Nigeria records 187 new COVID-19 cases, total hits 58,647

As the battle against Coronavirus continues, Nigeria has recorded 187 new cases of COVID-19 in 12 states and the federal capital territory, Abuja.

This was disclosed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) via its official Twitter handle in its daily recovery count.

According to the breakdown, Lagos recorded the most cases with 74 new positive samples, followed by Plateau and Rivers with 25 infections each.

There was no new death recorded on Tuesday and out of a total of 58,647 confirmed cases of Coronavirus infections across Nigeria, 49,937 patients have recovered.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to increase the country’s testing capacity, the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), with support from the Faith foundation, has developed a COVID-19 test kit that can produce results in less than 40 minutes.

The NIMR presented the SARS COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) test kits to the federal ministry of health on Tuesday.

Speaking on the development at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 media briefing in Abuja, Olurinnimbe Mamora, minister of state for health, said the kits would be validated before it is made available to the public.

The minister also added that tests using the SIMA kit will be “ten times cheaper than the PCR”, and can be performed by “low skilled personnel with minimum training”.