It’s the beginning of the end as Nigeria records zero COVID-19 deaths for fourth consecutive day

In a trend that began Friday, Nigeria on Monday recorded no fatalities from COVID-19 complications, according to health authorities.

With no deaths in the past four days, the fatality toll in the country has remained 2,058 in total.

This is according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Monday night.

The country also recorded 135 new cases in 11 states on Monday.

The new tally raised the total number of infections in the West African nation to 163,330 according to the NCDC data.

In the past one week, there has been a further decline in new cases as daily infections have fallen below 200. Daily infections averaged over 1,000 between December 2020 and February 2021.

Specifics
The 135 new cases were reported from 11 states – Kwara-37, Lagos-32, Ondo-23, Nasarawa-13, FCT-9, Kaduna-7, Rivers-6, Osun-3, Delta-2, Edo-2, and Borno-1.

Kwara had the highest figure on Monday with 37 new cases followed by Lagos and Ondo with 32 and 23 infections respectively.

Since the pandemic broke out in Nigeria in February last year, the country has carried out over 1.7 million tests.

More than two-thirds of the over 163,000 people infected by COVID-19 in Nigeria have recovered after treatment.

According to NCDC data published Sunday night, a total of 152,045 have recovered after treatment.

Meanwhile, about 10,000 infections are still active in the country.

Vaccination
Nigeria about a month ago commenced the vaccination of its citizens with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine it received almost four million doses of through the COVAX facility, a UN backed arrangement.

Priority is being given to health workers while interested Nigerians have been asked to register online to be vaccinated.

Top public officials including President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were vaccinated publicly to drive vaccine acceptance among citizens.

Almost a million Nigerians have received jabs of the Oxford vaccine, according to the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).