The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 152 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
In a Twitter update via its verified handle, the government agency said there are now 64,336 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in Nigeria.
A total number of 60,333 people it said, have so far been discharged from hospital, while the deaths now stand at 1,160, meaning two more people have died.
Coronavirus cases have risen over the last few months in several regions of the world and infections worldwide have since exceeded 50 million.
As of Tuesday, well over 50 million COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, with more than 32.8 million of those listed as recovered, according to a coronavirus tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll now sands at more than 1.2 million, the U.S.-based university has said.
Africa has reportedly seen more than 1.8 million confirmed infections and more than 44,000 deaths.
However, with new developments in the race for an effective COVID-19 vaccine, we are closer than ever to reaching a solution for the pandemic.
Preliminary findings show a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech can prevent more than 90% of people from getting the virus.
The vaccine is among 11 that are currently in the final stages of testing worldwide, involving other, rival pharmaceutical firms and labs.
The world has never before seen such rapid progress towards vaccine development – normally the research and trials take seven or eight years. Pfizer said it expects to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.
They are the first to share data from the final stages of testing – known as a phase 3 trial. This is a crucial point in vaccine development, where some experimental vaccines will fail.
About 43,000 people have been given the vaccine, and no safety concerns have been raised.
A vaccine is seen as possibly the only way for things to get back to normal.
