Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday confirmed 245 new cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number of infections to 7261.

This was announced via  NCDC Twitter handle on Friday night.

The 245 new cases of #COVID19 are recorded as follows:

131-Lagos
16-Jigawa
13-Ogun
12-Borno
9-Kaduna
9-Oyo
9-Rivers
9-Ebonyi
8-Kano
7-Kwara
5-Katsina
3-Akwa Ibom
3-Sokoto
2-Bauchi
2-Yobe
1-Anambra
1-Gombe
1-Niger
1-Ondo
1-Plateau
1-FCT
1-Bayelsa

7261 cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria now
Discharged: 2007
Deaths: 221

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to contain and successfully manage COVID-19, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, has validated the first phase of a scientific procedure to extract the RNA of coronavirus.

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These extraction kits form part of the components of testing through real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR.

Speaking at the validation in Abuja, Director-General of NABDA, Professor Alex Akpa, explained that the success of the validation was important not only to Nigeria but Africa as a whole.

“The success of this validation shall enable us to massively produce test kits so that more people would be tested for COVID-19, not only in Nigeria but in Africa.

“The immediate aim is to produce reagents for real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR, and remember, recently the lack of reagents stalled work in Kano and molecular diagnosis could no longer take place,” Akpa said.

Also, Dr. Rose Gidado, a scientist at NABDA and Country Coordinator, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), said the validation of  RNAswift Kit for COVID-19 was developed by Dr Alison Nwokeoji, a Nigerian scientist at the University of Sheffield, U.K.

The evaluation and validation of the RNAswift Kit for COVID-19 were carried out in the immunology laboratory of the NABDA.

Vanguard