The number of coronavirus infections in Nigeria crossed the 50,000 mark on Wednesday with 593 new cases confirmed in 15 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).
The Wednesday figure is the highest daily record of new cases in August, with Plateau topping the list of states with 186 positive samples, followed by Lagos with 172.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced the new cases in its update for August 19, 2020.
Before Wednesday, the highest number of positive samples for August was 457, which was confirmed on August 5.
The development comes less than four weeks after Nigeria crossed 40,000 cases – the country had confirmed a total of 40,543 infections as of July 26, out of which 17,374 recoveries and 858 deaths were recorded.
However, according to the current data, while more than 100 new deaths have been recorded in the past three weeks, the recovery rate has more than doubled.
Four persons were confirmed to have died of COVID-19 complications on Wednesday, increasing the fatality toll to 985, while 253 patients were discharged bringing the country’s total number of recoveries to 37,304.
593 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria; Plateau-186 Lagos-172 FCT-62 Oyo-27 Delta-25 Rivers-20 Ondo-19 Edo-18 Kaduna-17 Enugu-12 Akwa Ibom-10 Ogun-7 Abia-6 Gombe-6 Kano-3 Osun-3 50,488 confirmed, 37,304 discharged 985 deaths
Out of over 360,000 tests, a total of 50,488 samples have tested positive in all 36 states and the FCT.