The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 618 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, bringing the country’s tally to 199,333 since the index case was recorded in Nigeria in February 2020.

Cases from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory were collated to arrive at the figures, the NCDC noted.

The public health agency, who made the announcement on its verified website on Saturday morning, said the recent surge in infections is driven by the spread of the Delta variant in the country.

The 618 fresh cases reported on Friday were a drop from the 835 cases reported the previous day, and they were reported from 15 states of the federation.

“Lagos state reported 312, a rise from the 217 cases of the previous day Thursday, Akwa Ibom recorded 89 fresh cases, a rise from the 11 cases it reported the previous day, while Edo posted 71 cases, a rise from the 45 cases of the previous day.

“Others were; 47 in Rivers, 20 each in Ekiti and Plateau, 15 in Delta, 13 in Kwara, 11 in the FCT, eight in Osun, four in Oyo, three each in Ogun and Benue, one each in Gombe and Kaduna, respectively”, the statement on NCDC’s website read.

Ten additional COVID-19 related deaths were also recorded on August 27, 2021, increasing the nation’s fatalities to 2,308.

NCDC noted that the number of the country’s active coronavirus infections had again risen to 18,210, an increase from 17,210 reported on Wednesday.

It did not, however, indicate if the majority of the known active cases were from the contagious Delta variant, or other variants of concerns to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The NCDC added that over 2.7 million samples of the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population were tested, while 169,815 cases were successfully treated with 189 additional people discharged on Friday.

Meanwhile, the multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at level 2, had continued to coordinate the national response activities, the NCDC said.

(NAN)