Nigeria has placed its capital Abuja and six other states on high alert following the emergence of the Delta variant of coronavirus infection in the country.

The presidential steering committee on Covid-19 in a statement on Saturday said the number of new cases and hospital admissions have continued to rise.

The two most populous states in the country, Kano and Lagos are among the six places with “worrisome early signs of the third wave of the pandemic”.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control said 203 new Covid-19 infections were recorded on Sunday.

So far nearly 170,000 cases have been confirmed, with 2,127 deaths.