The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has raised the alarm that 56 Nigerians receiving treatments in various isolation centres across the country died from COVID-19 complications on Saturday.

This is just as the agency confirmed that it recorded 650 new infections in 16 states of the federation including the FCT.

According to the public health agency, the 56 additional COVID-19 related deaths reported on Saturday has spiked the country’s fatality figure to 2,361.

The NCDC made the announcement via its verified website on Sunday morning, adding that the recent surge in infections was driven by the spread of the Delta variant in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the 650 fresh cases reported on Saturday was an increase from the 618 cases posted the previous day in Nigeria.

The NCDC noted that the number of the country’s active coronavirus infections had, however, dropped from 18,210, reported on Friday to 10,575, reported on Saturday.

It did not indicate if majority of the known active cases were from the contagious Delta variant, or other variants of concern as stated by the World Health Organization.

According to the latest NCDC data, Lagos had the highest number of infections with 281 cases. Ondo Followed with 95 infections, while Rivers had 80.

Amongst others were; Akwa Ibom (59), Oyo (24), Ekiti (22), Delta (20), Edo (18), Enugu (15), Bayelsa (14), Ogun (11), Kaduna (8), Plateau (7), Kano (6), the FCT (5), Gombe (3), and Abia (2).

It noted that Borno, Nasarawa and Sokoto states reported zero cases.

The NCDC added that over 2.7 million samples of the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population were tested and 178,047 cases treated with 8,232 discharged on Saturday, the highest number of cases discharged since the advent of third wave of the pandemic.

It noted that the multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre, activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.

As at Saturday, the public health agency also reported that the country’s total COVID-19 cases stood at 199,983 infections reported across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

(NAN)