Nigeria on verge of COVID-19 second wave – Ehanire

The Federal Government has warmed that the nation is on the verge of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

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“We are seeing the increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last few days, which we have frequently alluded to in recent times.

“Last week, we recorded 1843 against 1,235 two weeks before that and 1,126 the week before that. “In the past 24 hours, 474 new confirmed cases and two deaths were recorded, with an indication that this week’s figure will beat last week’s,” Ehanire said.

According to him, as at Thursday, Nigeria has crossed 70,000 marks with a total of 70,669 confirmed cases of which 65,242 have been treated and discharged.

The minister said that sadly the number of deaths has now reached 1184 as against 1,167 two weeks before.

“Everyone of us has a role to play in the effort to prevent explosive spread of this infection in Nigeria. While we strive for the best, we must prepare for a possible second wave which we must ensure does not get to be worse than what we have seen so far, judging from what we observe in other countries.

“The US, UK and other countries are going through very difficult times, and we do sympathize with them. To prepare ourselves, I have directed that all Isolation and Treatment Centres, which were hiterto closed, due to reduced patient load, to be prepared for reopening and the staff complement put on alert,” Ehanire said.

He said that the increase in infections stems certainly from rising community transmission to a large extent, but also to a less extent from travellers entering Nigeria, among whom government has recorded 87 positive cases arriving the country, as against 59 in the previous week.