Covid-19 Update: Nigeria Records 856 New Cases, 5 Deaths in 19 States, FCT amid New Variant
Rose Audu
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC on Wednesday reported 856 new Covid-19 cases and 5 new deaths in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory amid new variant called IHU which has 46 mutations discovered by scientists in France.
The breakdown of the latest data by the NCDC revealed that Lagos state topped the chat with 337 cases, followed by Kaduna with 152 cases, FCT – 87, Gombe – 47, Delta – 43, Kano – 31, Kwara – 27, Enugu – 26, Nasarawa – 19, Niger – 15, Oyo – 11, Rivers – 11, Benue – 9, Bauchi – 8, Ogun – 8, Borno – 7, Ekiti – 6, Edo – 5, Plateau – 4 and Bayelsa – 3.
According to the public health institute on Thursday morning, the 856 new cases raised Nigeria’s infection toll to 245,404 cases, while the fatality toll now stands at 3,058.
In the data, 25,099 people are still down with the illness, and 217,247 people have been successfully treated and discharged in Nigeria.
Concern on IHU
As the world struggles to combat the extremely infectious Omicron Covid-19 variant, the new IHU, B.1.640.2 variant has so far infected 12 people living in southeastern France.
However, experts were quick to announce that just because a new variant had been discovered, that did not necessarily mean IHU will prove as infectious as other strains, including Omicron.
Researchers have linked the first case of the new variant to a person with a travel history to Cameroon, western Africa.
WHO’s Position on IHU
Abdi Mahmud, a COVID-19 incident manager with the WHO, explained to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the variant had been on the agency’s radar since November, but added that it did not appear to have spread widely over the past two months.
“That virus has had a lot of chances to pick up,” he said.
