BREAKING: Nigeria confirms a massive 381 new cases of COVID-19, highest ever recorded in 24 hours

Nigeria has recorded 381 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 3526.

 This was announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC on Thursday via its verified Twitter handle.


The 381 new cases are the highest Nigeria has ever recorded in 24 hours since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

A breakdown of cases by state can be found via https://t.co/Z5x7UFFOyD#TakeResponsibility pic.twitter.com/KMzJkVV4qp

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 7, 2020

Nigeria has 22,492 samples tested in its ongoing campaign against the deadly COVID-19, which is far less than Ghana and South Africa that have conducted over 100,000 and close to 200,000 testings so far, with South Africa increasing its daily tests to more than 10,000 a day.

This latest update as of May 7 by NCDC shows that Lagos has the highest number of 183 new cases, Kano (55), Jigawa(44), Zamfara(19), Borno(9), Bauchi(19), Katsina(11), Kwara(8), Kaduna(7), Gombe(6), Ogun(5),Sokoto(4), Oyo(3), Rivers(3), Niger(2), Akwa Ibom(1), Enugu(1), Plateau(1)

Four deaths were recorded and no new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours. Till date, 3526 cases have been confirmed, 601 cases have been discharged and 107 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory Lagos remains the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria with 1,491 confirmed cases out of 3526 across Nigeria.

Nigeria’s first case of coronavirus was recorded in February 2020. The Lagos State Ministry of Health revealed in a statement that the case was an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit. He fell ill on the 26th February and was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing.

The patient was clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and was managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital (Mainland Hospital) in Yaba, Lagos.

 It was the third reported case of Coronavirus in Africa after Egypt and Algeria; the suspect in the former, a foreigner, later tested negative to the virus.

According to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Since 31 December 2019 and as of 07 May 2020, 3 713 796 cases of COVID-19 (in accordance with the applied case definitions and testing strategies in the affected countries) have been reported, including 263 288 deaths.

Cases have been reported from:

Africa: 51 677 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are South Africa (7 808), Egypt (7 588), Morocco (5 408), Algeria (4 997) and Nigeria (3 145).

Asia: 597 979 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Turkey (131 744), Iran (101 650), China (83 970), India (52 952) and Saudi Arabia (31 938).

America: 1 595 437 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are United States (1 228 603), Brazil (125 218), Canada (63 496), Peru (54 817) and Ecuador (29 420).

Europe: 1 459 723 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Spain (220 325), Italy (214 457), United Kingdom (201 201), Germany (166 091) and Russia (165 929).

Oceania: 8 284 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Australia (6 875), New Zealand (1 139), Guam (151), French Polynesia (60) and Fiji (18).

Other: 696 cases have been reported from an international conveyance in Japan.

DEATHS

Africa: 2 011 deaths; the five countries reporting most deaths are Algeria (476), Egypt (469), Morocco (183), South Africa (153) and Cameroon (108).

Asia: 20 730 deaths; the five countries reporting most deaths are Iran (6 418), China (4 637), Turkey (3 584), India (1 783) and Indonesia (895).

America: 94 122 deaths; the five countries reporting most deaths are United States (73 431), Brazil (8 536), Canada (4 232), Mexico (2 704) and Ecuador (1 618).

Europe: 146 293 deaths; the five countries reporting most deaths are United Kingdom (30 076), Italy (29 684), Spain (25 857), France (25 809) and Belgium (8 339).

Oceania: 125 deaths; the 4 countries reporting deaths are Australia (97), New Zealand (21), Guam (5) and Northern Mariana Islands (2).

Other: 7 deaths have been reported from an international conveyance in Japan.

The world has joined hands to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus and scientists and medical researchers across the globe are scrambling for the first breakthrough.

Since the virus spreads easily and is already overwhelming the healthcare system of most countries, a vaccine is the most effective way of putting a pause on the spread of infectious disease.

At present, almost 80 groups globally are working at break-neck speed for the same, even though a vaccine fit for humans normally takes years to develop. Currently, there are 111 potential vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 which are in different stages of clinical trials.