Nigeria confirmed 973 COVID-19 cases in five days, as Chinese authorities rejected a planned relaunch of a probe into the origins of the deadly disease.
Figures released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that the country recorded one of its highest number of cases in months on Wednesday – 238.
A closer look at the figures also indicated that on Thursday, there were 184 infections in Nigeria with Lagos leading the way. The country’s commercial centre had 124 cases.
On Tuesday, there were 206; Monday’s number was 146 while 203 contracted COVID-19 on Sunday.
As of Friday morning, there were 170,306 confirmed coronavirus cases, 164,772 recoveries, and 2,130 deaths in Nigeria.
China Rejects Probe
China on Thursday rejected a plan by the World Health Organization (WHO) for another probe into the origins of the virus including a hypothesis that the disease could have started from a Chinese laboratory.
The UN health agency had earlier this month proposed an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 including an audit of laboratories and markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan while calling for transparency from authorities in the Asian nation.
But the vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), Zeng Yixin, told reporters that China will not allow such a probe.
“We will not accept such an origins-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, disregards common sense and defies science,” he said.
He maintained that Chinese authorities could not share some data publicly due to privacy issues.
“We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific matter, and get rid of political interference,” Zeng insisted.
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