The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on Sunday night confirmed 14 new cases of novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, in Nigeria in addition to nine reported in Lagos State and five cases in Abuja.

The NCDC, through its verified Twitter account, said that as at 9:30p.m, there were 111 confirmed cases of COVID19 pandemic reported in Nigeria with one death recorded.

It said “currently, Lagos has 68; Abuja- 21, Ogun– Three, Ekiti– one, Oyo– Seven, Osun- Two , Enugu– Two, Edo– Two, Bauchi-Two, while Benue, Kaduna and Rivers have one case respectively.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Lagos State still has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Country with 68 cases.

The cases reported were from travellers who have just returned to the Country.

“Other cases were from people who have come in contact with infected people,” NCDC said.

Also, the World Health Organisation, WHO, said “there are 3,956 confirmed COVID-19 cases across 46 Countries on the African continent with a total of 248 recoveries and 11 reported Abuja.

Meanwhileaeanwhile, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director-General of NCDC, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that the centre was working hard to expand its testing capacity for COVID19 pandemic in the Country.

Mr Ihekweazu said that currently there were six molecular functional laboratories in the country with the capacity to test for COVID19 and the Lassa fever outbreak.

“We aim to scale up to 13 laboratories in the next three weeks. In progress are : Abakaliki, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Port-Harcourt, Jos and Kaduna State,” he said.

Mr Ihekweazu noted that the laboratories would assist other response activities, thereby reducing the numbers of deaths.

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