24th July, 2021
By Abujah Racheal/Abuja
Nigeria recorded 317 new COVID-19 cases on 23 July, from 187 cases on 22 July.
This took the cumulative total to 170,623 out of the 2.4million samples tested.
Active cases stood at 3,702 and recoveries 164,780.
The latter included eight patients discharged on Friday.
The death toll also went up to 2, 131.
NCDC gave the update on Saturday as COVID-19 cases rose for the ninth consecutive week.
The new cases were reported from 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja.
“Lagos State where a majority of the cases were picked on Friday recorded 172.
“Akwa Ibom registered 62, Oyo 33.
“Rivers recorded 32, while Ekiti and the FCT registered five cases each.
Ogun logged 3 cases and Sokoto two.
“Bayelsa, Gombe and Kano, recorded one case each,” NCDC said.
Friday’s report included four states with zero cases.
These are Imo, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau.
NCDC has urged Nigerians to take the vaccine when available and prevent the explosion of the Delta and other variants .
“When the virus continues to spread, there are more opportunities for the virus to change and for new variants to emerge.
“If you think about a virus like a tree growing and branching out; each branch on the tree is slightly different than the others.
“By comparing the branches, experts can label them according to the differences.
“These small differences, or variants, have been studied and identified since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Some variations allow the virus to spread more easily or make it resistant to treatments or vaccines.
“Take responsibility as we continue to work very hard to monitor these variants more carefully,” it said.