Nigeria Records One Death Two Months After Last Fatality Over COVID-19

The disease control centre also noted that the latest is cumulative data for April 12 and 13, 2022. Two months after the last fatality was recorded, Nigeria on Wednesday announced one death from the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest data released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday morning shows that the fatality toll increased to 3,143 from 3,142 recorded on February 18, 2022.

The disease centre added that 13 new coronavirus infections across four states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were also recorded.

The new confirmed cases also increased the country's infection toll to 255,646, while a total of 249,842 have now been treated and discharged nationwide since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago.

The disease control centre also noted that the latest is cumulative data for April 12 and 13, 2022.

Breakdown

The breakdown of the NCDC data shows that Lagos State, Nigeria's epicentre of the disease, topped the infection chart with six cases.

Also, Rivers and Delta states in the South-south recorded three and two cases respectively, while the FCT and Kano State reported a single case each.

NCDC noted that seven states: Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, and Sokoto reported that they recorded no cases on Wednesday.

Implication of new fatality

The new fatality case has been recorded at a time when the nation thought it could heave a sigh of relief from the pandemic that has not only ravaged its economy but claimed many lives.

The Nigerian government had on April 6 lifted the nationwide midnight curfew earlier imposed to contain the pandemic.

Restrictions on parties, concerts, and other crowded activities were also lifted.

The decision was contained in a statement issued by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 and titled; "Implementation Guidelines for Easing COVID-19 Restrictions."

The PSC said the social restriction recommendations were revised in line with the three established thematic areas of movement, industry and labour, as well as community activities.

It explained that the decision followed the reduced risk of importation of new variants, availability of vaccines and the increasing number of people vaccinated in Nigeria and globally.

The government had on May 10, 2021, imposed a nationwide curfew of 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. to limit the spread of the virus.

While the new fatality recorded may have no significant impact on the newly released guidelines, experts hope the record of fatality will not continue in the coming days.

Vaccination update 

Speaking recently in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said more than 13 million eligible persons in Nigeria have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and 23 million others have received their first dose.

"As of today the 11th of April 2022, we have fully vaccinated 13,588,718 persons which is approximately 12.2 per cent of our total eligible population.

"Meanwhile 23,012,700 others have received their first dose which represents 18 per cent of the total eligible population," he said.

He said the agency has intensified technical support to all states to ramp up the vaccination coverage.