Coronavirus in Nigeria: The Story so Far!

Coronavirus in Nigeria

As the number of Covid-19 cases worldwide passes the one million mark, we decided to go down the road on how we have managed this highly contagious disease so far.

Covid-19 is a type of Respiratory virus that affects humans. It is a member of the Coronavirus family. They are other viruses in this family. Read more on Covid-19 Here.

The current outbreak started in Wuhan, China in December 2019, before spreading to other nations in early 2020. This led to the closure of various borders, entry restrictions, and other means to contain the outbreak. Despite global efforts to stop the spread, the outbreak continued and was upgraded to the status of a pandemic by the WHO in February 2020.

Nigeria recorded her first case of Coronavirus on the 27th of February, 2020 in the person of an Italian national who came into Lagos, Nigeria for business, aboard a Turkish airline from Milan, Italy on the 24th of February, before heading to his business site in Ogun State. On contacts tracing, 58 contacts were identified and followed up.

The patient was managed at the NCDC monitored facility at yaba, Lagos.

On the 6th of March, Nigeria published the first African SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence, from the #COVID19 case in Nigeria which can be found here.

On the 9th of March, Nigeria announced her second confirmed case of Coronavirus (Covid-19), who was a contact of the index case, in Ogun state. The new case was kept in isolation.

on the 13th of March, the Honourable Minister of Health announced that all contacts of the index case of #COVID19 in Nigeria have completed their follow-up period, and have been certified free to rejoin society. Also, the Minister of Health also announced that the second confirmed #COVID19 case who was a contact of the index case, has now tested negative twice for the virus. He has cleared the virus & is allowed to go home.

On the 15th of March, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control collected samples from a suspected case in Enugu, and the patient was kept is in isolation. The laboratory result of the patient returned 24 hours later and was NEGATIVE. However, the patient died 2 days later.

On the 17th of March, the NCDC announced the 3rd case of COVID19 in Nigeria as that of a Nigerian who returned to Lagos from the UK and developed symptoms during her 14-day self-isolation. She was clinically stable & was being treated at Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. Contact tracing was commenced immediately. The case has now recovered and gone home. She later shared her story and experience with us here.

On the 18th of March, Nigeria had 5 new confirmed cases of COVID19 bringing the total number of cases to 8. on the 19th of March, 4 new cases of COVID19were confirmed taking the total num of confirmed cases to 12.

On the 21st of March, NCDC confirmed 10 new cases of COVID19 in Abuja and Lagos state, Nigeria. 9 out of the 10 cases have travel history outside Nigeria in the last week. The 10th case is a close contact of a confirmed case.

On the 22nd of March, 8 new cases of Coronavirus were confirmed taking the total no to 30 confirmed cases with 2 discharged and no deaths. New cases were also recorded in 3 other states of Ekiti, Oyo, and Ogun.

On the 23rd of March, Nigeria recorded 9 new cases of Coronavirus, and also her first death from the disease, a 67-year-old male who returned to Nigeria after medical treatment in the UK for multiple myeloma & diabetes & was undergoing chemotherapy. total of 40 confirmed cases.

On the 24th of March, 4 new cases were recorded by the NCDC. while 7 new cases were detected on the 25th taking the total number of Coronavirus cases in Nigeria to 51 cases with 1 death.

On the 26th of March, Nigeria had 14 new cases of COVID19. 6 were detected on a vessel, 3 are returning travelers. This takes the total cases to 65 with 3 discharged persons and 1 death.

On the 27th, there were 16 new recorded cases of Coronavirus taking the total number of cases in Nigeria to 81 with Lagos and Abuja being the epicenter.

On the 28th of March, we recorded 16 new cases of coronavirus, with the inclusion of 5 new states. This took the total number of cases in the country to 97 confirmed cases. On the same day, the NCDC increased the number of centers that can test for the disease to 6 with the addition of UCH Ibadan.

On the 29th of March, 14 new cases were recorded. This took the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria to 111 with one death. The breakdown are as follows: Lagos- 68 FCT- 21 Oyo- 7 Ogun- 3 Edo- 2 Bauchi- 2 Osun-2 Enugu- 2 Ekiti- 1 Rivers-1 Benue- 1 Kaduna- 1.

On the 30th Of March, 2020, Nigeria recorded 20 new cases of Covid19, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 131. 8 more new cases were reported on the 31st, making it 139 total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria, with 9 discharged persons and 2 deaths.

On the 1st of April, 2020, Nigeria recorded 43 new confirmed cases of Coronavirus, her highest ever in a 24 hour period, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 174. Also, the NCDC activated the virology center in the South East of the country, at FETHA, Ebonyi state, thereby increasing its testing labs to 6 labs.

On the 2nd of April, 10 more new coronavirus cases were detected. this takes the total number to 184 confirmed cases of covid19 in Nigeria, with 20 discharged persons and 2 deaths. On the 2nd of April, 11 persons were discharged from the IDH facility in Yaba, Lagos.

On the 3rd of April, 26 new cases were recorded, taking the total number to 210 confirmed cases from about 4,000 tests. 2 new deaths were also recorded making it a total of 4 deaths from the 2020 outbreak of Coronavirus in Nigeria so far. Currently, 181 persons are still in quarantine and being managed in facilities over Nigeria.

By 7 pm on the 3rd of April, 4 more persons have been released from the Infectious Disease Hospital, IDH in Yaba, Lagos to join the society after testing negative twice to the virus. 1 more person was discharged from the Abuja facility.

On the 4th Of April, 4 more persons were confirmed positive for the Coronavirus disease, Covid-19, making it a total of 214 confirmed cases since the onset of the outbreak in Nigeria.

On the 5th of April, 2020, 18 new confirmed cases were recorded, with one new death. Making it a total of 232 cases, 33 recoveries, and 5 deaths in Nigeria with just about 4,000 tests done. On the 6th of April, 6 more cases were confirmed making it a total of 238 confirmed cases.

On the 7th of April, a total of 16 new positive cases were confirmed, taking the total number of cases in Nigeria to 254 and also, one new death was recorded making it 6 deaths. On the 8th of April, 22 new cases were confirmed taking the total to 276 cases with 44 recoveries and 6 deaths.

On the 9th of April, 2020, Nigeria added a further 14 newly confirmed cases, taking the total to 288 confirmed persons with 51 recoveries and 7 deaths.

Further updates would be weekly.

As of the 4th of May, 2020, the NCDC has conducted tests on about 19,512 samples, with 2,802 of these testing positive. Out of these, there have been 417 recoveries and 93 deaths from Covid-19 associated symptoms.

As of the 28th of May 2020, Nigeria has a total of 8915 cases with 2592 discharged persons and 259 deaths from Covid-19 associated symptoms.

As of the 5th of June 2020, Nigeria has a total of 11,844 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 3,696 discharged persons and 333 deaths from Covid-19 complications. Currently, we have tested 75,000 samples and are currently nursing 7,815 cases in isolation centers around the nation.

Currently, with more labs, we are slowly approaching a testing capability of 2,000 Persons a day.

This would be updated daily as the Coronavirus situation In Nigeria management continues. Report any suspected case using the instructions here.