The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday reported 315 new cases of Covid-19 in the country as follows; Lagos- 128, FCT-34, Rivers- 32, Edo- 28, Oyo- 22, Kaduna- 20, Gombe- 13, Ogun- 8, Plateau- 5, Delta- 7, Kwara- 7, Kano- 5, Bauchi- 4, and Katsina- 2
The total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria as at 8 June is 12,801 out of which 4,040 have recovered and 361 deaths recorded. Total of 78,244 samples have been tested in Nigeria since the outbreak began.
In Abia, the state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has tested positive for Covid-19 following the positive tests of 2 of his aides last week.
Gov. Ikpeazu is the fourth governor to test positive for the virus in Nigeria. The 3 govervors who have tested positive for Covid-19 are Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi. They have all been reported to have recovered from the virus.
The state has recorded 83 confirmed and 7 recoveries. No Covid-19 death has been recorded in the state.
In Kano, 979 mysterious deaths were recorded in 5 weeks with over 150 health workers infected with Covid-19. Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, stated this on Monday in Abuja during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
According to the Minster, majority of the deaths occurred in individuals who are more than 65 years. He added that 50% – 60% of the deaths were related to Covid-19.
He said that “with the observation and recommendations of the three-week assignment in the state, the committee developed strategic incident management and coordination plan to strengthen the capacity of the health workers and improve community engagement in line with our response plan.”
“With regards to the unexplained deaths which occurred in Kano over a five-week period, the team confirmed that a total of 979 deaths were actually recorded in eight Municipal Local Government Areas in the state and at a time at the rate of 43 deaths per day as measured by counting activities at the graveyard.
“The peak was in the second week of April and by the end of April, the numbers have started to reduced and have finally now settled at eleven deaths per day which were about what it was before
“The investigation suggests that 50% to 60% of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19.
Read also; CBN to Provide up to N500 Mn for Nigerian Vaccine, Drugs and Herbal Medicines
In River State, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company, NLNG, the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC and The Exonn Mobil Producing Unlimited Company is collaborating to establish a 30 bed Covid-19 treatment centre in Bonny Island of the state.
According to Gov. Wike the decision for the upgrade and equipment of the Bonny General Hospital as a Treatment Centre was taken on Monday at a meeting called at his instance at Government House, Port Harcourt.
The Treatment Centre is expected to be prepared and equipped within the next four weeks.
Governor Wike said the meeting was called to address the situation in Bonny where some tests conducted so far and with briefs from the state Ministry of Health paints the picture of the area becoming an epicentre of the pandemic.
The governor stated that the highest number of people testing positive are oil workers which accounts for 60 percent of cases recorded so far.
There have been reports of several unknown deaths occurring in Bonny Island since May with the victims exhibiting some symptoms of Covid-19. The first 2 cases of Covid-19 were announced on 30 May.
Rivers State has the seventh largest number of confirmed cases in Nigeria despite the governor imposing one of the strictest lockdown in the country which led to the demolition of two hotels.
The lockdown has been trailed with criticism. Many have asked, what is the point of a week or two of lockdown only to let the people out in one or two days to buy essentials items. Thus, causing large crowd to be out of their houses at the same time seeking for food items. Thereby creating an avenue for easy spread of the virus.
It has been proven that lockdown without other control measures such as massive testing, to detect the carriers of the virus, effective contact tracing and isolation as well as ensuring social distancing can be easily observed by creating enabling environment.
Following the speculations of the mismanagement of the allocated fund for the handling of Coivid-19 outbreak in Nigeria, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 has appeared before the house of representatives to give account of its spending.
Read also; Over N164 Mn used for Managing Affairs of Evacuated Nigerians: PTF
On Monday, during the Presidential Task Force briefing, the Coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu announced that the evacuation of Nigerians will resume soon. He issued new guidelines which includes mandatory testing for Covid-19 less than 14 days before evacuation.
Nigerians who test positive will not be allowed to board the evacuation flight. Intending evacuees will also be required to sign an undertaking promising to abide by the guidelines and safety precautions put in place. This is a requirement for boarding.
Nigeria remains the country with highest amount of confirmed cases of Covid-19 and deaths in West Africa.
According to African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, total 189,434 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the continent with 82,888 recoveries and 5,175 deaths.
In New Zealand, the, Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden has declared the country to be free of Covid-19. The country is lifting all the restrictions including social distancing. New Zealand which went into lockdown on 25 March, no longer has active case of Covid-19.
However, the country’s borders are still closed to the outside world. New Zealand has not reported any new cases of Covid-19 for over 2 weeks.
“While we’re in a safer, stronger position, there’s still no easy path to pre-covid life, but the determination and focus we have had on our health response will now be vested in our economic rebuild.” The Prime Minister said.
The country recorded 1,504 cases of Covid-19 with 1,482 recoveries and 22 deaths.
Top five countries with the largest confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the world are, U.S, Brazil, Russia, UK and India. These five countries have over 51% of the total confirmed cases in the world and over 49% of the global deaths according to the data on John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
These five states are shown in the table below.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
