The answer to whether Nigeria has been hit by a second wave of the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) can be obtained from the analysis of the official figures showing new cases have increased in the first 13 days of 2021.
BusinessDay analysed data collected since the beginning of the New Year to date to glean some insight on how the tearing rate of COVID-19 cases in Africa’s most populous nation shows that indeed, Nigeria has been hit by a second wave.
56.43%
Between January 1 and 3, Nigeria reported more than 15,000 COVID-19 cases, 56.43 percent increase when compared with the 9,000 cases reported in the same period in December 2020.
1,398
From recording daily confirmed cases of as low as 145 on November 31, 2020, Nigeria joined the rest of the world experiencing the second wave of the virus, as cases jumped by over 100 percent to 1,398 as of Wednesday, January 13, 2021.
Read Also: 1,398 new Covid-19 cases take Nigeria’s total infections to 103,999
The number of COVID-19 cases detected in the country in the past weeks indicates that a second wave of the outbreak has begun, according to Boss Mustapha, secretary to the Government of the Federation and chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The country is at risk of losing not only the gains from the hard work of the last nine months but also the lives of citizens, Mustapha stressed.
50%
COVID-19 death recorded so far this year shows there 50 percent increase in only 13 days. From 62 deaths reported in the comparable period of December, it jumped to 93 as of January 13, 2021, according to BusinessDay analysis of NCDC data.
37
The second wave of COVID-19 is considered by health experts to be more dangerous compared with the first case that was imported on February 27, 2020, because, unlike the previous one it causes casualty among the young.
“This week I lost my 37 years old younger brother, Dr Haroun Hamzat to COVID-19. COVID-19 does not respect anyone and this second wave is affecting across age groups,” Lagos State deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, said in a tweet on January 9, 2021.
103,999
As many as 102,601 people have tested positive to the virus in Nigeria and have resulted in 1,373 deaths as of Tuesday, although, over 81,000 patients have recovered, as compiled from data by NCDC.
Nigeria is said to have 15 percent infection rate as one out of five people tested in the country has come out positive.
100 passengers
According to Nigeria’s COVID-19 task force, the rise in cases was mostly driven by an increase in infections within communities and, to a lesser extent, by travellers entering Nigeria.
As measures to get more people, especially those flying into the country to comply with the COVID-19 guidelines, the Nigerian government announced in December 2020 that the details of the passports of the first 100 passengers who failed to undergo COVID-19 testing after returning to the country will be revealed publicly and the passports will also be suspended until June 2021.
“With effect from 1st January 2021, the passports of the first 100 passengers that failed to take their day seven post-arrival PCR test will be published in the national dailies,” Boss Mustapha said.
1,033,858
Before the second wave, Nigeria and the African region were spared the worst of the pandemic compared to the United States and Europe.
Nigeria was reporting between dozens and a few hundred new daily cases -still, only a fraction of the more than 600,000 cases reported globally each day – although testing rates in the largest economy in Africa is among the lowest in the world.
While South Africa has conducted 7,236,389 COVID-19 tests as of January 2021, Nigeria with a lot more population has reported a test sample of 1,033,858, as gathered from NCDC website.
N50,400
Despite setting up about 17 laboratories and health centres to handle COVID-19 patients, health experts fear than the second wave of the virus could be dangerous in Nigeria, as a fragile and insufficient health facility could be easily overwhelmed.
“The cost of COVID-19 PCR test varies across private laboratories. Currently, it ranges between N36,000 and N50,400 on the payment portal,” NCDC said.
3,500
According to Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general, Nigeria Centre of Disease Control, about 3,500-bed spaces are available for COVID-19 patients across the country. He, however, added that the Federal Government was working with the different state government to make more bed spaces available.
In 2020, the Federal Government had said it was considering allowing COVID-19 patients to be catered for at home as bed space became a challenge, particularly in Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria.
20 million
Looking ahead to a vaccine, Faisal Shuaib, executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria planned to access one through the Covax Initiative backed by the World Health Organisation.
“We are on course to access safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021,” he said.
The health minister later in the briefing said Nigeria hoped to start with at least 20 million doses from the Covax facility, initially covering healthcare workers and vulnerable people who would be most at risk if infected, such as the elderly.
