Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases exceed 1,000

Nigeria on Friday recorded 114 cases of COVID-19, bringing the total recorded in the country to 1095.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a tweet Friday night said the new cases were recorded in nine states. These are Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ogun, Gombe, Zamfara, Edo, Oyo, Kaduna and Sokoto states.

As of the time of reporting, 27 states and the FCT have recorded at least a case of the disease.

For the second consecutive day, no case was recorded in Kano. Although no official reason was given for this, PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday reported how the Kano testing centre suspended its operations due to scarcity of materials and because some of its staff tested positive to the virus. Although the health minister, Osagie Ehanire, later said the testing materials had been made available, a Kano health ministry official told PREMIUM TIMES the testing would be suspended for at least 48 hours.

On Thursday, Zamfara State recorded its first cases of the virus since the beginning of the outbreak in Nigeria in February.

Also, Lagos State reported its highest daily figure, 80, since the index case was detected in the state.

A breakdown of the latest update shows that 80 of the new cases were reported in Lagos, 21 in Gombe, 5 in FCT, 2 in Zamfara and Edo, and one in Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna and Sokoto states.

NCDC said as of 11:50 p.m. on April 24, there were 1095 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria. Of these, 208 infected people have recovered and have been discharged while the death toll rose to 32 from 31 reported on Thursday.

A breakdown of all the cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 657 cases, followed by FCT – 138, Kano – 73, Ogun – 35, Gombe – 30, Katsina – 21, Osun – 20, Edo – 19, Oyo – 18 cases, Borno – 12, Kwara-11, Akwa Ibom – 11 cases, Kaduna – 10, Bauchi has recorded eight cases, Delta – six, , Ekiti – four, Ondo and Rivers three apiece.

Jigawa, Enugu, Niger, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Abia have two cases each while Benue, Anambra, Adamawa and Plateau state have a case apiece.

Community transmission

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, on Friday said that the high number of cases was as a result of ongoing community transmission and active case search.

He said most of the affected age group is from 31-40 years, while the highest COVID-19 fatality is in patients who are 50years and above.

He also said that the government has deployed COVID-19 starter packs to all tertiary health institutions and federal medical centers, to complement what had earlier been sent to states.

The starter packs, he said, consist of medical consumables to ensure the protection of frontline workers.

Health workers

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) expressed dismay that some of its members have contracted the virus in the process of discharging their duty.

Health workers are prone to contracting infectious disease when discharging their duties as they are the first line responders for disease control.

The association in a statement released on Friday said that over 40 doctors and other health workers have tested positive, with three doctors and one nurse dead from the virus.

It lamented that the health workers contracted the disease within the society and at private health facilities as some of the patients refused to disclose important medical and travel information that would have increased the suspicion and facilitate the early diagnosis of COVID-19 infections.

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NMA therefore appealed to the government to expedite action on distribution of PPEs to public and private hospitals without delay.

“We remind our members all over the federation to consider everyone presenting at the hospital for any ailments as potential COVID-19 patient until proven otherwise,” the NMA said.