Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases surges to 665, with confirmation of 38 fresh cases

In spite of spirited efforts to contain the pandemic, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday, April 20, 2020 reported 38 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 665.

A look at the statistics shows that three new states, namely Gombe, Sokoto and Abia have joined states with reported cases of the virus, as the number of states with confirmed cases reaching 25.

The agency stated that of the 38 new cases from eight states, 23 were reported in Kano; five in Gombe, three in Kaduna, two in Borno, two also in Abia, while one each was recorded in FCT, Sokoto and  Ekiti.

“As at 11:10p.m April 20, there are 665 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the country, while 188 were treated and have been discharged, 22 deaths have been recorded.

“As of April 20, 11:10p.m, the active cases are 455 and majority of the active cases were in a stable condition,” it said.

The breakdown of cases by states were Lagos -376, FCT-89, Kano-59, Osun -20, Oyo -16, Edo -15, Ogun -12, Kwara -9, Katsina -12, Bauchi -7, Kaduna-9, Akwa Ibom -9, Delta -4, Ekiti-4, Ondo -3, Enugu -2, Rivers -2, Niger-2, Benue -1, Anambra -1, Borno-3, Jigawa -2, Abia-2, Gombe-5 and Sokoto-1.

The agency said it would continue to respond to the pandemic across the country, adding it has prioritised the distribution of Viral Transport Medium (VTM) to all the states and FCT for sample collection.

NCDC said that it had deployed COVID-19 starter packs to all the tertiary health institutions and Federal Medical Centres.

It has also set up expanded laboratory network for COVID-19 across the six geopolitical zones with 13 laboratories activated (NRL, DRL, IDH, LUTH, NIMR, ACEGID, UCH, ISTH, FETHA, AKTH and NVRI, DNA and UMTH.

The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu,  had warned Nigerians against the washing of surgical masks for reuse as such practice can easily lead to the spreading of the virus.

He advised Nigerians that the surgical masks should be disposed of in a waste bin after use.

He, however, counseled everyone to use only those from the original packaging after washing their hands.

The NCDC on Monday said it had tested 7,153 total samples collected as at April 20 for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.