On Sunday, Nigeria recorded 97 coronavirus infections, a sharp decrease from the 221 and 189 cases reported on Friday and Saturday.

The latest figure, one of the lowest in at least six months, was recorded in just 12 states, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 57, 242, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The new cases, according to the NCDC, were found in Lagos-46 Kwara-12 Rivers-11 Adamawa-4 Niger-4 Ogun-4 Osun-4 Ekiti-3 Imo-3 Kaduna-3 Plateau-2 FCT-1.

Lagos had the highest number of new cases on Sunday with 46 infections to extend its lead as the most impacted city in the country.

Since late July, Nigeria has not reported a daily infection figure that was above 500, an indication that the country might have passed the worst stage of the pandemic.

According to the NCDC update, about 48, 569 of the over 57, 000 infected persons have recovered and been discharged after treatment across the country’s 36 states and the federal capital, Abuja.

Only about 7,500 infections are still active in the country, one of the lowest in the past three months, indicating that the epidemiological curve is falling in the country.

The death toll from the virus is now 1,098 after three people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours.

Weekly review of official data showed for the first time in five months, Nigeria recorded less than a thousand new COVID-19 infections in a week.

Between Sunday and Saturday (September 13 to 19), the country reported 968 new cases, which is a 23 per cent drop from the 1,272 recorded the previous week, the 38th week of the pandemic in Nigeria.

According to NCDC data, the last time Nigeria recorded a lower weekly figure was the 641 cases recorded between April 19 and May 25.

Last week’s record showed that the reduction in the daily figures have been consistent despite the increase in the number of tests.

A total of 31,943 samples were collected for testing last week as against the 16,035 tested the previous week, a 50 per cent increase.

A total of nearly 480,000 of Nigeria’s 200 million people have been tested thus far.