The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 12 deaths and 708 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of 1,951 fatalities and 157,671 infected people in the country.

The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.

The additional 708 new cases make it the first time since February 26, 2021 that daily counts had surpassed 500.

The health agency stated that the new infections were registered in 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the last 24 hours.

According to it, Adamawa recorded 180 new infections, Lagos confirmed 141, Ondo reported 60 and Anambra 54 cases.

Rivers-41, Taraba-33, Edo-30, Abia-22, Kaduna-22, FCT-21, Akwa Ibom-20, Kano-20, Plateau-11, Ekiti-10, Kebbi-10, Nasarawa-10, Bayelsa-seven Ogun-five, Osun-five, Oyo-five and Gombe-one.

The NCDC disclosed that 504 people were discharged after testing negative to the virus in the last 24 hours.

Thursday’s discharges include 229 community recoveries in Lagos state, 144 in Imo and 45 in Akwa Ibom.

“Till date, more than 136,335 people have recovered from COVID-19 and discharged,’’ the NCDC added.

It said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, had continued to coordinate the national response activities Nigeria

The country has tested 1.5 million people since the first confirmed case was announced on Feb. 27, 2020.