Nigeria records 745 new cases of COVID-19, total now 18,480

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Thursday night announced 745 new cases in Nigeria

The centre made this known via its Twitter handle.

The new cases as recorded in states on Thursday are as follows:

Lagos-280 Oyo-103 Ebonyi-72 FCT-60 Imo-46 Edo-34 Delta-33 Rivers-25 Kaduna-23 Ondo-16 Katsina-12 Kano-10 Bauchi-8 Borno-7 Kwara-5 Gombe-4 Sokoto-2 Enugu-2 Yobe-1 Osun-1 Nasarawa-1

As it stands now, 18,480 persons have contacted the virus in Nigeria, with 6,307 persons discharged, and 475 deaths recorded.

Meanwhile, Sani Aliyu, national coordinator of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, says Nigerians now stand a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.

He disclosed this during the PTF briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

“there is a greater risk of infection now that the lockdown has been eased and people choose to ignore the safety guidelines set in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.

“The PTF continues to be very concerned about the issue of compliance. As you are aware, we are here to push for the containment of COVID-19 in the country through data-driven medical advisories.

“The fact that we are receiving many reports on the flouting of the guidelines, the hint by individuals, groups and organisations is simply unacceptable.

“As I said in the past, COVID-19 is far from over globally, neither is it over in Nigeria.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of community transmission is happening and it continues to increase across the states. Now more than ever before, if you go out, you’re more likely to get COVID-19 than before.

“Your risk of acquiring COVID-19 because of the numbers we have now is more than three, four weeks or five weeks ago when we had a lockdown, so there really isn’t any room or relaxation at this point.” he said.