The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said Nigeria confirmed an excess of 254,560 Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and recorded over 3,142 deaths within the last two years.
The NCDC, in a statement, said Nigeria had learnt major lessons in its bid to strengthen its health system to cope with other infectious diseases and future health emergencies.
“This makes it critical to learn from lessons taught by this pandemic to strengthen preparedness and response to other diseases in line with our mandate. We have continued to face outbreaks of cholera and Lassa fever concurrently with the COVID-19 pandemic”.
February 27 marked exactly two years since the first case of coronavirus disease was detected in Nigeria. The NCDC said coronavirus still remained a global reality with the risk of emergence of dangerous variants despite the prevailing pandemic fatigue.
The centre said it was building on lessons from responding to the pandemic in the last two years to strengthen health security in the country.
“We all have the responsibility to encourage and continue to hold authorities accountable to sustain interest and investment in healthcare in general and particularly for health security,” it said.
NCDC statistics shows that out of the total confirmed cases of 254,560, a total of 239,064 cases have been treated and discharged while 2,354 are still active and are being treated in various isolation centres nationwide.
Altogether, Nigeria has conducted a total of 4,442,964 sample tests since the index case was announced on February 27, 2020.