Nigeria’s coronavirus cases rise to 139

Coronavirus [Photo: koginfoint]

The Nigerian government has announced four new cases of COVID-19 in the country.

This brings the total number of cases so far confirmed on Tuesday to eight. Four cases were earlier confirmed Tuesday morning.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now 139 at the time of this report.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said of the four new cases reported in Nigeria, three are in the FCT and one in Lagos.

The public health agency said “as at 08:00 pm 31st March there are 139 confirmed cases of COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Nine have been discharged with two deaths.”

Of the eight new cases reported on Tuesday, so far, three are in Osun, three are in the FCT, one in Lagos and one in Ogun State.

It said all new cases have mild to moderate symptoms and are currently receiving care.

Details

A breakdown of cases by states show that Lagos is the epicentre for the COVID-19 in Nigeria. Cases have also been on the rise in FCT, Osun and Oyo states.

According to the NCDC, Lagos tops the chart of states with the highest number of infected persons with 82, followed by FCT – 28, Oyo – 8, Osun – 5, Ogun – 4, Kaduna – 3, Enugu – 2, Edo – 2, Bauchi – 2, Ekiti – 1, Rivers – 1 and Benue – 1

Contact tracing

Although there has been an increase in the number of cases across the country, more are expected in days to come.

The government has intensified contact tracing to identify those who have been in contact with persons who tested positive to COVID-19. They have also improved the testing capacity by adding more laboratories to the ones available.

This implies that more diagnosis would be carried out daily.

The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said in Abuja Tuesday that efforts are on to test more people for the virus.

“Last week we had the capacity to test 500 per day, by the end of this week we will be at 1000 a day.

“By next week we are hoping to get to 1500 a day,” he said.

Also, a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at level 3, continues to coordinate the national response activities.