Nigeria’s COVID-19 fatality toll increased to its highest in close to two weeks with 20 new deaths confirmed on Thursday.
A total of 833 people have now died of COVID-19 complications across Nigeria — Taraba is the only state yet to record any coronavirus-related death.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) also confirmed 604 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday in 20 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).
However, according to the NCDC, the 15 deaths recorded in Lagos on Thursday included previously unreported fatalities.
Lagos still has the highest toll of COVID-19 fatalities with 192 deaths.
Meanwhile, the number of recoveries has now exceeded 16,000 with 246 patients discharged on July 23, increasing the figure from 15,815 to 16,061.
As of July 23, more than 250,000 samples have been tested, out of which 38,948 have been confirmed positive, but 22,054 are active cases.
Lagos, which recorded 203 new cases on Thursday, currently has the most confirmed cases with 14,009 infections, as well as the highest number of recoveries, with more than 2,000 people discharged.
As part of efforts to increase testing capacity, the NCDC has developed various approaches, including increasing the number of available molecular laboratories, and validation of rapid test kits.
Speaking at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, said within the next few weeks, it would be determined if rapid test kits can be deployed for COVID-19.
“We’ve been working with the medical laboratory science council of Nigeria to validate a number of kits; there are two that are showing good promise,” he said.
“So, that validation process is ongoing at the moment and in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to know at least whether those first two that showed the most progress are able to be included into our testing algorithm.”