Over the weekend, Nigeria crossed the 1000 mark in the number of reported cases of COVID 19 as at 11 pm 25th April, the total number of confirmed cases surged to 1182; 222 discharge cases; and 35 deaths so far.
Lagos still has the highest number with 689 cases representing 58percent of the total cases, FCT has 138 cases, Kano has 77 cases, Ogun has 35 cases and Osun has 32 reported cases so far.
The country has performed over 10,061 tests so far.
The slow pace of testing has continued to elicit reactions from Nigerians despite the lockdown imposed in some states including Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states. South Africa has done more than 150,00 tests while Ghana has done close to 100,000. According to health experts, the purpose of a lockdown is to allow for ramping up of tests and contact tracing and aggressively isolate suspected cases. Sadly, the country has not capitalized on the lockdown to increase testing.
Also the surge in the number of deaths Kano-State, the commercial capital city of Northern Nigeria, in the past few weeks has raised concerns that the state maybe the killing field for COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, if urgent action is not taken by the Kano State Government and Federal Government to stem the tide. Over 640 deaths have been reported in the past six days.
On Saturday, 12 persons were confirmed dead and buried at different cemeteries within and outside the metropolis.
The National Center for Disease and Control NCDC officials in Kano are not responding to distress calls because they are short-staffed and have no working equipment such as the Personal Protective Equipment PPE. This has resulted in some officials of the center getting infected resulting in the closure of the only test center in the city.
At a media briefing on Friday, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced that wearing of face masks is now compulsory in the state noting that the Lagos state government would commence the distribution of free facial masks on Sunday.
Sanwo-Olu lamented the increase in the number of corpses at mortuaries in the state caused by lockdown, calling on families to ensure they carry out funeral within the next two weeks after which the government would be compelled to carry out mass burial in a bid to decongest the Lagos State mortuaries.
He also granted pardon to 209 prisoners in the state. This include prisoners who are more than 60 years and have less than 6 more months to serve.
