Breaking: Nigeria reports 34 new COVID-19 cases, tally now 407
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday night announced thirty four new cases of the novel (COVID-19) in Nigeria.
The NCDC said that thirty-four new cases of #COVID19 have been reported as follows: 18 Lagos, 12 in Kano, 2 in Katsina, 1 in Delta and 1 in Niger
This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria to
As at 11:20 pm 15th April there are 407 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. 128 have been discharged with 12 deaths
Meanwhile the Enugu State Ministry of Health has said it has discharged one patient who has recovered from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) from its isolation center in the state.
NCDC had announced two cases of COVID 19 in Enugu that have been in isolation and receiving care.
The new Commissioner for Health, Prof Ikechukwu Obi made the disclosure in a statement he issued in Enugu on Wednesday.
Obi, who assumed office on Tuesday, said the patient was discharged after testing negative for Coronavirus and had been discharged.
Breaking: Coronavirus kills Nigeria’s first health worker in Lagos
The commissioner said the other person was stable and responding very well to treatment.
“We encourage all persons to continue to stay home, maintain hand and respiratory hygiene, wear a face mask in line with the NCDC’s advisory and maintain physical distancing,’’ he said.
COVID-19: NCDC says challenges not testing, but sample collection
The NCDC has also said that its main challenge is not testing for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), but collection of samples and getting them to laboratories.
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, said this at the daily Presidential Task Force briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, while giving an update on COVID-19 in the country.
Ihekweazu said that the agency would test more people as its testing capacity had improved significantly.
“The bottleneck now is in getting the samples from the right people. We are now scaling up sample collection.
”We are helping Lagos State to set up sample collection facilities in 20 health facilities in the state.
“We want to make it easier for people who need to give samples to do so.
“Our call centre capacity has also improved; so, please call us if you need to,” he said.
The NCDC boss said that the agency had the capacity to test 3,000 samples daily, but the capacity was not being fully utilised.
“That is why we focus on Lagos and the FCT because of the efforts they are making to get more people tested.”
He said that NCDC would publish a diagnostic strategy so that Nigerians would be aware of the locations of its offices.
Ihekweazu said that the agency was looking for more local manufacturers of personal protection equipment, sanitisers and other necessities.
“In every crisis, there is an opportunity; there is an opportunity for you, if you are a local manufacturer, producing in line with regulatory standards.
“Everything we buy now in NCDC is from local manufacturers,” he said.
Ihekweazu appealed to Nigerians not to stigmatise those infected by the virus .
“it could be any of us, none of us is immune to it, as it is a new disease,” he said.
The testing for COVID-19 is conducted for people presenting COVID-19 symptoms, contacts of confirmed cases, residents of areas of moderate/high prevalence of COVID-19, and recen
