Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), yesterday, said COVID-19 had claimed the life of another Nigerian, bringing the number of deaths from the pandemic to five.
It also said the number of confirmed persons that had contracted the disease had grown to 232, with 18 new confirmed cases reported, six in Lagos and two each in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and Edo State.
NCDC, in a tweet yesterday, said, “As at 11:15am April 5, there are 224 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria; 27 patients have been discharged with five deaths.”
At present, Lagos has 115 cases; Abuja, 45; Osun, 20; Oyo and Edo have nine cases each; Bauch, six; Akwa Ibom, five; Ogun and Kaduna, four cases each; Enugu and Ekiti, two cases each; while Rivers, Benue and Ondo states have one case, respectively.
Meanwhile, NCDC has activated the Lagos State Biosafety Level-3 Laboratory, ready for COVID-19 testing.
The NCDC, in a tweet, said the activation of the laboratory brings the number of COVID-19 testing labs in Nigeria to nine. It added that efforts were on to ensure speedy completion of work at molecular laboratories in Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Port Harcourt, Jos and Kaduna.
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olurunnimbe Mamora, days ago, confirmed to journalists that seven new molecular laboratories would be added to existing ones to hasten the testing for COVID-19.
“We project that, in few weeks’ time, seven new molecular laboratories located in Abakaliki, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, and Sokoto would be added to the NCDC laboratory network to further expand testing opportunities nationwide,” he said.
Recently, the NCDC disclosed that the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) had entered a partnership with LifeBank, a healthcare technology and logistics company based in Lagos, to conduct “drive-through” test in order to make it easier for people to get tested and prevent the spread of COVID-19.
It said that case definition has been expanded, and asked Nigerians whose cases meet the definition for coronavirus to register and wait for further directive from officials.
Lagos State commissioner for health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said on Twitter the latest casualty was a 36-year-old Nigerian man: “We lost a #COVID19 patient; a 36-year-old Nigerian, male, who died in a private facility on April 4, 2020. The total number of #COVID19 patients who have died are now two.”
Abayomi, however, did not disclose further information about the medical history of the patient.
He added that one patient had been evacuated, making it two COVID-19 patients evacuated from Nigeria back to their country.
