The total number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Nigeria rose to 101,331 in 24 hours with additional 1,244 cases on Monday night.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on its website late Monday night, also reported three coronavirus-related deaths for the period.
Available data show that last week the country recorded more than 9,833 cases, a sharp increase from the 5,681 cases recorded in the previous week of Dec. 27, 2020, and Jan. 2, 2021.
The agency said the new infections were reported from across 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It disclosed that Lagos state, the epicentre of the virus in country, recorded the highest number of confirmed cases with 774 new infections, taking the total number of cases in the state to 36,875.
The health agency added that Lagos, FCT and Plateau recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections with 774, 125 and 102 cases respectively.
Others states include: Anambra-47, Ondo-46, Rivers-27, Edo-18, Kaduna-16, Ogun-16, Gombe-16, Bauchi-11, Kano-11, Nasarawa-10, Akwa Ibom-seven, Sokoto-seven, Borno-five, Ekiti-four, and Zamfara-two.
The NCDC also announced the discharge of 461 patients from different isolation centres across the country.
“Our discharges today include 144 community recoveries in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines,” it said, adding that it had conducted at least 1,033,858 tests since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was announced in the country.
According to it, a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at Level 3, is coordinating response activities nationwide.
The agency issued a public health advisory to alert Nigerians that non-adherence to public health and social measures was undermining its response efforts aimed at limiting the continued spread of the virus.
“The average number of daily confirmed cases recorded in the first week of January 2021, was higher than the cumulative cases recorded the last week of December 2020.
“Following the festive season, and in view of the increase in the number of confirmed cases in Nigeria, the NCDC and partners, with leadership from the Federal Ministry of Health and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 are putting in place measures to strengthen the public health agency’s response to the pandemic,” it said.
While Nigerians may be tired of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact, the virus is taking advantage of the fatigue, complacency, increased momentum, and taking advantage of lapses in the adherence to recommended safety protocols.
To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the NCDC said, Nigerians are reminded to wear a face mask properly, wash hands with soap, and maintain physical distance.
The NCDC noted that COVID-19 could affect all age groups with severe outcomes in the elderly (50 years and above), and in persons with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer etc.
The NCDC promises to continue working with other agencies under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health to spear-head public health response to the disease.
It added that it would continue to play a key role in the multi-sectoral response to the disease, within the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF-COVID-19), established by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Given the sustained increase in cases, the agency said it would also continue to work closely with state governments, provide support through the deployment of Rapid Response
Teams, provide laboratory and medical supplies as well as carry out other response activities.
“We urge state governments to take greater ownership of their response, maintain their COVID-19 surveillance structures, laboratory diagnosis and testing.
“Unless states actively test, they will not know their disease burden, putting local communities at greater risk of adverse outcomes, if the virus is not detected and impacts vulnerable populations.
“NCDC has significantly scaled-up the national testing capacity by expanding the number of laboratories for COVID-19 testing across states.
“Sample collection sites have also been established in many Local Government Areas, making public health testing more easily accessible.
“Testing in public laboratories remains free of charge (unless for travel purposes in private laboratories, where pricing structures vary,” it explained.
The NCDC charged healthcare professionals to maintain a high index of suspicion, especially when treating patients with breathing difficulties and also present with symptoms common to COVID-19.
It urged Nigerians to adhere to the recommended public health and social measures recommended by public health authorities and to avoid all non-essential travel within and outside Nigeria to reduce the risk of transmission.
“We also strongly advise business owners, employees and religious leaders to institute the strict enforcement and adherence to public measures, which include the wearing of face masks, ensuring the availability of handwashing facilities or providing hand sanitizers.
The NCDC said it remain grateful to all frontline health workers, state public health teams, stakeholders, and partners who have continued to work extremely hard since the beginning of the pandemic supporting the response efforts.
