The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday confirmed that all the 31 suspected cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria tested were negative.
“This means Nigeria is free of Coronavirus,” the Director, Emergency Preparedness and Response, NCDC, Dr John Oladejo said.
He disclosed this in Sokoto at a symposium on “The emerging and re-emerging Viral Infections: The story of Lassa fever and COVID-19,” organised by the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
He assured that the NCDC has the necessary devices to detect the disease adding that screening has been strengthened at points of entry while in-country surveillance has been enhanced through state epidemiologists.
On diagnostic capacity, he stated: “We now have testing capacity in three laboratories: National Reference Laboratory, Abuja; LUTH in Lagos; and Irrua in Edo state.”
He said as at 23rd of February, 29 countries were affected including China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, USA, Republic of Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Others affected are France, Malaysia, Canada, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Germany, United Arab Emirate, Philippines, India, Finland, Italy, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and Israel.
He also noted that as at February 23, the total laboratory confirmed cases were 78,811 (77,042 from China – 97.8%) while the number of deaths was 2,462 out of which 17 of them were outside China.
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