Nigeria’s Covid-19 cases spike again with 2,123 new infections

Nigeria has recorded another spike in COVID-19 cases with 2,123 new cases reported across the country on Tuesday.

This new figure represents more than 50 percent increase from the 1,368 cases reported on Monday, 20th December. It also smashes the highest daily infection of 1,548 cases recorded since the detection of the Omicron variant.

Nigeria officially entered the fourth wave of the pandemic after recording a 500 percent increase in the number of confirmed cases over the past two weeks. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the surge in cases is caused by the Delta and Omicron variants.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also warned on Tuesday that increased social gatherings during the yuletide period might lead to increased Covid-19 cases that could overwhelm health systems and cause more deaths.

Read also: COVID-19: Nigeria fails on vaccination target as bottlenecks persist

The NCDC in its latest update for December 21 said the new cases were logged in across 10 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos state leads with 1552 cases followed by FCT with 197 cases, Edo (155), Rivers (81), Delta (44), Plateau (33), Kwara (30), Kano (16), Enugu (12), Gombe (2), and Bauchi (1). This brings the total confirmed cases in the country to 227,378.

The update shows that a total of four persons were killed by the virus, taking the total fatality to 2,985.

The NCDC said 101 persons were discharged after recovering from COVID-19. The report contains a backlog of 33 cases and 10 discharges from Plateau for December 20 and 12 cases from Enugu state for December 20.