Nigeria’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) numbers continues its upward swing as it recorded 667 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 19,808.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said via its official Twitter handle a total of 19 deaths were recorded across 14 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The NCDC said that out of 19,808 confirmed cases, 12,584 were active while 6,718 cases have been treated and discharged.
The country has recorded 506 deaths so far.
The heath agency noted that 111,052 COVID-19 samples have been collected across the 35 States and the FCT.
The NCDC said that of the 661 new cases, Lagos State, the epicentre of the virus pandemic in Nigeria, have the highest number of cases with 230, followed by Rivers State with 127 new infections.
Others are Delta (83), FCT (60), Oyo (51), Edo (31), Bayelsa (27), Kaduna (25), Plateau (13), Ondo (6), Nasarawa (3), Ekiti (2), Kano (2) and Borno(1).
NCDC said that one of its responsibilities was to scale-up the capacity for COVID-19 diagnosis in Nigeria as it responds to the pandemic.
“Our ability to promptly detect cases and halt the spread of the virus in our communities is largely dependent on our ability to scale-up access to testing for Nigerians. We remain strongly committed to our mandate to protect the health of Nigerians,” it said.
The health agency urged Nigerians to remain aware of the risks of COVID-19 and to adhere to the preventive measures advised by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the Federal Ministry of Health.