The Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, on Monday during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 press briefing in Abuja, warned that there are more coronavirus cases in Nigeria than being reported.
He urged Nigerians to take necessary measures such as wearing of face masks, avoidance of gatherings and non-essential travels to protect themselves and others.
The NCDC DG said, “We have to make it socially unacceptable to be seen outside the home without face masks. We must also discourage one another from mass gatherings that are not necessary.
“That a church or mosque decides to open doesn’t make it compulsory for you to attend. Attendance is still a personal responsibility. Even when airlines reopen, we all have to think hard: How important is that trip?
“The health of each of us depends on the actions each of us will take over the next few months.
“Some people are giving fictitious names during COVID-19 testing. There’s no reason whatsoever to doubt the reality of COVID-19 in Nigeria. In fact, we believe there are more cases out there than we’ve found. Behind each of those numbers we announce daily are people. Four Governors have themselves announced they’ve been infected.”
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At the time of this report, only 94,323 samples have been tested for Covid-19 in Nigeria, since the beginning of the outbreak, in a population of over 200 million people. There are 16,085 confirmed cases with 5,220 recoveries and 420 deaths recorded. 74% of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Nigeria have unknown exposure according to NCDC.
The number of Covid-19 tests done in Nigeria is inadequate, and is the main reason behind high community spread in the country, because several cases will be going undetected.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
