The Nigeria Centre Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as at 11:15am on Sunday 5th April 2020, confirmed ten new cases of the coronavirus cases in Nigeria, taking the total number of confirmed cases so far in the country, to 224.
According to a tweet released a few hours ago on the official Twitter handle of NCDC on Sunday, the centre stated that the ten new cases of the COVID19 were reported as follows: 6 in Lagos, 2 in FCT and 2 in Edo. These cases were reported as at 11:15 am 5th April, making it 224 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.
NCDC adding further, said Twenty-seven have been discharged with five deaths.
“As at 11:15am 5th April, there are 224 confirmed cases 27 discharged 5 deaths For a breakdown of cases by states:
Lagos- 115
FCT- 45
Osun- 20
Oyo- 9
Akwa Ibom- 5
Ogun- 4
Edo- 9
Kaduna- 4
Bauchi- 6
Enugu- 2
Ekiti- 2
Rivers-1
Benue- 1
Ondo- 1
The ten new cases comes a few hours after the NCDC confirmed five new cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country. These were three in Bauchi State, and two in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria to 214, as at April 4th 2020, around 10:10pm on Saturday.
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General, NCDC, told The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in an interview that there were indications of sustained community transmission, because 30 per cent of the cases had incomplete epidemiological information.
Ihekweazu however, stated that while 51 per cent were imported cases, 19 per cent were contacts of known cases.
According to him, the NCDC is using the little window of opportunity it has left to intensify investigations into identified cases and their sources.
“This is one of the purposes for which the lock-down of two states and the FCT was proclaimed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“These areas, especially Lagos as primary epicenter, as well as other parts of the Federation, need to speed up their activities to detect and isolate COVID-19 patients.
“During and following the lock-down, we expect to see an increase in cases as a measure of improvement in case finding,” he explained.
The NCDC DG however, expressed optimism that if social distancing and other measures were adhered to, infections would be controlled.