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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday confirmed 296 new coronavirus infections in 14 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The health agency announced the new cases in its update for September 8, 2020.

The Tuesday figure which saw a drop in the number of recoveries, as well as a spike in the count for Plateau state is the highest so far in September.

According to the NCDC breakdown, 183 positive samples were for patients in Plateau, followed by Lagos with 33 and FCT with 25.

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There had been concerns in recent times over the increased cases in Plateau, but according to the state government, this was as a result of backlogs.

Plateau had topped the list of states with new infections for more than one week between August 25 and September 1.

A statement by Dan Manjang, Plateau commissioner for information and communication, had explained the increase in the daily case count at the time.

Read Kaduna: It costs over N400,000 to treat one COVID-19 patient – Gov El-Rufai

“There is increase in community testing for the [virus] as Plateau State has 3 testing centres at NVRI Vom, Plateau State Specialist Hospital and Jos University Teaching Hospital,” Manjang had said.

“Due to slow pace of processing samples, not all test results are released immediately thereby resulting in backlogs.

“Whenever such backlogs are released, it accounts for the high figures recorded against the State by the NCDC which might be misconstrued as daily figures.”

However, the figures dropped afterwards, such that before September 8, Plateau’s daily infection count decreased to as low as zero on September 3 and 6, respectively, while as of Monday, the state recorded 25 new infections.

Meanwhile, a total of 103 patients were discharged across Nigeria on Tuesday, increasing the number of recoveries to 43,334.

Six new deaths were also recorded, and the total number of fatalities has risen to 1,067.

A total of 55,456 coronavirus infections have now been confirmed in the 36 states and the FCT.

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