‘No States In Nigeria That Will Escape Coronavirus Outbreak’ – Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu
D.r Chikwe Ihekweazu believes every state in Nigeria will have its share of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director-General noted this throughout his appearance on Channels Television’s breakfast program, Sunrise Daily.
He stressed that the Nigerian authorities were making efforts to curb the similarly unfold of the disease, noting that it has been a tough task.
“We have responded to Lassa smoothly and nobody shut down the country due to the fact it wasn’t necessary, the response was fairly efficient.
“Now, COVID-19 is on a much larger scale – at the second in 22 states however it will grow to each and every state in Nigeria, there is no reason why it won’t – it is a respiratory virus,” the NCDC boss stated on Thursday.
He additionally reacted to the variations in the figures of confirmed COVID-19 cases released by the NCDC and the numbers in some states, mainly in Lagos and Kano.
D.r Ihekweazu noted that the health organization has been working difficult to handle coronavirus whilst the authorities in a number of states have their roles to play.
He insisted that Nigeria can’t run away from the outbreak and the NCDC would continue to be transparent with the results, to stimulate more response from more than a few aspects of the government.
The NCDC boss said:
“We just activated the lab in Kano a few days ago. So, these are the results of the increased testing capacity that we are presenting for the country.
“The assessments are pretty robust; I can’t say a hundred percent however they are as close to that as possible. We had the best possible number of positive cases in a single day.”
“Since the onset of the outbreak, we are testing a lot more (and) that is starting to show. It is only so much we can do from NCDC; we are working with the state governments.
“They actually own the response at the state and local levels, and we want all of them now. We really have to face the reality that this is an outbreak, this is a virus.
“It will circulate in Nigeria, honestly no doubt and our duty as a country is to prepare more, to be able to detect, isolate, treat, list contacts, and stop transmission,” he added.
