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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed, on Sunday evening, a rise in number of confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria. It said the figure has risen to 30 as at 5:28 pm on Sunday.
Record of confirmed cases rose sharply on Sunday, thus raising serious concerns among Nigerians. Three new cases of COVID19 were confirmed by NCDC as of 06:45am on Sunday, 22nd of March, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 25 confirmed.
Few minutes after that, precisely 08:05am, March 22, 2020, one new case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Oyo state raising the figure to 26. Three hours later, one new case of COVID-19 was been confirmed in FCT, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 27.
At exactly 5:28pm, on March 22, 2020, NCDC confirmed three new cases in Lagos, raising the number of confirmed cases to 30. It explained that two of the last three confirmed cases were returning travellers and one case was a contact of a confirmed case.
NCDC maintained that, so far, as of Sunday evening, there were 28 active cases, two discharged and no death recorded.
It’s expected that imported cases would be reduced with the proposed closure of all international airports in Nigeria starting from Monday, thus leaving the relevant authorities with the task of containing the community transmission.
NCDC added: “Currently, there are five molecular laboratories in our laboratory network with the capacity to test for COVID-19 in Nigeria. Our laboratory teams are working around the clock to ensure rapid testing of samples from suspected COVID-19 Nigeria cases across the country.”
It also confirmed that it has secured the approval of the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to announce all new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria on NCDC’s microsite website without a formal press conference.
