Don’t expect early disappearance of the disease – FG
Nigeria yesterday recorded 338 new cases of COVID-19 bringing to total number of infected persons to 5, 959, up from 5,621 reported on Saturday night.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) which tweeted the figure late Sunday night said the new cases were reported in 18 states of Lagos, Kano, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Rivers, Plateau, Oyo, Katsina, Jigawa. Kaduna, Abia, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ondo, Kebbi, and Sokoto.
It also stated that six deaths were recorded in the country.
“Till date, 5959 cases have been confirmed, 1594 cases have been discharged and 182 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The 338 new cases are reported from 18 states: Lagos – 177, Kano – 64, FCT – 21, Rivers – 16, Plateau – 14, Oyo – 11, Katsina – 9, Jigawa – 4, Kaduna – 4, Abia – 3, Bauchi – 3, Borno – 3 ,Gombe – 2 , Akwa Ibom – 2, Delta – 2, Ondo – 1, Kebbi – 1 and Sokoto – 1,” said the agency.
Nigeria has so far tested 33,970 persons since the beginning of the pandemic.
A breakdown of all the confirmed cases so far shows that 5,959 infections have been reported in Nigeria since the index case in February.
Of that number, the NCDC said 4,183 cases are still active while there have been 1,549 recoveries and 182 fatalities.
A breakdown of the 5,959 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 2,550 cases, followed by Kano – 825, FCT – 418, Katsina – 248, Bauchi – 215, Borno – 215, Jigawa – 201, Ogun – 145, Kaduna – 142, Gombe – 126, Oyo – 118, Sokoto – 113,, Edo – 95, Zamfara – 74, Kwara – 58, Rivers – 51, Osun – 42, Plateau – 35 Yobe – 32, Kebbi – 32, Nasarawa – 31, Delta – 27, Niger – 22, Adamawa – 21, Ondo – 20, Ekiti – 19, Akwa Ibom – 18, Taraba – 17, Enugu – 12, , Ebonyi – 9, Imo – 7, Bayelsa – 6, Benue – 5, Anambra – 5 and Abia – 2.
Also yesterday, the chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha told Nigerians not to dream about an immediate end or sudden disappearance of the disease.
Speaking to journalists after a meeting of the team with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa Mustapha said it would be foolhardy to expect the fight against the disease to end in the next two months, bearing in mind that hope of available vaccines for its cure is not yet in sight.
He said would not take earlier than 18 to 24 months before such vaccines would be produced, submitting that until such vaccines are available to cure the disease, COVID-19 would remain the albatross of mankind.
He added that even if the current cycle of the pandemic subsides, there might yet be its resurgence which he said had been the characteristics of infectious diseases.
Hence, he said the PTF COVID-19 had resolved to adopt a new approach in the fight against the disease.
He said the fight would henceforth be taken to community levels where there are primary health centres.
He said such primary health centres would serve as the platforms for tracing, tracking, isolating and reporting suspected symptoms of the disease.
“COVID-19 is not going to go away in the next one or two months. Whoever tells you that is not being realistic. No vaccine is on the horizon. We are talking about 18 months to two years before vaccines would be confirmed for human use as far as COVID-19 is concerned, and unless we get there, what it means is that it will remain.
“It might have cycles. After the first cycle of the pandemic, there might be a relief.
“There can be resurgence and that is evidenced all over the world. It has happened before as it is the nature of infections. So, I believe that what we are going to do now as a task force is to come down to the levels of having the communities take ownership of the response.
“We have developed a national response which has been cascaded to the states but the communities must plug into the national response. Where we have primary health care centres all over the country, they can be used as stations of reporting of surveillance within a particular community, of tracing, of tracking so that we can take out those that we suspect to have exhibited symptoms or have come in contact with people who have exhibited symptoms for testing and isolation.
“That way, you plug them out of the community and reduce the risk of transmission. That is basically what we are working on,” he said.
