge in new cases comes as the Federal Government on Saturday placed six states on red alert amid fears of a third wave triggered by the Delta variant of the virus.
The Delta variant is believed to be more contagious and deadlier.
According to a statement signed by the the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, the states on red alert include Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and the FCT.
Other states were also warned to “heighten their state of preparedness and continue to enforce all protocols put in place.”
Ahead of the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations, the PSC warned against large gatherings and urged state governments and religious leaders to be mindful of the potential spread.
The committee urged the decentralization of Eid prayer to outdoor neighborhood Friday prayer mosques and the suspension of Durbar activities.
It also urged Nigerians to observe limitations on all indoor gatherings.
Global update
The novel corona virus has killed at least 4,086,242 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP as of Sunday morning.
At least 189,911,110 cases of corona virus have been registered.
The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country.
They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.
The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
On Saturday, 7,253 new deaths and 463,309 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Indonesia with 1,093 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 868 and Russia with 764.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 608,898 deaths from 34,069,082 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 541,266 deaths from 19,342,448 cases, India with 413,609 deaths from 31,106,065 cases, Mexico with 236,240 deaths from 2,654,699 cases, and Peru with 195,047 deaths from 2,092,125 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 592 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Hungary with 311, Bosnia-Herzegovina with 295, the Czech Republic with 283, and the Republic of North Macedonia with 263.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 1,328,964 deaths from 39,432,328 cases, Europe 1,186,886 deaths from 56,338,922 infections, and the United States and Canada 635,390 deaths from 35,491,904 cases.
Asia has reported 621,694 deaths from 42,506,537 cases, Africa 157,170 deaths from 6,201,887 cases, the Middle East 154,935 deaths from 9,871,473 cases, and Oceania 1,203 deaths from 68,062 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.
