Nigeria has confirmed 999 new Coronavirus infections on Tuesday with four deaths.
The new cases recorded on Tuesday were over 200 per cent higher than the precious day statistics of 356, which however indicates improvement in testing for the infection.
In a televised programme on Tuesday, Dr Jafiya Abubakar, National COVID-19 EOC disclosed that testing for the virus is no longer a challenge as the centre has activated testing centres for each state.
“Testing capacity is no longer a problem as we’ve supported every state to activate at least one lab for #COVID19 testing.
“Testing is completely free. We continue to support states to ensure Nigerians have access to testing when needed”, he stated.
Announcing the new cases via its website, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC said among patients discharged were 254 community recoveries.
The agency gave the breakdown of the 999 new cases reported from 18 states as follows: FCT (416), Lagos (324), Kaduna (68), Plateau (42), Kwara (32), Kano (24), Gombe (14), Sokoto (12), Yobe (12), Akwa Ibom (11), Bayelsa (10), Rivers (7), Bauchi (7), Ogun (6), Oyo (5), Edo (4), Taraba (4) and Jigawa (1).
It stated thus: “On the 22nd of December 2020, 999 new confirmed cases and 4 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
“Till date, 79789 cases have been confirmed, 68879 cases have been discharged and 1231 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“Our discharges today include 254 community recoveries in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines”.
In spite of the upsurge in new infections in the country, the Federal Government has stated that it is not imposing a fresh lockdown on the nation, but to maintain some existing protocols.
Speaking on the issue on Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the government also reminded Nigerians that the ban on social gathering is still on and churches and mosques should obey the social gathering rules.
He said the directive is to curtail people from gathering because they found out that COVID-19 had reached the level of community transmission.
