The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 708 new coronavirus cases (COVID-19), taking the total number of infected people in the country to 157,671.

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

The additional 708 new cases made it the first time since February 26, 2021, that the daily count surpassed 500.

Apart from the new infections, the NCDC also registered 12 COVID-19-related deaths, raising total fatalities to 1,951.

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 for the virus in the last 24 hours.

The discharges included 229 community recoveries in Lagos, 144 in Imo, and 45 in Akwa Ibom.

“To 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 in Nigeria.

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