The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday said Nigeria has recorded 490 new cases of the novel coronavirus and an additional 31 deaths linked to the virus.

The new figures put total infections in the country at 17,148. Although 5,623 persons have been successfully treated and discharged, 455 casualties have been recorded to the virus, according to the NCDC.

In the latest reporting, Lagos state posted 142 new cases, while the Federal Capital Territory contributed 60.

Other states with new cases include Bayelsa (54), Rivers (39), Delta (37), Oyo (30), Kaduna (26), Imo (23), Enugu (19), Gombe (11), Ondo (10), Bauchi (8), Ogun (7), Borno (6), and Benue (1).

490 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria;

Lagos-142
FCT-60
Bayelsa-54
Rivers-39
Delta-37
Oyo-30
Kaduna-26
Imo-23
Enugu-19
Kwara-17
Gombe-11
Ondo-10
Bauchi-8
Ogun-7
Borno-6
Benue-1

17,148 confirmed
5,623 discharged
455 deaths pic.twitter.com/wou7Q1PfIo

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) June 16, 2020

On Tuesday, the Lagos state government stopped the reopening of worship centres initially scheduled to begin from June 19.

The state government cited the increasing rise of COVID-19 cases in the state as a reason for its decision.

Nigeria is currently in the second phase of relaxing COVID-19 restrictions as the government tries to re-start the economy while keeping the virus at bay simultaneously.

Experts believe cases will continue to rise as the country ramps up testing for the virus.

According to the NCDC, 96,402 samples have been tested as of Tuesday evening.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 438,250 people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1900 GMT on Tuesday.

At least 8,090,290 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 3,698,500 are considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

In the past 24 hours, 3,851 additional deaths have been recorded and 114,921 new cases. The countries reporting most deaths are the United States with 671, Brazil 627 and Mexico 439.

The United States is the worst-hit country with 116,567 deaths from 2,124,155 cases. At least 576,334 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the countries with the highest death tolls are Brazil with 43,959 deaths from 888,271 infections, Britain with 41,969 deaths from 298,136 cases, Italy with 34,405 deaths from 237,500 cases, and France with 29,547 deaths from 194,217 cases.

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 4,634 deaths and 83,221 infections (up 40) with 78,377 recoveries.

Europe overall has 188,834 deaths from 2,435,017 cases, the United States and Canada have 124,826 deaths from 2,223,581 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 81,328 deaths from 1,700,029 cases, Asia 24,105 deaths from 887,731 cases, the Middle East 12,234 deaths from 581,117 cases, Africa 6,792 deaths from 254,085 cases, and Oceania 131 deaths from 8,739 cases.

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies.