A few weeks after the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, gave an indication of a possible fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has officially confirmed the development.

It said the country has recorded a 500 per cent increase in the number of confirmed cases within the past two weeks.

The director-general of the disease centre, Ifedayo Adefila, in a statement he personally signed on Sunday, noted that the rise in infections has been linked to both the Delta and Omicron variants of the rampaging virus.

According to the NCDC data, the surge in infections which began on December 9, continued to rise with the country recording over 7,500 cases within two weeks, while the number of active COVID-19 cases skyrocketed from 3,000 to over 9,000.

The disease centre said as of December 19, 2021, a total of 223,887 cases and 2,985 deaths have been recorded across all 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The latest data also shows that Nigeria has so far tested more than 3.7 million samples out of its estimated 200 million population.

The statement by NCDC reads in part; “The country is now in a fourth COVID-19 wave. The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, the Federal Ministry of Health, as well as NCDC and its partners, are therefore intensifying risk communication efforts to remind Nigerians of the risk we face and need to take collective responsibility to reduce transmission of the virus,” Premium Times reports.