NIGERIA, with a 16.4 percent infection rate is the second most infected country of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) out of the 10 countries with the highest number of confirmed cases in Africa, analysis by The ICIR reveals.
The infection rate of COVID-19 is calculated as the percentage of the number of confirmed cases as against the number of tests carried out by each country.
As at 8am, May 9, COVID-19 data from Worldometer reveals that Algeria sits first on the ladder with 82.60 percent infection rate after carrying out 6,500 tests with 5,369 confirmed cases. Nigeria, coming second had carried out 23,835 tests with 3,912 confirmed cases reported.
Other countries include Ivory Coast with an infection rate of 13.01 percent, Morocco- 9.54 percent, Egypt-9.42 percent, Senegal- 8.18 percent; South Africa 2.89, Ghana- 2.68 percent, and. Cameroon and Guinea have no record of their testing on the Worldometer platform at the time of writing this report.
The current rate of COVID-19 may be far from reality. This is because testing for the virus is yet to be comprehensive. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has increased testing by activating more molecular laboratory for testing.
However, Nigeria has dipped to the 34th position in Africa from 31st about a week ago in the area of tests per million.
The infection rate in Nigeria may continue to rise because the NCDC is scaling up testing across the country to detect cases that may arise from recent ease of the lockdown.
The epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria, Lagos state, may record between 90,000 and 120,000 cases between July and August.
Akin Abayomi, Lagos State commissioner for health made the prediction during a media briefing on the update of the virus on Friday in Lagos.
The number of confirmed cases in Nigeria keeps increasing by the day. As of 8th April, 276 confirmed cases were reported. Exactly one month later, May 8, the conformed cases in Nigeria has increased to 3,912, representing an increase of about 1,317 per cent in the last one month.
 out of the 10 countries){kind=link}