Nigeria, on Sunday, recorded 490 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 24,567.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) made this known via its Twitter handle.
The NCDC said that the 490 cases were reported in 20 states.
The centre also reported seven deaths.
The health agency said that no new state reported a case in the last 24 hours.
The centre said Lagos recorded 118 cases while Delta has 84 cases and Ebonyi recorded 68 new cases.
Others are FCT-56 Plateau-39 Edo-29 Katsina-21 Imo-13 Ondo-12 Adamawa-11 Osun-8 Ogun-8 Rivers-6 Kano-5 Enugu-3 Bauchi-3 Akwa Ibom-3 Kogi-1 Oyo-1 Bayelsa-1
The NCDC said that 130, 154 samples have been collected from 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The NCDC said that its testing strategy for COVID19 is through real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
As the National Public Health Institute, it said it remain committed to supporting every state in Nigeria in response to the ongoing COVID19 outbreak.
The health agency said that face shield without a face mask is not effective against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Enugu State Ad hoc Expert Medical Advisory Committee on the de-escalation of the COVID-19 infection set up by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has met with some religious, transport unions and market leaders in the state to seek for a way forward in containing the spread of the COVID-19 disease in the state.
In their meeting with the committee, the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Callistus Onaga and the Anglican Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province, Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, frowned at the lack of compliance with the use of face masks by majority of the Enugu residents, adding that efforts must be geared towards improving the people’s hygiene practices.
Bishop Onaga stressed to take the enlightenment to the suburbs and rural areas in order to enforce compliance with the safety measures for the containment of the spread of COVID-19 . He stressed the need for more enlightenment, especially in the rural areas where many people still doubt the existence of COVID-19.
Similarly, Archbishop Chukwuma suggested stricter enforcement of the preventive measures, noting that all hands must be on deck to ensure that both urban and rural dwellers maintain social distancing, use of alcohol-based sanitizers and face masks.
The medical committee also met with the leaders of the various markets in Enugu metropolis as well as transport union leaders, who regretted the low use of face masks and poor compliance with regular hand washing and other personal hygiene practices in the markets and motor parks.
The market and transport union leaders attributed the poor observance with the stipulated preventive measures to negligence and the erroneous belief by some persons that COVID-19 is not real.
Earlier in his speech, Chairman of the medical Committee, Profesdof Ejim, a professor of medicine told the union leaders that it had become necessary to interface with them in the face of the increasing rate of COVID-19 infection in the state and the urgent need to contain its spread.
The meeting was attended by the chairman of Enugu East Local Government Council, Hon. Alex Ugwu and his counterparts from Enugu North, Hon. EmekaOnunze and Enugu South, Hon. Monday Eneh
It could be recalled that Enugu state government recently constituted a 12-man committee of medical doctors on the recommendation of the Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu State chapter. The committee which has Prof. Emmanuel Ejim, a consultant cardiologist as its chairman is charged to engage all strategic stakeholders with a view to recommending “urgent and effective measures for the de-escalation of the transmission of Coronavirus infection in the state with due regard to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) extant protocols for the prevention of the COVID-19 infection.”
