The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 653 new COVID-19 cases in the country as total infections from the virus rise to 36, 107.

The NCDC made this known on its official twitter handle late on Saturday.

The health agency said that as of July 18,  653 new confirmed cases and six deaths were recorded in the country.

It said that the 653 new cases were reported from 27 states and the FCT.

According to the agency, only nine states did not report a new case of the disease in the past 24 hours.

The NCDC added that Lagos state reported the highest number of infections with 115 new cases, while Kwara reported 85 new infections.

Amongst others were Enugu with 80 cases and the FCT with 78. Rivers had 36 cases, Ondo – 35, Oyo – 30, Katsina – 28, Kaduna – 19, Abia – 19, Nasarawa – 18, Plateau – 17, and Imo – 16.

Four states, namely: Ogun, Ebonyi, Benue, and Kano reported nine more infections with Delta, Bauchi, and Ekiti having eight, seven, and six new cases respectively.

NCDC said that Gombe, Bayelsa, Adamawa, and Osun also recorded four more cases while a case of the virus was recorded each in Cross River, Yobe, Borno, and Zamfara states.

According to the centre, this brings the total number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in country to 36,107 out of the more than 200,000 tests conducted.

The health agency, however, said that 305 recovered patients were discharged from various isolation centres across the country after undergoing treatment.

According to it, Nigeria now has 14,938 recovered cases of COVID-19 with the death toll still at 778.

It said the major reason for the delay of COVID-19 test results was not the testing per se, but the process of getting results to individuals.

“We’re working on a new platform to improve the system of communicating results.

“COVID-19 is not malaria. If you have COUGH or FEVER  and one of these symptoms: Loss of taste/smell, difficulty in breathing, diarrhoea, catarrh, fatigue, shivering, body pain, headache, and sore throat, call your state hotline: covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/contact/,” it stated.

The agency stressed that observing  physical distancing helps reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“Avoid contact with droplets when an infected person sneezes/coughs. And Take Responsibility, wear a face mask, observe physical distancing and wash your hands frequently.”