Chidi Samuel| Nigeria’s rising COVID-19 burden surged past the 13,000 marks on Tuesday with 663 new cases recorded across 26 states, the highest single day infections of the highly contagious disease.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet on Tuesday night via its verified Twitter handle said Lagos State, the epicentre of the pandemic recorded the highest number of infections for the day with 170 cases while Ogun and Bauchi had 108 and 69 cases respectively.
A further breakdown of the new cases showed that Ebonyi State had 49 infections, Edo (33), Rivers (30), FCT (29), Jigawa (26) and Delta (20).
New infections were also recorded in, Anambra 17, Gombe 16, Kano 16, Imo 16, Abia 14, Bornu 11 , Oyo 11, amongst others.
According to the heath agency, the country’s current coronavirus infections stands at 13, 464, with 365 deaths and 4206 discharges.
The tweet read, 663 new cases of #COVID19;
Lagos-170
Ogun-108
Bauchi-69
Ebonyi-49
Edo-33
Rivers-30
FCT-26
Jigawa-26
Delta-20
Anambra-17
Gombe-16
Kano-16
Imo-15
Abia-14
Borno-11
Oyo-11
Plateau-8
Kebbi-6
Kaduna-6
Ondo-4
Niger-2
Katsina-2
Osun-1
Ekiti-1
Kwara-1
Nasarawa-1
-WHO official walks back statement that asymptomatic transmission is ‘very rare’
Meanwhile a World Health Organization [WHO] official on Tuesday attempted to clarify a previous statement about coronavirus transmission by asymptomatic individuals being “very rare.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said there had been “misunderstandings” about her comments made on Monday.
In a Facebook Live video, Van Kerkhove said asymptomatic people can in fact spread the virus, though the degree to which they can is unknown.
“We do know that some people who are asymptomatic or some people who don’t have symptoms can transmit the virus on,” she said. “What we need to better understand is how many people in the population don’t have symptoms and, separately, how many of those individuals go on to transmit to others.”
She said she was referring to two or three studies when she made her statement on Monday.
“In that I used the phrase ‘very rare,’ and I think that’s a misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare,” she said. “What I was referring to is a subset of studies.”
Some modeling groups estimate about 40 percent of virus transmission may be due to asymptomatic people, she said. Van Kerkhove did not include that figure on Monday but wanted to make sure she included it in her clarification.
Experts and members of the public, have voiced frustrations at the miscommunication over social media by WHO on the pandemic.
Cover Photo: The WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove attending a virtual news briefing on COVID (AFP via Getty Images)
With fox News report
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