A new report released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has put Akwa Ibom as the lead in Nigeria’s latest COVID-19 surge with 293 of the 517 confirmed additional infections between August 6 and 11, 2022.
In a statement on its official website today (August 11, 2022), the NCDC revealed that out of the 517 additional infections recorded in the country, Akwa Ibom reported 293 cases, while Lagos state recorded 101 additional cases.
This new figure is the country’s highest case count this month, overturning its previous record of 496 infections reported from July 28 – August 1 and 412 infections reported between August 2 and 5, 2022.
The public health agency said that these 517 cases were recorded in 13 states and the Federal Capital Territory raised the total number of infections to 262,402.
According to it, the FCT had 13 cases of the virus, Ekiti 11, Delta and Kano 9 each, Bayelsa 7 cases and Kaduna 6.
Others include Oyo 5, Abia 3, Kwara 2, Nasarawa and Plateau with 2 each.
Cross River, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, and Sokoto reported zero cases.
On a positive note, the agency said that 525 persons have been discharged in the last five days after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of discharged [patients] to 256,006.
The Public Health Institute said that the death tally from the COVID-19 disease in the country stayed at 3,147 with no additional deaths reported on Thursday.
The NCDC stated that this report includes a backlog of 258 cases in Akwa Ibom from July 3, 2022.
The agency explained that COVID-19 can affect anyone.
“Let us all take responsibility to prevent the spread of the disease and limit the risk of infection among all ages.
“Get vaccinated, wear a mask, wash your hands frequently, cough/sneeze into your elbow and report when sick,” it said.
Recall that the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said that, as of August 10, 2022, in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, about 28,120,290 of total eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination, in the country were fully vaccinated.
The NPHCDA said that about 11,848,002 of the total eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination were partially vaccinated.
The immunisation agency said that it would leverage the SCALES 3.0 strategy to anchored on an intensive three months campaign, performance-based incentives, optimized integrated package of services, decentralized and incentivised demand generation, partner coordination and accountability, state-specific context and strategies.
“On accountability, SCALES 3.0 supports timely logistics and payment of vaccination teams that have achieved thresholds and targets.
“SCALES 3.0 will not only be tracking vaccination activities, detecting and promptly addressing inappropriate and fraudulent activities using our Joint Task Force but will also be implementing a carefully designed, performance-based, incentivising mechanism to encourage accountability and superior performance,” it stated.
The agency said that based on these principles, the strategy is poised to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus and gain the desired herd immunity as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, in the last five days, Yobe moved up the ladder from 20th to 18th, with a 14 per cent coverage for fully vaccinated.
The NPHCDA ranked Enugu as the best-performing state in the southeast zone based on fully vaccinated performance, having reached 17 per cent coverage.
