FG confirms second confirmed case of coronavirus
The federal government on Monday confirmed a second cofirmed case of the coronavirus, otherwise referred to as COVID-19 in Nigeria.
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who made the announcement during a press briefing in Benin City, the Edo state capital noted that the newly suspected case was one of the contact persons of the index case and not an importation into the country.
Lucas Torreira set to miss rest of season with ankle fracture
The minister who disclosed that a total of 217 contacts were linked to the index case said that ‘’of the 217, 45 travelled out of Nigeria and 172 contacts are presently in Nigeria. Of the 172 contacts currently in Nigeria, 69 are in Lagos, 40 in Ogun and 52 in other states, with 11 in unknown locations.
“Nevertheless, the Federal Ministry of Health following best practices, decided to test these persons for possible presence of coronavirus in their systems. On March 8, scientists confirmed the presence of coronavirus in one of the contacts.
“It is my duty therefore to announce a new case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria. The newly confirmed case is an Ogun state contact of the index case, but he has no significant clinical symptoms. This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria today to two.”
He explained that since the beginning of the outbreak in China and its subsequent spread to other countries, one of the important response strategies at the containment stage, has been to identify all contacts, ensure their strict isolation and to follow up daily with checks for any symptoms of the disease.
“A team of researchers from various institutions in Nigeria, including scientists from the Centre for Human and Zoology Virology in LUTH, African Centre for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Redeemers University and the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos, combined their efforts to successfully perform the genome sequencing of the coronavirus strain that the index case brought to Nigeria and proved it to be a match with the virus circulating in Italy and Wuhan.
“Following recent experiences from other countries and evidence from newly published studies on non-symptomatic infections, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) advised that samples should be taken from all contacts of the index case for testing. It is in this process that this new case was detected.
“I repeat that the newly confirmed case in Nigeria is not a new importation, but a contact of the index case, who has since been in isolation and was under clinical follow up. He presently does not have any clinical symptoms, is comfortable and in care at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Lagos,’’ Ehanire.
He advised against spreading misinformation to cause fear and panic, adding that the Federal Ministry of Health and the NCDC will continue to provide prompt and reliable updates and initiate all measures required to protect Nigerians.
