Nigeria Has Officially Entered The Fourth Wave of COVID-19 – NCDC

Nigeria has officially announced that the country has entered the fourth wave of the global pandemic. On Monday, the 20th of December 2021, an additional 1,368 COVID-19 cases were recorded.

In an update on Monday night, The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) made public the new figure. 

According to the breakdown that displays the daily infection rate, the newest cases were confirmed at the FCT (Abuja) and other 19 states. 

On Monday, Lagos recorded the highest number of confirmed cases. New 844 cases were confirmed in Lagos. Abuja was the second highest with 209 confirmed cases.

A Breakdown of the Confirmed Cases

The newly-confirmed cases and the reported cases include Oyo – 58 cases, Abia – 51 cases, Bauchi – 5, Gombe – 3, Plateau – 1, Ekiti – 12, Anambra – 7,  Zamfara – 7, Cross River  – 6, Kaduna – 26.

Delta – 20, Akwa Ibom – 17, and Osun – 15, Rivers – 6, Ogun – 30,  Kwara – 6, Ondo – 39, and Kano – 6, Lagos – 844, Abuja – 209.

After Monday’s update, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria is 225,255. 211,660 infected persons have been discharged while 2,985 deaths were recorded. 

An Address From the NCDC Boss

According to the Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, “Nigeria has recorded a 500% increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks across the country caused by the Delta and Omicron variants.” 

The NCDC boss added that;

“The country is now in a fourth COVID-19 wave. The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, the Federal Ministry of Health, as well as NCDC and its partners, are therefore intensifying risk communication efforts to remind Nigerians of the risk we face and need to take collective responsibility to reduce transmission of the virus.”

Furthermore, he stated that NCDC is launching a ‘Celebrate Responsibly’ campaign as part of efforts to fight against the spread of the virus.  

In shedding more light on the campaign, the NDCD boss said, “The Celebrate Responsibly campaign calls on all Nigerians to take all necessary precautions for a safe and healthy Christmas and New Year celebration.” 

On Tuesday, 21st December 2021, President Buhari takes the full booster dose and encourages Nigerians to do the same. The full booster side is said to increase protection against the Omicron variant of the virus.

Before the figures were released, the agency had earlier said Nigeria has entered the fourth wave of the pandemic.

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