UPDATED: COVID-19: Lagos announces end of 4th wave

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says consistent decrease in COVID-19 case positivity indicates the end of the fourth wave in the state.

Mr Abayomi disclosed this through his verified Twitter account, @ProfAkinolaAbayomi, on Saturday, while giving the state’s COVID-19 update for January 20.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state had on December 7 announced the beginning of the fourth wave as the daily infection figure from the virus spiked.

Mr Abayomi said that there was a reduction in positivity rates of COVID-19 infection from 29.3 per cent recorded on December 21, to 1.9 per cent as of January 20.

According to him, bed capacity utilisation now stands at two per cent, and fatality rate stands at 0.71 per cent.

The commissioner said that 46 new infections were confirmed on the reported date increasing the number of COVID-19 infections in the state to 98,284.

He noted that 1,023, 203 sample tests had been conducted since the start of the pandemic in the state.

Mr Abayomi advised residents to get vaccinated and continue to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to further reduce the spread of the virus.

Background

While Nigerians prepared for Christmas in 2021, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Nigeria had crossed 1,000 new daily infection cases with a total of 1,424 on December 7, confirming the Lagos government’s announcement of the beginning of the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Days after the Lagos government made the announcement, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, the agency of government in charge of the research and monitoring of the pandemic, eventually announced that the country had entered the fourth wave of the pandemic.

According to the NCDC, as of December 19, the country had recorded 223,887 cases and 2,985 deaths from the virus.

Mr Sanwo-Olu in his earlier announcement had emphasised compliance to the country’s travel protocol by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, and pledged that his state would ensure total enforcement.

Mr Sanwo-Olu reiterated the need for inbound passengers to take the post-arrival Day 2 test within 48 hours of arrival into the country, as well as an additional Day 7 PCR test for all partially or unvaccinated returning travellers.

“Based on this, we will commence the prosecution of those that refuse to submit themselves for these mandatory tests by blacklisting their passports for 1 year.

“This would be carried out in partnership with the Presidential Steering Committee. In addition, all foreigners that flout the rules would be subject to possible deportation,” he said.

Relief

According to NCDC records, as of December 28, 2021, Lagos State began to record a reduction in positive cases of the virus.

The state continued to record a reduction in cases until it announced the end of the fourth wave Saturday.

Though the Nigerian government has not confirmed this development, as the epicentre of the pandemic in the country, the governor’s position may soon be endorsed by the government at the centre.

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Nigeria Statistics

On January 21, 2022, Nigeria recorded a total number of 236 new confirmed cases and 1 death.

According to NCDC, as of Saturday, 251,930 cases have been confirmed, with a total of 225,906 persons treated of the virus and discharged nationwide while a total of 3,124 deaths have been recorded in the country.

In all of these, Lagos recorded the highest number of infections with 98,044 confirmed cases, followed by FCT with 27,989 and Rivers State with 16,307.