Nigeria records 381 new COVID-19 cases, total infections now 3,526

Nigeria has recorded 381 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 3,526.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(NCDC), confirmed this in a tweet on Thursday.

The centre said this is the highest number of cases recorded in a single day in the country.

The NCDC also said that Nigeria recorded four deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 107.

The agency said that the new cases recorded were in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

NCDC said that of the new cases, 183 were in Lagos, 55 are in Kano, 44 in Jigawa while 19 each are in Zamfara and Bauchi.

Amongst others were: 11 in Katsina, nine in Borno, eight in Kwara, seven in Kaduna, six in Gombe, five in Ogun, four in Sokoto, three in Oyo and in Rivers, two in Niger and one each in Akwa-Ibom, Enugu and Plateau states.

According to NCDC, as at 11.20pm, May 7, 2020 Nigeria has 2818 Active Cases of COVID-19 while 601 people have been discharged.

The centre said the continuous increase in number of infections rose due to the increased capacity for testing across the country.

NAN reports that the agency has conducted 22,492 tests as at May 6, this represents the daily average of 321 tests.

The cumulative per cent positive is 13.9 per cent.

The agency conducted 68 per cent of all tests in the last 20 days and 32 per cent of all tests were conducted in the first 50 days.

The agency also increased its testing capacity from one Labotary to 18 labs in 70 days.

The testing method adopted by the NCDC appears to be the high tech molecular tests, which involves Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR), to detect virus genetic material.

This method involved significant cycle and turn around time.

The reported cases as at May 7, represents 12 per cent of all cases recorded in 69 days in the country.

The WHO said the pandemic has affected 213 countries around the world.