Nigeria has recorded 221 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the new total to 56,956 in the past 24 hours, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has said.
Making the announcement via its Twitter handle Friday night, the government agency said 48,305 previously reported cases are now recovered and discharged.
Nigeria’s death toll from the coronavirus is now 1,094.
Africa has recorded more than 1.3 million cases and over 33,000 deaths.
As of September 16, the confirmed coronavirus death toll on the continent stood at 33,231. There are 1,373,986 confirmed infections and 1,127,034 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Worldwide, the number of those diagnosed with COVID-19 is more than 30 million. According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at 30,153,838 cases. More than 946,319 people have died, while 20.4 million have recovered.
Meanwhile, a drug company on Friday said a medicine it sells to tamp down inflammation has helped prevent the need for breathing machines in hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the first large study that primarily enrolled Hispanic and Black people.
Switzerland-based Roche reported the results for tocilizumab, sold now as Actemra and RoActemra for treating rheumatoid arthritis and some other diseases.
The company said it would quickly publish the results, which have not yet been reviewed by independent scientists, and would speak with regulators about next steps.
The drug, given through an IV, tamps down a protein called interleukin-6 that is often found in excess in COVID-19 patients. It failed in a previous study that tested it in people more severely ill from the coronavirus.