The Federal Government on Tuesday announced eight new cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total to 139.
“As at 08:00 pm 31st March there are 139 confirmed cases of COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Nine have been discharged with two deaths,” the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a tweet.
Of the eight new cases reported on Tuesday, three were in Osun, three in the FCT, one in Lagos and one in Ogun State.
It said all new cases have mild to moderate symptoms and are currently receiving care.
A breakdown of cases by states show that Lagos remains the epicentre for the COVID-19 in the country. According to the NCDC, Lagos tops the chart of states with the highest number of infected persons with 82, followed by FCT – 28, Oyo – 8, Osun – 5, Ogun – 4, Kaduna – 3, Enugu – 2, Edo – 2, Bauchi – 2, Ekiti – 1, Rivers – 1 and Benue – 1.
The government has intensified contact tracing to identify those who have been in contact with persons who tested positive to COVID-19.
The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said in Abuja Tuesday that efforts are on to test more people for the virus.
“Last week we had the capacity to test 500 per day, by the end of this week we will be at 1000 a day. By next week we are hoping to get to 1500 a day,” he said.
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