Nigeria Records 250 New Cases Of COVID-19 As Lagos Plans Further Reopening

 

 

Nigeria on Saturday recorded 250 new cases of the novel coronavirus as Lagos state announced the possible reopening of schools across the state.

The new cases bring the country’s total number of cases to 53,727, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a late-night tweet.

Meanwhile, at least 41,314 cases of the virus have now been resolved in the country, while 1,011 have died.

Plateau state recorded the highest number of new cases (69) within the past 24 hours, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ranking second (41).

Other states with new cases include Lagos-21, Delta-14, Kaduna-14, Bayelsa-13, Enugu-13, Ekiti-11, Bauchi-9, Ogun-8, Edo-7, Oyo-7, Rivers-6, Adamawa-4, Osun-4, Nasarawa-3, Ebonyi-2, Kwara-2, Gombe-1, and Imo-1.

Lagos To Reopen Schools

Schools in the country’s virus epicentre, Lagos could open next month as the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline.

After months of being shut down, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Saturday said tertiary institutions in the state will re-open from September 14.

Speaking during a televised briefing on the state’s COVID-19 status, the Governor added that primary and secondary schools are also tentatively scheduled to re-open from September 21.

“This decision is not cast in stone and is subject to review of our ongoing modelling and what procedure comes out from the Ministry of Health,” Sanwo-Olu said.

 

The Governor explained that the decision was based on indications that the pandemic has peaked in the state, as the number of new cases continues to steadily decline.

Sanwo-Olu reiterated that restaurants are now permitted to open for in-dining services in the state, although they must continue to ensure spaces are only filled up to 50 percent capacity at all times.

On the re-opening of event centres, bars, night clubs, beaches, cinemas, the Governor said a review will be done in September to decide whether to allow a re-opening of such public spaces.

Responding to a question on whether the Federal Government’s 10 pm curfew still holds in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu replied in the affirmative.

“These are challenging times for all of us,” he said.

Global Update

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 838,271 people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Saturday.

At least 24,795,760 cases have been registered. Of these, at least 15,976,700 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

 

On Friday, 5,751 new deaths and 287,081 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the United States with 1,177, followed by India with 1,021 and Brazil with 855.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 181,779 deaths from 5,918,381 cases. At least 2,118,367 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 119,504 deaths from 3,804,803 cases, Mexico with 63,164 deaths from 585,738 cases, India with 62,550 deaths from 3,463,972 cases, and the United Kingdom with 41,486 deaths from 331,644 cases.

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 86 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium with 85, Spain 62, United Kingdom 61, and Italy 59.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 85,022 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,126 recoveries.

Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 271,686 deaths from 7,137,854 cases, Europe 214,884 deaths from 3,898,042 infections, and the United States and Canada 190,924 deaths from 6,045,739 cases.

Asia has reported 95,137 deaths from 4,979,953 cases, the Middle East 35,902 deaths from 1,474,828 cases, Africa 29,097 deaths from 1,230,662 cases, and Oceania 641 deaths from 28,690 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.