As experts continue to warn that the fragile healthcare systems in many African countries could be overwhelmed in the face of a severe outbreak of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, Nigeria recorded yet another high number of new infections.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the total number of confirmed cases has risen to 36,663 in Nigeria with a total of 556 new infections. Making an update Sunday night via its twitter handle the agency announced that 789 deaths have so far been recorded in the country, while 15,105 patients have been discharged after testing negative to the virus.
Edo recorded the highest number of new cases this time with 104, while Lagos followed with one of its lowest recent tally of 97. The other states with double digits on the list are FCT-70, Benue-66, Oyo-61, Kaduna-38, Plateau-28, Osun-19, Akwa Ibom-14, Rivers-13, Katsina-13 and Ondo-13. While Ogun-6, Kano-5, Nasarawa-4, Gombe-2, Ekiti-2, Borno-1 all got listed with single digits.
As of July 19, the confirmed coronavirus death toll on the African continent stood at 14,864, whilst there are 683,905 confirmed infections and 362,586 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of deaths from the coronavirus around the world has surpassed 605,000, while there are over 14.4 million confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.