The spread of Coronavirus is crossing milestones in Africa’s most populous nation where it has now crossed several milestones.
The number of confirmed cases now tops the 2,000 mark and first ever double-digit casualties by a state was recorded in Kano where the number of confirmed cases increased by 124% within the last three days.
Kano also recorded the highest number of confirmed cases in a day, 92.
Lagos where the index case was recorded in March has recorded its highest single day testing of 2070.
On May 1, 2020, Lagos also became the first state in Nigeria to record over 1,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus
Increase in cases and deaths across Nigeria spiked as Covid-19 began its spread, and many were attributed to local transmission to new coronavirus cases.
“Notable increases” in cases were seen in April, with the report so far from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). This was especially true in with the jump in recorded cases in Kano and Lagos.
“Reports we see in many states, the Nigerian figures are very difficult to interpret as there have been many issue is with testing and not enough testing has been done, and then a week or two later, you see an increase in deaths” said Doyin Odubanjo, chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter.
According to NCDC data, 71 percent of all cases are from three states, in especially hard-hit states such as Lagos 1006 and Kano with 311 cases.
The situation in Kano is particularly worrying, government officials say.
“Lagos has the most testing and even case finding done. So, Lagos figures are probably more reflective of the situation there than anywhere else in the country. Those figures seem to say that the spread is not increasing but rather steady in Lagos at the moment. If we don’t behave right, that can easily change for the worse,” Odubanjo said.
According to Odubanjo, Kano is perhaps the worst hit place at the moment. The cases are increasing fast there and there have been reports of increased deaths as well. Kano also shows no good response capacity, unlike Lagos, and would need a lot of attention by the FG.
“To make matters worse, Kano was allowed to move almajiris around the north and has probably set the whole northern Nigeria ablaze with covid-19. So, in fact, the whole north needs to given special attention now,” he said.
Contrastingly, a state such as Oyo has not shut down for a day. Its caseload remains low seemed to keep with containment.
Lagos, seems to be keeping up with containing the level of Covid-19 deaths. The state’s reporting of deaths relating to the pandemic closely tracks what the NCDC found. Lagos has had 21 reported deaths due to COVID-19.
The most recent report from the NCDC as at May 1 confirms 238 new cases of COVID-19, bringing total number cases in the country to 2170.
Many states have experienced a notable increase in the number of total cases and deaths due to COVID-19 starting in mid-April through May 2nd .
On the continental level, Nigeria has now topped Ghana (2074 cases) on the Coronavirus table where it ranks fifth.
South Africa tops the covid-19 table with 5,951 confirmed cases, followed by Egypt 5,895; Morocco 4,569 and Algeria fourth with 4,154.
Africa with a total of 40,746 cases, has also recorded 1,689 deaths and 13,383 recoveries as at last night.
