Nigeria now has a total of 174 confirmed Coronavirus (COVID-19), the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Wednesday evening.
According to the NCDC, “Twenty-three new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria; 9 in Lagos, 7 in the FCT, 5 in Akwa Ibom, 1 in Kaduna and 1 in Bauchi State As at 08:00 pm 1st April there are 174 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria. Nine have been discharged with two deaths.”
With the new figures, Lagos now has 91 confirmed cases, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – 35, Osun- 14, Oyo – 8, Ogun – 4, Edo – 4, Kaduna – 4, Bauchi – 3, Enugu – 2, Ekiti – 2, Rivers -1, Benue – 1 and Akwa Ibom 5tate, 5.
The new figures comes as the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has disclosed that 12 cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria was imported into the country from Nigerians that returned from the West African subregion.
Ehanire said at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Pandemic in Abuja that the percentage distribution between males and females stood at 70 per cent to 30 per cent respectively.
Part of the 21 new cases, Ehanire said, was discovered among some Nigerians believed to be returning into the country from either Cote d’Ivoire or Ghana, in a convoy of buses, heading for Osun State.
According to the Minister, “I know that there were 12 new cases. In fact, this is interesting for you to know that one of the vehicles intercepted, trying to enter Nigeria from Benin Republic, with many Nigerians on board, it think it was over 100, heading for Osun state. I think they said they were coming from Ivory Coast or Ghana. I’m not quite sure. And it is said that it was among those groups that we had 12 immediate new entrants. So, they are imported cases. This shows the importance of importation and of border closure. In this case, they are our citizens and were knocking at the door at the border and they had to be let in.
“But if they were not our citizens, definitely there would have been a problem having to handle infected persons of other nationalities. In this case, the closure of the border is important and we are asking and requesting Nigerians to stay where they are, except you absolutely have to travel because the risk of traveling itself exposes you to crowds.”