The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 147 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
In a Twitter update via its verified handle, the government agency said there are now 62,371 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in Nigeria.
A total number of 58,095 people it added, have so far been discharged from hospital, while the death toll has risen to 1,139.
In Africa, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has entered self-quarantine after coming into contact with a person with COVID-19, his office said on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa “has begun a period of self-quarantine following the positive COVID-19 diagnosis of a guest at a dinner attended by the President on Saturday, Oct. 24,’’ a statement issued by the presidency of South Africa read.
The Presidency said that 35 guests attended the event in a Johannesburg hotel, which adhered stringently to COVID-19 protocols and directives on screening, social distancing and the wearing of masks.
It added that Ramaphosa was showing no symptoms and will be tested if any were to manifest, according to health advice.
Coronavirus cases have risen over the last few months in several regions of the world and infections worldwide exceed 43 million.
According to the Johns Hopkins University, 43,930,559 infections have been confirmed worldwide, while 1,167,048 have so far died from the virus. While 450,425 new infections were recorded on Wednesday around the world, 7,058 died from the virus.
Meanwhile, according to the VOA, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a record 2.8 million new COVID-19 cases have been reported globally over the past seven days ending Tuesday, including 40,000 new deaths.
The UN health agency says Europe accounts for the greatest proportion of reported new cases for the second consecutive week with more than 1.3 million, an increase of 33% compared to the previous week. The region accounted for nearly half of the new COVID-19 cases during the seven-day period.
The figures also show that cases are also increasing in the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean and African regions, while declines continue to be reported in Southeast Asia. The Western Pacific region also showed a slight decline in new cases and deaths over the seven-day period.
