By Hassan Zaggi
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has announced the confirmation of 20 new cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria.
The number of confirmed cases in Nigeria, as at Monday night, has reached 131.
However, 2 fatalities have been recorded while 8 people have been successful treated and discharged.
2nd fatality has underlying illness- Minister
This is even as the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, has disclosed that the second person that died as a result of Covid-19 has underlying illness.
He disclosed this at a media briefing to update journalists on the Covid-19 situation in the country, in Abuja, Monday.
According to him: “Till date, 8 persons have been discharged from successful treatment but sadly, another fatality was recorded over the weekend in the person of a patient who had underlying illness.”
The Minister explained that: “ As of today, March 30, 2020, we have recorded 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, of which 68 are in Lagos, 21 in FCT, 7 in Oyo, 3 in Ogun, 2 in Bauchi, 2 in Edo, 2 in Osun, 2 in Enugu and 1 each in Benue, Ekiti, Kaduna, and Rivers States.
“Majority of them are persons who came from overseas and others have been traced as close contacts of such returnees. The high number of imported cases in Lagos and Abuja is directly due to their function as country gateways for air travel.”
The Federal Government, Mamora said, has intensified contact tracing and “our strategy remains to promptly detect cases, isolate them and follow up with contacts, isolate and treat, in order to reduce the spread of infection.”
He further disclosed that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has expanded its capacity by engaging hundreds of ad-hoc staff to support various areas of response including the call centers, contact tracing and follow-up of persons of interest.
In addition, he said, training is being conducted for medical personnel to support overall preparedness and response activities to prevent the virus from spreading to other states. These trainings will also benefit medical personnel from the armed forces, paramilitary, security and intelligence agencies.
It would be recalled that Suleiman Achimugu, the first Covid-19 fatality died two weeks ago.
Mr Achimugu who died few days after returning home following a medical treatment in the UK was said to have some underlying medical conditions – multiple myeloma and diabetes – and was undergoing chemotherapy before returning to Nigeria.
