The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 236 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.
In a Twitter update via its verified handle, the government agency said there are now 65,693 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in Nigeria.
A total number of 61,457 people it said, have so far been discharged from hospital, while the number of deaths now stands at 1,163.
Meanwhile, coronavirus immunity could last years or decades. According a Metro report, COVID-19 immunity for most people may last more than eight months, potentially even years or decades, according to new research. Researchers found that the levels of B and T cells, which are crucial to fighting off illness, remained stable up to eight months after initial infection. The slow rate of decline also suggests these immune cells may persist in the body for long periods of time. While the research has not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, the study is the most comprehensive and long-range look at the body’s immune response to coronavirus so far.
Also, global COVID-19 infection rates ‘up to six times higher than reported’, analysis claims
Metro reports that analysis suggests the true number of Covid-19 infections across the globe may be up to six times greater than the reported number of cases. The data also estimates that around 8% of the UK population – 5.4 million people – were infected with coronavirus at the end of August. The modelling study used data from 15 countries – including Italy, the UK, France and South Korea – to estimate the true number of infections across a combined population of more than 800 million people. They found that in Italy, estimated cases were 17.5 times higher than recorded, but just 2.6 times higher in South Korea. Visit our live blog for the latest updates Coronavirus news live
The researchers said: ‘In some countries with very low implied true detection rates, such as Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, our estimates indicated that the reported number of cases, as at 31 August 2020, were likely to represent less than 10% of the true number of cases.’ Australia had the best level of detection among the 15 countries at the end of April, the team said. But they added the rate of infection in Australia may have been five times higher than what was officially reported at the end of August.
Professor Quentin Grafton, of Australian National University, said: ‘We found Covid-19 infections are much higher than confirmed cases across many countries, and this has important implications for both control and the probability of infection.
‘Our analysis has found more than 5.4 million in the UK – 8% of the population – are or have been infected with the coronavirus.’ He added: ‘These findings raise serious questions about how we deal with all facets of the coronavirus pandemic, including ongoing morbidity and life-long health impacts for people who have been infected, how we implement and manage lockdowns, and how we make sure we are on top of this pandemic more broadly.’