The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 201 new cases of COVID-19 Monday.
In a Twitter update via its verified handle, the government agency said there are now 73,374 confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in Nigeria.
A total number of 66,314 people it said, have so far been discharged from hospital, while the number of deaths so far is 1,197.
As of Monday, there were more than 72.6 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide, with more than 47.4 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 1.6 million.
The BBC reports that a ‘new variant’ of coronavirus has been identified in England.
A according to the report, the new variant is growing faster in some parts of England.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at least 60 different local authorities had recorded Covid infections caused by the new variant.
He said the World Health Organization had been notified and UK scientists were doing detailed studies.
He said there was “nothing to suggest” it caused worse disease or that vaccines would no longer work.
media captionA new variant of Covid could be speeding up the spread of cases in parts of south east England, says Matt Hancock.
He told MPs in the House of Commons that over the last week, there had been sharp, exponential rises in coronavirus infections across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.
“We’ve currently identified over 1,000 cases with this variant predominantly in the South of England although cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas.
“We do not know the extent to which this is because of the new variant but no matter its cause we have to take swift and decisive action which unfortunately is absolutely essential to control this deadly disease while the vaccine is rolled out.”
