Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 535 new cases of COVID-19 across 18 states, the highest number of infections since the detection of the deadly delta variant in the country and in over four months.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed this on its official Facebook page on Wednesday night.
Since the first case of the delta variant, Nigeria has seen a steady increase in COVID-19 cases across states. This new record smashes the previous high figure of 404 cases which was reported on 27th July.
The new figure is also the biggest daily increase in the country since March 4 when 708 cases were recorded.
According to the latest update, Lagos state again takes the lead with 219 new cases, followed by Akwa Ibom with 142 new cases.
Further breakdown of the update shows Oyo has 47 cases, Rivers-17 Jigawa-13 Edo-13 Ekiti-11 Bayelsa-11 Ondo-10 Osun-9 Plateau-8 Ogun-7 Kaduna-7 Kano-5 FCT-5 Imo-4 Gombe-4 Nasarawa-3
Read also: COVID-19: Nigeria identifies 10 cases of Delta variant
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 172,263 with 2,139 deaths.
A total of 164,886 people have however been discharged.
The Delta variant, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is a variant of concern, due to its high level of transmissibility.
Nigeria recorded its first case early July and has so far detected 10 cases according to the NCDC.
The variant has been detected in over 100 countries and is expected to spread to more countries.
The variant has also been linked to a surge in cases in countries where it is the dominant strain in circulation.
