Nigeria on Saturday announced the highest daily figure of confirmed Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases with 553 new infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 9, 855.
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on its official Twitter handle that a total of 12 deaths were recorded on Saturday.
In addition, 2,856 patients have been treated and discharged.
The NCDC data showed that the new 553 cases were from 14 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with Lagos accounting for the highest number of 378 infections.
The new infections as recorded in other States include FCT (52), Delta (23), Edo (22), Rivers (14), Ogun (13), Kaduna (12), Kano (9), Borno (7), Katsina (6), Jigawa (5), Oyo (5), Yobe (3), Plateau (3) and Osun (1).
The NCDC noted that as the government ramps up the number of Nigerians who may be tested or treated with COVID-19, “please be cooperative and avoid discrimination against those who have been visited by public health officials. They need your support and care while you aware taking responsibility.”
Announcing that the total number of laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19 in the country is now 29, the health agency said it had a national testing strategy that is using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), to scale for the COVID-19.
“At the moment, the COVID-19 tests that we report daily are coming from the PCR, they detect the genetic information of the virus, the RNA. That’s only possible if the virus is there and someone is actively infected. PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies.
“By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on,” it explained.