Coronavirus: Nigeria records 216 new cases, 9 new deaths

Nigeria has recorded 216 new coronavirus cases in 15 states across the country on Monday, May 18, 2020.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced late on Monday that Lagos, the epicentre of the outbreak in Nigeria, recorded 74 new cases.

Katsina recorded 33 new cases, followed by Oyo with 19, Kano with 17, Edo with 13, and Zamfara with 10.

Ogun, Borno, and Gombe recorded eight new cases each, while Bauchi and Kwara recorded seven new cases each.

Four new cases were recorded in the Federal Capital Territoey (FCT), Abuja, followed by three each in Kaduna and Enugu, and two in Rivers.

Nigeria has now recorded a total of 6,175 coronavirus cases in 34 states and the FCT.

Monday's update also revealed that nine people died from coronavirus-related complications, raising the total tally to 191.

50 patients were also released across the country on Monday after recovering from the coronavirus disease.

A total of 1,644 people have now been released after recovery, since the country recorded its index case in February.

Earlier on Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered that precision lockdown be implemented in areas recording high rates of coronavirus infections in the country.

Without providing details, the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, who made the announcement, said the lockdown will be implemented in states, or in metropolitan and high-burden local government areas that are reporting a rapidly increasing number of cases, when the need arises.

Buhari also approved an aggressive scaling up of efforts to ensure communities are informed, engaged, and participating in the response with enhanced public awareness in high-risk areas.

Mustapha appealed to Nigerians to continue to adhere to preventive measures announced by authorities to contain the spread of the virus as it may likely not go away any time soon.

"Nigeria is not where we wish to be in terms of control, ownership, infrastructure, and change of behaviour. We must do more," he said.