UPDATE! Nigeria Records No New COVID-19 Deaths In Two Days

Nigeria has not recorded any fatality from COVID-19 in the past two days, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

According to the NCDC in a late-night tweet on Friday, the country’s death toll still stands at 2,027.

The disease control agency last recorded a death on March 17.

Since then, the casualty figures have remained the same.

Meanwhile, new infection figures have also remained low with 13 states reporting 130 COVID-19 cases on Friday.

The NCDC had reported 135 new cases on Thursday.

The country’s total number of infections now stands at 161,539.

Giving a breakdown of the figures, NCDC said the top five states were Lagos – 46, Ogun – 19, Kwara – 18, FCT – 12 and Kaduna – 10.

Others include Ekiti – 6, Abia – 5, Edo, Sokoto and Osun – 3, Niger and Oyo – 2 and Akwa Ibom – 1.

On a positive note, the country has successfully managed and discharged 147,581 patients said to have recovered from the virus.

Since the pandemic broke out in Nigeria in February last year, the country has carried out over 1.6 million tests.

More than two-thirds of the 161,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria has recovered after treatment.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) says it will not force anyone in the country to take the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Council, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar, stated this at a meeting on Friday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He spoke at a meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; and the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib.

According to the Sultan, the NSCIA has endorsed the vaccine but it will not decide for anyone whether or not to take the jab.

As controversies over the effectiveness of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines continue, the Nigerian authorities decided to meet with Muslim scholars and imams led by the Sultan to seek their support.