91 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria.
74 in Lagos
5 in Katsina
4 in Ogun
2 in Delta
2 in Edo
1 in Kwara
1 in Oyo
1 in FCT
1 in Adamawa
As at 11:25 pm 22nd April there are 873 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.
Discharged: 197
Deaths: 28
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has lauded the efforts of Delta Government at containing the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state.
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director General of the NCDC, gave the commendation on Monday in Asaba, during a working visit to the state.
He observed that Delta had so far recorded few cases of the pandemic due to its deliberate efforts and urged the state to sustain the efforts.
“We are in the state to get first hand information on the activities and challenges of the Delta State Emergency Operation Committee with a view to providing technical support,” Ihekweazu said.
Earlier, the Delta Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, expressed the state government’s appreciation to the NCDC for its assitance.
It was reported that during the visit, the team toured COVID-19 isolation and treatment centers at the Federal Medical Center and Specialist Hospital, both in Asaba.
IIhekweazu told newsmen shortly after the tour that the role of the NCDC was to encourage and support states to curb the spread of the virus.
He added that the NCDC also served and helped the whole country to prepare for the worst situation and at the same time encourage hope for the best.
He said, “Borders are drawn for political reasons in order to provide governance for people and bacteria and viruses don’t recognise such.”
On her part, Dr. Fiona Braka, Officer in Charge, WHO Country Office, Nigeria, appealed to the people to remain vigilant as the risks of the pandemic were still very high.
“We are here to ensure that what is recommended globally is being done; we contextualise it to the country level, looking at capacities and risks.
“We also scale up this process in a manner that the capacity in the country can manage. We are constantly working with the NCDC to see how we can ramp up this process.
“Certainly, Delta State will be among the states that will be critically looked up for testing capacity,” Braka said.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Sunday, apologised to the Ekiti Government for the error in its record of the confirmed COVID-19.
The centre on its verified Twitter account on Sunday morning said that “Yesterday, we erroneously reported one new case in Ekiti. This was wrong and was caused by an error in the verification process.
“Ekiti state has three confirmed cases, NOT four.
”Therefore, as at April 18 2020, there were 541 confirmed cases, 166 discharged and 19 deaths,” the centre tweeted.
The NCDC apologised to the Government of Ekiti for this error.
According to it, the 541 cases were recorded in 20 states of the federation.
It noted that the pandemic and majority of the active cases were in a stable condition.
It said the agency remains committed to improving its quality control processes, to ensure accurate and transparent reporting of COVID19 pandemic outbreak cases in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that as at 10:40 pm April, 18 number of states with confirmed cases of COVID19, Lagos- 306, FCT- 81, Kano- 37, Osun- 20, Oyo- 16, Edo- 15, Ogun- 12, Kwara- nine and Katsina- nine,
Others are Bauchi- six, Kaduna- six, Akwa Ibom- six, Delta-four, Ekiti- three, Ondo- three while Enugu, Rivers and Niger have two each, Benue and Anambra, has one each.
In the wake of the death of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, from the dreaded coronavirus, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has warned Nigerians to refrain from attending mass gatherings.
The centre asked Nigerians to adhere to its guidelines on safe burial of victims of the virus.
The NCDC made the appeal in a message it posted across its social media handles on Saturday.
The message read, “Even at this time, as we mourn loved ones lost to COVID-19, including recently deceased Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, we need to refrain from attending mass gatherings to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.
“Let us #StaySafe and protect each other.
“Our guidance on ensuring safe and dignified burial while preventing the spread of #COVID19 can be found at: https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/resource/MgtOfDeadBodies.pdf
Details soon
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has re-emphasised that COVID-19 lockdown was not to end the disease but to keep people apart to stop its transmission to an extent and to build public health response efficiency.
READ ALSO: UK dismisses 5G, coronavirus claims as nonsense
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, made the assertion while speaking on Sunrise Daily programme on Channels Television on Thursday morning.
“The goal of the lockdown is not to get to the end of this outbreak because that is not a realistic goal.
“On the goal of the lockdown, there are two things.
“Firstly, to keep people a little bit apart so that we stop transmission to some extent.
“And even though the lockdown has not been perfect, we have also some indicators to show that we are mixing a lot less,” he said.
“There are some analysis from Google that shows us that in many of the places that we need to congregate it is down by 60, 70 per cent .
“There is no doubt that there is less contact between individuals and that has hopefully had an impact on transmission.’’
On the second goal for the lockdown, Ihekweazu said: “It is to enable the public health response to build up its efficiency.
“That is what we are really focused on in the last two weeks and what we must work very hard on in the next 10 days is to make sure that we finalise.
“This is so that this whole chain can work seamlessly.
“So, this is just to let everyone to know that, we are not anticipating that in the next 10 days, we will get to zero .
“We are anticipating that we will have a public health response that can work while slowly people start going about their small businesses,’’ he said.
The NCDC director-general said it was unlikely that everything, including businesses, schools, markets, airports and others would reopen on the same day after the lockdown directive would have been lifted.
According to him, it will be a gradual, carefully, calibrated reopening of the economy.
He urged Nigerians to continue to wash their hands with soap and clean running water, use hand sanitisers, observe social distancing and other hygiene measures recommended to keep the virus at bay.
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced that it made a mistake in the figures it released on Friday wherein it said 26 new cases were confirmed instead of 25, saying one of the cases was a previous confirmed case and not a new one.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Missing Osun coronavirus patient found
It also said of the 25 new cases, one which was actually from Oyo State was inadvertently referred to as a case from Osun State.
The NCDC in its daily report on its twitter handle on Saturday, said Oyo now has nine cases while Osun now has 20.
According to it, “On 3rd of April 2020, we reported 26 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. An error has been discovered in this report as follows:
“There were 25 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. The 26th case was a repeat result of a previously confirmed case and NOT a new case.
“Of the 25 new cases reported, one case was inadvertently reported from Osun state. This case was from OYO STATE. The correct breakdown is as follows:
Lagos- 11, Osun- 6, FCT- 3, Edo- 3, Ondo- 1, Oyo- 1.
“As at 10:30 pm 3rd April, there are 209 confirmed cases, 25 discharged, four deaths.
For a breakdown of cases by states-Lagos- 109, FCT- 41, Osun- 20, Oyo- 9, Akwa Ibom- 5, Ogun- 4, Edo- 7, Kaduna- 4, Bauchi- 3, Enugu- 2, Ekiti- 2, Rivers 1, Benue- 1, Ondo- 1.
“We regret the error in our announcement of new #COVID19 cases in Nigeria yesterday. The NCDC remains committed to ensuring transparency and accurate reporting of infectious disease cases in Nigeria.”
Rivers State has recorded its first case of Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 51, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said.
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of NCDC, made this known in an interview with our correspondents, on Thursday in Abuja, while giving an update on the COVID-19 infections.
Ihekweazu said NCDC on Wednesday reported five new cases of coronavirus, with two cases each in Abuja and Lagos, and one in Rivers.
The NCDC said out of the five new cases, three are returning travellers into Nigeria and two are close contacts of a confirmed case.
“As at 11:25 pm March 25, there are, 51 confirmed cases, two discharge and one death,” he said.
He classified the cases as 48 active cases, two recovered and discharged and one death.
The death was a Nigerian with an underlying health condition.
Ihekeazu said that NCDC would continue to share verified updates regarding COVID-19, and the importance of practising social distancing, regularly and thorough washing of of hands with soap or alcohol based hand sanitisers.
“ If you’ve travelled recently to a country with widespread transmission in the last 14 days and you’re showing symptoms of Fever, cough or breathing difficulty, please stay at home and dial the NCDC toll free number : 080097000010
“We’ve highlighted the importance of social distancing in four languages- Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Pidgin, all on the NCDC website.
“ To reduce the spread of fake news, there’s a World Health Organisation (WHO), but that is available globally to receive live updates on COVID-19 on your WhatsApp.
“Please share this with friends and family, lets all do what we can to stay safe during this period. We can get through this, if we #TakeResponsibility, stay at home and reduce the spread of fake news,” he advocated.
Daybreak reports that as the COVID1-19 pandemic grows, health officials continue to monitor the number of confirmed cases. Globally there are 468,156 cases and 21,180 deaths from COVID-19 outbreaks.
COVID-19 has affected 198 countries and territories around the world.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed additional five cases of Coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 35.
The NCDC via its Twitter handle, @NCDCgov, on Monday said, “Five new cases of #COVID19 have been confirmed in Nigeria: two in FCT, two in Lagos and one in Edo.
“Two cases are returning travellers from the UK. As of 09:45 am on 23rd of March, there are 35 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. Two have been discharged.”