The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported the biggest jump in confirmed cases of coronavirus in Africa’s most populous nation.
This comes as the agency continues to ramp up COVID-19 testing. The abysmal testing figures recorded in previous weeks hasn’t helped in relating the extent of the virus penetration in the country. But things are beginning to scale up now.
Fifty-one new cases were reported Friday night, taking the national total to 493.
159 patients have been successfully treated and discharged while 17 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria, according to NCDC.
As of 7pm on Friday 17 April, the NCDC said 7,153 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Nigeria
“We are working very hard to increase the number of samples tested, including community surveillance in the FCT and Lagos,” NCDC said.
