19 October 2020•Update: 19 October 2020
ANKARA
The number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria kept rising as two new deaths and 133 additional infections were confirmed within the last 24 hours, according to local health authorities.
“On the 18th of October 2020, 133 new confirmed cases and 2 deaths were recorded in Nigeria,” the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in the latest daily update.
The tally of confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in the country since March has now reached 1,125 victims, while the total infections hit 61,440, the NCDC added.
Some 56,611 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals so far, according to the NCDC.
With over 20,600 infections, Lagos remained Nigeria’s worst-hit city. It is followed by the Federal Capital Territory, which includes the capital Abuja, with more than 5,900 cases, and the southwestern Plateau State, where more than 3,500 cases have been confirmed.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is among the five hardest-hit countries on the continent, along with South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Ethiopia.
COVID-19 has claimed more than 1.11 million lives in 189 countries and regions since first being detected in Wuhan, China in December.
The pandemic deeply impacted economic activities across the world, causing significant drops in the GDP of several countries.
