Nigeria Records 338 New COVID-19 Cases, Total Infections Near 6,000

Nigeria has recorded 338 new cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

In a tweet on its official handle late Sunday, the NCDC said Lagos had recorded 177 new cases, while Kano posted 64 cases.

Other regions with new cases include the FCT with 21, Rivers with 16, Plateau with 14, Oyo 11, Katsina nine, Jigawa and Kaduna with four each, and three cases from the trio of Abia, Bauchi, and Borno.

Gombe, Akwa Ibom, and Delta states also recorded two new cases each, while Kebbi and Sokoto shared two cases between them.

338 new cases of #COVID19;

177-Lagos
64-Kano
21-FCT
16-Rivers
14-Plateau
11-Oyo
9-Katsina
4-Jigawa
4-Kaduna
3-Abia
3-Bauchi
3-Borno
2-Gombe
2-Akwa Ibom
2-Delta
1-Ondo
1-Kebbi
1-Sokoto

5959 cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria
Discharged: 1594
Deaths: 182 pic.twitter.com/1nC9HjskN3

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 17, 2020

Earlier on Sunday, national coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, said President Muhammadu Buhari is set to address Nigerians on Monday over the pandemic.

While some expect the President to further relax lockdown measures precipitated by the virus, COVID-19 cases have continued to rise across the country.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 313,611 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Sunday.

At least 4,680,700 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,670,100 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 the most serious cases.

The United States has the highest number of deaths overall with 89,207 from 1,478,241 cases. At least 268,376 people have been declared recovered.

Britain has the second-highest toll, with 34,636 deaths from 243,303 cases.

It is followed by Italy with 31,908 deaths and 225,435 cases, France with 28,108 deaths and 179,569 cases, and Spain with 27,650 fatalities for 231,350 infections.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 82,947 cases. It has also declared 78,227 recovered cases.

Since Saturday 1900 GMT, Madagascar and Nepal have announced their first virus-related deaths.

Europe has a total of 166,647 deaths from 1,890,453 cases, the United States and Canada have 95,077 deaths and 1,555,185 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 28,715 deaths and 508,623 cases, Asia has 12,176 deaths and 355,378 cases, the Middle East has 8,135 deaths and 279,994 cases, Africa has 2,735 deaths from 82,684 cases, and Oceania 126 deaths from 8,391 cases.

Corrections by national authorities or late publication of data mean the figures updated over the past 24 hours might not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.