Coronavirus: Nigeria records 304 new cases, 11 deaths in 1 week

The country also recorded a total of 11 new deaths between Monday, April 13, and Sunday, April 19, 2020.

Before Monday, Nigeria had recorded 323 cases in total between February 27 and April 12, with 10 deaths recorded, and 85 discharged.

All of those figures have now doubled or nearly doubled in the past seven days with a total of 627 cases, 21 deaths and 170 discharged.

The country thrice surpassed its previous highest single day record of new coronavirus cases during the past week.

A record-breaking 35 new cases had been recorded on April 1, but that record was equalled on April 16, and was then surpassed on April 17 with 51 new cases announced, followed by another high figure of 48 on April 18.

A new highest single day record was set on Sunday, April 19 with a total of 86 new cases recorded in six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

All of the cases in the past week were recorded in 16 states - Lagos, Edo, Kano, Ogun, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Delta, Niger, Oyo, Kwara, Ekiti, Jigawa, Bauchi, Borno, and the FCT.

The new states where cases were recorded during the period are Jigawa and Borno, meaning at least one coronavirus case has now been recorded in 21 states and the FCT.

The surge in the number of new cases recorded is widely believed to be as a direct result of more tests conducted by the authorities. Many have expressed fears over the past few weeks that the reason for Nigeria's previously low figures was because the NCDC was not testing enough people.

Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, says efforts are being made to step up the country's testing capacity [Twitter/@Chikwe_I] Pulse Nigeria

Nigeria is currently yet to test 10,000 people in almost two months since its index case was announced, but it has stepped up testing in the past couple of weeks compared to in the previous weeks.

The Lagos State government announced on Sunday that it was setting up sampling stations in the 20 local government areas of the state in order to increase coronavirus testing capacity. This is to enable citizens that fit the case definition of the disease to visit and drop samples for testing.

Lagos remains the epicentre of the coronavirus in Nigeria with 376 cases recorded, 60% of Nigeria's total.

The state recorded 187 new cases over the past week - 70 of those cases were recorded on Sunday alone, its highest single day record of new cases.

The state has also recorded a total of 14 deaths, although only 13 are currently officially listed by the NCDC in Nigeria's total of 21 fatalities.

Nigeria's most high-profile fatality was recorded this week, as President Muhammadu Buhari's 67-year-old chief of staff, Abba Kyari, lost his battle with the coronavirus disease on Friday, April 17, almost one month after he tested positive.

Despite the worrying figures of new cases and deaths, Nigeria's number of recoveries also doubled from 85 to 170 in the past week. 43 of the new recoveries were recorded in Lagos.

Since it was detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the coronavirus has infected over 2.4 million people across the world, and has interrupted social and economic activities.

Over 165,000 people have been killed, but over 629,000 people have recovered from infection.